Think about how long you want to do it for, and how you will get out of it when that time arrives. Think about whether you will sell business, pass it on to your family, or just close it down.

All of these things will have an effect on how you plan and structure your business.

“begin with end in mind”

Thirdly – people. If you look at any famous entrepreneur and look at how they achieved what they have done, you will find that none of them did it alone. Most will cite a mentor or coach who supported them. It is a great idea to get yourself somebody like this who can help you focus your ideas, and keep you on track with your plans. This could be a business coach, a life coach, a professional advisor another business owner or maybe even a friend or family member.

Start to think about building a support network of people who can help you, and people you can share ideas with. This might be through face to face meetings, by telephone or on line.

And once your business is up and running you will need to think about staff, suppliers and of course customers. But that is for later. Here we are looking at getting you going.

Finally, practicalities. How do you Start Up Right? Where do you get all information about tax, VAT, employing staff, computer software, where to work, selling and so on?

Many people start in business with no real idea of what is involved. I don’t doubt you are an expert at your trade, or skill or you wouldn’t be contemplating starting a business - but have you run a business before? Do you have first idea about what to do for tax, financial information, and marketing? Often people learn these things as they go, and find out about what they need to know when it is too late – often at great cost. How often have you heard “if only he had told me that before…”?

To avoid this it is worth putting in some time up front to find out what you need to know. Do some research – there is plenty of information on internet now. And ask experts, you will need to use professional advisors such as accountant in your business, so take opportunity to find out some useful information whilst you are interviewing them. That is why I wrote my eprogramme, so that people could find out about all of this kind of information in one place.

And once you have done your thinking and research and decided that business is right for you you need to take action! A great idea is completely worthless…. until it is turned into action. Without action there can be no success.

Remember Nike – Just do it!

Summary

Making decision is often hardest part. Once you have decided to run your own business and know what you need to do you can move forward with planning and research to make it happen.

Think about what you need to do to move towards your goals. It helps to involve others to help you. This may be by bringing in an expert, or it may mean reading a book, listening to tapes or watching videos. Learn from those who have done what you are trying to do.

Think about whether it would help you to have a mentor or a coach. Promising someone else that you will do something usually means you are much more likely to do it. It often helps to have someone who can act as a sounding board, or ask you some searching question s to help you on your way.

And most importantly of all – go do it!

Julia McDaid is a business coach and author, specialising in helping business start ups. The first 10 readers to contact her on coach@startupright.co.uk will receive a free Kickstart coaching session and the first Module of her eprogramme Start Up 101.

For more information see www.startupright.co.uk

One thing I do want to tell you though is to make sure you are following in right footsteps. If you are part of a downline I recommend not just going to who ever recruited you, but ask them if there is a manager or someone higher up that is achieving real success. Sometimes your recruiter will actually be one who is very successful, you just want to be sure.

A recruiter that is also just starting out or worse yet has actually been in business for some time but still isn’t successful, pass this person by and find a leader above him you can learn from. They might be telling you same thing that was told to them that was told by someone else that was told by leader, but message is usually distorted by time it reaches you. Hearing how to be successful always sounds different coming from someone who is already successful, and will usually give better results.

But one thing about this method I want to point out because I know I don’t like to hear it. Leaders who are successful do not want to be called or contacted every day hearing about you hitting a brick wall if brick wall is you aren’t trying. Successful people tend to value their time a lot, and don’t want to try to teach people that aren’t willing to learn what they’re teaching.

Owning your own business and making it successful is going to take time and hard work. It’s just a fact of business. And when that person tells you to do something and you don’t do it or finish it because you realized it was going to be harder than you realized or take longer than you thought, that is when you need to hang towel. Realize and accept you don’t really want success, tell that leader you don’t want success, and don’t waste any more of his/her time.

I know that may seem harsh, but not everyone can make it owning their own business. And if you’re not willing to work hard and spend time working your business, all you are doing is wasting your time because you will fail every time. If you don’t believe me then let me ask you how many businesses have you started and tried, but they didn’t work out. Chances are very good that they didn’t work because you didn’t put in effort to make them work.

While there are more business opportunities out there that I think are bad than there are good ones, I haven’t seen one yet that someone who was determined enough wouldn’t make money off of. Even many pyramid schemes which are now illegal and I would never consider a business could be very profitable for those who were dedicated to them.

So if you can make your self dedicated for your business, find a business with good support that will give you someone to learn from and don’t give up until you’ve reached success.