BUSINESS TIPS – 8 Tips on Stuff you Should know Before you Start a Business – Part 4.

BUSINESS TIPS – 8 Tips on Stuff you Should know Before you Start a Business – Part 4.


By Nikki Viljoen – Viljoen Consulting – November 2014

So far we have looked at how vital it is to get clarity, to put a Business Plan into place, doing the research, avoiding discounts, hiring friends (or even family) and leaving the past behind.  Today we are in the final stretch with the last two tips.

Don’t be afraid to fail
I recently saw one of those motivational posts that said something along the lines of  “The only difference between you and a master is that the master has failed many more times than you’ve even tried”!

The reality is that we fail . . . . .  all the time.  Think about the red robot that stopped you – you failed to go through the green in time, or the meeting that you were late for or even worse missed altogether.  They’re failures, sure not life threatening ones, but failures non-the-less!

Don’t be too hard on yourself when you do fail.  Dust yourself off, learn the lesson from what you did wrong and then discard the failure and move on.  Take the lesson you’ve learnt, put it together with all the things that you did right and move forward.

I started this particular series with a plan, a business plan and I am going to end it with a plan – an action plan!  Clearly planning is of great importance.

The Action Plan
For me, each issue that comes up must have its own plan.  So for example the registration and legal requirements need a plan so that I know what needs to be registered, how (what documents are needed to be completed and/or attached to the registration) and when by.

The administrative process needs an action plan.  What needs to get done, who is going to do it and how – the sales process would feature hugely here.

The operational requirements needs an action plan.  What needs to get done, who is going to do it and how – the deliverables process would typically feature here.

Then of course the HR requirements also needs its own plan.  What employees need to be sourced and recruited and of course how many.  What skills do they need, what are the legal requirements, where do you find them -  what do you need?  So typically you would need things like job specifications, job descriptions, letters of employment and the whole host of policies and procedures.  Issues around who is going to write or supply them and when do you need them by, would feature here.

I have often heard people, from the safety of their cushy corporate jobs you understand, say things like “I want to start my own company – how hard can it be?”

The reality of course is that it is hard -  the reality is that there is a huge amount to do, to research and to understand and if you cannot keep track of it all you will make things a whole lot harder for yourself than they need to be.

So although it might take you a whole heap of time to put the action plans into place, they will most definitely save you a whole lot of time and angst in the long run.

Here we are at the end of this particular series.  I hope that they have been of some help and benefit to you as you start this exciting chapter of your journey.

I wish you good luck, good wishes and good fortune.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za