The Start-up Business Guide: 50 First Steps Every Successful Founder Completes in their First Year
Everything you need to know to survive your first year in business, and grow sustainably for many years thereafter.
Since starting my business advisory career I have worked with more than 1,000 small and medium-sized business owners, in Australia and around the world. Some of these are early-stage businesses; some have reached the post-Start-up ‘Trough of Sorrow’!; and many have burst through into the good times of a Scale-up enterprise.
What do the successful businesses have in common? And how can you apply those lessons to your business, when you begin or when you hit a brick wall in your plans? This is why I wrote The Start-up Business Guide in conjunction with fellow international business advisor Shan Naqvi.
Secure a 50% discount when you buy a paperback copy of The Start-up Business Guide direct from the authors. Use the button below (securely processed through PayPal), or continue reading for more.
The First Step
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” But what about the second step? And the third? And the ones after that, stretching out from the start of your business journey until you have reached your every dream? Let us help…
With input from more than a dozen experienced business coaches, advisors, and mentors. We have drawn on experience helping more than 1,000 privately-owned companies around the world not only survive their Start Up journey, but thrive and grow financially and personally.
Here is your opportunity to learn from the experience of others, rather than your own trial and error. Covering in detail the 50 first steps every successful business founder completes in their first year, the Start-up Business Guide is your essential tool to business success.
Critical chapters include pricing, branding, legal structures, mindset, and more. Available from all of these great retailers for prices up to $135.99 (!), or exclusively here for just $24.99 including postage.
Click on your favourite store below to buy your copy, or click here for that PayPal debit and credit card link with the authors’ discount offer.
What Are the 50 First Steps?
To make this book as practical as possible, each of the 50 steps is addressed in a short chapter. You can read from cover to cover, or dive immediately into key topics that feel most relevant to you.
When you think about your business today – could you mark yourself highly across all of these areas? If not, $24.99 is a small price to pay for a better business.
- Like Swimming (and Sex)
- Mindset
- Emotions of a Start-Up
- Don’t Copy the Wrong Homework
- Top 3 Priorities
- Target Market
- Value Proposition
- Validating Ideas
- Structures
- Brand and Name
- Start-up Digital Footprint
- Product
- Pricing
- Business Model
- Break Even Formula
- RNR Colors: Roles ‘n’ Responsibilities for Rest ‘n’ Recuperation
- Work Flows
- Key Relationship – Accountant
- Key Relationship – Mentor
- Context vs Content
- Layers of Context
- Commercial Vision
- Cultural Vision
- Risk Profile
- Critical Partnership Questions – Strategic
- Critical Partnership Questions – Operational
- Key Financial Metrics
- Personal vs Business Finances
- Making Investment Decisions
- Cash Flow
- Debtors (and Creditors)
- Ask: Do I Need Funding?
- Pivots
- Team
- Hiring Your First Team Member
- Growth / Capacity
- Customers : Advocates or Assassins
- Marketing Structure
- Bullseye Framework
- Sales Hourglass
- Sales Meeting
- Critical Numbers: Sales
- Referrals from Client Program
- Client Service Program
- Testimonials / Case Studies
- Skill Development
- Premises
- Leveraging Technology
- Suppliers
- One More Piece of Information