Much has been written about getting start-up businesses off the ground and this week we look at some of the things you can do to help ensure a successful start-up.

It’s important to remember that people start businesses for a variety of different reasons and the following suggestions need to be tempered with this caveat. In my role as a TBAC Mentor we often talk about why someone decided to go it alone and, in my opinion, the two main reasons can be summarised as follows.

Opportunity – which might include an improved service, commercialisation of intellectual property, exploitation of legislation such as carbon reduction or taking advantage of the economic climate by providing outsourcing or cost reduction services. Franchising also falls into ‘opportunity’ but is often chosen through ‘circumstance’.

Circumstance – often redundancy, but sometimes early retirement, changing personal circumstances or simply a desire for a better lifestyle (one chap’s wife dragged him along to a mentoring session in the hope that he could be persuaded to start up on his own so that he could earn more money….you’ve guessed it, he wasn’t really interested when he was asked if this was what he wanted).

Sometimes it’s about making a fortune, sometimes it’s about making a living and getting the work/life balance right and occasionally an enterprise that starts off with the aim of generating modest income or to solve a problem becomes massive.

Dame Anita Roddick started The Body Shop with the aim of generating an income for herself and her two daughters – so in my book this was ‘circumstance’.

Mark Zuckerburg started Facebook to help fellow students communicate with each other at Harvard – clearly this was an ‘opportunity’….and initially not an obvious revenue stream!

Either way the basic principles apply and you need to make sure that your new venture is R.O.B.U.S.T. This isn’t something you’ll read in a book, learn at Harvard University or the Said Business School - it’s more just business start-up due diligence.

Research – the opportunity, the market & the competition.

Organise - premises, finance, professionals, website, contact details.

Business planning - clearly documented with realistic forecasts.

Understand - why will people will buy your products or services?

SWOT - study your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities &Threats.

Timing - have you got the support of your family & partners?

…and remember, there are no short cuts. If you really are going to make the most of the start-up opportunity, you’ll put in the work to begin with and you’ll be brutally honest in your appraisal of the chances of success. Failure to do so could result in a costly waste of time!

As ever, I’m really interested in feedback so please don’t hesitate to pass comment, make suggestions or pose a question.

Best of luck and see you next week,

Brendon