This guide will focus on England and Wales. If you are in Scotland or Northern Ireland, the process and rates may be different.

Importantly, there are some changes to business rates coming in April 2026, so it鈥檚 important to know how your business may be affected.

So, if you鈥檙e a business wondering how to calculate your business rates from April 2026, look no further, we lay it all out for you.

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What Are Business Rates?

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Let鈥檚 start with the basics 鈥� what actually are business rates?

Business rates are a type of tax charged on properties that are commercial or non-domestic, like shops, warehouses, restaurants and factories. The tax is paid by the occupier of the property (not the owner) to the council, so think of it like a council tax for business buildings.

The amount a business pays is based on the estimated rental value of the property, alongside a government multiplier.

These taxes are then paid to the council and used to fund services in the area.

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How Do I Know If I Need To Pay Business Rates?

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Any property that is non-domestic and used for business is usually liable to pay business rates.

This applies to restaurants, pubs, warehouses, factories, gyms, cinemas and other leisure or hospitality venues.

However, some properties are . If your business is agricultural, religious or provides training or welfare for disabled people, you might be exempt. However, it鈥檚 always worth checking with the local council to be sure.

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What Is Changing In April 2026?

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One of the reasons business rates have been in the news so much recently is because they are being reset in April.

There are 3 main changes coming into play:

1. All business properties will get a new rateable value, as the last valuation was back in 2021.

2. The current list of multipliers will be expanded to include 5 multipliers instead of 2.

3. New reliefs will come into place, providing support for small businesses that will have their costs rise steeply as a result of the new rates.

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How Are Business Rates Calculated?

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Business rates are calculated using 2 key metrics:

1. The rateable value: A property valuation set up by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

2. The multiplier 鈥� set by the government each tax year.

The council applies the multiplier to the rateable value of the business property and subtracts any relief you might be entitled to. Then, a bill is sent to the business.

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How To Calculate Your Business Rate

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Here is how you can calculate your business rate, although it鈥檚 worth clarifying that only the final bill will be accurate.

If you do want to get an estimate however, here鈥檚 how you do it:

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1. Find The Rateable Value Of Your Space

First, you鈥檒l need to find your rateable value.

to find your official valuation 鈥� all you need is the address.

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2. Find Your Multiplier听

This is where things become a little trickier, as the multipliers are changing in April 2026.

For the current 2025 鈥� 26 tax year (ending March 2026), England has a two-tier system:

A small business multiplier: 49.9p for properties with a rateable value below 拢51,000

A standard multiplier: 55.5p for properties at 拢51,000 or above.

However, this is changing in April 2026.

From April, there are now 5 multipliers, as businesses classed as retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) come under different rules, these are:

Non RHL businesses:

A small business multiplier: 43.2p for properties with a rateable value below 拢51,000

A standard multiplier: 48p for for properties with a rateable value between 拢51,000-拢499,999.

High value multiplier: A new higher rate of 50.8p for buildings worth 拢500000 or over.听 (Mostly large distribution and warehouse properties)

RHL businesses:

A small business multiplier (RHL) 38.2p for retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a rateable value below 拢51,000.

A standard multiplier (RHL): 43p for retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a rateable value听between 拢51,000-拢499,999.

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3. Multiply The Rateable Value By The Multiplier

This gives your annual business rates bill, before you claim any relief.

For example, say you have a dental practice worth 拢60,000.

• Rateable value: 拢60,000
• Multiplier: 48p (standard non RHL multiplier)

拢60,000 脳 0.48 = 拢28,800 per year.

But if you had a pub worth 拢60,000.

• Rateable value: 拢60,000
• Multiplier: 43p (standard RHL multiplier)

拢60,000 脳 0.43 = 拢25,800 per year.

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4. Apply Any Relief

You may be able to claim relief, depending on your business and income.

Some discounts are automatically applied by the council, but others might need to be claimed by you.

Some reliefs that will apply to 26/27 business rates are transitional relief, small business relief and a new EV charging point relief.

Previously, RHL businesses were eligible for a 40% discount, but this has now been replaced by lower multipliers.

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What If You Think Your Rateable Value Is Wrong?

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The good news is that if you look at your rateable value and think it鈥檚 too high, you are allowed to challenge it. Any current rates that need to be challenged have to be submitted before March 31st 2026.

If you think the current rate is right but find that your new rate is wrong in April 2026, you will need to challenge it then.

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How To Pay Your Business Rates

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Usually, your council will bill you in spring and will give you the choice of paying in one lump sum or in several instalments over the year.

You can pay online, over the phone or set up a Direct Debit. Some councils will offer other ways to pay, such as at your local bank. However, this varies by location.

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Are Business Rates Able To Be Claimed As Expenses For Tax?

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Yes! The good news is that business rates are an allowable expense for tax, and can be deducted from your profits to lower your taxable income.

This isn鈥檛 just limited to companies either, sole traders can also deduct business rates as a cost when they fill in their self assessment.

For companies, business rates count as an expense, allowing them to lower their corporation taxes.

If you get any relief however, you must only deduct the amount you pay, not the pre-relief amount.

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Business Rates In 2026 And Beyond

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As 2026 bring in new changes to how business rates are calculated, it鈥檚 important for businesses to stay on top of the numbers.

Firstly, check your rateable value and make sure you submit any challenges in time.

Then, understand which multiplier applies to your business and apply for any relief well ahead of time.

Finally, as the new rates come into play, many businesses will see their bills go up. It鈥檚 important to stay proactive and budget for increases, or challenge them as you go.

Whilst it might all sound very confusing, the good news is that once you have the information to hand, calculating it is relatively simple. And the more you know now, the fewer nasty surprises you might get later.

The post How To Calculate Your Business Rates appeared first on 91探花.

But is it actually possible to set up a company using dropshipping?

The answer is yes, and actually, it鈥檚 a great way for small businesses to sell stock without needing copious amounts of storage.

If, if you are looking to and are looking at dropshipping, you鈥檝e come to the right place. In this guide, we explain everything you need to know about dropshipping so that you can set your business up right from the start.

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What Is Dropshipping?

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To put it simply, dropshipping is a way to without having to store the stock yourself.

Instead, you run a shop online that lists products for sale. When a customer buys one of those products, you don鈥檛 process the order yourself. Instead, you send the order to a third party and they pack and ship it straight to the customer. Think of your store like a broker 鈥� you secure the deal with the customer, and the supplier sends out the order.

To the customer, you鈥檙e still the shop that they have bought from. From your perspective, the supplier does the heavy lifting for you.

Wondering how this is different from the standard retail model? Well, the main difference is that with a normal commerce business, the seller holds and sends out the stock. However when it comes to dropshipping, the shop will buy the inventory from a third party as and when an order is made, and it will be fulfilled through them.

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How Does Dropshipping Work?

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So, you decide you want to set up a dropshipping store. But how does it actually work?

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Step 1: Set Up An Online Store And Pick Products To Sell

You build a shop (on a platform like Shopify, WooCommerce or another marketplace) and design product pages with photos, information about them and prices based on a specific supplier.

So, say you are selling bath bombs, you鈥檒l find a supplier that makes them and set up a store with their products listed for sale. Crucially, it鈥檚 important to price the products with a profit in mind. Think about what they will cost you from the supplier, your marketing costs, time and effort and make sure you price them for profit.

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Step 2: Marketing

You market your store as if the product is your own. This might be through social media or SEO 鈥� all the usual routes.

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Step 3: A Customer Buys

A customer comes to your shop and places an order with you. From their perspective, they are buying from your shop. They pay, get their order confirmation and wait for delivery as normal.

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Step 4: You Pass The Order On To The Supplier

Once the order lands in your system, you send the details to the supplier and pay them for the item. Dropshippers will price products higher than what they buy them for, whatever is left after fees and costs is yours to keep.

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Step 5: The Supplier Ships The Items To Your Customer

The supplier packs the item and posts it out to the customer for you.

And voila! You can sell without actually holding stock. But finding the sales? That鈥檚 all on you.

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What Are The Benefits Of Dropshipping?

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There鈥檚 a reason dropshipping has become a popular method of selling online. Some of the benefits include:

You don鈥檛 have to buy the inventory yourself:听In a normal retail environment, you鈥檇 have to buy stock, store it, hope it sells and take a loss if it doesn鈥檛.

With dropshipping, you get a lot of the reward but with little risk 鈥� you only pay for the product after the sale, so profits feel more guaranteed.

You don鈥檛 need to worry about storage:听Storage can be very expensive 鈥� not to mention time consuming managing inventory, creating systems and finding space for excess stock. Dropshipping removes this barrier, as inventory is managed elsewhere.

You can try and test different things quickly: Because you鈥檙e not sitting on unsold stock, you can experiment with what works. You can try a product, see what generates sales, and change direction without worrying about a store room full of unsold stock.

You can do it from anywhere:听Because you鈥檙e not sending out the products yourself, you can speak to customers and manage the business from anywhere, making it a great remote business.

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The Drawbacks Of Dropshipping

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Dropshipping might sound easy, but the truth is it can be difficult to crack.

The same things that make it accessible and easy to do also make it brutally competitive. In fact, according to stats by AppScenic over 90% of dropshippers fail, so it鈥檚 definitely not for the faint hearted.

Some drawbacks include:

It takes a lot of testing:听It鈥檚 all very well finding a good product and trying to sell it, but finding the right supplier, the right marketing tactics and the right tools for selling take time 鈥� and a lot more than you think.

Low profits: Because lots of people can sell the same product, you have to stay competitive in your pricing. If you鈥檙e relying on paid ads or other expensive methods, you might end up spending more than you make with thin margins.

You have no control over the product quality: Your supplier holds and controls the product quality, packaging and shipping speed. If they mess up, customers don鈥檛 blame them, they blame you.

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Why Do So Many Dropshippers Fail?

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The stat that 90% of dropshippers fail is quite a big one. But once you dig into the reasons, it鈥檚 easy to see why so many fall into traps. Some of these include:

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Not Researching

Firstly, one of the most important things you need to do is research. You need to understand demand for a product, how competitive it is to market and how good the product actually is.

A lot of people jump in without understanding these things. They choose products because they think they will sell, without any data to actually back it up.

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Choosing The Wrong Suppliers

The other big mistake people make is that they choose unreliable suppliers.

If the supplier has bad product quality control or is slow to ship, the business will never get off the ground. In the early stages, it鈥檚 important to order samples, check delivery times and make sure everything is set up to run in the best way possible. That way, you won鈥檛 be drowning in customer complaints at every twist and turn.

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Using The Wrong Marketing Tactics

Even if the product is good, it won鈥檛 sell if nobody sees it. Dropshipping is about the product, but it鈥檚 also about marketing skills. You need to think about creating the right ads, making the website look good and building a real brand people are drawn to.

Testing is a big part of the process 鈥� but finding out what works can be expensive.

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Setting The Wrong Profit Margins

You might not need to buy stock, but you still need money to set up your website and complete your marketing.

A lot of people underestimate how much you need to spend to see what works. In fact, a lot of dropshippers will think that since they aren鈥檛 buying inventory 鈥� dropshipping is all profit. The problem is you have to spend to sell, and pricing items with this in mind is important if you want to make a real profit.

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Is Dropshipping Worth Doing?

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The answer is, it can be. But you need to look at it in the same way as any other business. The important thing is that you test the market, make sure you understand marketing and price your items correctly.

Dropshipping is not a get rich quick scheme. It is, however, a great way to run an online business without holding inventory.

If you go in expecting a quick win, you鈥檒l probably be disappointed. If you go in expecting to build a real business, it can be a great way to start.

The post What Is Dropshipping And How Does It Work? appeared first on 91探花.

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Registering for Corporation Tax

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HMRC requires companies to register for Corporation Tax within three months of starting to trade. You can do this by . Incorporation costs 拢12 and takes 24 hours when done online, or can be done by post at extra cost.

In order to receive this, you will need to provide your company鈥檚 registration number, the date on which you began trading as well as the yearly accounting period for your business.

Once you have successfully registered, you will receive a unique taxpayer reference (UTR). This will be used for managing your tax and submitting returns.

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Who Pays Corporation Tax?

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Corporation tax is applicable to UK-based businesses as well as non-resident UK companies who conduct business in the country. This still applies even if they don鈥檛 have a physical presence in the UK but but still earn an income from UK property rentals.

If you have not registered your business as a company with Companies House you will not be liable to pay Corporation Tax, but you will need to pay on your profits.

If your company is not actively trading, you should notify HMRC. Companies classed as do not pay Corporation Tax.

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How to Work Out Corporation Tax

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HMRC doesn鈥檛 bill for Corporation Tax 鈥� it is your responsibility to calculate and report it on time. You will need to prepare your annual accounts and file a tax return, known as a听CT600, taking into account any additional income streams such as property.

Many companies appoint accountants to do this as their agent. Your company will still be responsible, but hiring an agent can provide valuable peace of mind.

If your company has not been turning a profit, you will not have to pay Corporation Tax and may be able to claim relief on future accounts. However, you will still need to declare this to HMRC. Be sure to file your company tax return on time along with a 鈥榥il to pay鈥� form.听

You may also be eligible to claim reliefs for research and development in science and technology or work in selected creative industries.

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When Do I Pay Corporation Tax?

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Your tax is due within 9 months and 1 day of the year鈥檚 end 鈥� this is usually the last day of the month your company was incorporated. You can only file 12 months at a time, so during your first year you may need to file twice to cover the full period 鈥� even if it鈥檚 only a couple of weeks over 12 months.

If you miss the deadline, you may be penalised.

If you pay your tax early, HMRC will pay you credit interest and usually covers from the date you paid up until the deadline. The interest you make will need to be included in your company accounts the next year and is therefore taxable.

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How Do I Pay Corporation Tax?

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All Corporation Tax payments now have to be sent electronically, so you can no longer pay by post. It鈥檚 also no longer possible to pay at the Post Office.

If your company has taxable profits of more than 拢1.5 million you will need to pay Corporation Tax electronically and .

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Debit or Credit Card

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You can pay online via debit or corporate credit card, although the latter will incur a fee. You cannot pay with a personal credit card. This method takes around 3 working days, but remember to include your Corporation Tax payslip reference number to avoid delay.

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Faster Payments

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Using Faster Payments online, over the phone or at your bank is the quickest way to pay your tax, with funds typically clearing within hours. The limit varies from bank to bank, with some allowing Faster Payments of up to 拢250,000.

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CHAPS

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CHAPS (short for Clearing House Automated Payment System) is another speedy way to pay 鈥� usually the same or next working day. Most banks offer it, but it will cost you between 拢20 and 拢30. For funds to arrive the same day you will need to make the transfer before a certain cut-off time, typically 2pm. This method is best for very large sums that need to be paid quickly.

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BACS

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This payment method works similarly to Faster Payments and CHAPS but takes 3 days.

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Direct Debit

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You can also set up a direct debit on HMRC鈥檚 website. New payments will take 5 working days to process, but direct debits that are already in place only take 3 working days.

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Cash or Cheque

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If you prefer to pay in person, you can still pay by cash or cheque at your bank. This will usually take 3 working days to reach HMRC.

The post Corporation Tax: How Does It Work? appeared first on 91探花.

It鈥檚 no surprise that due to its location, infrastructure and hard-working population, entrepreneurs are drawn to its business-friendly environment and high quality of life.

However, needs careful consideration. Here, we look at everything you need to know before .

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Things To Consider Before Moving To The Netherlands

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Before you pack your bags and head to the Netherlands to start your business, it is important to know what you are getting yourself in for. For example:

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The Cost of Living

The cost of living in the Netherlands, especially in cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague, is high. In fact, to put this into perspective, Amsterdam is the tenth most expensive city in Europe.

It鈥檚 worth looking at housing, transportation and other expenses to see if the move is viable. This involves both personal and business expenses, both of which can be high.

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Business Culture

Dutch business culture is known for being straightforward and to the point. Understanding cultural nuances in business is important if you are looking to build strong working relationships with Dutch partners and employees.

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Economic Environment

The Dutch economy is currently experiencing slower growth than usual. According to the IMF, growth in 2023 was minimal, registering only 0.1%.

This slowdown has been likely caused by factors like increased inflation, which peaked at nearly 12% in 2022 and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

However, there are signs of recovery on the horizon. Economists are optimistic about growth for 2025, projected to sit at 0.8% and 1.5%. This is expected to be driven by wage increases as a result of government policies like higher minimum wages.

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Residency

If you want to live in the Netherlands while running your business, you may need a residence permit. However, it鈥檚 worth noting that you do not need Dutch citizenship when you start a business in the Netherlands.

The move for EU and EFTA citizens is much easier, whilst non-EU citizens must apply for a temporary or permanent residence permit from The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service.

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What Are The Steps To Starting A Business In The Netherlands?

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Starting a business in the Netherlands isn鈥檛 difficult, as long as you follow the right steps. Here, we take you through everything you need to know and consider鈥�

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1. Choose A Legal Structure For Your Business

The first step is to decide on what type of business structure best suits your needs. Some options in The Netherlands include:

• Sole Trader (Eenmanszaak): A business owned or set up by a single person. It鈥檚 relatively simple to set up but comes with personal liability, with the person being responsible for all financial and legal obligations.
• General Partnership (VOF): Formed by two or more people or entities who come together to start a business. They share profits, losses, and liabilities.
• Private Limited Company (BV 鈥� Besloten Vennootschap): A legal business that is liable for all legal and financial obligations, rather than an individual.
• Public Limited Company (NV 鈥� Naamloze Vennootschap): A larger version of a BV, usually with several directors.
• Cooperative (Co枚peratie): Formed by members who can easily join or leave.
• Association (vereniging): A not-for-profit organisation, usually formed for social good.

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2. Choose A Business Name And Address

Your company name needs to be approved by Dutch standard, which have certain limitations. For example, words like 鈥渂ank鈥� or 鈥渦niversity鈥� can鈥檛 be used without permission.

You must also have a business address, which will act as the location to get legal documents for your company.

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3. Register With The Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK)

All businesses in the Netherlands must register with the KVK. You need to make an appointment to get a unique number and then have the following information ready for your appointment:

• Valid ID
• Copy of a signed lease, rental, or sales contract for your Dutch business address (if relevant)
• Business contact details
• A description of your company鈥檚 activities
• The sector in which you will be active 鈥� depending on your business type, you might need additional licences or permits. It鈥檚 important to check what these might be so you have everything you need when registering.

You should ensure that you register no later than 1 week after starting business activities to ensure you are operating legally.

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4. Open a Business Bank Account

While you don鈥檛 need听a bank account for opening a business in the Netherlands, having one can be helpful when taking payments and making trades.

Dutch banks usually offer corporate accounts for new companies, though businesses can also open accounts online if easier.

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5. Register For Taxes

Before kicking off operations, your company needs to register for corporate income tax (CIT), value-added tax (VAT). It鈥檚 important to note that whilst you don鈥檛 have a legal requirement in The Netherlands to hire a tax advisor, it鈥檚 probably best to speak to a professional

For companies with profits below 鈧�395,000, the CIT rate is 19%. Those with profits above 鈧�395,000 are taxed at 25.8%.

The VAT rate is 21%, however lower percentages exist for essential items like food, transport and healthcare.

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Hiring And Managing Employees In The Netherlands

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If you are planning to hire employees to work in your business, it鈥檚 important to be up to date with the latest labour laws.

These include:

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Employment Contracts

Contracts in the Netherlands can be verbal or written but must include specific terms such as: names, job description, type of contract (fixed-term or indefinite), salary, work location, and probation period.

• Note: fixed term contract have a set end date, whereas open-ended contracts do not.

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Minimum Wage And Working Hours

The minimum wage is adjusted bi-annually and currently sits at 鈧�1,995 per month for adults over 21. Working hours are capped at an average of 48 hours per week (roughly 9 hours per day) across 6 weeks. This must include overtime.

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Annual Leave and Sick Leave

Employees are entitled to annual leave. For hourly contracts, this is calculated as weekly working hours times four. For full-time employees this works out at 20 days per year.

When it comes to sick leave, Employees are entitled to 70% of their salary for up to two years if they cannot work due to illness.

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Maternity Leave

Women receive 16 weeks of maternity leave with full pay.

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Firing Employees

The Netherlands has specific laws when it comes to dismissing employees, ensuring businesses act fairly. If you are looking to let go of workers, consult a professional to ensure you are acting according to employment laws.

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Should You Start A Business In The Netherlands?

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Starting a business in the Netherlands is a great idea if you are looking for a location in Europe that has a hard working population and a good level of bureaucracy. However, it鈥檚 important you consider all the elements before diving in, including taxes, the cost of living and strict employment laws.

The post What To Keep In Mind For Starting A Business In The Netherlands appeared first on 91探花.

Is The UK A Good Place For eCommerce?

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Going the ecommerce route could be good business as the makes an increase in sales more viable by allowing stores to听receive听clients from almost anywhere around the world.

Its also convenient for customers who can easily browse products and track their orders with the help of these platforms.
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Which eCommerce Platform Is Best In The UK?

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Depending on your business鈥� needs, goals and offerings, as well as your consumers鈥� behaviours and habits, choosing the right platform should be a priority. While there are many differing opinions as far as which platform is the best in the UK, the truth is that each one stands out in a unique way. For this reason, we have gathered a list of 10 different platforms that work the best for any business, startups included:
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1. OpenCart

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OpenCart is a free, open-source ecommerce platform offering a straightforward setup process for entrepreneurs. It allows the management of multiple stores from one dashboard, simplifying operations.

The platform is highly customisable with professional extensions and themes, enabling businesses to tailor their online presence. OpenCart鈥檚 mobile-friendly admin area supports management of products, orders, and customers from anywhere.

With over 14,000 extensions available, it suits ecommerce stores of any size and sector, facilitating global sales without any monthly fees.

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2. Volusion

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Volusion offers ecommerce solutions, create and manage their online stores successfully.

Their platform is designed with a focus on simplicity, speed, and efficiency, enabling businesses of all sizes to flourish online.

Volusion supports your products with various display options, extensive category management, and enhanced search functionality, making it simpler for customers to find and buy your products.

It includes a secure checkout process, robust inventory management, and options for international sales, alongside marketing tools to drive traffic and sales.

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3. Shift4Shop

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Shift4Shop is an ecommerce platform loaded with a wide range of tools to support online businesses. It stands as a versatile choice for those looking to operate an online store, providing a suite of features for product management, marketing, and customer service.

This platform is user-friendly, allowing businesses to manage their online presence effectively without needing deep technical knowledge.

It offers a secure shopping environment, mobile compatibility for both the storefront and admin areas, and integration options for social media and various online marketplaces.

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4. Big Cartel

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Big Cartel offers an intuitive platform for to easily set up their own online store. Big Cartel provides everything needed to start selling online, including customisable templates, straightforward sales and traffic analytics, and essential e-commerce integrations, all with no transaction fees.

It鈥檚 particularly appealing for those looking to transition from marketplaces like Etsy, offering a seamless product import feature and a choice of plans, one of which is forever free.

This platform emphasises user-friendly tools and real human customer support, making it accessible for first-time sellers and experienced merchants alike. With Big Cartel, you can tell your unique story, manage your inventory, and connect with a community committed to independent selling.

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5. Squarespace

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Squarespace is an all-in-one platform for anyone looking to create a professional website. With a wide range of industry-leading templates, it鈥檚 perfect for small businesses aiming to establish an online presence.

Squarespace is user-friendly, offering that adapt to any device, ensuring your site looks great everywhere. From setting up an ecommerce store to booking appointments, it supports diverse business needs on a single platform.

With integrated marketing tools, including email campaigns and social media integration, Squarespace helps in growing your audience and engaging with customers effectively.

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6. WooCommerce

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WooCommerce is a free, open-source eCommerce platform for WordPress users. It鈥檚 designed for small to medium-sized online merchants. The platform offers features that allow for the creation of a customisable online store.

With WooCommerce, users can sell both physical and digital products, manage inventory and shipping, take secure payments, and sort taxes automatically. The community behind WooCommerce provides support and contributes to its growth, ensuring the platform remains adaptable for various types of businesses.

Whether starting a new online venture or expanding an existing one, WooCommerce provides a scalable solution to meet your eCommerce needs.

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7. Adobe Commerce

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Adobe Commerce offers a platform ideal for creating personalised B2B and B2C online stores. It鈥檚 solution that supports multiple brands with native AI, extensive Adobe integrations, and adaptable operations.

Users can enhance conversions with AI-driven tools for personalised customer experiences and efficient team productivity. The platform caters to various business models, for seamless omnichannel personalisation and global market reach with AI features.

Adobe Commerce鈥檚 flexibility allows for innovation, securing a high-performance foundation for commerce functionality. It鈥檚 designed to help businesses grow by providing a sophisticated platform that鈥檚 easily customisable and integrated with essential third-party solutions.

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8. BigCommerce

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BigCommerce offers a modern SaaS platform, enhanced by open API for tailored business integration. Renowned for low total cost of ownership, and it supports both B2B and B2C operations seamlessly. With BigCommerce, businesses can enjoy customisable themes, global scalability, and security.

The platform also has strong partnerships and integrations, allowing for endless customisation and growth opportunities. BigCommerce is dedicated to empowering businesses with the tools needed for online success, backed by exceptional customer support.

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9. Shopify

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Shopify offers the tools to create an online shop, market products, and handle payments across various channels in one unified place. Highly regarded for its simplicity and versatility, Shopify supports businesses of all sizes with customisable themes and essential commerce tools.

This platform is cloud-hosted for secure access anywhere, making it a top choice for entrepreneurs worldwide. From solo ventures to large enterprises, Shopify鈥檚 rich features and global community drive its leadership in the commerce space, helping shape the future of online selling.

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10. EKM

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EKM offers a straightforward e-commerce platform tailored for UK businesses, with a focus on ease of use and excellent customer support. It鈥檚 the perfect choice for businesses aiming to enhance their online sales with a platform that simplifies the process from start to finish.

With EKM, users benefit from UK-based assistance, all-inclusive features, secure payment options, and the unique Evolution Mode for continuous website improvement.

The platform ensures a smooth transition for merchants moving from other e-commerce solutions with free migration services, keeping your domain and SEO rankings intact. Ideal for both new and established businesses, EKM provides everything needed to create a successful online shop.

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What Are The Different Ecommerce Platform Types?

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Any business should be informed on the different types of ecommerce platforms. Each one has a different set of perks and shortfalls:

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Open-Source Platforms

Open-source ecommerce platforms give complete control over the original source code, allowing听more in-depth听customisation. These platforms are usually free and mainly recommended to those who have actual web developers who can then be designed and built with all custom needs in mind. OpenCart, Magento, and WooCommerce are a few examples.

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Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Solutions

SaaS ecommerce platforms are managed externally, with a third party handling hosting and operations. Users pay a monthly subscription fee for platform access.

While customisation options might be restricted compared to open-source platforms, SaaS solutions are suitable for small businesses and beginners aiming to promptly establish and administer their online stores. Examples are Shopify and BigCommerce.

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Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Platforms

PaaS ecommerce platforms 鈥� similarly to SaaS solutions 鈥� are in the cloud. However, users are given access to the physical hardware running the website, along with developer tools and database management options.

This type of platform is ideal for businesses that want more control over their website and have the technical expertise to manage it. PaaS platforms require more effort to set up and maintain but offer greater flexibility.

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On-Premise Platforms

Businesses that use on-premise ecommerce solutions host both hardware and software on-site and that way,听have total control over how their websites function.

Businesses听are still responsible for maintaining the hardware and internet connection. These platforms are for those听who want complete control and have the means to run their own servers should use on-premise systems.

On-premise systems need a lot of technical know-how and resources to maintain, due to the benefit听they have that听allows听for a great deal of customisation.

The post Top 10 eCommerce Platforms For Your Small Business appeared first on 91探花.

B2B sales refer to transactions between businesses, such as a manufacturer selling goods to a distributor or a software company selling its products to another business. These transactions typically involve larger quantities of goods and higher prices than B2C transactions. Businesses that operate in the B2B market often have specialised products or services that are not typically sold to individual consumers.

On the other hand, B2C sales refer to transactions between businesses and consumers. This is the model used by most retail companies, where a business sells its products or services directly to consumers through various channels such as online shops or physical stores. B2C companies tend to focus on providing products or services that meet the needs and wants of individual consumers, often at lower prices and smaller quantities than B2B companies.
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The Different Marketing Strategies adopted by B2B and B2C Businesses

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There are also some notable differences in terms of the target audience and marketing strategies. B2B companies usually target other businesses, and their marketing efforts are often focused on establishing relationships and building trust with other decision-makers. B2C companies, on the other hand, target individuals, and their marketing efforts are often focused on appealing to the emotional side of consumers.
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The Buying Process

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Another significant difference between B2B and B2C is the buying process. B2B buying decisions are often made by teams or committees, who may have specific requirements or approval processes. B2C buying decisions are typically made by individuals, and the purchasing process is often less complicated.
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E-Commerce

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In terms of e-commerce, B2B e-commerce is typically more complex, as businesses need to be able to manage multiple client accounts, often with different pricing agreements, while B2C e-commerce is relatively simple, with customers able to purchase easily from an online store with just a few clicks.

In the United Kingdom, both B2B and B2C models are prevalent, but B2C companies tend to be more visible to consumers. For example, many household names like Tesco and Amazon are well known B2C companies, whereas companies like Rolls Royce and Siemens are more well-known B2B companies.

In conclusion, the B2B and B2C sales models are quite different, and companies often have to adjust their strategies and methods to suit the specific needs of their target market. B2B companies focus on building relationships and trust with other businesses, while B2C companies focus on appealing to individual consumers. Additionally, B2B buying decisions are often made by teams or committees, while B2C buying decisions are typically made by individuals.

The post What Is The Difference Between B2B and B2C? appeared first on 91探花.

Typically the brainstorming of the company name comes first 鈥� the tortured founder trying to find the perfect name. And that is important. But sometimes it is essential to choose an available domain name and then take the brand to market.

What if you reversed the process and came up with the URL before naming and branding the business? At 91探花 we are constantly experimenting with different business ideas and know that securing a .com URL is .

We used to spend hours coming up with domain names and then individually putting them into godaddy to check if they were available. We decided to make this more systematic so that we could spend time building the businesses instead of coming up with names.

To make this easier we have built a spreadsheet that bulk-checks .com domain names to see their availability. If you want you could also check for .co.uk or .io domain names simultaneously.

Step 1 鈥� Create A List Of Words Relevant To Your Business

We use the spreadsheet in a specific way, but you might find other ways to make it work. In this example let鈥檚 say you are creating a blog about finance. This is a simple example, but it will work for this situation. To start, I would look up words related to finance. You can either write down as many as you can or use a . Recently we created a website and used the same approach. we had list of words for dogs on one side and art on the other. Now back to the example.

Ok 鈥� let鈥檚 look at the list of words that we came up with.

Looking at this list of words there are some good options and some you might want to get rid of immediately. We鈥檒l leave them all in for now.

2 鈥� Make A Copy Of The Spreadsheet

We built an easy-to-use spreadsheet that you can add it to your google drive. It contains simple excel formulas that you could recreate yourself. It will ask you to make a copy of the spreadsheet and then this will add it to your google drive. You will be able to see the simple formula we used for the spreadsheet and might even have other ideas of where it can be used.

3 鈥� Input Your Words

After step 1 you should have a list of words you can use for the URL.

When you open up the spreadsheet, you will see a list of example words that we have used for this exercise. Replace the words in columns B and C with the words that you have chosen. And then in cell 鈥楨3鈥� you can indicate what domain name you are interested in using. Some common endings include .com, .org, .co.uk, .net, .co. If you are creating a global brand, then we would suggest .com. If you鈥檙e a UK-based business, then you could choose .co.uk. This applies to other countries too.

I would start with one URL, but if you are thinking of going global or want to protect your domain name, then you could buy different endings.

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4 鈥� View Your Combinations

Once you鈥檝e put in your words (maximum 15 in each column) you will get a list of 450 autogenerated domains in column G that looks like this:

There are extra sheets in the spreadsheet that are just calculations 鈥� these are 鈥楥ombinations One鈥� and 鈥楥ombination Two鈥� tabs. You can look at these sheets if you want and it will look like this:

5 鈥� Bulk Check The Domains

The final step is to look through the list of domains that have been generated and check them through a bulk domain checker. We use , but there are other options available. Before you register your domain make sure to take advantage of our shown in step 8.

You can check up to 2,000 domains at once with GoDaddy if you log in to your account.

Copy the complete list of 450 domains in column G (if you used the maximum number of words) and paste them into the bulk checker.

6 鈥� See What Is Available For Sale

From this list of 450 domains, I have found that 223 are available 鈥� a success! Taking a closer look, I can see that some of them are premium domains bought by someone else and they鈥檙e trying to sell them at a premium. If you have a specific domain in mind and have the money to buy it, you could sort the list by price from high to low. The most expensive domain on there is 拢52k and is for magazinecoin.com. Too steep for me!

Personally, I am happy with sorting from low to high in price and seeing what is available for 拢17.99 (or 拢4 with the referral code).

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Luckily there are plenty of options available for 拢17.99.

7 鈥� Decide Which Name To Use

After glancing through the available domains, I can see a number that would be good for a finance blog 鈥� www.capitaltabloid.com, www.bankingsheet.com, or even www.periodicalcapital.com. And that is just on the first page.

Look through the names and choose the ones you like. Create a short list and come back to them over the next couple of days to see what resonates.

8 鈥� Buy The Domain

We have an affiliate link with GoDaddy and can get you a great deal on your domain 鈥� some of the domains are up to 77% off for the first year. Use our to sign up now.

9 鈥� Grow Your Business

Now that you鈥檝e breezed past the naming part it is time to actually get to work and work on your business. Choosing a name is important but is also a way to avoid doing the work. Good luck!

How Else Can I Name My Company?

If you don鈥檛 like this direct-to-URL way of company, you could always work with a professional naming company. They might approach the brand differently but would also include this domain-checking process in generating their names. If you have a larger budget and are operating globally, this could be a good option.

The post How To Guarantee a .com Domain Name For Your Startup appeared first on 91探花.

There is a catch though, especially for startups that seek to have a global appeal. You need to name your business 鈥� and with so many millions of new business formations each year, names are scarce. This is a step that needs to be taken way ahead of any SEO and digital marketing activity.听

It is vital that those looking to start a new business are aware of certain things before they begin on this journey. This article outlines the most important considerations prospective business owners should bear in mind before they start their company.

If you鈥檙e currently operating in one of the systems, like as a sole proprietorship, and wish to expand and protect your personal assets, it may be natural to explore for better risk management and business growth. In other words, the initial business operation that you choose can be changed depending on the success and growth of your company.

Choose Your Business Name

Often a very early step in the formation of a business, it is very important to choose an appropriate name and yet it is often incredibly challenging to decide on one. Entrepreneurs will want to choose a business name that is in line with their state鈥檚 naming regulations and is appropriate for their industry; even better if it can relate with their customers and brand.

Using AI-tools such as the Generator, which takes two keywords associated with your business, its industry and location, hundreds of great results can be generated online for free. Alternative options include Shopify, Wix, Godaddy and Namelix.

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听Choose Your Business Structure

In Australia we love using limited companies or PTY Ltd 鈥� for more options. Yet many Australians will incorporate offshore for a multitude of reasons. Given our ever closer alliance with America 鈥� it is true that Aussies also love states like Wyoming and Delaware to host their businesses.听

This brings us onto another important step in the process of starting a new business is deciding on the structure to choose. For the most part, limited liability companies (LLCs) will be ideal for most new startups due to the protection they provide their owners鈥� personal assets with, the additional credibility their business gains in their customers鈥� eyes and the tax choices that benefit their bottom line. Another way in which LLCs benefit from this is that this business structure entails very low set-up and maintenance costs.听

That being said, other business structures will sometimes be better suited to specific scenarios, so it is useful to research which will work best for your business. Some of the main structures include: C corporations, S corporations, benefit corporations, LLCs, general partnerships, sole proprietorships and non-profits.

If you business is likely to operate out of a hybrid model, then it is certainly worth investigating whether a VPN will support your business. and keep confidential data private.

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Choose Your State (Especially Where U.S. Incorporations Are Concerned)

For the majority of new business owners the advice will remain the same 鈥� form your business in the state in which you plan to live and operate your business in. This is because registering a business in a 鈥渇oreign鈥� state will mean that you will need to pay filing, registered agent, and maintenance fees in more than one state depending on your business structure.听

Those businesses with a physical presence (e.g. shops, offices, other buildings etc.) that spans a number of states will also have to apply for a 鈥榝oreign鈥� form of their business structure (i.e. a 鈥榝oreign LLC鈥� if applicable).听

Draft Your Business Plan

Planning is a necessary step in order to mitigate the risk of failure and to increase the chance of acquiring business loans. The key is to analyse your business idea so as to create a secure plan that enhances the company鈥檚 chances for success.

Analysis is commonly divided into four stages: points of leverage, marketing strategy, financial model and compatibility with personal goals. Carefully considering each of these facets allows for an effective and powerful business plan to be created by oneself. Alternatively, there are paid options available online to get started with business planning.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, after you have decided your state of registration, chosen your business entity structure, drafted a business plan, and formed your company, you will need to make sure that you follow all of the steps necessary in order to operate as a legitimate business within your state.听

This could relate to your city鈥檚 zoning requirements, your industry鈥檚 licensing permits, or to the type of business insurance that you will need.听

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Would you like to SEO or PR for your business?听

The post This Is What All Entrepreneurs Need to Do When Starting a New Business appeared first on 91探花.

From sleepless nights to stress-filled days, we wanted to find out what startups truly demand from their founders, and called on entrepreneurs to spill the reality behind being your own boss鈥�

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Our Founders:

• Suzanne Noble 鈥� Co-Founder of Startup School for Seniors and Nestful
• Viva Andrada O鈥橣lynn 鈥� Entrepreneur of Love Viva Cakes and Crafts
• Anton Dybal 鈥� Founder of Next-Level Artwork
• Christian Azolan 鈥� Owner & Digital Visual Artist at Christian Azolan
• Mark Smith 鈥� Founder of Double Up Social
• Alex Tomchenko 鈥� Founder & CEO of Glambook
• Andrew Dalhouse听鈥� Founder of AA Media Studios
• Emily Mei Carter 鈥� Founder of Ecosphere Consulting
• Adam Bastock 鈥� Founder of Small99
• Jacob Sever 鈥� Co-Founder & CEO at Sumsub
• Tamas Kadar 鈥� CEO and Co-Founder of SEON
• Mark Reynolds 鈥� Founder of Hable
• Jamie Baird 鈥� Founder and 鈥淐hief Steeper鈥� of Steeps One Shot
• Jessica Heagren 鈥� CEO and Co-Founder of听That Works For Me
• Clare Groombridge 鈥� Founder of South Coast Social
• Lazar Vukovic 鈥� Serial Entrepreneur and Author of 鈥楳ake It Happen! A Little Black Book on How to Make Things Happen
• Daniel Zemmour 鈥� Owner of Molecule
• Daniel Jiang 鈥� Founder of the Future Member
• Charlotte & Sophie Wilson 鈥� Co-Founders & Directors of YANA
• Stefano Manili 鈥� Founder and CEO of Cosaporto
• Andrew Hatcher 鈥� Business Adviser and Coach
• Andrew Butt 鈥� Co-founder & CEO of Enable
• Thomas Skinner 鈥� Founder of Barnaby Cecil
• Noam Nevo 鈥� Co-Founder at Osu
• Ifty Nasir 鈥� Founder & CEO of Vestd
• Christopher Bo Shields 鈥� CCO and Co-Founder Totem
• Tom Bourlet 鈥� Founder of CBD Sloth
• Matty Street 鈥� Owner of Team Karting, TK-Xtra, Cadet Kart Championship, XTra Treats, X-Kart
• Harry Atkinson 鈥� Co-Founder and Chief Data Officer at Sensat
• Lee Chambers 鈥� Founder of PhenomGames and Essentailise Workplace Wellbeing
• Oliver Bowles 鈥� Director & Co-Founder at Luxury Loft Co.
• Nikki Wheeldon 鈥� Co-Founder at Jampot Business Support and Co-founder at Communal Brew
• Mark Boost 鈥� CEO and Co-Founder at Civo
• Sonya Barlow 鈥� Founder of LMF Network
• Tom Scott 鈥� Founder of Little Mesters
• Adnan Zaheer 鈥� CEO and Founder of Seers
• Andy Hibbert听鈥� Founder of Karshare.com
• Jennifer Johansson 鈥� CEO of Placed App
• Andrew Jervis 鈥� CEO and Co-founder of ClickMechanic
• James Coombes 鈥� CEO and Co-Founder of Vector.ai
• James Cook 鈥� Executive Chair of LeadRetriever
• Nicola Hartland 鈥� Chief Revenue Officer at CyberCrowd
• Nico Nicholas听鈥� Chief Executive Officer of Tree4Travel
• Veena Giridhar Gopal 鈥� CEO of SalesBeat
• Jenni Riley 鈥� Co-Founder of ITARMI
• R茅my Asti茅 鈥� CEO of Vauban
• Ranjan Singh 鈥� CEO and Co-founder of HealthHero
• Tom Simmonds 鈥� COO of Gretel

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For any questions, comments or features,听.

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Suzanne Noble, Co-Founder of Startup School for Seniors and Nestful

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鈥淪tarting a new business is a lot less sexy and fun than the media would have us believe. Much of it is spending time on tasks for which any reward is a long time coming.鈥�

鈥淥n an average day, I鈥檓 speaking to current or prospective customers, populating our social media feeds, appearing on a panel discussion or contributing to an article usually related to older people, working with my co-founder on the latest updates to the website and filling in an application usually related to a grant or some other type of funding, trying to figure out how Facebook ads work.鈥�

鈥淟ike most startup founders, I always have one eye on the bank account, working out what software subscription I can cancel to cut down on our overheads.鈥�

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Viva Andrada O鈥橣lynn, Entrepreneur of Love Viva Cakes and Crafts

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鈥淲hen people think of starting a business, they think their time is flexible, there is more freedom to do what they want, that if they have a product or service customers are easy to find, that they can earn unlimited profits because they鈥檙e their own boss.鈥�

鈥淭he truth is it鈥檚 tough to be an entrepreneur, starting a business is challenging. Being your own boss is a lot of responsibility. You would be responsible for your clients, employees, suppliers, direction of your business, future growth. If you don鈥檛 know proper time management, you may get stuck with day to day tasks and not achieve much. You would need to be multi-skilled, if you want to save money, as outsourcing can get costly too. You would also need to learn how to market your products and services effectively so that prospective customers would know what you offer and how it addresses their needs.鈥�

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 easier to be an employee, earning a pay check, getting paid per hour. When you鈥檙e an entrepreneur, you think of your startup constantly and may not even get paid for it.鈥�

鈥淲颈迟丑 being an entrepreneur, you always have to innovate and do things better than others, constantly delight your customers and find ways to work better with your employees and suppliers.鈥�

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For any questions, comments or features,听.

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Anton Dybal, Founder of Next-Level Artwork

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鈥淪tarting a business is full of loads and loads of failure and disappointment鈥攅specially if you鈥檙e new to entrepreneurship and don鈥檛 have experience successfully growing and scaling businesses.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 tons of hard work on things that you think will work & pay off, but end up completely faceplanting and flopping miserably. It鈥檚 having dozens of times where you鈥檙e like: 鈥淭his is it! This is the big idea that鈥檚 gonna really turn things around and explode the company鈥檚 growth!鈥濃�攁nd then after you try it, turns out you were wrong.鈥�

鈥淚t can be incredibly hectic at times, bouncing from idea to idea and activity to activity, really just experimenting with tons of different ideas and strategies to find out what does and doesn鈥檛 work.鈥�

鈥淎t the same time it鈥檚 also incredibly fulfilling knowing that you鈥檙e going after your dreams, knowing that you had the courage to quit your day-job and go for it鈥攖o put your money, your reputation, and your ego on the line to try to build a successful company. The failures, the setbacks, the disappointments, that鈥檚 just a part of the game. My advice is to go into it knowing that they鈥檙e an inevitable part of the game, and to try to view them as learning experiences to help you to decide on the best course of action.鈥�

鈥淪tarting a new business can definitely suck at times, but overall it鈥檚 incredibly exciting and fulfilling to try to bring an idea to life from scratch like that鈥攁nd I can tell you from experience, it makes life a hell of a lot more interesting than just showing up and clocking in to work a boring 9-to-5 job that you can鈥檛 stand.鈥�

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Christian Azolan, 听Owner & Digital Visual Artist at Christian Azolan

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鈥淗aving been made redundant due to the pandemic I started my art and illustration business in March 2020. I knew I had the skills to be an artist but I needed to learn the skills of running a business day to day.鈥�

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Tax and expenses

鈥淚 had to learn how to do taxes and expenses and not being a numbers guy, this was not easy, I had to find an accountant also not as easy as it sounds, from recommendations from friends to making sure they are not too expensive.鈥�

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My relationship

鈥淢y business has taken over my life, I work 7 days a week and as my partner constantly tells me to take a day off but when you鈥檙e building up you want to pack as much into your day/week as possible, we have even had a few disagreements about me working weekend and late into the evenings. I feel I鈥檓 in a M茅nage 脿 Troi with me, my partner and my business and my business is getting a lot of love and attention compared to my partner.鈥�

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My spare time

鈥淚 don鈥檛 have any spare time, all my time goes into my business and when I do see friends in the evenings or weekends I feel guilty that I鈥檓 not spending time on my business etc. I know there is always an everlasting list of things to do, but i do feel that pressure to spend time working.鈥�

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The social media pressure

鈥淚f you are not on social talking about what you鈥檙e doing, how you鈥檙e doing it and keeping a visual record then you don鈥檛 really exist as a business, I鈥檓 on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and so on and I鈥檝e met some amazing people and other creatives but you do feel like you will miss out if you鈥檙e not always taking part, I only post 1 thing a day, but before it use to be more. The social media FOMO is real.鈥�

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The self help book and the experts

鈥淭here is always a need to self improve and learn new things, especially in the art and tech sector, every business owner that i meet wants to share a book, a podcast or an event I should pay to attend to simply be better, at times this can be tough as running a business day to day is exhausting enough without being made to feel you need to do more or that there is a magic wand book that will help you get it all things done.鈥�

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PR & Marketing

鈥淎s a small business I do my own PR and marketing, as I can鈥檛 yet afford someone to do this for me, I approach all press and networking events and do all my own social media and day to day brand pushes and discounts. Being the face and having your name as the business can make me feel really lonely.鈥�

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Friends and family rule

鈥淚 have a rule that I don鈥檛 sell art to family members, this can cause real issues and put you in a difficult position, as an artist a lot of people feel you work for free and that is not the case, if my family want to buy they will have to go on the website like everyone else.鈥�

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Sleepless nights

鈥淚 spent a lot of time thinking, i think about all the things that can go wrong, all the things that are coming next and all the opportunities I鈥檝e missed or need to apply myself to, this is a sure way to keep me up all night, I鈥檝e had loads of sleepless nights where my brain will just not switch off.鈥�

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The website

鈥淭he stress-packed days of working with a web designer and developer to do things on my website has been a struggle and at times very tough. Yes it鈥檚 always worked out in the end and it鈥檚 worked, but when things go wrong on a website, from payment platforms not working to pages not loading, it鈥檚 a constant battle to maintain things running smoothly at all times.鈥�

鈥淭he constant juggling and wearing different hats is a constant strain, I am HR, PR, Marketing, Tax, Promo, Social, Sales, Operations, Customer Service and The Brand.鈥�

鈥淩unning my business just over a year now and I鈥檝e had lots of ups and downs, and it鈥檚 been tough and covid has played it鈥檚 part in driving me and everyone one crazy, I wouldn鈥檛 change it for the world, the freedom of running your own days and reporting and staying accountable to yourself and not some faceless shareholder is so rewarding, this is the best thing I have ever done, tough, but very rewarding.鈥�

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For any questions, comments or features,听.

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Mark Smith, Founder of Double Up Social

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鈥淟ike many others, my start-up, digital marketing agency Double Up Social, began as a side hustle 鈥� I was freelancing during my studies for both experience and extra income.鈥�

鈥淥ver time, I began gaining bigger and bigger contracts and rebranded as Double Up Social, bringing on additional part-time staff to assist with the workload. Whilst I was finding the right staff to assist me, I was in charge of every aspect of the business 鈥� from admin to account managing & fulfilment of our clients鈥� requests.鈥�

鈥淢anaging every aspect of the business was time-consuming 鈥� there was never a day off (And I鈥檓 sure my family and friends can testify to that!). Even while on vacation on the other side of the globe, I was having to set aside some time, up to a few hours a day, to continue work. I was lucky the business was growing as fast as it was, but I was having trouble finding the right team of experts to assist in managing the day-to-day. Working 7 days a week for months on end is not healthy, and, naturally, my mental health took a hit.鈥�

鈥淎s a start-up, it鈥檚 important to understand the importance of delegating your workload and not wearing all the hats in your business. Many start-ups are perfectionists and hold onto their brand like their baby, but from my experience 鈥� you have to trust your staff to allow your business to grow.鈥�

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Alex Tomchenko, Founder & CEO of Glambook

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鈥淧rior to founding Glambook in 2020, I built a digital marketing agency, which gave me my first taste of entrepreneurship. When I started Glambook, my experience on the agency side came in handy, but now it鈥檚 a much more complex environment 鈥� the pace is faster, the scope is broader and there are many more things I need to keep on my radar. Also, communication is key these days 鈥� networking, conversations with investors, partnerships, fundraising, opportunities that would help the business grow.鈥�

鈥淲hen your startup is in its growth stage, there鈥檚 no such thing as business hours. You have business hours when there鈥檚 work to do, and there鈥檚 plenty of work to do all the time. The only exceptions 鈥� meal breaks and sleep. However, even before going to bed I always check where we are with the user base and make sure there are no issues that need immediate attention. I鈥檓 no stranger to waking up in the middle of the night to add things to the to-do list, check if our ads are running and that everything is working properly.鈥�

鈥淚 pride myself on remaining calm under pressure. That鈥檚 the quality I developed during my digital agency days 鈥� and it鈥檚 incredibly helpful in a startup environment. But high demands of a startup environment, constant stress, lack of sleep and always moving at a very fast pace can take a toll even on me. Being passionate about what I do really helps to keep up a positive attitude 鈥� despite all of the challenges of a growing business and intense schedule, I get very excited when I see new users joining Glambook and having a positive experience with the platform 鈥� that means that all of our hard work pays off. There鈥檚 a saying 鈥渨ork hard, play hard鈥� 鈥� the play hard part is something that I still need to work on.鈥�

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Andrew Dalhouse,听Founder of AA Media Studios

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鈥淪tarting a company is truly one of the instances in life where no matter how hard I prepared for it, without physically experiencing it you鈥檙e completely unaware of the actual reality.鈥�

鈥淔or months, possibly years I鈥檇 manifested ideas, designed logo鈥檚, business cards, obsessed over figures and got myself in the best possible position to take this step into self-employment or so I thought.鈥�

鈥淧rior to this I鈥檇 worked 10 years for an IT company, so I was certain this was going to be the future I鈥檇 planned but after all the steps I鈥檇 previously spoke on and more, I found myself one day sitting in my office staring at the wall contemplating if I鈥檇 made the right decision. From that day forward I had to accept the fact that I wasn鈥檛 going to be paid monthly or be able to ask my bosses for overtime work if I wanted to earn extra money, take days off through sickness and that now there weren鈥檛 going to be 100鈥檚 of other workers who could pick up the slack when I wasn鈥檛 able to reach full potential.鈥�

鈥淚t was daunting to say the least, but I did what I do best. I isolated myself from all distractions and used my networks to my best abilities.鈥�

鈥淭he 1st two years were hard because I was building new relationships and working hard to build my reputation which included using previous joint projects to garner peoples trust but I was fortunate that social media was growing and platforms such as Instagram/Twitter/Facebook allowed me to spread my work to people who already knew me and benefit from the personal relationships.鈥�

鈥淚 decided to purchase a shared office with another friend who had started her own business and look for other people within similar situations to split costs and help us remain motivated throughout. The work environment was positive as we were able to share skillsets and bounce ideas. As we began to grow larger companies we also benefitted from the shared communities and friendships whenever each person would have meetings and visits.鈥�

鈥淚n 2021 I鈥檓 now really enjoying my business journey as it鈥檚 allowed me to have the freedom to explore other avenues of business while contracting up to 10 freelancers at a time. By the end of 2021 I hope to have 20 students within our youth project in order to gain valuable work experience.鈥�

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Emily Mei Carter,听Founder of Ecosphere Consulting

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鈥淚 have recently started a business after having my first child 鈥� I started working on it part time since she was about 9 months old, whilst my husband takes 2 days a week of paternity leave with her.鈥�

鈥淭he reality is that though working part time he still gets a full time amount of emails and tasks, and part time isn鈥檛 really enough to try and launch a business either, so we mostly work all weekend and evenings till about 11pm as well, before getting up early to entertain an increasingly active toddler.鈥�

鈥淭he result is a serious time balancing act sometimes, trying to fit in cooking family meals, doing general housework, my working hours, his working hours, entertaining our daughter, trying to stay healthy (usually failing), with very little relaxation, down time or family time, and basically zero time together as a couple since one or both of us is working basically all hours we are awake.鈥�

鈥淪ometimes it feels fabulous, to be progressing towards my goals, and other times I would like to rent a hotel and go sleep for 48 hours straight! The laundry gets done only when the situation is desperate and the grass is getting a little long鈥ut we鈥檙e making it work and it鈥檚 so much more exciting to be finally doing my own thing, I wouldn鈥檛 give it up!鈥�

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Adam Bastock,听Founder of Small99

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鈥淪tarting a business is exhilarating and overwhelming in equal measure. It gives you endless energy because it鈥檚 a passion project that you鈥檙e working on, but eventually your body will disagree and you鈥檒l burnout. Finding the balance between the two positions is an endless task, regardless of financial stresses.鈥�

鈥淚n starting my business I鈥檝e found incredible passion and joy for what I want to do, but constant anxiety that I鈥檓 doing the right thing and frustration I鈥檓 not doing enough. Expectations on myself are impractically high, and there鈥檚 no real support to turn to like you would with a team.鈥�

鈥淭he Good:

• Do what you enjoy 鈥� The biggest freedom from starting out is that you can choose to do what you enjoy doing, which tends to also lead to success. No boss to give you inane tasks!
• Reach new opportunities 鈥� If you have knowledge of the market you鈥檙e going into, it鈥檚 rewarding being able to fix the problems that other companies have and make customers happier as a result. Identifying opportunities that have gone unfulfilled for years is hugely rewarding 鈥� emotionally and financially
• Meet Great People 鈥� You can choose to network and start conversations with other people doing great thanks, that as a 鈥淔ounder鈥� may otherwise be off limits to someone employed.鈥�

鈥淭he Bad & The Ugly:

• Money 鈥� In the early days of starting out, you have no framework for earning money and this is a stressful situation. The energy is going into creating them, but getting people to know you and trust you before sale, is a battle
• Focus 鈥� Due to money not coming in, it鈥檚 difficult to know if you鈥檙e focusing on the right thing or not. There鈥檚 endless possibilities of stuff you could be doing with no-one telling you what to do, so you need to have a core focus of why you started the company
• Prioritisation 鈥� Again, lack of money means doing more things takes time, and you need to know your time is being spent in the right places. Once money comes in things get much easier as you can increase capacity.鈥�

鈥淥verall I鈥檇 summarise my experience as a founder as:

• Constant anxiety over if I鈥檓 doing the right thing and focusing energy in the right places
• Concerns over money coming in and that I鈥檓 creating products people actually want
• Fear of burnout because once it hits, you鈥檙e too late to manage it
• Excitement and joy, with the money not being a big concern because you feel like you鈥檙e actually living life and making a difference, rather than just going through the motions鈥�

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Jacob Sever,听Co-Founder & CEO at Sumsub

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鈥淎 startup demands that its founder postpone everything else in their life for the next couple of years. Every founder believes in their idea, but to prove this to the market and confirm viability of the business model, they have to work 24/7. Of course, this means stress, doubts, and constant struggle with circumstances, technological problems and lack of time. It also means difficult discussions with partners, because everyone has their own vision of how the product should be developed and what markets to hit first. And if you fly solo, you are saddled with greater responsibility for every decision that you make.鈥�

鈥淏ut, on the other hand, a startup is a constant process of growing your skills. It鈥檚 an opportunity to try something new, it鈥檚 the freedom to make your own decisions and bring your product to life. It is your chance to become big. You are constantly learning 鈥� to understand people, among other things. Because a person who joins you at the start of the project can have a serious impact on the final product and the startup鈥檚 success in general.鈥�

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Tamas Kadar,听CEO and Co-Founder of SEON

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鈥淎 lot of companies are born out of a bolt of lightning, apple falling from the tree moment of inspiration. In 2017, SEON鈥檚 COO, Bence Jendruszak, and I created the technology behind SEON because we didn鈥檛 have a choice.鈥�

鈥淲e met at university and bonded over a shared interest in cryptocurrency. Together, we came up with a plan: Central and Eastern Europe鈥檚 first dedicated crypto marketplace. We hit the keyboards, coded a fully-functional site and set it to go live. Almost immediately we were hit by fraud attempts 鈥� mostly multi-accounting. We began to look at what kind of anti-fraud solutions were commercially available and were less than impressed. We were used to a fast-moving, always-innovating way of working and from what we could tell the anti-fraud solutions on the market were based on old ways of thinking. So, we started building our own.鈥�

鈥淲hen word got around that we had our own homebrew anti-fraud software that was better than anything else on the market other companies asked if they could use it, and what started as a side project became our main concern.鈥�

鈥淣ow a significant challenge for us has always been that we started the company outside of the tech hubs like London, Munich and San Francisco, so it has potentially been more difficult to secure investment than it would have been otherwise. We have found that some investors and potential clients are sceptical of companies from the central European region 鈥� we鈥檙e seen as playing catch-up with the rest of the continent.鈥�

鈥淪till, it is far cheaper to start a tech business in Budapest than London, and the region has some incredible talent in terms of mathematics, computer science and AI. It was a great place to incubate our business, and has meant that we had to establish our name by the strength of our product rather than the publicity that comes from being the next big Unicorn business.鈥�

鈥淭oday, we were recently the recipient of the largest investment round in our country鈥檚 history thanks to the team at Creandum, one of the early investors in companies like Spotify, Klarna and Bolt. We鈥檙e not the only tech start-up in the region 鈥� there鈥檚 UIPath, Brainly and Vinted, to name just a few 鈥� but it鈥檚 a great feeling to be flying the flag for our region, our country and our city.鈥�

鈥淎s a Co-Founder of a business the fulfilment I feel every day makes everything worthwhile. But to get to this stage has taken a lot of hard work and sacrifice. So, I would recommend this to someone that is willing to go the extra mile to make their dream and passion for improving the world work. If you do that then the rewards are endless.鈥�

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Mark Reynolds,听Founder of Hable

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鈥淲hilst I was successful at school, good playing the game, and got good grades, school didn鈥檛 really give me the skills I needed to start a business.鈥�

鈥淕rowing up, I actually had no idea what I wanted to do for work. So after Uni, when my career as a superstar DJ didn鈥檛 pan out, I fell into a job in IT Sales. That led to a successful career working for other people in 3 companies, each for around 5 years. The last of those was Microsoft, which was an incredible place to work.鈥�

鈥淒uring those 15 years of my career where I was working for other people, I always knew that I wanted to run my own business 鈥� I just didn鈥檛 know how.鈥�

鈥淚 finally got brave in 2014 and decided to quit Microsoft to start Hable; just before pressing the button I wrote this blog, which tells you how I felt at the time.鈥�

鈥淚 decided to start a Services business, which was cheap to start and relied initially on one thing: me being able to sell my own time to customers. That is the beauty of a Services company 鈥� you don鈥檛 need investment in building product or buying stock 鈥� you just have to believe that your time and skills are valuable.鈥�

鈥淎nd, you need some customers who you think will hire you.鈥�

鈥淚 felt confident about both, but also decided that if I tried and failed 鈥� I could easily go back and work for Microsoft, or some other IT company. So yes, it was a big risk, but I convinced myself (and my wife!) that the worst case was a couple of tough years and me having to 鈥渆at humble pie鈥� and start again at a lower grade job if it didn鈥檛 work. No big deal.鈥�

鈥淪tarting a business for the first time is a scary process, because everything you have to do, you鈥檙e doing for the first time. That applies to small things like setting up business bank accounts, and big things like picking a name for your company.鈥�

鈥淚 was working on my own a lot, so it was also quite lonely at times. At the start you have to talk like you鈥檙e big, even though most things are being done by you personally 鈥� you have to train yourself to say 鈥榳e鈥� not 鈥業.鈥欌��

鈥淚f you鈥檙e uncomfortable with a bit of 鈥榝ake it til you make it,鈥� then setting up on your own is probably not for you.鈥�

鈥淢y mantra became the company motto: Dream. Deploy. You鈥檝e got to dream big, but you鈥檝e also got to be prepared to get sh*t done. I鈥檝e now worked for Hable longer than I鈥檝e worked anywhere and I enjoy it (almost) every day.鈥�

鈥淪tarting a business is not easy, but it鈥檚 also probably not as hard as you think鈥︹��

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Jamie Baird,听Founder and 鈥淐hief Steeper鈥� of Steeps One Shot

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鈥淚t all really started accidentally. I was researching gut health and I stumbled on this recipe for what was then called 鈥淔ire Cider鈥� and I was hooked on it 鈥� not as a business venture but just for me to use. I was already running three businesses and I have three young kids so I had absolutely no intention of starting a drinks business.鈥�

鈥淢aking small amounts was tedious so I started to make bigger batches and giving the extra away to my fitness training clients. The more feedback I was getting from them and the more research I was doing, meant the penny finally dropped and I saw the potential. I could tell some friends thought I was mad but they couldn鈥檛 see what I could see, mainly because they didn鈥檛 really like it or get it.鈥�

鈥淪teeps One Shot had always been a side hustle but with what鈥檚 happened in the past year it鈥檚 now my main event, I am focused and on it. That said, it was certainly interesting launching during a pandemic, whilst homeschooling three kids!鈥�

鈥淒eveloping the brand and the look was uber important to me and I know where my strengths lie, so I got help. I knew what I didn鈥檛 want but I needed guidance to hone in my vision.鈥�

鈥淭he highs definitely lie in the great feedback you get from happy customers, not just on the product, but the service I offer, the hand written notes, the response time to email and yes it鈥檚 me when they call.鈥�

鈥淭he biggest low for me was ruining a batch of 400 litres about a year ago. It was totally my fault as I was trying to be a bit clever but I took ownership of the mistake, did what I could to solve the problem, discarded the batch and and moved on. I consequently ran out of stock but I was honest with my customers and I started taking pre-orders for the next batches, which were now delayed by about 12 weeks.鈥�

鈥淚 consider myself to be a good listener, I take in, divulge the information and then act. Feedback is essential but you have to be able to sort out what is right for the brand and what isn鈥檛. What is it that makes a good customer experience, I am all for exceeding expectations if and when possible. The end consumer is my biggest critic and my ambassadors. They are the ones that will grow my business. The more they talk about it and how it has helped them, the better, it鈥檚 free advertising. Keep them on side!!鈥�

鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 say I am risk averse, but I keep a tight control on the costs and have kept the business within what I could afford and grown it at a steady pace. If it doesn鈥檛 work out then I haven鈥檛 broken the bank.鈥�

鈥淭he future is looking awesome, I have new products and so many great new sales channels. I absolutely love what I do.鈥�

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Jessica Heagren,听CEO and Co-Founder of听That Works For Me

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鈥淪omeone once told me that starting your own business was like being on a permanent rollercoaster. I couldn鈥檛 have put it better myself!鈥�

鈥淚 had fallen out of my city career after I had children because I just couldn鈥檛 fit their 9-5 requirements. It was a real blow, particularly as I had spent so many years working my way up. After I had my second child, I quickly realised how many other women were in the same boat.鈥�

鈥淲hen a friend of mine called to say her hugely successful business was at risk because her cashflow had been miscalculated, I asked her why she didn鈥檛 have a CFO. She said, 鈥渂ecause I鈥檓 too small. I can鈥檛 afford someone like that鈥�. I told her to hire a mum.鈥�

鈥淭hat was my lightbulb moment. I immediately saw the opportunity to bring together this untapped pool of talent with businesses in need of resource but not on a full-time basis. We created a digital platform to bring these communities together.鈥�

鈥淥ur first issue was our tech solution. We weren鈥檛 techy ourselves, so we had to rely on ad hoc advice from people who knew about the detail. We eventually appointed an overseas development team who caused us more stress and upset than anything else since! We invested twice our original spend in getting our platform 鈥榣aunch-ready鈥�. You live and learn!鈥�

鈥淭he launch was exciting and daunting in equal measure. But we did it and we had a fantastic reaction.鈥�

鈥淧eople generally respond to your bravery with kindness and support, that is reassuring. Negative feedback? Not so much! You need to grow a thick skin quickly but also be able to sort the BS from the genuine feedback.鈥�

鈥淏uilding momentum and generating revenue is more of a challenge than you imagine. I cannot tell enough people how important it is to have a good sales and marketing strategy.鈥�

鈥淵ou can be permanently outside your comfort zone in the early days. If you can鈥檛 be comfortable with this then you鈥檙e headed into the wrong profession!鈥�

鈥淪tarting my own business means I get to work when suits me and my family. Sometimes this means working till midnight, but it also means we can be there for school pickups and swimming lessons. It has been an experience like no other. The lows are soul destroying, BUT the highs are the best thing ever!鈥�

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Clare Groombridge, Founder of South Coast Social

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鈥淲e were a very lean start up, and as I was also a new mother, I was probably slightly sleep deprived and crazy! I built our first website, worked from my dining room table and hustled hard for the first few years, ensuring what we could offer brands was a clear way to improve and grow their social media, devising our packages ready to bring to market. After handing in my notice after my maternity leave, my old employer became our first client, and the business began to grow steadily from there.鈥�

鈥淚 learnt early on that finding your USP as a business is crucial 鈥� what sets you apart? South Coast Social is and always has been a purely social media agency 鈥� it鈥檚 all we do so it鈥檚 where we place all our focus and expertise. We鈥檙e passionate and incredibly knowledgeable about all aspects of social media. Having a service or product that鈥檚 quite unique can be a challenge and we鈥檙e often up against larger, 鈥榝ull service鈥� agencies for pitches 鈥� my job is to demonstrate how working with us is going to add value and crucially, bring in revenue.鈥�

鈥淚 had to learn everything as I went 鈥� there鈥檚 so much people don鈥檛 tell you about running a business that you have to learn as you go! It鈥檚 not just enough to have a great product or service 鈥� you have to be able to run the company efficiently and be positioned to scale and grow, as well as having the resilience to deal with the ups and downs of being a sole Director.鈥�

鈥淜nowing your market is also vital 鈥� I spent a lot of time researching (and still do!).鈥�

鈥淚 think employing for the first time was certainly hard 鈥� you want to attract people that have the same belief in the company ethos, culture and what we鈥檙e trying to achieve. With it also comes a huge sense of responsibility 鈥� you鈥檙e responsible for people鈥檚 livelihoods. The recent pandemic has been a clear example of that, and seeing so many clients and partners struggle made me even more determined to build on what we鈥檝e created.鈥�

鈥淚 had to furlough two members of my team when lockdown hit and take immediate action to cut all the outgoings we could. Luckily, due to this and despite the setbacks of 2020 with the COVID restrictions on many of the sectors we work with, the future is now looking brighter again and we鈥檙e looking forward to the future.鈥�

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Lazar Vukovic,听Serial Entrepreneur and Author of 鈥楳ake It Happen! A Little Black Book on How to Make Things Happen

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鈥淢y first tangible business start-up was at 21, I say tangible as I鈥檝e been in business as far as I can remember as a child selling sweets in the playground was one of my first ventures.鈥�

鈥淚t was 2007, Montenegro had just become independent and my nose was telling me that property prices will go through the roof! I set up a property sales agency with no prior experience or guidance, which meant I was completely 鈥榳et behind the ears.鈥� Quickly I had sales offices in the UK, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro. The backbone of the business was my own development of a small block of apartments, this is where not only I鈥檇 sell my own stock and earn margin but having a portfolio of properties to offer meant I could generate a business which was in the same field.鈥�

鈥淥ne of the big wins in the business was a block sale to a client, the single unit sales were great, but the sale of multiple units was so satisfying. We managed to achieve a lot of visibility by our targeted advertising with the Financial Times and other global publications, these were only some of the jigsaw parts allowing to close sales from 拢500k to 拢2m.鈥�

鈥淏ut apart from performance I grew a team of over 20 and the sense of having a 鈥榝amily鈥� built from an idea was amazing. I built a small community with similar interests and we all shared the same motivation and people made friends for life.鈥�

鈥淗owever, the rough comes with the smooth, the real low was finding out that one particular employee was concealing sales from the company and pocketing large sums of cash. It also uncovered that there were more dishonest employees, looking back, as a 21 year old I took it personally and it did hurt as I was growing the company with a 鈥榝amily ethos鈥� and the only reason for an employee to do what they did in this instance was 鈥榞reed鈥�.鈥�

鈥淩emember you don鈥檛 need to be an expert in order to be successful, but you need to be good at what you do, that comes with the determination that you carry, you鈥檒l need it to keep you going!鈥�

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Daniel Zemmour, Owner听of Molecule

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鈥淢olecule is a CBD and Wellness specialist based in Notting Hill which has been running since the start of 2020. Opening a business on the cusp of a pandemic meant we had to stay very flexible and maintain a resilient approach to accommodate for the uncertainty of lockdown.鈥�

鈥淎dapting to a new business environment in a short period of time was challenging, especially after investing so much time and effort in our physical space. We had to move incredibly quickly to be fully up and running online as well as adjusting our marketing strategy. Some parts of that strategy worked really well whilst others didn鈥檛 鈥� moving forward and not focusing on past regrets can be hard at times.鈥�

鈥淎s a lean start-up team, you end up wearing many hats, especially as a founder in the early stages. When you鈥檙e on your own, planning and executing without having someone to help or hold you accountable presents a different set of challenges. Undertaking many different functions such as sales, marketing, finances and paperwork whilst also building a strong team and managing budgets without compromising on growth can be quite testing; you have to operate with speed but can鈥檛 forget to maintain a qualitative approach. The recruiting process is a challenge in itself but the burden eases when you鈥檝e found people you can trust who are in it for the long haul.鈥�

鈥淲e spent a fair bit of time sourcing the right location and after putting down an offer for our boutique and wellness hub on Westbourne Grove in West London, we thought that we鈥檇 be up and running within a month and a half. However, the building works ended up being a much more extensive redevelopment project than initially expected. We discovered a fair amount of structural damage that had to be fixed and 6 weeks turned into 6 months (all the while, we鈥檙e paying rent for a space we鈥檙e unable to utilise). It鈥檚 very frustrating when you鈥檙e in a situation that鈥檚 completely out of your control.鈥�

鈥淗owever, it鈥檚 all been worth it in the end! We鈥檝e built a wonderful community in London and beyond through our online offering. Helping people manage their stress and anxiety, much of which was heightened by the pandemic, is very rewarding. We also have clients who need help with physical injuries and pain relief. It鈥檚 great that we鈥檙e able to contribute to people鈥檚 wellbeing.鈥�

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Daniel Jiang,听Founder of the Future Member

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鈥淲hen you hear the word business, what do you see? A global conglomerate? The local family-run shop? A startup? And if it is a startup that springs to mind, what kind of startup? There are varying definitions of what constitutes a startup; if we take the words of Paul Graham, the founder of Y Combinator, a legendary startup accelerator behind businesses like Airbnb, Reddit, Stripe, Zapier and countless others, a 鈥榮tartup is a company designed to grow fast鈥�.鈥�

鈥淚f only it were as easy as reading Paul Graham鈥檚 essays and watching motivation videos to get on your way to achieving what he defines as a business intentionally designed to grow very rapidly and become a big business, and by 鈥榖ig鈥� think 鈥榮oftware eats the world鈥� big.鈥�

鈥淭he reality is that there are many ways to win in the game of business and, while some startups will grow very fast, others won鈥檛. In my interviews with founders on the General Principles podcast, I learned about the alternative routes to entrepreneurship and how tricky it is to build a successful and sustainable startup whilst maintaining a good life outside of it. One of the most memorable lessons was from Yashar Nejati on the difficulty of managing team relationships.鈥�

鈥淚n my experience, one of the biggest challenges when committing to a path of entrepreneurship and building a startup full time without any existing funding, is how much work is involved. You are the CEO making decisions, the CTO building the product, the COO managing your time, and the janitor making sure everything in your workspace is conducive to being in a productive mode of work.鈥�

鈥淭o help, one can turn to supportive and entrepreneur networks like Founders of the Future, whose goal is to build the next generation of diverse and purpose driven tech founders by through programmes, events and tools for future founders aged 14 to 30 in their journey to becoming tech entrepreneurs. These networks can help in providing both support in the form of someone to talk to and a chance to meet others on the same path.鈥�

鈥淔or me, two of the biggest challenges when building a business are finding the right partner and finding the best routes to generating revenue. Some people can build a business alone, but I think that鈥檚 definitely the more difficult route to take because of the roles you have to take on in isolation.鈥�

鈥淔inding a co-founder helps reduce the mental load and you can share the required skillsets, too. But it is not always straightforward. I鈥檝e tried programmes, gone to networking events, and had mixed results, including really bad co-founder breakups, from personality clashes, to differences in working style and values. I鈥檝e made some products before like Humans on Clubhouse. Fun ideas, which gained some traction in terms of users, but bombed in terms of revenue.鈥�

鈥淚f, like me, you don鈥檛 live in Silicon Valley, there鈥檚 the additional challenges of trying to secure funding and finding the right physical place to meet other entrepreneurs and it鈥檚 likely you will have to go through many iterations before finding the right product/market fit.鈥�

鈥淭o accelerate the challenges of finding a co-founder, discovering product market fit, securing growth, you could also consider attending a hacker house. Whilst this has largely been an American phenomenon, Maker鈥檚 House 鈥� which is happening this year 鈥� is the first hacker house in Europe. It is also more than just a hacker house, being designed specifically to address the listed challenges one faces in their route of entrepreneurship. Maker鈥檚 House will bring together ambitious founders and help accelerate their progress on building a startup. As someone has experienced all the challenges and hiccups of doing this, I hope that Maker鈥檚 House will make life easier for all the entrepreneurs following in my footsteps.鈥�

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Charlotte & Sophie Wilson,听Co-Founders & Directors of YANA听

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鈥淭he majority of people don鈥檛 just wake up one day and say, 鈥業鈥檓 going to start a business today鈥�, as much as it appears to be that way when their business is first launched. What is often unseen is the hours, money, heart and soul put into any start up business.鈥�

鈥淲e鈥檙e Charlotte and Sophie Wilson, Sisters, Co-founders and Directors of YANA Active, an independent, luxury women鈥檚 activewear brand focusing on designing and manufacturing unique activewear pieces in the UK. We aim to empower our tribe of Everyday Warriors and enhance the concept of multi-functional and fashionable activewear. High quality is key with subtle details defining our signature products.鈥�

鈥淧rior to launching, we spent every minute of our spare time working on our branding, designing our products and sourcing a manufacturer. We were on track to launch in September 2019 until things started to deteriorate with our supplier, who advised we wouldn鈥檛 get our samples in time for launch, let alone in time for Christmas 2019. For any brand, missing Christmas is a huge blow, but especially in your first year of business.鈥�

鈥淭he situation worsened when the first batch of production samples we received weren鈥檛 to our specification and agreed patterns. We were completely devastated, we spent just shy of 拢10,000 with this sampling studio and had nothing to show for it.鈥�

鈥淲e picked ourselves back up and spent Christmas 2019 planning our next move. We were elated to find a new supplier in January 2020 and swiftly moved our manufacturing. Our activewear patterns were amended and we started production of our new products. We filled our 2020 schedule with events, with the intention of spending the year travelling the country and showcasing our new brand. Then Covid-19 happened, and our year was thrown completely off course, yet again.鈥�

鈥淒espite the knockbacks, the highs have been incredible. In our first year in business we鈥檝e showcased our collection in John Lewis, had our activewear featured in some huge publications and met some wonderful people along the way. We鈥檝e built a brand that has depth and meaning for those who interact with it and we are just set to launch our new collection of activewear for summer.鈥�

鈥淵ou will always get knockbacks running a business, how you recover and learn from them is the most important part. Our advice is to keep going, believe in yourself and you鈥檒l find a way to make it happen!鈥�

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Stefano Manili,听Founder and CEO of Cosaporto

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Challenges

鈥淚t鈥檚 a common challenge when you launch something 鈥榥ew鈥�, whether it鈥檚 a product or a service, to just make people understand what your brand actually does as they may have preconceived ideas of what you represent and offer. Cosaporto is a unique business proposition and initially this made it quite difficult to establish. In the customer鈥檚 mind the value proposition was similar to an enhanced food delivery model, similar to the likes of a brand like Deliveroo, which wasn鈥檛 the case. We have moved the focus from the logistics 鈥� the delivery, to the quality 鈥� the selection of partners.鈥�

鈥淔rom a demand side, the biggest challenge we鈥檝e had is to bring onboard quality partner that are skeptical about delivery as a concept, as they feel it could weaken their brand, or lower the quality provision or customer experience that they offer. As a result we have had to study and propose new solutions that will show brands that even superior quality brands can be 鈥渄eliverable鈥�, without undermining the 鈥渓uxury鈥� experience. In Italy we鈥檝e now overcome this problem by simply showing brands that it can be done. There is still some way to go with this in London as it鈥檚 a different market, but we鈥檒l get there!鈥�

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Advice for start-ups:

• 鈥淏egin with the end in mind. You鈥檒l need to start with a demo concept or product, and develop it and grow it incrementally, BUT never lose sight of the 鈥榖ig picture鈥� and the end concept you have in mind. Design processes and systems thinking about the final solution not just the 鈥榥ow鈥�.鈥�
• 鈥淭est, test, test and test again 鈥� always. Solutions, processes, marketing solutions. Every test will leave you with important information and insight to shape the future. Don鈥檛 be afraid, things will go wrong, not everything works 鈥� you can only try.鈥�
• 鈥淎lways think about your customer 鈥� Who is my customer? What does my customer really need? I know, this is something you will see in every marketing book or interview, but it鈥檚 dramatically important. It鈥檚 so easy to forget, once you are lost in a whole host of start-up problems and hurdles. But this should always be front of mind.鈥�

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Andrew Hatcher,听Business Adviser and Coach听

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March 2020, and lockdown. Like so many others, business adviser and coach Andrew Hatcher had been running his own company for just a few months, and couldn鈥檛 access government support.

How was he financially going to survive the pandemic? A regular business networker, this avenue for meeting new clients and contacts was closed. He also felt compelled to do something to help others in the same boat as him.

So he set up The Cobra Club, and was soon joined by Ed Williamson, membership adviser with FSB. The aim, in Andy鈥檚 words, was to 鈥渉elp as many people as possible to survive and thrive during the pandemic鈥�. The club鈥檚 secondary function was to provide a pipeline of leads to the men鈥檚 separate enterprises 鈥� Andy鈥檚 coaching consultancy and Ed鈥檚 sales training business.

The Cobra Club is an online business centre, offering a mix of networking events, co-working space, advice clinics, socials, support and community, run on a membership basis. It has now grown to 300 members and has been licensed. There are around 30 virtual clubs, each loosely aligned to a geographical area, across the length and breadth of the UK.

But it has by no means been plain sailing. All went well for three months, but then membership growth plateaued.

鈥淢y early worries that it wouldn鈥檛 work at all proved unfounded, but I did have some sleepless nights when growth seemed to be stalling. It again picked up when we started getting interest from further afield, and adopted the licensing model. We have learnt that as long as we continue to innovate, growth will be continuous and steady,鈥� said Andy.

One problem, and probably common in membership organisations, was the many different personalities involved.

鈥淲e had one member who seemed to have a breakdown during a meeting, so we got in touch with his wife because we were worried,鈥� said Andy. 鈥淲e鈥檝e also had one or two leave and then try to set up something similar. Sometimes people clash, and we have to deal with issues. But all this is a small downside and inevitable when you get a lot of people together.鈥�

And the highs?

鈥淕etting Ed on board for sure. Second, we have lots of fantastic feedback from people who say it has changed their lives and their businesses. I would never had known we鈥檇 have such a great impact, and I am very proud of what we have achieved.鈥�

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Andrew Butt,听Co-founder & CEO of Enable

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鈥淢y experience and that of other fast growing startup founders I speak to, is that a startup is totally all-consuming. So it鈥檚 constantly on the mind at every moment. That鈥檚 quite obvious when sitting at the desk working, speaking to customers, prospects, and team members.鈥�

鈥淏ut I鈥檓 talking about all the other times 鈥� walking the dog, eating dinner, brushing your teeth, drifting off to sleep, talking with family. And definitely while asleep too while dreaming (usually! Not normally nightmares). There isn鈥檛 time or appetite for anything else.鈥�

鈥淏uilding a company of consequence from the ground up really is like launching a rocket into orbit 鈥� a huge amount of energy is needed to achieve the critical 鈥榚scape velocity鈥�. It鈥檚 hugely rewarding and very challenging 鈥� two sides of the very same coin.鈥�

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Thomas Skinner,听Founder of Barnaby Cecil

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鈥淲hen starting out and setting up a new business 鈥� there are many highs and just as many lows. If at all possible 鈥� find someone to launch it with 鈥� two heads are better than one, and in my case I was lucky to find someone who was my polar opposite.鈥�

鈥淢y co-founder Emma Walker is incredibly organised and builds systems and processes for fun! Whereas I am great at strategy and being creative. And our individual brains simply could not do the other person鈥檚 job. I hate spreadsheets and Emma hates anything you can鈥檛 calculate in a spreadsheet. So, from day one, we maximised our output because we were able head off in two directions, get things done and then meet in the middle. Emma was able to deal with the bank, the regulator, our suppliers, while I wrote a 5 year plan, designed a website, launched a podcast and an App.鈥�

鈥淵ou start with very little. Keys to an empty office, with no furniture or internet connection. And slowly, things start to build but there are moments of real doubt at the start 鈥� will anybody buy our service? What if the phone never rings? And for about two weeks, it didn鈥檛! I went from a well paid job in a big company with hundreds of clients to zero. So when that first client lands and you deliver a service and they pay 鈥� you think, 鈥渨e might actually pull this off!鈥�

鈥淚t can be very lonely at times. Especially when we are forced to work remotely, almost immediately. The hours are very long, even now after two years and it can be very hard to switch off because there鈥檚 always so much to do. It鈥檚 a constant juggle between keeping your existing clients happy and finding time to promote the company. But, the best feeling of all is when you design a service, with a very specific client in mind and, somehow, they find you and you鈥檙e exactly what they were looking for. That鈥檚 extremely satisfying. You begin to gain traction and it gives you confidence that others will find you too.鈥�

鈥淥ne of my top tips is to use freelancers to scale up your outreach and capability. Often, you need someone for 10 hours a month not 35 hours a week and they can bring a wealth of experience from their background and current roles, from which you can benefit greatly. Focus on core employed roles and then outsource as much as possible. It will keep costs down too.鈥�

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Noam Nevo, Co-Founder at Osu

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鈥淭he rationale for launching Osu was to simplify the day-to-day hassle of getting paid by customers and eliminate the transaction fees that have come to dominate the payments space 鈥� to every business owner鈥檚 detriment.鈥�

鈥淚n a nutshell, our app allows self-employed professionals to get fully paid, fast, and many of our users go out of their way to let us know how much easier the app has made their lives.鈥�

鈥淭his makes our entire journey worthwhile 鈥� and it鈥檚 been some journey! Starting a business is relentless. You have to be mentally prepared for a rollercoaster and you need immense amounts of resilience. At times it can be a 24/7 undertaking, and I don鈥檛 think anything could prepare us for the first few months of Osu, and the amount of internal strength and determination required.鈥�

鈥淲e launched the business in the early days of the pandemic and so our experience has definitely been impacted by this. Shifting to remote working created its own challenges, because establishing a sense of camaraderie is important for a start-up, especially in the early stages. Being with colleagues, simply getting to know how you are as a team and finding your rhythm, are all parts of successfully forming a new venture. Then there are the laborious processes that are part and parcel of establishing a business.鈥�

鈥淪adly, not all parts of starting a business are exhilarating! The FCA registration process was a good example of something that required a great deal of time, admin and headspace.鈥�

鈥淎 massive high is seeing your product go live 鈥� the day it鈥檚 born! After the hundreds of hours of slog, of overcoming challenges and problem-solving, to see the Osu app go live was a momentous occasion. Seeing the sign-up numbers grow is similarly indescribable.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 like watching your child take their first steps. In those early days, I was constantly checking the sign-up numbers. Every single one counted. They still do.鈥�

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Ifty Nasir,听Founder & CEO of Vestd

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鈥淚 think everybody that launches a startup goes through that initial period where everything is sunny uplands and everything looks really exciting. And it is, but you鈥檒l probably find that you鈥檒l spend a lot more time working to get it off the ground than you anticipated!鈥�

鈥淔or me, I felt driven from the start by the conviction that there was a strong need for Vestd. That gave me the tenacity and confidence to embark on the project. Prior to hitting on the idea of Vestd, I鈥檇 thought about just being an investor into multiple businesses but decided that I really wanted to be able to contribute more in some way. That train of thought led me to start Vestd in its first incarnation. Of all the ideas, Vestd had the most 鈥榣egs鈥� and I was fired up to get going.鈥�

鈥淗owever, it鈥檚 essential to be courageous enough to step back and to edit your startup if things aren鈥檛 fitting quite as you鈥檇 hoped. I did that in year one after taking some key feedback on board and it鈥檚 been full-steam ahead ever since. I鈥檓 really pleased that we took the time to reassess things 鈥� those moments lead to stronger businesses.鈥�

鈥淭he most exciting part for me was when the business model was validated, and for us, that was when the business started making money and I didn鈥檛 have to continue investing my own cash into it. That鈥檚 a huge endorsement and showed that the business model could scale and grow by itself.鈥�

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Christopher Bo Shields,听CCO and Co-Founder Totem

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鈥淟isten to your gut. If something feels good, do it and do it quickly. If you have a good idea, your biggest job and challenge is to make everyone else believe in it.鈥�

鈥淲e鈥檝e taken rapid prototyping to the next level, which we use to power our creativity. We hold ideas clinics where we can apply a sprint mentality to the creative process, which helps us to quickly decide if an idea is good or not. It鈥檚 an effective way of being creative that quickly shows us when an idea deserves to live or die. Sometimes you鈥檝e just got to know when to kill an idea!鈥�

鈥淏ut most of all, you have to keep in mind what you鈥檙e trying to achieve. If you want to create something that is scalable and that makes money, keep focused on that and do the maths. You might find that it鈥檚 a nice idea but it鈥檚 not going to make money.鈥�

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Tom Bourlet, Founder of CBD Sloth听

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鈥淚 started www.cbdsloth.com back in April 2019. The starting point is always quite exciting, but it鈥檚 a lot of pressure and the workload takes you through into the late hours and leaves you working all weekend. You need to make sure you have plenty in the bank account, as you should be able to cover yourself if you can鈥檛 bring in much revenue during the first few months. This is where many young businesses fall over, hence why so many small businesses fail in their first 2 years.鈥�

鈥淏eing the newcomer, you have to spend a huge amount of time networking and building your name in the industry, so brand building is critical. Creating an in-depth content strategy around your persona鈥檚 will help to ensure you grow your traffic exponentially each month.鈥�

鈥淲inning Media of the Year at the Cannabiz Summit Awards in November 2019, being only 6 months live, was unbelievable and a great sign of the steps I was taking. However, as I didn鈥檛 think I stood a chance of winning so early on, I didn鈥檛 take the flight over to Malta. I watched online as they called my name out on stage and someone else came up to collect the award. The instant regret at not getting on a plane and being in attendance was immense.鈥�

鈥淲颈迟丑 the business being started before the pandemic started, it was hard to predict how many things would change. I made a number of deals to be a media partner with all the big expo鈥檚 in Europe, however they have all been delayed, both in 2020 and 2021, meaning I haven鈥檛 had a chance to put a face to the name鈥檚 I speak to regularly.鈥�

鈥淭he oddest part, in comparison to your average PAYE job, is that the payments are inconsistent. I could have an unbelievable month, then the next could be relatively calm. The payment comes as a quarterly dividend, so rather than considering your average salary, you base how much you earn on what you鈥檝e earned over the last 3 months in the build-up to the dividend payment. This is another factor why you have to save where possible, to cover yourself for any period that might be more quiet.鈥�

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Matty Street,听Owner of Team Karting, TK-Xtra, Cadet Kart Championship, XTra Treats, X-Kart

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Matty was diagnosed with dyslexia, dyspraxia and Asperger鈥檚 whilst at school. He discovered karting when he was 12, which helped him cope with the challenges of these conditions.

He studied motorsport engineering then went on to secure a degree, working at TeamKarting indoor race track in Rochdale throughout. Matty raised investment to buy out the TeamKarting business in 2017 when he was just 19. He launched TK-Xtra in 2019, an in-house kart race team that offers a full progression route from indoor karting to outdoor racing. Soon after, his Cadet Kart Championship was launched.

Having battled to keep the TeamKarting business alive during the coronavirus lockdowns, Matty and his business partner diversified with the launch of Xtra Treats selling sweet treats and deserts. Now, Matty has invested in the importing and re-sale of Italian X-karts, offering the brand to the UK for the very first time, along with a linked karting team.

Matty says:

鈥淲hen I bought out TeamKarting, I wasn鈥檛 starting a new business, but I was taking on a failing business, and in some ways that鈥檚 harder. There were a lot of issues that needed to be fixed and I naively felt like I had answers to them all and could fix everything. Accountants and book keepers told me not to buy it but I was resolute that I could make it work.鈥�

鈥淭he first few months were awful. I honestly didn鈥檛 know how I was going to pay the staff and creditors. I got through it, but it was a wake up call in terms of listening to the experts around me. We fought so hard to get through the financial problems that had been left with the business and it meant our own ideas for development and expansion had to be put on hold. I had so many ambitious plans but I constantly felt like I had one hand tied behind my back, being stopped from doing the things I knew could drive the business forward.鈥�

鈥淎nyone starting a new business is full of ideas, creativity and enthusiasm but you need to temper this and do it slowly. Everything can鈥檛 be implemented at once. I had to calm down, take my foot off the pedal and make changes slowly.鈥�

鈥淣o one can prepare you for the all-consuming dedication that you need to run a successful business. I had no idea about the late nights and long hours, and for me 鈥� doing this at the age of 19 meant that I wasn鈥檛 going clubbing and on the 鈥榣ads鈥� holidays鈥� that my friends were 鈥� I missed out on all of this. I had to be mature and responsible, I had 34 people on the payroll and people that depended on me.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檓 now launching my 6th business and I鈥檓 probably addicted to chasing the 鈥榖uzz鈥� of a start up. I love the hustle, the hard work and the grafting that comes with initial few months of starting a business. I love the creativity, the ideas, setting up the branding and marketing. It鈥檚 probably why I鈥檝e done it so often!鈥�

鈥淪omeone once told me a phrase that has stuck with me over the years, which is 鈥榬eady, fire, aim鈥�. That鈥檚 me completely, I go for it, I chase the goals I鈥檓 looking for, then I work on the detail. I know this isn鈥檛 the perfect way of doing things, but it means I don鈥檛 over think things, I trust my gut and I don鈥檛 hold myself back by seeking perfection.鈥�

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Harry Atkinson,听Co-Founder and Chief Data Officer at Sensat

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Harry Atkinson, co-founder and Chief Data Officer, Sensat, leading digital twin tech startup, talks about what it鈥檚 really like getting a startup off the ground.

1. Even a young dog must learn new tricks

鈥淭he point you figure out how to do payroll, is the point people get paid. As soon as you have employees, the stakes are pretty high. There was no greater fear than coming in on the 23rd of every month, making sure that people had received their money in their account. You need to think about employment contracts, HR policies and procedures, VAT returns and accounting. And you need to think about cash flow. When you realise you only have two months in the bank, it鈥檚 time to stop buying Coke for the fridge鈥攚hich you also have to stock, oh and learn how to clean the toilets.鈥�

2. Trust me, I鈥檓 an entrepreneur

鈥淚t鈥檚 an uphill battle to try and win customer confidence, especially when you鈥檙e the new kid on the block in an industry such as Construction. I think it鈥檚 ok to admit at this stage that we probably got our value proposition wrong at the beginning. We may have ruffled a few feathers trying to convince a 鈥渓aggard鈥� industry that we knew what was best for them and I think some in the industry still remember this side of us. Finding visionaries to risk their reputation was a big ask of them but I think it鈥檚 paid off for those who did. We wouldn鈥檛 be where we are today without our early customers and the invaluable feedback loop we have with them.鈥�

3. Of the people, by the people, for the people

鈥淚n a start-up, everyone ends up wearing quite a few (hard) hats for long days. Your people need to be problem solvers first and foremost. If we couldn鈥檛 fix something, we had to find a way around it. A lot of the time, you are hacking your way to success and finding new ways of working in the process. This mentality allows you to think differently, fail fast and ultimately enables you to scale quicker. Above all else, you cannot take your people for granted. Your people are the lifeblood of the business. Like customers, without them you have nothing. As the business grows, you need to reward your employees for the dedication they give to your vision wherever and however you can.鈥�

4. If you build values, culture will come

鈥淲e figured out pretty fast that values are way more important than culture. There is this illusion that 鈥渟tartup culture鈥� is all Pepsi and table tennis, but it鈥檚 the winning together and 鈥渦s against the world鈥� mentality that keeps everyone motivated to work with each other every day. When you can win together working from home in a pandemic, you know you鈥檙e onto a good thing. If anything, the pandemic fired us up more!鈥�

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Lee Chambers,听Founder of PhenomGames and Essentailise Workplace Wellbeing

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鈥淎mongst all the glamour and excitement that is now prevalent in the imagination of being an entrepreneur, the reality when I started PhenomGames in 2008 was very different.鈥�

鈥淗aving struggled to get funding to launch in the economic crash, I had to bootstrap in every way possible. This meant moving back in with my parents and having to sleep in the box bedroom that wasn鈥檛 big enough to fit a single bed in. I literally had a mattress and a shelving unit to store stock. I had to sell my car, so I was walking postal sacks to the post office daily before work and during my dinner, as I was still working a 9-5. The business eventually turned my parent鈥檚 house into a distribution depot, destroyed their driveway, and I had my family as defacto employees helping me pick and pack orders. There were nights we would be in a chain across the landing until 1am making sure everything was ready to go in the first post before I started work.鈥�

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 at all glamorous, but after a year I was able to move out of my parents house and into a space specifically for the business. I also replaced my parent鈥檚 driveway. I will never forget one Saturday morning, walking to the post office with four mail sacks and getting hailstoned on the whole way there. This is the reality of running a startup; I look back fondly at the fun times, but it was a period where I grafted and I had plenty of support from those around me.鈥�

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Oliver Bowles,听Director & Co-Founder at Luxury Loft Co.

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鈥淲e founded Luxury Loft Co. one year ago. Siri and I are both 25-year-old entrepreneurs, we met at Law School and even have Master鈥檚 Degrees in Business, Management and Law, but nothing prepared us for the diverse range of issues we have encountered through running a business.鈥�

鈥淟uxury Loft Co. was created as a side project for us to try and generate some additional income and expand our own skillsets. We bootstrapped and have not relied on any external investment, at first, I think that many people thought we were crazy, especially when we decided to leave our full-time jobs to work in such a saturated market. However, the business has only continued to grow and has become a full-time enterprise!鈥�

鈥淚nitially, the setting up of a business is very much a fun and creative exercise, when you discuss names, potential products, market research and the type of USP you are looking to focus on. Once our website was finally established and we had orders coming in, we were faced with the real issues related to running a business in the furniture and home d茅cor sector.鈥�

鈥淥ften, stock can be an issue and with the recent difficulties for suppliers obtaining materials (various reasons such as unprecedented demand, Brexit, Suez and Covid) there can be unexpected delays that may affect your end customer. Add to this juggling your other responsibilities such as customer service, updating stock, recruitment, accounting and marketing (just to name a few) it can become an overwhelming endeavour.鈥�

鈥淥ne of the main advantages to our approach to the business as millennials is that we place a significant emphasis on ethical retailing, innovation and environmental responsibility. Through our 鈥淏uy One, Plant One鈥� Campaign, our commitment to plant one tree for every order, we have contributed through the planting of over 1000 trees in Madagascar during lockdown. We have looked to innovate the online shopping experience to appeal more to the modern shopping audience. We have introduced the ability to search for products via image on our website through our visual search function and we have plans to introduce further features that will enable customers to preview how an item will look in their space.鈥�

鈥淥ur following has grown exponentially, and we now receive over 6.2m monthly views on Pinterest alone! We are extremely excited for the future and have even bigger plans that we are hoping to implement soon.鈥�

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Nikki Wheeldon, Co-Founder at Jampot Business Support and Co-founder at Communal Brew

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鈥淪tarting a business is something I鈥檝e done a few times now and I have to admit, it never really gets easier.鈥�

鈥淚t can be nerve wracking, I think you really have to be brave and confident in what you鈥檙e offering out to the world but you also can鈥檛 get caught up in waiting until things are perfect before you launch or you run the risk that you never will. A few years ago I co-founded an app and we did exactly that. Spent way too much money and time on trying to make it perfect and in the end we never even ended up launching it, we learnt ALOT from that venture and have thankfully never made the same mistakes again.鈥�

鈥淲颈迟丑 Jampot we did things differently. We quit our jobs and gave ourselves a 3 month runway, it was quite the leap of faith but it meant we had to make it work and we didn鈥檛 have the luxury of waiting for perfection. We had to hustle and we most certainly did that. Thankfully we made it past that 3 months and are now just about to hit 5 years with 18 team members and double the turnover we did the previous year.鈥�

鈥淚 have often found the fear of failing would drive me and that only increased with a couple of not-so-successful businesses under my belt. It鈥檚 hard to shake off the feeling that it might not all work out but I do think it can be detrimental as it can push you into making the wrong choices or working with the wrong clients/partners, maybe even under charging or under valuing your offering.鈥�

鈥淭he fear needs to be pushed aside, instead I tried to focus on the 鈥榳hat if?鈥�. What if it did work, what if we could have a team, scale the business etc. Dreaming big is no bad thing.鈥�

鈥淪etting up a business on your own can be lonely. It can be hard to make all the decisions on your own and to have that accountability of making sure things are happening when they should so connecting with a community of other founders or finding the right co-founder make a huge difference in lightening the load. Controversially for some, my co-founder is also my husband and we love it!鈥�

鈥淩unning your own business is a total rollercoaster but it鈥檚 definitely worth it.鈥�

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Mark Boost, CEO and Co-Founder at Civo听

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鈥淗aving been exposed to computers from a young age, at 20, I started my first business, LCN, a hosting company that started out with domain names. I grew it over a period of 18 years to become the UK鈥檚 fifth largest hosting company. I sold LCN in 2019 and embarked on a new startup, Civo, the world鈥檚 fastest Kubernetes hosting service built on K3s.鈥�

鈥淎s with all start-ups, especially for a cloud provider, access to funds is imperative to build and scale quickly 鈥� after all building out new data centre regions doesn鈥檛 come cheap! Since launching into beta nearly 2 years ago, we鈥檝e had tons of VC companies knocking on our door, but at this stage we decided not to take VC money. This seems a departure from the norm nowadays, but for me it was vital that we stay true to our vision. We want to be able to freely focus on our roadmap, without any potential distractions or interference that can sometimes be associated with VC money. Instead, we focused on finding private investors to bring onboard to ensure we can stay fully focussed on our vision.鈥�

鈥淭o start a successful business, you need to get the culture right from the very start. Those first employees define the culture, so it鈥檚 critical those early hires match your values. On top of this, you should make sure to listen to the advice and opinion of those around you. Community has always been at the heart of Civo. During the development process, over 4,000+ beta testers joined us from 113 different countries! We鈥檝e had incredible feedback sessions with seasoned Kubernetes experts and beginners alike, data scientists and machine learning engineers, cyber security specialists and systems architects.鈥�

鈥淪tarting a business takes a lot of work and commitment, and you need to have a thick skin. But it鈥檚 worth it. I鈥檝e learnt so much along the way and met some incredible people. I can鈥檛 imagine a career path with greater job satisfaction 鈥� turning your dream into a reality doesn鈥檛 happen every day!鈥�

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Sonya Barlow, Founder of LMF Network

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鈥淚n May 2018, I decided to launch LMF Network (lmfnetwork.com) as a female empowerment and diversity initiative to connect with like-minded individuals, where the first meetup style was a brunch.鈥�

鈥淭hree years later, we are a global social enterprise that is enabling, educating and empowering women and underrepresented groups into tech, digital and entrepreneurship. We are a community of over 35,000 followers across our social media channels.鈥�

鈥淲e have launched the largest virtual mentoring programme in the UK, supporting 600 participants across 14 countries. We have facilitated more than 200 workshops and upskilled over 7,000 people.鈥�

鈥淚 still find it crazy that one seed could have grown into this fantastic business with a global presence. But, it hasn鈥檛 been an easy road. It has had its ups and downs, especially with Covid-19.鈥�

鈥淎lmost every entrepreneur I have talked to has told me that they had to rethink how to keep their income streams or what changes need to be done to stay in business.鈥�

鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I want to share three realities that I experienced during my entrepreneurial journey that can help anyone thinking of starting their own startup. Doubts and insecurities are normal. You just have to keep true to your purpose. No one teaches you to be an entrepreneur. So, it can be quite daunting when you are exploring setting up your own business.鈥�

鈥淚nsecurities about your skills and your drive to launch your startup will appear. You will doubt whether being a business entrepreneur is worth it or whether it might be better to go back to full-time employment. What worked for me was just a constant thought of 鈥淭his is what I am supposed to be doing, and I will make it happen鈥�.鈥�

鈥淏ut, entrepreneurship doesn鈥檛 have to be a lonely road. I surrounded myself with brilliant people. They were 鈥� and are 鈥� a support system, cheerleading squad, and colleagues that help me with skills or topics that weren鈥檛 my strong points.鈥�

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 need to have it all figured out to start. You always think of entrepreneurs as people that graduated from Harvard or Oxford or that they need to secure hundreds of thousands of pounds in capital to start.鈥�

鈥淵ou think they have a perfect, formal business plan with everything measured out. The reality of starting a business is entirely different. It can happen in your room with only a laptop and an idea. That was how my social enterprise began. It started as a side-hustle, as a LinkedIn group that I set up to meet people I could identify with.鈥�

鈥淚t has now grown into a global, accessible network that specialised in digital workshops, a mentoring programme and business coaching to upskill and create community. Setbacks are a constant, and you just have to roll with the punches. So, make failure your best friend. It is a fact that at any point, you and your business will suffer a setback.鈥�

鈥淚t is unavoidable, and it can happen at the planning, launching or operational phase. It can be as small as having to re-do your website or as stressful as having to rethink your entire business model. But, what I have learned is to take those challenges as opportunities to do things differently and find new ways to do the same thing.鈥�

鈥淲hen we first started, in my mind, the brunch idea was awesome. But, in reality, no one showed up for the first three brunches. I knew that I was passionate about the cause, but I was unsure how to execute it. That failure moment taught me so much about building a community, the importance of personal branding and how purpose must drive every decision.鈥�

鈥淎nother example is that before the pandemic, LMF鈥檚 workshops and panels were in-person events that allowed people to upskill and network. We had to change our delivery model because it was not possible to have anything face-to-face. But, now that things are opening up, we are going back to in-person or hybrid events.鈥�

鈥淭hat is one of the many things we鈥檝e had to deal with during Covid-19. What you learn is that you need to constantly learn and evolve.鈥�

鈥淵ou have to keep thinking about what鈥檚 next, what needs to be improved, and sometimes take a step back and rethink your business. But, being an entrepreneur is extremely rewarding. Maybe what I shared above makes you wonder why anyone would want to be an entrepreneur.鈥�

鈥淭he truth is quite simple. The benefits of making a positive change in your community outweigh the doubts, fears and stress of setting yourself up as a social entrepreneur. It鈥檚 tough, and there are bad days, but the bad days lead to new experiences and a sense of self-awareness, which I didn鈥檛 have working in a corporate setting.鈥�

鈥淭hat conviction of knowing you are supporting people into reaching their full potential will keep you motivated at your lowest and the hardest points of your business.鈥�

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Tom Scott,听Founder of Little Mesters

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Tom Scott founded digital agency Little Mesters in August 2020 and earlier this year launched a podcast 鈥� I Started An Agency 鈥� to share his honest reflection of the journey of a new business owner.

He said: 鈥淪tarting a business is exciting and exhilarating, as well as fairly daunting at first. At Little Mesters, we鈥檝e enjoyed some real successes but also experienced growing pains. The reality is that starting a business can be double-edged sword because you鈥檙e able to have autonomy but are also constrained by the time available to wear every hat necessary.

鈥淭he highs are incredibly high but the lows can feel lower than when you鈥檙e employed. One important learning point I took away early was to find a very good accountant who knows the industry and supports a business to grow. Overall, my feeling is that if you鈥檙e passionate about growing a business and knowledgeable in your field, then you鈥檒l succeed. 鈥�

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Adnan Zaheer,听CEO and Founder of Seers

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鈥淏eing an entrepreneur is not a simple task. Of course, it seems all cheesy in Hollywood films where people just turn riches from rags, thus conjuring up the attractive notion in the people鈥檚 minds- that it is very classy to be an entrepreneur. And there is an effortless way towards it.鈥�

鈥淭ake it from someone who initiated his first business at the age of 14 years that it is difficult and honestly very daring to choose this as a career path.鈥�

鈥淏ut I can assure you once you take this bumpy road and walk out of your comfort zone, you just realise the world has so much to offer, and you have so much to learn.鈥�

鈥淚 am Adnan Zaheer, CEO and Founder of Seers. Seers is the leading privacy & consent management platform for companies worldwide.鈥�

鈥淭housands of businesses trust it. Founded in London in 2018 and now with a team spread around the globe. Seers offer innovative solutions covering consent management, assessments, certifications, policies, documentation, and a privacy experts platform. Seers is not the first start-up on my list as I was the founding member of a successful start-up Start Pension.鈥�

鈥淪mart Pension eventually became the second-largest pension auto-enrolment company. It is my personal experience that you can surely make something out of nothing with diligence and effort, which is the utmost quality any entrepreneur should possess.鈥�

鈥淢y next entrepreneurial venture was as the co-founder of the PwC Raise programme. The programme helped scale-ups raise series A of equity funding. It is now a fast-growing business.鈥�

鈥淐oming back to Seers. I am pleased and proud to finally see it catching pace after three years of relentless effort. As of 2020, our customer number has grown by 1040% in 100+ countries and is a participant of the Information Commissioner Office (ICO) regulatory sandbox.鈥�

鈥淗ere, when I am quoting Seers鈥� achievements, I remember my three-year-long, arduous journey. There were times when I saw all my efforts going in vain, and there were some moments where I thought this is the end.鈥�

鈥淏ut what type of entrepreneur you are when you haven鈥檛 experienced these times. As an entrepreneur, always remember that no matter what you are going through, you will always be on the winning side if you have clarity of vision.鈥�

鈥淗onestly, being an entrepreneur is challenging, primarily when you have worked in larger organisations in your past. However, your all difficulties seem worth it when you start getting rewards.鈥�

鈥淪ome learnings that I will offer from my long journey of entrepreneurship are:

• You keep yourself and staff motivated.
• You don鈥檛 need a personality. You need clarity. By clarity, I mean 鈥渃larity of vision鈥� in terms of what do you want?
• Use your leadership skills and learn from mistakes.
• And don鈥檛 change for the sake of change.听
• Embrace your mistakes with open arms because you can鈥檛 learn until you don鈥檛 do it wrong at least once.鈥�

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Andy Hibbert,听Founder of Karshare.com

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鈥淪tarting a business is a hustle that can be all-consuming. It isn鈥檛 balanced; there are excessive highs and lows every day, week, month, year.鈥�

鈥淥ne simple analogy is thinking about a penny arcade. In order to get the business off the ground you need to find a miracle penny that drops and makes all the other pennies shunt forward and fall (off the ledge) into place at the same time to make it happen. When you think of the odds against you to achieve this, it helps to understand the perspective and energy required to keep trying. A relentless pursuit because your belief in it, and what it can do, is larger than all the obstacles in your way.鈥�

鈥淚 live by the quote 鈥渘othing is impossible 鈥� we just have not found a way yet.鈥� No matter how unachievable it seems 鈥� it encourages you to think around it differently and from a different perspective.鈥�

鈥淭he highs can be euphoric. When a significant partner believes in your idea and commits to working with you and the team 鈥� it is a big, and much needed, injection of positivity. Engendering support like this is a huge part of getting a start-up off the ground. As part of this process, levelling your expectations and exploring 鈥渉ow could it be possible鈥� rather than 鈥渨ill you do it this way鈥� is a critical approach. Even when the initial response seems impossible, by exploring 鈥渉ow it could work鈥� gives colour to the next piece of the puzzle to solve. And it鈥檚 this that drives all start up teams; we simply love to solve big problems and overcome the seemingly impossible challenges.鈥�

鈥淭he lows are like body blows and can completely take the wind out of your sales. Fund raising can be like this at times. All businesses need oxygen to survive and for start-ups that is funding. Money to build the MVP, to learn and to improve 鈥� and eventually scale to profits.鈥�

鈥淲hat鈥檚 important is being realistic with expectations. Our own research suggested 7% of people will share their car and 27% might so we took the same view for investors, but were more brutal with the truth. If we spoke to 100 investors 鈥� seven would invest 鈥� 93 wouldn鈥檛. That鈥檚 a lot of rejections to manage. The lows can come like buses; weeks of engagements which could end with all 93 in succession saying no. The last minute, 180 degree about turn from someone 鈥� after spending weeks and weeks putting all the pieces in place 鈥� and suddenly all bets are off, is probably the worst. It鈥檚 vital, however, to get this feedback; so you can be agile and modify the next approach. Being prepared doesn鈥檛 mean being the same.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檓 lucky to have great people around me, a hugely supportive wife and family, and others nearby who provide really smart advice. One such coach taught me to see a blessing in every crisis. This is an incredibly powerful way to think and has helped me through even the darkest times of launching a start-up. It鈥檚 simply figuring out why we should be grateful for such events happening. Literally saying to yourself 鈥業 am grateful because鈥︹�� You鈥檒l be surprised what you can write down that is positive even in the direst positions. It drives energy levels up quickly and gets your refocused and empowered.鈥�

鈥淭here is never a truer expression than we are always learning. Being open to this, understanding mistakes will be made, that you will read the wrong signals sometimes 鈥� means you can always learn from it. As Socrates said, 鈥淓ducation is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.鈥� If you carry that flame every day, you have a much better chance of success.鈥�

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Jennifer Johansson,听CEO of Placed App

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鈥淭he clue is in the name with regards to a startup. Plenty of people have fantastic business ideas, but to make it a reality, you have to make a start.鈥�

鈥淪tarting up a business is scary and there are risks. Perhaps you have to leave your steady income behind in order to set up the business. You may need to invest capital and persuade others to invest theirs. You will most likely hit some tricky hurdles along the way and some of those will sting quite a bit!鈥�

鈥淪ome great startups fail and yours might too 鈥� that is a reality that all startups face in the beginning.鈥澨�

鈥淲hen it works though, it is so rewarding to watch the business grow and to work with talented people who are as passionate as you are about the future.鈥�

鈥淲颈迟丑 Placed App, I had the idea of a recruitment app in my head for some time. Working in the hospitality sector, I was constantly hearing from employers about their struggles to recruit and retain staff. It鈥檚 a problem that has long plagued the industry.鈥�

鈥淲颈迟丑 such great advancements in tech, I couldn鈥檛 understand why outdated recruitment practices remained dominant. Particularly as the bulk of this workforce is aged 18 to 25.鈥�

鈥淭here was a mismatch between the way young people wanted to look for work and the way that employers were trying to find them. Dating apps had been matchmaking compatible couples for years. Why not recruitment?鈥�

鈥淎s with many tech startups, I needed funding early in order to build the app and get it to market. Convincing investors to come on board at concept stage is hard work. I meticulously prepped pitches for hours. You only get one chance to impress which is a heady cocktail of stress and adrenaline.鈥�

鈥淥nce the funds are secured, there鈥檚 a whole new weight of responsibility on your shoulders. Now you have to get the idea to work. For Placed App that meant huge amounts of testing. Our goal was to achieve quality matches rather than quantity. We had to persevere and not rush out which takes discipline.鈥�

鈥淲e got there and now we have new challenges as we continue to grow. I still work very long hours and my time is never truly my own. That is my reality of running a startup. I wouldn鈥檛 have it any other way.鈥�

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Andrew Jervis,听CEO and Co-founder of ClickMechanic

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鈥淐lickMechanic is not your typical e-commerce business. When we started in 2012, it was an industry-first and no one had ventured into the car repair space. As an entrepreneur, when you鈥檙e determined to disrupt a new marketplace with your idea, you have to be sure of one thing 鈥� it鈥檚 not going to be an easy ride.鈥�

鈥淎long with the fact that our startup was attempting to disrupt the car repair space, we had multiple challenges to make the company鈥檚 vision of making car care easy for everyone everywhere come true. In the initial days, there were naturally going to be cash flow challenges which meant that as a founder, I could not even afford to pay myself. Building a company from the ground up is an incredibly arduous task in itself so imagine doing that while being nearly broke! Thankfully, today ClickMechanic is at a more mature stage where we鈥檙e much more diligent about our costs and revenues while maintaining a buffer in the bank for emergencies (such as a global pandemic!).鈥�

鈥淲hen you鈥檙e a small, growing team, it鈥檚 absolutely crucial to maintain the values and culture of the company. Along the journey we have on some rare occasions made some hires that were not the best cultural fit which led to a temporary imbalance of the team dynamic. We did learn from this and we鈥檝e now grown into a fantastic team. My advice to budding entrepreneurs: really invest a lot into your hiring process because if you get it wrong it can be much more costly down the line.鈥�

鈥淎s taxing as it is to be a startup founder, it can be equally invigorating. It鈥檚 important to celebrate successes 鈥� both big and small. When I first moved to London in 2012 to join the tech accelerator Entrepreneur First and started building our company with my co-founder Felix, I remember a particular investor was quite impressed with our offering. After a few meetings with him, he wanted to be our first investor and was going to make us an offer! This was nearly a decade ago but at that moment, this was the single most important moment of validation we needed to push ourselves to build our company. We didn鈥檛 go ahead with his offer for other reasons, but this experience gave us the much-needed confidence that every new startup founder yearns for.鈥�

鈥淚n my experience as a founder, I鈥檝e learned that it鈥檚 important to take a step back every now and then and look at how far you鈥檝e come as an individual and as a company. Thinking about all the lives you鈥檝e touched is quite humbling and is a great reminder of why you decided to become an entrepreneur in the first place.鈥�

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James Coombes,听CEO and Co-Founder of Vector.ai

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鈥淲e set up听vector.ai because we care deeply about the human experience at work 鈥� and it鈥檚 this passion that has made starting a business so enjoyable and rewarding. We have a strong team behind us, with each and every person offering different ideas to the table. I am always being challenged. No new approach is off the table which I believe is fundamental to success.鈥�

鈥淗owever, starting a business is by no means easy. The hours can be long and sometimes it might feel like you鈥檙e taking two steps back. Things will not always go to plan so, as a founder, you need to be prepared to adapt and learn from your mistakes. Our business is nearly four years鈥� old, and we are still learning from our customers, partners and the industry. It鈥檚 this openness to learning and change that has enabled us to continue to grow and differentiate us in the market.鈥�

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James Cook,听Executive Chair of LeadRetriever

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鈥淗aving grown SpiderGroup for nearly two decades, starting LeadRetriever is definitely a step into the new. And, of course, starting a business in the middle of a pandemic brings its own challenges.鈥�

鈥淚 knew I wanted to create a lead generation company to complement the work SpiderGroup does. During the first national lockdown, we started running weekly free networking sessions for businesses across Bristol and beyond, to help keep everyone connected while in-person networking was off the table.鈥�

鈥淎t these events, I met Paul Smith, a lead generation expert who was just what we needed to push forward with our plans and build LeadRetriever.鈥�

These are my top learnings:

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Have experienced support / mentoring

鈥淚 am lucky that I have learned from my years with SpiderGroup and MastersConnect, another of my businesses, but starting a new business during an historic year is definitely different.鈥�

鈥淲e have skilled hands-on help from our business coach Gary Keating, to help get everything set up the best way for success, and to bring extensive experience in a range of businesses to the table.鈥�

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Have a definite vision

鈥淚f you have an idea for a business, and it solves a particular pain point or a need, then that鈥檚 a good starting point. You need to have a very clear vision about where you are going with it.鈥�

鈥淵ou wouldn鈥檛 drive your car without knowing where you鈥檙e going, and it鈥檚 the same with the business 鈥� you don鈥檛 want to start a business without knowing where you鈥檙e planning on going.鈥�

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Get the right people on your team.

鈥淥nce you know where you鈥檙e headed, you need to have the right people with you. Getting the management team together has been the easiest part, whereas recruiting new hires who have the right experience and attitude has not been so straightforward.鈥�

鈥淚n fact, this challenge was a surprise to us, and it鈥檚 made us look at new recruitment processes. Every opportunity to learn is a good one, especially when they鈥檙e a surprise 鈥� even if it can be frustrating.鈥�

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Getting superb results for your first clients

鈥淲颈迟丑 a new company, you have to work out the key messages and be able to explain to people the benefits and what you can do for them. Because their concern is always going to be the output and understanding the point 鈥� to their business specifically 鈥� of what you鈥檙e offering.鈥�

鈥淗aving a new company where you haven鈥檛 got any proven track record is tricky at first 鈥� doing brilliant work for those first clients is crucial. Then you have some solid case studies and testimonials, and you start to build a positive reputation and trust.鈥�

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Nicola Hartland,听Chief Revenue Officer at CyberCrowd

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鈥淭he hardest and most VITAL lesson to learn is getting the legalities in place before you take one step into a business. It鈥檚 so easy to get sucked into the whirlwind when starting a business. So much is going to happen so quickly, that before you know it you will be months in with potentially very different views on input value between yourself and any partners or investors.鈥�

鈥淚f everyone is clear from the get-go on their agreed contribution, whether financial, intellectual, physical or all three, then there is no conflict. Remember, you can鈥檛 renegotiate something you never agreed. Be straight and secure from the beginning and you will form a strong working bond with your fellow stakeholders, dither or delay and you will appear at best disorganised and at worst incompetent. I have learned hard lessons through the creation and successful exit of a series of companies, that nobody disrespects clarity.鈥�

鈥淢y next important lesson, (and let鈥檚 face it, we women know we are the worst at this) is KNOW YOUR WORTH AND STICK TO YOUR GUNS! We鈥檝e all witnessed the horrors of Dragon鈥檚 Den as the Dragons 鈥榮coff and tut鈥� at the entrepreneurs when they present their company value. So few of them fail to point out that whilst, yes, their idea may be worth X, what the Dragons are investing in, (and the Dragons WILL often acknowledge this), is the entrepreneur. They like them, they recognise their potential, and they believe in the their ability.鈥�

鈥淲hilst an initial idea may get a return, what we are all truly selling as business creators, is our own ability and drive. So value yourself, when you value your assets and stick to your guns. I have raised millions in investment through my career, but I have always counted my value within my contribution to the assets of my businesses.鈥�

鈥淔inally, the best thing about running a business? At this point in my career, the greatest reward for me is developing people. We all want to make money, of course, but doing it with the team that you bring with you is so much more rewarding.鈥�

鈥淚 want to know at interview stage what a person鈥檚 life goals are. There鈥檚 no point training people to leave you, financially or practically. What you want to do is train them to stay with you. You do this by matching your goals for them with their goals for life. If they want to buy a house, help them with a plan. If they want your job鈥� teach it to them! I have received letters from parents thanking me for taking their son/daughter on in their life plan. Loyalty goes both ways and pays dividends all around.鈥�

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Nico Nicholas, Chief Executive Officer of Tree4Travel

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鈥淚n my experience people generally start their own businesses for one of two reasons; because either they have a spectacular idea and recognise a gap for it in the market or are simply fed up working for someone else.鈥�

鈥淭he former is, in my view and experience, the best reason to start a company. The latter is not, as you will always 鈥榟ave a boss鈥� 鈥� whether it be the bank, a supplier, an investor, or even your customers, you will always have to answer to someone! Besides that, you have to be ready and willing to do whatever it takes, so it鈥檚 not necessarily an easy journey, as there鈥檚 particularly a lot of stress, hard work, and remember that it is now you who is responsible to ensure everyone is doing their job correctly, and that they get paid at the end of the month!鈥�

鈥淚 liken a start up to a two-year old toddler 鈥� it鈥檚 everywhere, wants to do everything, but isn鈥檛 sure how to, and needs 24/7 supervision! So really consider your current life and whether, actually things aren鈥檛 so bad the way they are before you dive off the high board.鈥�

鈥淚f you do decide to dive in, there is nothing like starting your own company 鈥� being able to make the decisions and have the ideas without running it past others (other than your partners if you have any), living the highs, and dealing with the lows, but also reaping the rewards if you鈥檝e got it right.鈥�

鈥淏eing involved in every moving part, and seeing your idea come to life 鈥� the best part is when someone compliments what you have created, or even better, buys from you. I have started a number of companies in different sectors, and I鈥檝e loved every one of them 鈥� how did I do that when I knew nothing about that particular industry? By being honest, asking questions, listening and learning 鈥� if you enjoy learning, then that鈥檚 half the battle won, because there will be an enormous amount that you鈥檒l have to pick up 鈥� whether it be simple accounting, to PAYE, to setting up an exhibition stand etc. 鈥� there are probably a million moving parts.鈥�

鈥淢y favourite part is actually meeting people, and even if they don鈥檛 buy, understanding what they need or what they like 鈥� always be inquisitive. I am at a point now in my business career when I can choose to create a business for reasons of requirement, not need. I have built Trees4Travel with my wife Elkie, because we knew we could bring our experience and skills to a business that could make a positive impact on our planet. There is no better business high than that sort of a success.鈥�

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Veena Giridhar Gopal,听CEO of SalesBeat

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鈥淔ounding a start-up can be tricky. You may have a great idea, but it needs to be validated, and unless you鈥檝e decided to go the solo founder route, you need to find a co-founder who believes in the idea and has a complementary skill set.鈥�

鈥淚 met my co-founder, Alex, at Antler鈥檚 inaugural program in Stockholm. It helps that we understand our individual strengths and play to it. We also have similar values & enjoy working together despite not having met in person for over a year now.鈥�

鈥楾here are times when the journey is highly rewarding, like when you find your first, second or even 10th customer & when they tell you how much your app/product has helped them.鈥�

鈥淏ut equally, there are times when the going gets tough like when covid hit and we had to pivot. We found that a few basics helped us get through the tough times.鈥�

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Contingency plans are great and let you pivot quickly

鈥淭hings were going well for us in our first year & we were growing fast. However, just after we passed the 1 year mark, covid hit & we had to think quickly on our feet. We ended up going from a marketplace business to a software business in 2 months. This was a tough time for us. We never planned for something like Covid to happen! No one did. But start-ups need to keep an eye on any external factor that may pose a risk and have a back-up plan.鈥�

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Solve a real problem and be open to change

鈥淚t was when we needed to pivot, that we realised this one. If you are not solving a real problem, there is no actual need for your product. And if you are not open to change, when market conditions change or when you get feedback from users, you will not be in a position to move in a different direction.鈥�

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Start-ups are all about people

鈥淎lex and I respect each other鈥檚 abilities and differences. We both know that our perspectives may be completely different from each other and this is a product of our background. We know our diverse perspectives improve our business outcomes.鈥�

鈥淎nd then one rule of thumb that we go by 鈥� raise external equity funding only if you need it. You are, after all, giving your investors a part of the company!鈥�

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Jenni Riley,听Co-Founder of ITARMI

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鈥淔our years ago my husband and I made the biggest decision of our lives: launching our own business. We were entering the world of IT services, and whilst Brett had years of experience in this sector, it was completely new for me. I would be lying if I said this wasn鈥檛 hugely daunting, but seeing his confidence and passion made me certain it was the right thing to do.鈥�

鈥淏usiness started off slow but steady; the initial deals were small but enough to help get us off the ground. Then, within six months of trading, we hit the jackpot and managed to secure a contract we could have only dreamed of. We worked tirelessly to ensure we had everything in place to deliver and the feedback was extremely positive 鈥� we were over the moon!鈥�

鈥淭hen, six weeks later, it all came crashing down. We got the dreaded news that our supplier had gone into liquidation, and the support network we had built fell away before our eyes. Not only this, but some of the people we had trusted most ended up seeing this as an opportunity to step in and steal the contracts we had worked so hard to secure.鈥�

鈥淭he following months were spent negotiating like never before, and quite literally begging for support to get back on our feet. After all, who would want to lend money to a company with barely a year of accounts under their belt and a pipeline showing nothing but losses?鈥�

鈥淎fter a storm of stress, a moment of calm eventually arrived. But just as it felt like the tide was turning, another bombshell hit. I realised that we were suddenly unable to access our bank account, and after some frantic phone calls found that it had been frozen by our factoring company without warning, leaving us unable to operate at all. The weeks that followed were incredibly tough, faced with the constant worry of losing everything we had. Our saving grace was a local MP who helped put an end to our legal battles and get us back in business.鈥�

鈥淚t was an uphill struggle for at least another year, but with sheer tenacity we came out the other side 鈥� and believe it or not had a lot of fun on the way!鈥�

鈥淪o, what鈥檚 it really like starting a business? I think this quote from Winston Churchill sums it up well: 鈥淪uccess is not final, failure is not fatal, it is having the courage to continue that counts.鈥�

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R茅my Asti茅,听CEO of Vauban听

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鈥淏uilding a startup in any industry is not without its challenges, but innovating in fintech presents a number of unique obstacles around regulation for those looking to disrupt the space. At Vauban, we鈥檙e revolutionising and streamlining the centuries-old process of creating an SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) 鈥� a legal entity created for a limited purpose, like investing in a startup. Our technology makes it easier for experienced investors to pool capital for private investment into alternative assets. As a result, we have to be exacting in our approach to addressing a host of legal components, regulations, financial modeling and complex accounting. These are challenges that many other fintech startups will face too, especially those who are 鈥渇ull-stack鈥� 鈥� who offer an end-to-end service to end customers rather than licensing software to incubent players.鈥�

鈥淕etting the right framework in place is make or break for fintechs. However, there are clear and significant advantages to entering such an industry 鈥� for those who can create viable solutions in fintech, the potential returns can be sizable and scaling a business can be achieved much faster than in other industries. We鈥檙e conscious that there will still be more challenges ahead, but there is huge demand for technologies reshaping private investing. From retail investors looking to invest in crypto currencies, to experienced investors looking for a route into the pre-IPO market, we鈥檙e excited to see how fintechs can effect change in the market鈥�.

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Ranjan Singh,听CEO and Co-founder of HealthHero

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鈥淥ften the outward perception of an entrepreneur is one that is glorified, represented by glamour, excitement and the high life, but the reality is that it is hard work. To succeed you must have a passion and drive that runs through your veins, directed at an idea or philosophy that you truly believe in. Once you have that, you need to arm yourself with a good measure of resilience, conviction and courage. But you also need a touch of naivety that allows you at times to follow your heart over your head.鈥�

鈥淥ften there is a mantra among entrepreneurs of 鈥渄on鈥檛 give up鈥� and I鈥檝e found this to be a dangerous one. Adaptability in a start-up is crucial and being able to find the balance to pursue the idea you have, while accepting feedback and taking on board learnings, is key. It鈥檚 really more of an art than a science so the path to success is often more nuanced.鈥�

鈥淥ne of the joys of being a start-up is the ability to be agile, adaptable and quick off the mark when an opportunity arises. At HealthHero, as a digital health provider, we had an opportunity to accelerate the ambitious growth plans we had overnight when the Covid 19 pandemic hit.鈥�

鈥淭hat agility to react and execute with speed has enabled us to grow the business at a pace we had not predicted, taking along our investors, driving organic growth and making strategic acquisitions. It鈥檚 really enabled us to make a difference to how healthcare is delivered; making it better and more efficient and focusing on patient outcomes. If we are doing that well, we can also make an impact beyond our business too. And for me, doing well in business as well as having a wider positive impact in society is a real driving force and reinforces why I chose the path of an entrepreneur.鈥�

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Tom Simmonds, COO of Gretel

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鈥淚鈥檝e never really considered myself to be entrepreneurial. Entrepreneurs always seemed to be these flying-by-the-seat-of-their pants visionary types, taking risks, often winning against incredible adversity. It looked like an adventure, but as a lifelong operations guy, it never really occurred to me that I was the adventurous type. Yet here I stand as a testament to the fact that if you have a cause and believe you can create the solution that will change lives, you will take a leap of faith and dare to try something different.鈥�

鈥淵et, biting the bullet and choosing to leave the seemingly stable life of working for a plc to going it alone, is challenging at the best of times, but doing it and then finding yourself amidst a global pandemic and all the instability and turbulence that brings, is another thing altogether.鈥�

鈥淗aving incorporated Gretel in 2019, when COVID hit in 2020, the great conversations we鈥檇 been having with financial companies to help reunite their customers with lost money, suddenly dried up as the industry battened down the hatches. It felt as if we were the fleet of fisherman out in calm waters on our first launch, that then very quickly found ourselves in the eye of a storm. We had a choice to keep rowing or capsize.鈥�

鈥淲颈迟丑 the world in freefall, we shored up our defences, managed our costs and continued to develop our proposition. It was a challenging and uncertain time 鈥� not only for us but for everyone in the UK. Thankfully however, we have investors who support and believe in our proposition which has led to two successful rounds of fundraising in the last year.鈥�

鈥淪tarting a business, particularly as an early founder, can be a lonely experience, but it can mean choosing to work with the people and a team that you really love. Gretel鈥檚 CEO, Duncan Stevens, is someone I have known for over 13 years. Having worked together at Equiniti we quickly established that we share a passion for disruptive technology (as well as rock music!). We also shared a vision to create something transformational that will ultimately help millions of consumers.鈥�

鈥淚f there can be any silver linings for us from the pandemic, it is that there is a greater need for, and greater acceptance of, digital enablement, as the trust in tech and what it can deliver has accelerated. Gretel is there at the forefront to disrupt an industry that desperately needs transformation.鈥�

鈥淚 had my carpe diem moment to take the plunge with Gretel, and I have no regrets. Yes, leaving a stable role for a start-up has risks, but so too does staying on the thread-mill and not making change.鈥�

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The post The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: What Starting Up a Business Is REALLY Like appeared first on 91探花.

Did you know that donut is the most selling type sweets in the world? More than 10 billion donuts are consumed only in the USA annually. These 鈥渃akes鈥� have their origin in Holland with a long and rich history. Donuts gain more and more fans worldwide each year, and this donut wave has now just started also in Europe.听

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鈥淥ur concept, which has been developed in the UK, has become the largest handmade donuts chain in Europe. Nowadays, we work on opening new donut-shops in Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Budapest, Aalborg in Denmark, Malaga in Spain, Stockholm in Sweden, Lisbon in Portugal, and many more. Additionally, we register the interest of potential franchisees, for example, from Germany, Holland, Poland, Austria, Sweden, Oman, Singapore, and the USA,鈥� explains Peter Stra艌谩k, Founder & CEO of La Donuteria Group.听

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What Is Behind the Success of La Donuteria Donuts?

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鈥�Our success pillar is TOP quality product and the fact that we bring original and innovative concept 鈥� the whole system and secret recipes were developed by international team in London for more than a year. We have tried hundreds of recipes unless we were completely satisfied. We do not offer the 鈥淎merican鈥� style of machine-made frozen donuts, we localized and adjusted our flavors for European taste buds,鈥� he added.

鈥�Any semi-finished products, artificial replacements, mass production of frozen donuts, not even donuts baked in big bakeries cannot be found in our local La Donuteria shops. That is also the reason why our donuts taste BEST! We prepare our own caramel; our raspberry glaze is made from real raspberries. We make our own fillings and delicious cremes; our chocolate is top quality from Belgium, and we ship vanilla beans directly from Madagascar.鈥�

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Despite the challenging pandemic environment, they have made many major achievements this year. They have hired new professionals who will drive growth in the product and marketing area in 2021. The team behind La Donuteria offered many new product improvements, started several changes and projects, and significantly expanded their presence. 25 franchise licenses for Slovakia are sold out, and they will soon not accept any new franchisees. La Donuteria鈥檚 family has grown really international! 鈥� to almost 40 Franchise Partners from 12 different countries.听

鈥淲e have very ambitious plans in the following years ahead of us 鈥� our dream is to disrupt the donut industry business, to stand up against large old-fashioned and boring donut chains with thousands of shops like Dunkin Donuts, Krispy Kreme, and Tim Hortons, and bring our customers a new, fresh, modern, attractive, and popular LOVE BRAND that has a vibe.鈥�听

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How Much Does the La Donuteria Franchise Cost?听

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La Donuteria has a franchise fee ranges from $10,000, with a total initial investment of $35,000. Initial investments start from $35,000, and they are covering bakery and shop equipment, shop design, and fit-out. You may appreciate that the payback period starts from 6 months, and the average turnover per month is $35,000.

The post Start Your Own Business With La Donuteria, the Largest Handmade Donuts Chain in Europe appeared first on 91探花.