Start Your Own Business Training

To Prepare the learners for the reality of running and owning a business in a post-Brexit economy. The training manual will be the book written by the trainer:  All the Mistakes (you could make or avoid starting a business in Ireland). It is structured over 11 chapters which are concentrated into 9 classes.

At the end of each chapter there is a practical checklist to support participants through the journey. The Focus of the training is financial viability with the underlying message: Don’t start the business without the strong likelihood of viability.

The 10th class is delivered as an opportunity for participants to pitch their business for 3 minutes a la Dragons Den.  The outcome of the training is a completed business plan which would be suitable for a microfinance application.

Session Outlines:

1. Research & Educate

As you look into starting a business we break the research down into bite-sized pieces of information. This knowledge about the product, market, competitors, key supports is vital in order to make the right kind of informed decision. Is this the right route for you at this time? Can it provide you with the living you need?
What do you already know? What do you need to learn? What new skills do you need if you are to make as few mistakes as possible? The difficulty with this is how are you supposed to know what it is that you don’t know?

2. Arming Yourself to Drive the Business

Having educated yourself, the hardest part of starting a business is not to allow yourself to spend the entire time on operations. A business without a strategy is really just a job with a series of different employers. You the business owner have to DRIVE the business. What does that mean in terms of skills but also in terms of mind-set for the business owner? The strategy developed in this module informs the next session where we develop the actions to implement the strategy We will develop the first financial target to direct the strategy towards viability.

3. Year 1 Business Plan - Presenting Your Business

You are not ready to start a business without a plan. That plan is a roadmap to a destination. It is up to you where that destination is. The management strategy you develop drives the plan. In what units will you measure the success of the first year in business? If you are driving the business wouldn’t it help to know the destination of the journey?

The content of the plan is the first time you present the business so we have to examine the message so that it is presented both verbally and in writing as you would want it. It is the content of the plan that is delivered in session 10 so we also look at the presenting skills.

4. Accounts

These are the weapon of choice for measuring performance. This is the ultimate crash course. I believe that if you know the numbers, from entering them up on a system every week you have your hand on the heartbeat of your business. That is why I strongly encourage learner to at least in the early stages keep your own accounts. By doing so you will understand what is going on in the business below the surface. We will provide a basic excel based system as part of the training.

5. Internet & Communication

These are the weapon of choice for measuring performance. This is the ultimate crash course. I believe that if you know the numbers, from entering them up on a system every week you have your hand on the heartbeat of your business. That is why I strongly encourage learner to at least in the early stages keep your own accounts. By doing so you will understand what is going on in the business below the surface. We will provide a basic excel based system as part of the training.

6. Marketing & Sales

You can do a degree in marketing. Therefore we have to hit some high points on the topic in this short session. We include some points of differentiation from promotion, advertising, PR and of course advertising. We examine some points of differentiation (USP) and offer some guerrilla marketing ideas for reaching your customer. Without marketing you do not have customers and without customers you do not have a business. But Marketing without sales is one of the key mistakes so we will discuss some key sales skills too.

7. Finance & Tax

The Finance section invites you to get to grips with your own relationship with money. Is it a motivator for you? How do you feel about asking a customer to pay you? And quite simply where will you get the money you need to finance the business.

In regard to Tax: It is a fact of life so there is basic information on most of what you will meet and more details where it is more likely you have to deal with it.

8. Insurance & People

Insurance is not optional. We will cover EL PL,PI, Life, Pension, Keyman and exit based policies. Employing people is the most heavily regulated area of business. We will address from recruitment to dismissal and all points in between.

9. Registrations, Safety & Compliance

We operate in a very regulated business world and you need to be sure that there is not a requirement on you to be registered with a regulatory body. We will examine this alongside all the areas surrounding Health and Safety.

10. Pitching the Business

Each business owner presents the business as though they were seeking funding. The audience get to question them as though they were funders or potential clients. This experience often galvanises the business into a real opportunity.

Grow Your Business Workshop

This is most often a workshop model rather than a training. We support learners in the process of growing a business in a post Brexit economy.

The training manual will be thesequel to the book written by the trainer:  All the Mistakes (you could make or avoid starting a business in Ireland) It is structured over 9 chapters and develops strategies for business growth in the micro and small business sector. (This book is as yet untitled and will be published in mid-2020.)

At the end of each chapter there is a practical checklist to support participants through the journey. The 6 sessions will aim to create a stage 2 implementable business plan to allow the owner to achieve full viability and move into growth

The outcome of the training is a completed business plan which would be suitable for a microfinance application.

Session Outlines:

1. Where are we now? Where did we think we would be?

As you look into starting a business it is sometimes crystal ball territory. We begin this with an inventory of where we are and how we got here. Setting the Big Audacious Goal for each of the next three six month cycles We then build a financial target for each period.

We review the skill base in the business with a view to necessary upskilling. What do you need to learn measured as urgent and important? The difficulty with this is how are you supposed to know what it is that you don’t know?

2. Working ON the Business

If the business is to grow that growth has to be driven. The more time spent working on the business the less you can be client facing. This is a delicate balance. We explore what this means for the business. A business without a strategy is really just a job with a series of different employers. You the business owner have to DRIVE the business. What does that mean in terms of skills but also in terms of mind-set for the business owner? We look at strategy and drive it all off the desired achievable finances..

3. The Next Version of the Business Plan: Test and Measure

There has to be a plan. We will write it starting at the financial target, then Marketing and Implementation building structures to measure and duplicate success and eliminate the mistakes. This creates a scale by which we accurately measure. This leads to agility in the market and better response which delivers stronger performance, Profitability.

4. Financial Management & Accounts

Business is ultimately all about the money. Growth costs money with the biggest cost being human. Now we focus on making the business sufficiently robust and financially strong enough to sustain the growth and its associated costs, being tax efficient in putting the investment in place and ensuring that the appropriate supports are in place to ensure the success of the strategy.

5. Marketing and Sales

Where is the market growing? We must follow the money and so the business may need to adapt its marketing and sales strategy. We will explore the best way to identify the ideal new customers, to upsell to existing clients and to explore possible export markets. We will find the right marketing ideas for reaching your new target customer. The target will now be larger and will require different handling so the sales process must also adapt. We will review the required budget in this light.

6. People

Finding the right people to fill roles you used to do and then letting them do the job is a big part of growth. We will review the recruitment process, legal issues around employing people (handbook, contract, conditions, etc) and the insurance and health and safety implications. Finally, we will cover the management of the people.

Business StartUP Bootcamp

A One Day Immersion into the world of Start Up For those just dipping their toes in the water. The session includes the basics on all of the following. Again referring to ‘All the Mistakes’.

  • Change from an employee to a Business Owner
  • Financial support
  • Creating a Business and its Plan
  • Fundamental Management
    • SWOT & USED Analyses
    • The Viability Test
    • Understanding Business Structures
  • Basic Marketing
    • Market Analysis
    • Finding and Targeting the ideal client
    • Building a Marketing Plan and ways to implement it
    • What not to do
  • Selling Skills
    • The sales Process
    • Closing the Sale
  •  Accounts
    • One Minute Accounts
    • Simplifying Jargon
    • Basic Accounts
    • VAT and Income Tax
    • Cash Flow Management
  • Insurance & Employment
  • The Nuts & Bolts of the process

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