Sunday, January 18, 2009

Brand New Day :The highs and lows of starting a new business


As a mild-mannered accountant I often have the privilege of assisting people with advice about how to start their new business.

For yours truly this is a delicious challenge and ,frankly, I find that many of my peers are rather stilted and mundane when it comes to this area.

Yours truly has started several businesses over the course of his life and found that each was different but seemed to use similar brain cells in a funny sort of way.

Many years ago I started my own accounting practice. Then I started 2 personnel businesses focusing on different markets.More recently I have assisted while my daughter has gone through a start-up in the eCommerce area.

One of the most rewarding consulting assignments that I engaged in was working with entrepreneurs who were being funded by the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme to do business plans and develop new businesses. I had to review their business plans and advise them how to make them more robust before putting their toes in the water.

The cut and the thrust of starting businesses has always taken me to the the edge of my capacity and stretched me substantially.

What I have found is that there is a learning curve attached and unless you are a serial entrepreneur you don't get the benefit of this learning curve.

Recently my daughter, who is a vociferous little collector of interesting books, handed me a copy of "Brand New Day....The highs and lows of starting a small business".

Written by Lara Solomon it relates her experiences getting the MOCKS brand of mobile phone socks up and running and then onto its feet.

I simply found it riveting! It is done in diary fashion and the author may have pulled her punches---- but only rarely.She has left a realistic record of the trials and tribulations.

May I commend it to you as a good reference point if you are considering your own business or you know someone who is. It is about $25 plus postage and can be ordered from book@larasolomon.com.au

1 comment:

  1. Just wanted to give a thumbs up to NEIS (New Enterprise Incentive Scheme). One of my teachers was also an accountant, and afterwards he became MY accountant.
    Before enrolling in NEIS I was honestly thinking I could just go ahead and launch a business without writing a business plan or doing a business management course. Hahaha... I would have lasted 10 seconds!
    For anyone considering NEIS, I wrote a very detailed account of my experience here: http://beaubusy.blogspot.com/

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