What's your worst fear?

[testudo]

If you own your own business or are looking to start one, can you help me out? I'm putting a support product together for business startups and want to really address what drives people in their own business. If you have a moment, can you answer these questions?

• What's driving you to have your own business?
• What's your worse fear?
• What will make it worthwhile for you if it comes off?
  

Any feedback will be really appreciated on this.

Thanks for your help

Yvette

[NikkiPilkington]

I think it's a little difficult to answer those questions without knowing more about the 'support product', as what you are wanting to offer may have nothing to do with my answers.

For example, if my 'worst fear' is that I may become ill and not be able to service my customers, and you're offering health cover, then my reply is relevant - if you're offering interim management it may be slightly relevant, but if you're offering bookeeping then it's not relevant at all.

[testudo]

The support product focuses on the business start up situation where people have ideas but need help in turning that idea into a profitable business. We are developing an interactive video and software tool that analyses your business idea before you jump head on into the business planning and funding stage. Its really a starting point in a series of products aimed at the innovators/entrepreneur market where they want expert advice but don't want to pay a fortune for it. Really trying to hone in on what drives people to start their own business in the first place and what fears they have when running that business.

Hope that helps.

Thanks

[B_Cal]

Yvette,

My answer is along similar lines to Nikki's.

Getting on for three years ago I had a near fatal accident and spent six months in hospital. By the end of 2009 I will have switched from relatively secure employment to self employment - my biggest concern is a major health incident either myself or with immediate family in the early stages. In fact at any time this kind of incident has a very negative impact.

My ambition in respect of my business is to actually spend more and more time doing things I enjoy i.e. the commercial side of aviation and working on interesting projects with fun people.

I am somewhat intrigued as to how a software tool can assess the underlying viability of a business plan, given that in my twenty years of commercial experience meeting with the principles behind a business are key to making a judgement as to the likely success of a business. Are you able to enlighten us with more details at this stage ?

Good luck in your venture.

Roy

[Ray Stewart]

My biggest concern is that you get all sorts of information from vunerable people starting out in the terrifying world of business, and promptly take the best ideas and start using them yourself.

What kind of protection from this will you be offering people who may use the product?

I don't mean to sound heavy, but I came across an accountant recently who has been doing exactly that

[AboveParr]

My answers to your questions would be;
I got fed up of running other people's businesses for them
Growing too quickly
Training my staff well enough to allow me a holiday

[Kay]

My biggest fear is that Google AdSense will cease. That would mean beans on toast and Tiger rather than Champagne and caviare.

[B_Cal]

Originally Posted by Tony Slimmings

In my opinion the best bit of free advice I can give anybody thinking about going into business is to join the Federation of Small Businesses their legal cover alone is worth the fee, then go along to their local meetings and get as much free advice as possible. Speak to Business Link, join business network clubs and forums (online and offline) and Oh get the cheapest accountant/book-keeping service you can (even better learn to do it yourself) because I have never met an Accountant yet who can you give you any meaningful advice on how to set up and run a business that you cannot get free somewhere else.

My view is slightly different - given that cash is king I would agree that getting free advice is the smart thing to do.

However historically I have wasted time on admin and book keeping when I should have had somebody else doing this for me. I get daily texts from my bank in regards my cash position, but now spend the admin time on finding and securing business. I do basic bookeeping on .xls files and get somebody else to take care of matters beyond that.

You should adopt something that works for you, but remember am I doing something that makes money, or doing something that might save me less money.

Agree a lot of accountants play on peoples lack of knowledge that could come from else ware

Rgds

Roy

[testudo]

Originally Posted by B_Cal

However historically I have wasted time on admin and book keeping when I should have had somebody else doing this for me. I get daily texts from my bank in regards my cash position, but now spend the admin time on finding and securing business. I do basic bookeeping on .xls files and get somebody else to take care of matters beyond that.

You should adopt something that works for you, but remember am I doing something that makes money, or doing something that might save me less money.

Some great feedback so far that I will certainly take on board. Yes there is plenty of free advice out there but as Roy says, it can cost far more in terms of your time (and stress) than paying for tailored advice that gets you the answers you need in a very quick time.

We are developing our Business Litmus Test which is trying to target people who want advice and guidance but can't afford to spend a fortune on expert consulting fees. It aims to save you potentially months of heartache (not forgetting the series amount of cash you could plough into it) in launching what could be a dud product, by telling you within 60 minutes (using our software and video training) whether your idea is compelling. And importantly, if its not, we show you how to refine it to make it work.

I suppose the question is, if we could prove this works and can save you all this time and money, what would you be willing to pay for it? Its going to be a downloaded information product.

Yvette

[NikkiPilkington]

I'll be honest, I'm struggling to understand what the offer is, or how it would work, much less how it could tell me whether my dea is 'compelling' or not...

But I guess I'm not your target market, so it's probably just me...

[testudo]

Sorry if I'm coming across as a bit obtuse when describing the product. We're just finalising it now so when we're ready to launch I'll give full details on it. The guys I work with are in the innovation field and have spent years developing new products and services for both big corporates and small business. They have condensensed some of the key lessons they've learnt into a series of videos which form part of the package. Key to it all is an interactive software tool that ask you a series of questions on your innovation. By analysing your responses, it determines whether your product has got all the neccessary requirements to be a success in your chosen market.

Full details soon