Start Your Own Business

You might be really skillful, knowledgeable and experienced when it comes to your trade or profession. Maybe you’re a brilliant salesperson. However, if you’re new to running your own business, you might not know much about how to manage your finances as a start-up. Unless you come from a financial background – why would you? But if your new business is to survive and grow, you should know a few basics about managing your finances as a start up. It could make a big difference. It could even prevent you from making simple mistakes that cause you big problems.

In this episode, we speak to chartered accountant Kate Gloudemans, experienced financial director and founder of accountancy firm Sprout. She offers essential tips on how to manage your finances as a start-up.

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There are many things you need to do to succeed in business, but one of the most important is to stand out. It’s essential if you operate in a crowded, competitive market, as most businesses do. If your business fails to stand out, because your brand, products and services haven’t been differentiated, you’ll just blend into the background and fewer people will know you exist, let alone buy from you. Instead, they’ll buy from one of your competitors, because they believe there’s a very good reason for doing so.

So, how exactly do you make your business stand out in a competitive market? In this episode, on hand to answer this vital question is Dr Chris Endersby, co-founder of London-based brand agency Firestarter. He shares his considerable insight and tips on how to set yourself apart when you operate in a crowded market.

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What if your business is earning a cash surplus every month? What would you do? Many small-business owners don’t do anything. They leave it in their current account to earn little or no interest. Some do nothing because they’re kept very busy with many other things. Others don’t do anything because they don’t realise they have other options.

As a small-business owner, you can invest cash and potentially receive far higher returns, which can make you and your business wealthier. UK CEO of low-fee investing platform Lightyear, Wander Rutgers, explains how you might be able to get far better returns by investing cash generated by your small business.

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Globally, LinkedIn has a staggering 900 million-plus users. You might well be one of them. In the UK, LinkedIn is estimated to have more than 35 million users, a mix of individuals, organisations and businesses of all sizes. They use the site to raise their profile, network and find new customers. So, how do you connect to the right people on LinkedIn to raise your profile, attract new contacts and customers and – crucially – make more sales and grow your business? What are the pros and cons of using LinkedIn when compared to other options? And what are the classic mistakes you need to avoid when using LinkedIn to try to grow your business?

Answering these and other key questions is Gus Bhandal, founder of LinkedIn-first digital and social media marketing agency, The M Guru. Gus shares his insight and tips on how to use LinkedIn to grow your small business.

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Staying on top of your cash flow is essential. Running out of cash can be fatal. This simple cash flow forecast will help you keep on top of your finances.

Download this free cash flow forecast template and watch the intro video featuring Darren Fell of Crunch Accounting and Fiona Prior, host of the Start Your Own Business podcast, for tips and advice on how to make the most of this cash flow forecast template.

When a business fails it’s normally because it has run out of cash and can’t pay its bills on demand. This can happen to successful businesses, with attractive products and services, healthy sales and profit margins. Ensuring that your cash flow remains healthy needs to be a key priority for your business. That means not only not spending more than you can afford, but also, if you allow your customers a certain amount of time to pay, ensuring that they pay you on time.

Cash flow forecasts can enable your business to avoid cash flow problems, but how do you create them and how do you set budgets that help you to manage your costs in the first place? In this episode, we speak to serial entrepreneur Darren Fell, founder and CEO of Crunch Accounting. Darren offers practical tips on how to create cash flow forecasts and set budgets.

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In an age where many businesses use digital marketing techniques, others use old-school tactics such as cold-calling. Cold calling is telemarketing, a direct marketing method involving phoning potential customers they’ve never met or spoken to previously.

Cold-calling isn’t for the thin-skinned, because even if your opening gambit is polite, friendly, professional and concise, you can soon be met with a firm “not interested, thanks”, before the phone gets put down. And cold-calling often requires having to charm your way through a 'gate-keeper' before you get put through to the person you actually need to speak to.

But the fact remains: cold-calling can be an extremely effective way of generating new leads and sales. So, what’s the key to success when you’re cold-calling? How do you make a good first impression and buy yourself a few more valuable seconds? What should you say and how should you say it? Realistically, what should your aims be when you’re cold-calling?

Here to answer these and other key questions is small-business marketing specialist, Tracy Heatley. Based on many years of practical experience, Tracy shares her insight on how to achieve better results when cold-calling potential new customers.

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It’s often said that a business’s most valuable asset is its people – and that includes you. Your team’s talent, knowledge, hard work and commitment will be what enables your business to succeed. But to make the most of your team, getting the necessary training is essential. And that’s an ongoing challenge, of course. New talent must also be brought onboard, too, and trained to the necessary standard.

Natalie Cahill, CEO of work-based training provider, Fareport, explains how to use funded training and upskilling to ensure the success of your business now and into the future.

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If you’ve shopped at John Lewis, Selfridges, Oliver Bonas or a large number of smaller independent retailers in the UK, you may well have seen The Bottled Baking Co products. They’re available in a wide range of mouth watering flavours and varieties. The company sells ready-measured baking mixes that contain all of the dry ingredients you need to bake delicious cookies, cakes, brownies, tray bakes and more, all conveniently within a lovely glass bottle. The Bottled Baking Co has even collaborated with M&S to create bottles containing Percy Pig and Colin the Caterpillar sweets as part of their brownie ingredients.

In this new Start-Up Story, Leeds-based The Bottled Baking Co founder Greg Fraser looks back to the key challenges he overcame before launching his business in 2016, while explaining where his fantastic business idea came from and how he turned it into a successful business. So, what are the key ingredients when you want to start and run a successful and innovative food business?

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When you start your own business, you must minimise your start-up costs, because then your business starts to make a profit much sooner. If you have to shell out for stock, it increases your start-up costs considerably. And you tie up money you could have used to run your business, while there’s also a risk that you’ll be left with stock you can’t shift.

For many small businesses, print on demand provides the perfect solution. If you sell printed items such as greetings cards, wall art/posters, T-shirts, mugs, water bottles or a wide range of other items, print on demand enables you to get the exact amount of products you need after you’ve made a sale, which is far better for your cash flow. And you can trial new products without having to shell out big sums of money.

In this new Start-up Story, Ruth Sparkes of poster/wall art brand Nordhuset explains how she started her own business and she shares her key start-up tips. She also explains what role the global pandemic played in her Nordhuset start-up story and how your business can get the very best out of print on demand.

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Confidence is said to be everything. That’s not strictly true, because other things in life and business are also important. But, confidence can help you to overcome challenges, build relationships, take risks, deal with setbacks but ultimately achieve great things. You need to have confidence in yourself and your business. So, why might that not be the case? What impact can a lack of confidence have on you and your bottom line? Crucially, what can you do to build up your confidence in yourself and your business and what’s the best way to communicate that confidence to your customers?

In this fascinating episode, which contains lots of practical advice, these and other key questions are answered by Debbie Green, founder of award-winning Wishfish Coaching & Development and co-host of the Secrets From a Coach podcast.

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