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    Simple Business
    Simple Business
    Simple Business
    Ebook165 pages4 hours

    Simple Business

    By Steve Gray

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A guide to getting started in business. Serial Entrepreneurs through to single startups will all gain something from this book. The aim is to provide a guide to making your business venture successful. Discover the keys to simple business success and get real world insights into how to make your business idea come to life.

    A how to guide to making your business journey at least a little easier, with a how to guide that provides street smart approaches to marketing, management and operations, along with many other areas to ensure a better chance of success in a challenging marketplace.

    The Author has seen numerous challenges in both his own and other people's businesses and found ways to overcome many of the difficulties with simple street smart strategies. Your first time in business? Then this guide can be your ready to grab guide to how to make positive results happen, sooner rather than later.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSteve Gray
    Release dateAug 31, 2018
    ISBN9780463457405
    Simple Business
    Author

    Steve Gray

    Steve Gray has been passing on hard won information on goal setting, leadership, art and business. He shares solid anecdotes, stories and ideas, often in street smart ways so the reader can get in and create effective results. If you want to make a solid start in leadership, goal setting or business here is a great way to do it.Lets explore who Steve Gray is...A Visual Artist, Public Speaker and Writer, Steve can't keep still for long. Now he has launched into some fiction writing!The Author of many articles on business focussing on Leadership - Innovation - Communication - Startups, via a business blog with hundreds of articles sharing TONS of street smart information.Websites... https://stevegray.biz - https://freeebusinesstips.com.au - https://stevegray.com.au/blog - https://artstuff.net.au

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      Book preview

      Simple Business - Steve Gray

      Simple Business

      Steve Gray

      Copyright © 2021 by Steve Gray

      Smashwords Edition No: 2

      All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without the express written permission of the publisher or Author.

      The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical articles or reviews and pages where permission is specifically granted by the publisher or author.

      Although every precaution has been taken to verify the accuracy of the information contained herein, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for any error or omissions. No liability is assumed for damages that may result from the use of the information contained within.

      Contents

      Preface

      Chapter 1 - Business and You

      Chapter 2 - Set Yourself up for Success

      Chapter 3 - Business Killers

      Chapter 4 - Enterprising Winners

      Chapter 5 - The Key Areas of Business

      Chapter 6 - People Power

      Chapter 7 - Systems and Technology

      Chapter 8 - About Marketing

      Chapter 9 - Operational Processes

      Chapter 10 - Management Strategies

      Chapter 11 - Cover your legal bits

      Chapter 12 - I Bought the Business

      Chapter 12A - Finale

      Preface

      Perhaps you want to start your first business, or maybe you want to build on your current business and give it a huge boost by developing your business skills, either way this book is a solid starting point for your business journey. I learned many things the hard way and so I want to at least give you some of the hard won painful lessons the easy way.

      You can register a business, open a bank account and make a start in one day. Yes it is that simple and therefore easy to get into business, however that does not mean it will be easy to run and make a profit. It’s also easy to look from the outside and say If my boss can do it, well so can I the truth is, it’s rarely that easy.

      At times I found it daunting to be in business and thought there has to be an easier way to overcome the hurdles, learn faster about what business really means and how to make it work. For those of you thinking of being in business, here is what I hope will become a well-read starting point for you, loaded with vital starting points on business. For those who are already in business I hope to give you more information to build on your successes and help you face future challenges.

      The information in this book is not specific advice, it is educational in nature and if required you should consider seeking individual advice to build your specific business. I would like to think of the book as a starting point to your future business success.

      Steve Gray.

      About the Author

      With three Diplomas and a Graduate Diploma, two art based and two business based, coupled with certificates in Training and Assessment, Leadership, Innovation and Communication studies, Steve is well placed to provide the reader with business information.

      Add to that his experience with advising clients from a business coaching perspective, public speaking on Leadership, Marketing, Innovation and general business and you have a person with a wealth of knowledge to share.

      Oh and do remember he has started and run a bunch of businesses, ranging from Property Development, Graphic Design, Handyman, Business Coaching, Training and Development and a few others in between.

      This book adds to the others he has authored, on Visual arts, Leadership, Goal setting, Business and hundreds of How to articles on business on his blog.

      Thanks to the editing team for their feedback and ideas.

      - Nichole Streeter

      - Jennifer Lancaster

      - David Reedy

      Chapter 1 - Business and You

      _______________________

      Out of the fog comes clarity, well… sometimes!

      It’s one of those foggy Autumn mornings, the once pristine warm Summer mornings have faded, the weather is now cool and refreshing. When cloudless, the morning sky is simply delicious and invigorating. This morning… fog.

      It’s early, I’m up at 5:30 most mornings, check my emails, do some writing, research, and explore. This morning I am marvelling at the fog and the warm glow of light from a distant streetlight out of my window across our backyard.

      There must be a breeze, the foggy light is thick mist one minute and then thin the other. Surrounding the light is the inky blackness of no light, the sun yet to rise, I think about how the streetlight does it’s best to bring illumination to the whole area but it can only affect a set area.

      For me and the businesses I have been involved in, there is a connection to this, but for others their experience is probably quite the opposite, more like a searchlight or a laser beam shooting to the moon and back.

      I guess the light at the end of the tunnel, is that there is a light, either to guide them or perhaps lead them astray. A light full of promise, loaded with hope and if you spend some time immersed in its rays you can find information, ideas and strategies to make your way through the challenging darkness of business. However, if you run in and out of the light, or get blinded by it, you might not see the opportunities to learn from.

      I wish you the best in your business journey, going towards ‘the light’ to avoid darkness and find ways to be all you want to be in business. Know that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

      After many years of writing hundreds of articles on business and being involved in various businesses and ‘projects’, I wanted to create a guide of sorts that may make your journey easier and simpler.

      You want to be in business. You want to spend the profits, you want to be an employer, not just an employee, you want, you want…

      What if I told you that success in business is often so difficult, most people would rather have a truck run over their big toe than go through the heartache.

      What if I told you that being in business can be the greatest way to forge a positive future, for your future and for a generation or two on.

      These days the range of business opportunities is seemingly endless, from an international business selling goods and services online to a micro business selling your wares at a weekend market and everything in between.

      The factor about success in business comes down to you, what you know, what you are willing to learn and all about hard work, either mentally, physically and or both.

      May the truck of business be kind and not run over your foot...

      Your accountant may tell you it’s hard, your friends and family might tell you the same, then say Go for it but underneath they might think it’s hard. Of course all these people want you to succeed but they have heard lots of horror stories about people going into business, and perhaps you have too.

      For some reason despite all the horror stories you still want to go ahead, you want to at least say Well I gave it a go and good for you. The challenge is that not many people will tell you how to go about making your business work. There are those who will just tell you more horror stories, oh and the smart Alecs that want to tell you everything, even though you have turned off after the first five words came off their tongue.

      For all the horror stories of course there are great stories of people who make a fantastic go of it and do well. Let’s face it, you might win, you might lose. I want you to win, I want you to say, Thanks for the information, I can now go in with my eyes open and give it a fantastic shot. I would like people to stop me in the street and shake my hand saying, Without the information in this book I would have failed fast. Instead I succeeded! Sure this information can be found from a number of sources, but the reading and exploring for that might take too much time.

      I believe most of us have the raw materials to start a business, a brain, an able spirit, the physical attributes. Yet some will succeed and others will not. I hope you will come to understand the things that bring the ‘raw materials’ together to make your business succeed. This book should give you a clear direction for your business and how to make it work.

      One thing I have seen over and over again is that you don’t have to be the smartest kid on the block to succeed in business, in fact if anything some of the smartest kids in school did not go on to achieve too much, and some of the highest paid people I know were average at best at school, they just plodded on, one foot after the other.

      It takes more than intellect to succeed, it takes perseverance, resilience, passion, ego, motivation drive and hard work.

      Some skill and effort together, provides achievement. You can have all the skill in the world, but without action, it’s useless.

      Business doesn’t need to be difficult, challenging yes, difficult no. Back when I got started in business in the early 1980s some of the advice I got went like this Start up, jump in full-time and have enough funds to make it without any turnover for three months, after that it will be plain sailing.

      Now it’s quite different, and the advice might go more like this Jump in, fight like crazy, work hard, work smart, and have enough funds to make it through the first 12 - 24 months. If it works out then hope like crazy you can build enough leverage to make it work longer. Of course it depends on the business you create and the need for what you have to offer.

      Money in, money out, with a little left behind...

      Business, It’s a bit like this…

      Imagine you have a bank account, you put some money in, then pay some bills from it, add more money and so on, this is standard stuff so far right? Then one day going over the statement for the account you notice there’s this thing called interest, you didn’t put it there, the bank did. NICE! It’s that bit of money the bank added because they made money by using your money, it’s like a reward for choosing them.

      Business can be like that, only the interest is called profit margin, it’s the part that’s left over after everything is said and done. But for it to be of any real value you need to keep the money flowing into the business, keep it there, and let it grow. After a while the margin can grow further and if you do enough things right it can become substantial. It’s the reward for doing more of the right things.

      To work well you need to ‘feed’ the business, so you ensure that the business bank account can grow and you soon realise that as it grows you can Harvest the crop. Just like a farmer, if you had a crop and sold all of it you would have no seed for next season, therefore you would soon be out of business.

      Your business can operate the same way, you have to do enough of the right things to get it started and keep it that way until you sell it or pass it on, reaping the rewards of making a profit along the way.

      One last thing on the bank analogy, and it’s vital. Imagine you are going to open a bank account for the first time, with the aim of just making

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