Helping start-up businesses
I seem to have seen more people starting up in business this year than I can remember. As always the optimism is tremendous. People come to me to ask about tax. I am happy to answer them but I hope I send them away with so much more.
I met Corinne this week, a young lady looking to start up an online retail business. She wanted to know about tax and self-employment. We discussed this and then went on to look at the things any person starting up has to get to grips with. These include time management, the need for systems to make the business work, how to get paid, issues with renting property. I was very happy to find she knew what she wanted to sell and the margins that could be achieved. We discussed how to market the product and key issues of product line management. We discussed the importance of focusing on activities that build market share and profitability. This would necessitate building a team of people who were good at stuff she was not good at such as picking and packing, administration, accounting, payroll etc. We also discussed the importance of coaching and mentoring in helping a business owner get over the knowledge gap.
I believe she went away feeling as enthusiastic as she was when she arrived but also with so much more confidence in her ability to make the business work.
This was a great meeting I really enjoyed. Good luck Corinne.