Book Review - Anyone Can Do IT - Sahar and Bobby Hashemi

Anyone Can Do It: Building Coffee Republic from Our Kitchen Table - 57 Real Life Laws on Entrepreneurship

I picked this book up at Oxfam. Ironically i started reading it in Starbucks, when i looked up i was staring right across at a Coffee Republic. Now, feeling slightly guilty about choosing the competitors coffee shop.

This is a great book. Unlike all the other books i have read so far, this one actually tells you about the exact steps the founders took to start up a successful chain, with links, references, and usable todo lists. Inside are copies of their original business plan, which make fascinating reading, and faxes sent between the founders, whilst doing there market research.

Sahar and Bobby real did start out knowing next to nothing about their chosen business, they had to learn everything they needed to know about coffee and the coffee business in the UK and the USA, which at the time were very different than today. The fact that they had very little experience is very encouraging, but as people they were both are obviously well educated, with experience in law and finance and therefor had a lot of the skills they needed for the research and planning stages of the business, which must have helped a lot.

This is definitely a book i will keep and refer to as i write my business plan and do my research (if i ever get its back, as i have already loaned it out). 

Merry Christmas

Today i am planning to take some time off from planning and research for my new business. Visiting family and eating lots. Happy Christmas to you and i hope everybody on blog land has a good one.

Week 3 - My Reality (Where are you now?)

Reality is my biggest obstacle to starting my own business. And no, I don't think that it actually should matter. There are certainly businesses that can be started whilst living in a hostel, but i am not really that attracted to any of them.

Not my hostel: but you get the picture, right?

This chapter of Start Your Business Week by Week, deals with assessing where you are now in terms of finance and time.

So i read this chapter a few weeks ago, and have not really picked up this book since. Its not that i have not been working on my self-employment project its just that writing a whole blog post on how my life sucks is not where i want to be. I know i have problems, and doing things like PSB (Personal Survival Budget) PMB (Personal Monthly Budget) and PAA (Personal Asset Assessments) or what every you want to call them, is not going to help me much. For instance i cant even fill out the rent/mortgage box, because i live in a hostel and my rent is variable. Also after nearly 6 weeks of trying to find accommodation in London i am loosing some of my hope and i am starting to think that maybe i'll have to plan a business around living in a hostel, at least for now. 

The book also tells you to do a credit check, as i am not on the electoral roll and don't have a fixed address, could be tricky. So i have decided to leave this until such time when i need to. False economy probably, but i could just be causing myself one big head ache by trying to do it now.  

On the plus side of this is that i do still have some savings left (rapidly disappearing) and i don't have any debts. So i am not going to be struggling for money, at least for now. 

I am though finding it almost incomprehensible how you can be homeless, yet not be ridiculously poor. I have just been on a search for accommodation on NYE. The few places that still have rooms left are ridiculously expensive. I am sure if i had left it any longer i would have had to spend NYE on a park bench. This just brings home to me how important having stable accommodation is. I need to up the accommodation search. 

Long moan over!

In other news i have finished the Business Start-Up course in Clapham. It was amazing and so inspirational. It has made me think and do thing differently than i otherwise would. I have move forward with my market research and have a better idea about what it is i need to do to get started. I have also realized several problems with my plans and i am working to correct them. 

Book Review - Losing my Virginity - Richard Branson

Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography, by Richard Branson

I love reading biographies, Real people often have much more interesting lives than that of fictional characters. 

I have held Virgin in high esteem for as long as i can remember. I think it was comfortable trains that clinched it. Then in 2009 when Zavvi collapsed. A close relative of mine was working in a Virgin Media outlet, in one of the Zavvi stores. At that time most Virgin Media shops were located as outlets inside Zavvi stores. Virgin Media could have made masses of people redundant on Christmas Eve 2009, whilst they found alternative locations for there stores across the UK. Instead they kept paying there staff and helped them find alternative work, whilst they opened new shops. She sat home for a good few months, until she was needed at a local store. This is in stark contrast to how my employer was treating me at the time, and how many others i knew were being treated as they were being made redundant, or just generally squeezed. I have always told her how lucky she is to work for a company that has some respect for its staff. She does not listen (probably as she does not have much experience of the alternative) and still complains about work.

Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography book covers Richard Branson's Life up to 2007. Starting as a child and then how he started his first business, creating a student magazine, called 'Student'. I think it is a bit strange that somebody would drop out of school and start a magazine aimed at students, as he was no longer at school or in any formal training, but that seems to be Richard Branson all over.  From this magazine sprang Virgin, first selling mail order records and then as a shop and later record company. In the first few years he seems to have started most of his adventures on a shoestring/fantasy budget from loans, and seemed to be constantly juggling various loads and overdrafts to finance his business. This is something as a wannabe entrepreneur that scares the hell out of me and in my mind i am not sure i could ever do this. When Richards and Virgin were in financial trouble, he always took to expanding his business to create more money to satisfy the banks. Which is a strategy which seemed to have worked well. Until he ran into British Airways who gave him a run for is money over his airline Virgin Atlantic, he ended up having to sell off the music company to keep the Airline running. Selling off the music company gave him enough money to do what he pleased, with out having to answer to the banks. At which point he seems to have gone into entrepreneurial overdrive.

I found the start and middle of the book very interesting, but i admit i started to flag a bit towards the end. The last 1/4 of the book seemed to be a summing up exerciser and i think this has come from extending it after it had been finished a few to many times. In fact the last part of the book, where he spends most his time talking about all the charity work he has been doing could really just have been written into one chapter, which would have had more impact, instead of boring the reader. 

Week 2 (ish) - To Dream

To Dream..... well if you are anything like me you have spent the last few years doing just this. I am a dreamer.

Dreaming is really important, this is when you come up with new ideas and solutions to problems that you are encountering starting a new business. When my life gets really busy, like it has in the last few weeks, i just forget to dream. But this is when i am at my most creative and as my business will involve huge amounts of creativity, this is defiantly an issue i really need to address. 

So this is the second chapter in the book Start Your Business Week by Week. Its all about dreaming. I am not sure that taking a week just to dream is really that important, though. I think that dreaming is an ongoing process and if it was not for dreaming then most people would not be picking up a book called week by week to starting your own business. But that said, you never know. So basically this chapter was getting you to define your dream and goals of where you want to be in the future. As i am already a dreamer in real life any way this chapter did not take much thought.

The author also recommends using a pin-board or pinterest.com to picture your dreams. I already use pinterest to picture the future and catalog my achievements in these dreams. Though none go as far forward as 10-20 years. http://www.pinterest.com/knottedrose/boards/

This is  is where i see myself in 10 years:

I see myself owning a small house in the UK, either in Central London or somewhere remote, beautiful yet well connected. Apart from the bedrooms, the house has two main rooms a craft room where i can make my own cloths and work on my ideas and a comfortable living space.

My second home is in North Queensland, Australia. Where i have a sea front bungalow, surrounded by jungle, with a swimming pool over looking the sea. My third house is a small easy to maintain apartment in the Alps (French or Swiss), where i can go skiing at the weekend.

As far as work goes, i want to still be working, but taking a more creative roll in the business and have managers to run the day to day stuff. I also see my self taking more time out to do more traveling, sometimes just weekends but often for months at a time. In 10-20 years time i will still be fit enough to trek through the Andes.

An Update of Where I am Now

Apart from reading this book and trying to implement its steps, the most productive thing that i have been doing is attending a 4 week training course in Clapham (South London). I was sent there by the Job Centre and so far it has been amazing. We have been covering things such as all the financial stuff such as cash flow, Profit/loss and how much money your business need to make before its making money. Stuff which i had not even looked at before, let alone tried to work out. It has also pushed me to think about things that i would have never thought about before, and i can now see a way forward to actually making my business happen. 

The place where i am really failing to make progress is finding suitable accommodation. London is just so ridiculously expensive and finding a room in a shared house, that is big enough for me and my hobbies/business is proving difficult. The main problem being is that homeowners and agents wont rent out spare rooms to low paid and unemployed people, even if they have savings enough to cover the rent. So i might have to find a way to make living in a hostel work. 

Book Review - Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Wow, I read a whole book, in one sitting. I can not tell you how long it has been since that happened. I used to read loads of books, but i just have not been grabbed by one in the last few years. Well now I know why, I should have been reading books on personal finance and not fiction! Who would have thought?!

So for my first book review. I chose Rich Dad Poor Dad, because it was recommended in Start Your Business Week by Week and because when I used to work in a bookshop (many years ago) it was very popular, and it still occupies a prominent space in the book shelves today. So it must be good right?

This book is an easy read. Its not too long and it uses fairly simple language to get through its quite simple message. The book starts by telling the story of Robert's two dads, the 'poor dad' is his real dad and the 'rich dad' is the father of his best friend. In the book when Robert asks his rich dad how my make money, the rich dad sets him and his friends a series of tasks to get them to think for themselves. First teaching them about how it feels to be poor and followed by getting others to do the work for you (getting money working for you). Then the importance of financial literacy. 

This is not the kind of book that tells you how to make money, just how to think about making money. In all the message is simple, financial literacy is of vital importance, and buy assets and not liabilities. This book does not tell you how. It is inspirational and can give you a direction for further reading. Therefore if buy assets and not liabilities seems obvious, i suggest that you buy a book on the practicalities of managing you money. 

Also another point i would like to make is, you will never find the riches in life, be it in money wealth or happiness, sitting around waiting for something to happen. You have to be proactive and make it happen. Nothing is impossible, and it is with in most peoples means to make most things happen. It is just that most people don't try, or are convinced that they cant do something because they don't have money, time etc. I know in my own life that this is true and it is a point that Robert makes in the book very well.

The main thing i shall take from the book is that i should really educate myself about accounting, bookkeeping and how money works, so i can make better decisions about my own money and i can see when things are not going well. 

What Am I To Do?

I am only in my first week of keeping this blog and my Business Start-Up course, but i am still suffering from the problem that i haven't quite defined my end goal. I know that i want a market stall, on a touristy/high end market, but i haven't fully decided what i am going to stock on my market stall. It is making some of the exercise we do in class, based on our business ideas, hopeless. As one minuet i am fully for a Jewelry stall and the next a yarn stall. 

This is not a new problem for me, it has taken me years to narrow down just what it is i would like to do, and even now i don't believe that either of these two options is the end game.

When i started dreaming about being my own boss, the ideas i were having about the type of business i would like to run would ranged from hostels and hotels, to coffee shops and clothing stores. Now i have narrowed this down to a market stall. My reasoning behind a market stall, is the low(ish) start up costs and a market stall being mobile, as i often find my self moving a lot. I also would like to work in the slightly posher markets, such as farmers markets and touristy city markets, such as Spitalfield or Portobelo Road markets, because i enjoy the fun atmosphere. 

So now i have narrowed my choices down to two ideas. A yarn stall selling mid priced to expensive yarns and a jewelry stall selling, mid priced and handmade jewelry. These are both somewhat based on my hobbies.

Here are the Positives and Negatives as i see them currently. 

Yarn Stall Positives

• I knit and have a good knowledge of knitting and techniques
• I see a market, for a good yarn stall in the right area.
• Would fit in nicely with my other blog knottedrose.blogspot.com.
• People buy more than one ball at a time, especially when they want to make larger items such as jumpers.
• This is potentially a growing market.
• Only really a handful of expensive yarn shops in London/UK.
• My heart says yarn.

Yarn Stall Negatives

• I would have to carry all the yarn on public transport in order to get it to the market, this would limit how much variety i could stock.
• I would have to store in at home, as home would be a room in a rented house, again this could be a problem.
• The market is very limited to knitters.
• Low demand for yarn in the warmer months.

Jewelry Positives

• Almost all women and some men buy jewelry.
• Would not need extra space for storage.
• I could accessorize the things (dresses) i make on my blog, and advertise like that.
• I could compact my stall/stock down to a reassemble size (one or two suit cases), and take on public transport.
• I could stock my own hand made jewelry. 
• I would not need too much special expertise.
• I am going to be studying jewelry making part time and therefor would gain potential useful contacts.
• Could sell all year round. though obvious peak towards Christmas and trough in January.
• Could sell on internet and expand to other accessories. 

Jewelry Negatives

• The jewelry market is over saturated with sellers. 
• Would need to offer something very unique.
• Finding good quality suppliers, styles would be more confusing than yarn as i have less expertise.

Conclusion

So with this in mind i should probably go for Jewelry, but my heart says yarn. However if i am successful at selling jewelry there is nothing stopping me experimenting with yarn at a later date, while i keep the jewelry stall going too. 

I am Unexpectedly Starting a Business Course

On Wednesday i was crouched on the floor of the accounting section of Waterstones, when i received a phone call from the Job Center saying that they were initiating disciplinary action because i failed to attend sign-on interview. Opps, it was totally my fault. I had not read all my bumph from the job center properly and had failed to notice i had to sign on so soon. I was aware of the next date, but not the first, it had just got lost in all the disorganization in my suitcase. One of the down sides to living in a hostel.

I hate the job center and i do everything in my power not to sign-on, when i am unemployed. But now, despite the fact i am not totally broke, i realise that i need to sign-on in order to pay enough stamp, so i can collect a full pension when i retire. This is because i have had so many periods when i have been working/studying abroad or been unemployed but not claiming. Also having a little money coming in helps while i sort out my business, or find a full time paid job.

So on Thursday i marched into the job center with my booklet filled out, explaining that i am now working part-time (though not nearly enough) and have had enough of the job center and their rude staff and stupid rules, which in my opinion hold people back from finding work.

This last part went wrong, when i was directed to my adviser, who i had yet to meet, who happened to be one of the more helpful members of the Job Centre staff. He managed to persuade me to stay signed on, and when i mentioned i was looking to go self-employed, he immediately signed me up to a Business Start Up Course, which i would not have to pay for as long as i was still claiming.

So i jumped at the chance. Now i am going to study 3 days a week for 4 week. The course covers, things such as business plans, marketing, bookkeeping, tax, profit and loss. I am so excited at now i feel as though i see a way through the mine field of the unknown and wading through tons of books on the floor of Waterstones, trying to find inspiration and a path.

The moral of this story is if you are unemployed don't assume that the job center cant or wont help you start a business. Maybe they can do more for you than you think!

Though i still don't know if they expect me to search for and find a full time job, and what happens to this course if i do find a full time job. Anyway, i am still looking for work, because it will mean that i can move into more permanent accommodation and i will then have a proper address i can register a business to.

Week 1 - Getting Organised

As part of my plan to get me through the process of setting up my own business I am following the book Start Your Business Week by Week, by Steve Parks. The book is divided up in to 26 chapters/weeks. I don't think i will use all of them and i will probably get side tracked at various points, but for now following this book and somebody else's experiences seems like a good plan.

Chapter 1 - The Beginning 

This chapter is mostly focused on getting organised and ready for the months ahead. Simple things like having some where to work and pens and paper and stuff.

Here are the suggestions and what i have done.

Time - Get a calendar and block sessions in you week to work on your business.

This is a little difficult for me as my work situation is unemployed/temp will drop everything to work. So i never really know when i will be free to work on this and when i wont. So my best plan for now is just to put as much effort into this as possible, when i can.

Workspace - Sort out where you are going to work.

I am living in a hostel. So my workspace is basically the bottom bed in a triple bed bunk. This is OK for now, i can just catch the hostels WiFi, and i have curtains around the bunk, so i can get some privacy. The bad point about this situation is that hostels are social spaces and i am often engaged in conversation. I have already learnt that working in the lounge is nearly impossible.

Technology - Its usefully to have access to the internet and computers.

I am lucky in that i have a lap top, WiFi, Smartphone and pretty much use all the recommended programs. Though not sure how i would replace them if the were stolen or broken.

Support and Advice - seek out advice

Some thing exciting happened yesterday. I wont say now because i plan to write a whole post on it, because i have so much to say. Apart from that i want to give www.meetup.com a try. It has been recommended to me by somebody else. So finding other who want to do what i am doing is to be helpful.

Set up an suitable email

I don't have a name for my business yet, so for now i am using my personal email, which is basically just my name, which is not so unprofessional.

Chose some useful and inspiring books 

I have chosen Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert T Kiyosaki and Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography, by Richard Branson. I will review these once i have read them. 

Welcome to My Business Start Up Blog

A few days ago i bought a book, Start Your Business Week by Week, by Steve Parks. Now i am working through it bit by bit. Week 1, it suggests that you start a blog on its website. www.weekbyweek.net/startyourbusiness. I am all in favor of blogs. I have two already and have a few that i started just to experiment with the layout and design. So instead of keeping a blog on the website i have decided to resurrect an old blog, currently called KnottedEarth and blog about my foray into the field of self employment.

I have been thinking about starting a business for so long, i can't even remember when it started. When i started to think about this i just wanted to be my own boss. To run what ever business i was working in better than my current boss. If i was working in a hostel, i would dream of one day owning my own. I would lay out in my head, everything from what kind of bunks and duvet covers i would use to the check-in procedures. When i was in a job i hated, i would day dream about opening my own clothing store, where everything would be handmade by me. I had no idea about how to make any of this a reality, it seemed scary. Some times i would look to find out how much rents in the local shopping mall would cost and i would just be shocked the cost and stop there.

As the years and years have past, i have researched more on the internet. I have had two goes at starting small internet shops (one never had any stock and the other never sold anything). I have also stopped being scared, because i have realised that. That the worst that can happen is that i don't succeeded and end up working a dead end job and living in a hostel. As i am living in a hostel and working as a part time waiteress/housekeeper i figured that i am already at rock bottom and my only real way out is to make my own money.