Small Office, Home Office Information

by Toni Livesey

Stuart and I are firm believers in business plans although our plans rarely resemble anything like the formalised business plan you might have to submit to a bank if you were looking for a loan. But then were unlikely to ever be looking to a bank for a loan so our business plans work for us.

But if you need something more concrete and more acceptable to financial institutions then perhaps you might find this little slide show helpful.

When you’re setting up your small business for the first time you need all the help you can get. The Australian Government has just released a checklist that covers many of the basic issues you need to consider when setting up a small business.

While it’s completely relevant for small business people here in Australia it could also be helpful for you if you live elsewhere.

You can download a copy of the checklist here

Michael Gerber in his book The E Myth Revisited talks about the three types of people who are needed to run a small business. Often all three are packed into just one person and the most important person is the entrepreneur because that’s the person that makes the business grow and survive.

Darren Rowse has some interesting thoughts on Seven Characteristics of the Entrepreneurial Life over at his blog and they are well reading and thinking about.

And if you want to know who wears the entrepreneurs cap in our business … well there’s no doubt that it’s Toni

That’s a question that was basically asked of us the other day and the obvious answer is a resounding NO!

I suppose that has to be qualified just a bit because there are some small businesses that are just going to be too much for anyone who is getting on in years but there are certainly plenty of opportunities for small business people whatever their age might be.

Unfortunately many young people don’t understand that and they are quick to discourage any older person who might want to launch their own small business.

Only yesterday a lady of middle age came into the computer shop where Toni rents a desk several days a week. She happened to notice that Toni had Dreamweaver open and was working on one of our projects. The lady confided in Toni that she was completing a Macromedia (they make Dreamweaver) course at tech and she really didn’t know what to do when she had finished.

She was the only mature student in a class of mostly teenagers and they had all told her that she was far to old to even think of making money on the Internet.

The lady was greatly relieved to see Toni fall about laughing when age was mentioned.

Age is no barrier to anything you might want to do in a small business that wants to use the Internet as a platform. Anyone who suggests that age might be a problem is definitely not worth listening to.

Earlier today I offered you a link to some suggestions for starting a small business.

Now here is a story of one man’s approach to starting his business. Sometimes you can gain inspiration from other people’s experience although I’m not suggesting that wearing a wig and a dress is going to work for everyone.

In case you haven’t realised it, when you’re reading this you are actually reading a blog and for many people blogging is a business and for many it’s a small business.

That means that successful bloggers often have a lot to teach small business people. That is certainly the case with Ten Rules for Profitable Blog Startups. A lot of what Darren has to say there is very applicable to any small business person who is trying to get their business (whatever it might be) off the ground.