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.

1. Like Swimming (and Sex)
2. Mindset
3. Emotions of a Start-Up
4. Don’t Copy the Wrong Homework
5. Top 3 Priorities
6. Target Market
7. Value Proposition
8. Validating Ideas
9. Structures
10. Brand and Name
11. Start-up Digital Footprint
12. Product
13. Pricing
14. Business Model
15. Break Even Formula
16. RNR Colors: Roles ‘n’ Responsibilities for Rest ‘n’ Recuperation
17. Work Flows
18. Key Relationship – Accountant
19. Key Relationship – Mentor
20. Context vs Content
21. Layers of Context
22. Commercial Vision
23. Cultural Vision
24. Risk Profile
25. Critical Partnership Questions – Strategic
26. Critical Partnership Questions – Operational
27. Key Financial Metrics
28. Personal vs Business Finances
29. Making Investment Decisions
30. Cash Flow
31. Debtors (and Creditors)
32. Ask: Do I Need Funding?
33. Pivots
34. Team
35. Hiring Your First Team Member
36. Growth / Capacity
37. Customers : Advocates or Assassins
38. Marketing Structure
39. Bullseye Framework
40. Sales Hourglass
41. Sales Meeting
42. Critical Numbers: Sales
43. Referrals from Client Program
44. Client Service Program
45. Testimonials / Case Studies
46. Skill Development
47. Premises
48. Leveraging Technology
49. Suppliers
50. One More Piece of Information

‘The Start-up Business Guide’ Book Reviews

Click here to buy your copy of The Start-up Business Guide: 50 First Steps Every Successful Founder Completes in their First Year for just $24.99 including postage.