Business start up in Australia

When starting up in business, Benjamin Franklin's statement 'Time is money' is absolutely right.

Now, should everyone rush immediately into starting up a business? Definitely not. However, rather than ponder and dawdle, many budding entrepreneurs should certainly think about speeding up start-up pace.

I still meet plenty of would-be entrepreneurs who should start up their enterprise straight away. They have the skills and experience. They simply should launch their business into the market.

Unfortunately, they plan, plan and then plan some more ... until they plan their way straight into business oblivion.

So what should you think about when considering the pace of your start up? Here are two key issues certainly worth considering:

1. Where are you in life?

The pressure of time is quite different for people depending on where they are in life's cycle. Here are two examples.

Case A: Take it easy, if you choose

A young lady in her mid 20s commits to start up a business. She has no kids, perhaps an evening part-time job and has low living costs as she resides at 'Mum and Dad's house' where she has a free bed, can raid the fridge free of charge and 'borrow' a range of business items such as phone, ADSL, equipment and furnishings.

In essence, she has time and so if wastes some during start-up, the consequences will probably be nominal..

Case B: Crack the whip!

A man in his mid- 40s is made redundant from his executive level job. He has a wife and a few children to support. Cost of living is pretty expensive with mortgage, car, food, credit card bills %u2026 and plenty of other day to day costs.

Every day that goes by is whittling away the family's money in the bank. Getting started and earning income as fast as possible is absolutely essential. So there is absolutely no time to waste.

2. What type of business will you undertake?

Your ability to set up a business and the time it takes to bring your 'product' to market is very much influenced by the specific type of business you are planning to launch.

Case A: Take some time and focus on investing in the plan

You are planning to launch a new fashion business, starting with one store and hopefully growing the number of stored. As it is start-up retail there are significant costs that need to be covered before you earn a dollar. These include the property lease, designing the shop, fit-out, purchasing stock, pre-launch marketing and staffing %u2026 all before a single customer can walk in the door and buy something from you.

Detailed planning and a schedule timing key milestones is very important to reduce pre-opening costs. Every extra day equals significant and rising costs so it will pay major dividends to micro-manage timing.

Case B: Go! Go! Go! And don't look back.

You plan to open a consultancy business. The start up costs are pretty low as you are using your own intellectual property and people network to lock-away work and run the business. Of course, you will need appropriate business structure, corporate ID and collateral, website, email, insurance and some technology solutions. However, this shouldn't cost so much. As you are probably working out of home or sub-leasing space, you do not have significant overheads for premises.

Go out hard. Go out fast. However, flexibility is important so always be on the alert to meld your business to what the market is demanding. Planning does have a place. Yet, compared to getting real-time feedback straight from your market, it is limited.

If you are thinking about starting a business, remember 'time really is money'. Keep in mind that the implications of time are very much dependent on your personal situation. So ask yourself, just where are you at?

To read more articles on starting a business in Australia, go to http://www.business-switch/resources

Many people who start a business wonder if they have what it takes to make a go of it. They often compare themselves to leading entrepreneurs like Richard Branson or Donald trump.

However, should they? Are such entrepreneurs the best role models for people starting a business? And what does a typical business founder look like?

Statistics just released by the Kauffman Foundation on entrepreneurs do shed some light. The findings show that people who start a business in America:

- Have an average age of about 40
- Have a decent education
- Are predominantly middle class backgrounds, with less than 1% coming from the super rich or very poor backgrounds
- Mainly married and with children, and
- About 50% wanted to start a business from an early age (but 37% never even thought about it until they decided to start up).

In essence, people who start up in business are, well, pretty normal.

Interestingly, about half of the people in the survey started their first company after first spending 10 years or more in a job working for someone else.

This all suggests entrepreneurs like the Google gurus are a statistical rarity. Probably as unlikely as a scenario as seeing a 80 year old with no work experience starting a business!

At Business Switch we start up lots of businesses. In our experience, the majority of people who start up are pretty normal people doing truly amazing things; using their skills and expertise, investing in the future and taking control of their destiny.

So, instead of the Google Gurus, perhaps we should be looking for motivation and inspiration locally. From the neighbourly doctor, sail maker, dentist, bricklayer, guitar store, marketing company, courier company t or the hundred of other businesses that engage us in daily life.

They are all 'entrepreneurs in action'. If you look to them for inspiration, you may well be better positioned to answer the question "Do I have what it takes?"

* The full report 'Anatomy of an Entrepreneur' can be downloaded from www.business-switch.com.au/resources

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Business Switch is Australia's only dedicated business start up team, providing fast, fixed-fee services. The company has achieved national attention and significant acclaim for bringing start-up services 'out of the dark ages'.

For further information - www.business-switch.com.au