Being Your Own Boss

Version 1.3 © Enterprise Growth Partnership Ltd 2014

Simple Steps to Business Success

Workshop 1

Who’s this workshop for?

• You’re new to business:

– You’re about to start your business.

– You’re wondering about starting a business

and would like to find out what’s being

successful involves.

What this workshop is about

• What is an entrepreneur?• Defining your goals and setting objectives to meet them• Knowledge is power:

– Understanding the resources you will need– Identifying and managing risks– Researching opportunities– Planning and finance

• You already have it in you:– Identifying your skills– Giving you the tools to develop an action plan to get your

business started

• Finding out about further support

Objectives

By the end of these sessions you should be able to:

– Increase knowledge of entrepreneurship– Reflect on qualities needed– Know the importance of goal setting– Identify and manage risk– Develop a personal development plan

Your Action Plan

Introduce yourself• What’s your name?• What would you like to do in business?• Why are you considering self-

employment?• What do you hope to learn from this

workshop

ARE YOU AN ENTREPRENEUR?

It may not all be quite like Dragon’s Den or the Apprentice!

Discussion

What Makes a Good Entrepreneur?Is there a difference between being self-employed and being an entrepreneur?

In Groups discuss and list some of the factors that contribute to being a successful entrepreneur.

Definition of an Entrepreneur

Risk-taking business person.

Someone who attempts to organize resources in new and more valuable ways and accepts full responsibility for the outcome.

Successful entrepreneurs, take control over how much risk they are willing to accept and then develop plans to control the remaining risks.

S.W.O.T. Analysis

• Strengths are things we do well and really enjoy.

• Weaknesses are things we don’t enjoy and often feel

we are not so good at doing.

• Opportunities usually arise from our strengths but can

also be weaknesses that have been overcome.

• Threats can arise from our weaknesses if we allow

them to. They can sometimes be changed to

opportunities.

S.W.O.T. Analysis

Internal

External

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

Famous entrepreneurs

What are the skills and qualities of really successful entrepreneurs?

> Qualities tend to be personality traits

> Skills tend to be more tangible

List some of the skills and qualities that make for success.

Personal Skills

What skills do you have?

> e.g. computer skills, driving a car, good at maths

How do you know?

> e.g. qualifications, appraisals from work, certifications, people tell you so

List some of your skills and evidence to support this.

Personal Qualities

What are some of the good aspects of your personality that help you in life?

> e.g. communicating with others, listening, planning, meeting deadlines, attention to detail

List some of the things that you think might help you if you worked for yourself.

A Local Entrepreneur

• Richard Reed of Innocent Drinks was

born and brought up in Huddersfield.

• Here he talks about how to be your

own boss.

• Click the link to watch his video

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoecrekLloY

Your Personal Development Plan• What is a Personal Development Plan (PDP)?

– A PDP helps you increase your chances of success

– It is a way to plan how to improve your skills and review your progress

– After identifying some of our weaknesses by completing a SWOT Analysis, you

can start to identify and make improvements using a PDP.

• What does a PDP contain?– Areas of weakness you want to improve on

– How improving will help you be more successful

– The date by which you will have successfully improved on your weakness

– How you will go about improving on your weaknesses

– What support or resources you will need

– How you will know you have improved

• You can also use your Four Simple Steps Action Plan as a PDP template.Start working on your own improvements to enhance skills, qualities and strengths needed to become more successful in life, work or in a future business.

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” (Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955)

SETTING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Goal Setting & Planning

Why are goals important?

• Aims are general statements that guide our intentions.

– “I’m aiming to set up my own business.”

• Goals are more specific than objectives.

– “My goal is to become a self-employed plumber.”

• Objectives are what specifically we expect to achieve.

– “By December next year I will have started trading and established a regular base of

twelve customers across West Yorkshire, paying me an average of £200 per month”

• Planning is the process of identifying steps we will need to take to make it

happen.

– A plan contains tasks that break the steps down into manageable chunks.

Setting Goals & Objectives

Why do we set goals?

• What do you want for you and your family?

– Success and happiness are great goals but not SMART

objectives.

• What do success and happiness look like to you?

– To use our business to get us there we need to set objectives:

• Lots of money? How much?

• By When?

• How will we make it happen?

Setting Goals & Objectives

SMART(ER) Objectives Specific Measurable Agreed Realistic Time-framed Evaluated Reviewed

RESOURCES, RISK & RESEARCH

“Knowledge is Power” : Philosopher Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)

Definition of Risk

To expose (someone or something valued)

to danger, harm, or loss

The possibility that something

unpleasant or unwelcome will happen

Successful entrepreneurs, take control over how much risk they are willing to accept and then develop plans to control the remaining risks.

Identifying Risks Exercise

List some of the things you think would pose a risk to you personally or in business.

Minimising and Managing Risk

What are the risks? Who and what might be affected and how? What will you do? Do you need any other support to manage this

risk?

You may have to do more research or change your plans to minimise risks. You should examine risk at every stage of planning, pre-start and ongoing.

Resources

A resource is a source or supply from which benefit or value is produced.

Typically resources are materials, money, services, staff, or other assets that are transformed to produce benefit

Benefits of using resources wisely may include increased wealth, meeting needs or wants, proper functioning of a system, or enhanced well being.

From a human perspective a natural resource is anything obtained from the environment to satisfy human needs and wants.

Generating Business Ideas

What do customers WANT?

A successful entrepreneur has identified an opportunity worth

pursuing.

He has understood what people (customers) want.

What’s the difference between WANTS and NEEDS?

• Needs are essential

• Wants are desired

A potential customer may need a vehicle to get from A to B but may

desire a sports car so we should explore both wants and needs

Why do customers buy?

• To solve a problem

• To satisfy a basic need

• To satisfy a desire

• To feel good (ego or well-being)

• To feel safe and secure

• To increase wealth (investment)

Steve Jobs Obituary

“As we have tried to come up with a strategy and vision for Apple, it started with What incredible benefits can we give to the customer? Where can we take the customer? not with ‘Let's sit down

with the engineers and figure out what awesome technology we have and how are we going to market

that.’ I think that's the right path to take.”

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/oct/06/steve-jobs-obituary

Market Research

How do we develop the idea?

• Is there a market?

• What are the trends?

• Who will buy it?

• Where will I sell it?

• Is someone else doing the same or similar?

• Do I need to source suppliers?

• Can I do it on my own?

• How much will it cost to do?

• How much will I sell it for?

Don’t make too many assumptions! ASK your potential customers what they want.

Change is Here to Stay

• Shift Happens 2014– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdvo5FlRqmM

Planning Your New Business

Why plan?

• We aim for an outcome and decide the steps to take towards the

outcome.

• If we think it might happen, it might happen.

– “Whether you think you can or think you can't, you are right” (Henry Ford)

• If we write it down we have a better chance of it happening because we

are committing

– Your short-term memory is temporary and can only hold about 7 pieces of

information at any one time.

• If we review it we have an even better chance of a successful outcome.

– Circumstances change and you need to update your plan based on the new

world.

WS2 Business Plan Bootcamp

Planning Your Finances

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure

nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness.

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty

pounds nought and six, result misery.”

• Your Personal Survival Budget is calculated from your personal

income minus your personal expenditure.

• This tells you how much you need to draw from the business to pay

personal bills such as rent, running a car, food, birthday presents etc.

Financial Planning

How much do I think:

> I will sell?

> Over 12 months to 3 years?

> It will cost me to run the business?

> Over the same period

> I will need to take in wages, drawings or profit from my business?

Your Result: Misery or Happiness?

YOU ALREADY HAVE ITIN YOU

Understanding Your Skills and Getting Yourself Ready

Transferrable Skills

Using your list of Personal Skills and SWOT analysis, can you identify a skill that could be used towards a business idea?

> It could be several of the skills or qualities identified

How would it provide a solution and what would the benefits be to potential customers?

Next Steps

Downloads

• Business Doctors– Downloads

• http://www.businessdoctors.co.uk/yorkshire-west/News-Article?id=82

– Action Plan• http://businessdoctors.co.uk/assets/WYEAActionPlan.pdf

– Business Plan• http://businessdoctors.co.uk/assets/WYEABusinessPlantemplate.doc

– Cash flow Forecast• http://businessdoctors.co.uk/assets/WYEACashflowtemplate.xls

Sources of Support• Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce

• www.mycci.co.uk

• Networking and membership benefits

• West Yorkshire Enterprise Agency

– www.wyea.co.uk

– Funding and support

– Training Courses wyea.eventbrite.co.uk

• Business Doctors

– Free business seminars

– Fully funded and subsidised mentoring

– www.businessdoctors.co.uk

• Federation of Small Business

– www.fsb.org.uk

– Representation and membership benefits

• Businessballs

– www.businessballs.com

– business models, tips and stories

• Groundwork

– www.groundwork.org.uk

– Free training in the event of redundancy

• HM Revenue & Customs

– www.hmrc.gov.uk

– Tax, VAT, expenses, mileage, help

• Your Local Council

• UK Government

– www.direct.gov.uk