Have you been running your own business part time for a while and are now pondering if you could make it a full time thing?

Or perhaps you’ve been dabbling with the idea of starting your own business but haven't quite taken action yet and jumped right in.

Those who choose to run their own business do so for various reasons. Maybe it suits your family more, or perhaps you are following a dream. Whatever your reason is, deciding to take the plunge and start running your own business is a huge step - it takes confidence, funding and a robust plan of action!

Here are some important points to consider when making the decision to finally go for it and make the leap:

Starting an Online Business is Hard Work

Starting an online business is hard work; you need to make sure you have the mindset and willingness to give it 100%.

If you are driven, enthusiastic and passionate about your business idea, then you should sit down and carefully think about what it takes to run your own...

Before starting an online business, you must confirm that there are actually going to be customers (demand) for your product or service.  It sounds pretty basic stuff but you would be amazed how many start up entrepreneurs get so wrapped up in turning their ideas into reality that they completely forget this! 

It's time to do your market research thoroughly to ensure that you truly understand who you are selling to and more importantly if they want to buy and if they are ready to buy.

So how do you go about doing this?  

Well, a good way of actually finding out if people will buy your product is to ask them!   So here's several things that you can do to validate the market and test if there really is demand for your exciting business idea:

Step 1: Deep Dive Survey

You can create a survey and send it to your target audience.  Just ask them outright what it is they find challenging with your topic or which problems...

Got that burning ambition to start an online business?

Are you wriggling around with excitement at the thought of what might be possible in the future... if you can just make it all happen?

If you have already nailed your business idea and you are feeling "heck-yeah" ready to take the plunge, then it's time to think seriously about the ownership journey ahead of you.

According to MicroBizMag, 57.6% of start up companies were gone 5 years later and 65% of UK employees want to start their own business.

Running your own business sounds like the dream, but the reality is that it's a lot of hard work. If you are among the 65% who want to start your own business, but don’t want to be within the 57% who’s business fails within 5 years, then tick through these ten questions on our checklist to discover if you are really ready...

 Are you passionate about the business?

When you’re running your own business, you end up eating, sleeping and...

Who of us strives for complete perfection with every aspect of our work? 

Yes, I see those hands up! 

Do you secretly know polishing your work until it shines immaculately, is 100% perfect - is not a productive way to spend your time, but yet you do it anyway? 

I think most of us know deep down it is far better to aim for PROGRESS, not perfection. We all want to move our business forward - so why don't we embrace it and just stop "polishing"?  When is good enough, good enough?

What is it like to be a perfectionist?

According to Personal Excellence ‘perfectionists’ seek to achieve a perfect element in everything they do. They refuse to accept anything less than this level, no matter what the toll this takes on their health or business.

Perfectionists will set the barrier extremely high in terms of the standards of performance that should be achieved for work and projects.

Sound familiar?

You are often very...

So many online businesses that I work with come to realise that they aren't structured as they need to be, for growth and success.

From not delegating effectively, to not investing in systems to help you scale and the classic - avoiding a hard review of any kind of performance on a monthly basis (also known as the "Ostrich head in the sand" method of running a business!)... 

We've all been there and can hold our hands up to this at somepoint, right?

You see it is so easy to get bogged down in the "doing", so much so, that we forget to lift our heads up and make time to put these fundamental building blocks in place.

So today, that changes!  Read on to find out how.

What do I mean by structure?

#smoothoperator #processforeverything

When I talk about structure – I mean the basic foundational building blocks your business needs to have in place in order to grow and operate at scale.  Typically this includes:

• Controls & Review Points
• ...

Having a niche can make or break your online business.  Yes it really is that important!

Discovering your profitable niche and one that you are genuinely passionate about is the key to success in eCommerce and online businesses. As they say there are riches in niches...

So why is this the case?  Surely if I narrow my offering right down to such a small segment, it means I will loose out on sales?

Not so my friend, not so... in fact quite the opposite.

The secret power of niches

You see having a niche allows you to get specific about what you do as a business, and who your target audience is. 

It allows you to tailor absolutely everything you say as if you are talking to one very specific person...and that will make them fall in love with you even more! They will be shouting "finally! someone gets me!"...

You can and should analyse profitable niches before you start your business to help you select the best market to play in.  So, if you are...

When it comes to growing your online business, if you are anything like I am, you will have very ambitious ideas for how it will take off.

But have you stopped to consider that the only way to ensure your exciting ideas actually succeed is to have a very clear plan of action?

You need an ambitious plan that sets direction for each stage of growth in your business.  That helps you get there step by step. Fast.

So let me tell you more about a tool I have used throughout my Entrepreneurial career, so that you can use it to achieve your goals and create that success you want.

Before we begin: Get clarity on your goals

One of the biggest challenges that online businesses face, that always gets in the way of realising ambition, is not having clear long term goals.  I covered this in my last coaching club session:  How To Power Up With Simple Goal Setting. 

Your goals need to be well defined...

When it comes to setting goals for your online business growth, it's vital you know exactly what you want to achieve first - your vision - BEFORE you start creating your ultimate wish list of things to get done this year.

That's where, in my experience, most business owners go wrong - they just don't set their goals within the wider context of what they are actually trying to achieve and what they are passionate about long term. 

It leads to your goals feeling a bit pointless or unachievable ...and when you feel like that about the goals you've set, more often than not, you shrug your shoulders and ignore them, pretending you didn't set them in the first place! 

Sounds familiar right? We've all done it...

So it's time to get back to basics and power up your online business performance by starting with a simple goal setting process you will actually stick with!

My step by step guide below details exactly what you need to know to...

For many entrepreneurs, when it comes to managing your small business, the focus is often on driving sales to grow the business and not on the super smooth day-to-day running of it.

If you find yourself leaping from one fire-fighting scenario to the next, just pause and lift your chin up for a moment - you might see that the root cause of all your pain is actually the underlying process (or lack of one!).

Why is standardising your business processes important?

You may have started the business as a sole trader and wonder why you need to bother with creating standard processes and writing it all down for what you do.  I get it - even the word process sounds boring, like it belongs in a stuffy corporate manual somewhere and surely not needed for your agile, super savvy online start up? right?

wrong.

As you grow the business, you take on more staff and more customers - and the amount of work it takes to make sure you do...

For many businesses, April is the start of the new financial year and time for a fresh start, both in terms of financial objectives and business growth goals. 

It's time to review the old financial year and work out what went well and get very clear on what exactly, (or who) didn't deliver to expectations.

I wanted to share with you my 5 Step framework to help you evaluate your past year and unlock the business growth lessons, so you can plan for success next time:

Step 1: Make it real: Write it down

Get a piece of paper or open a fresh online google docs and make a list of:

• all the things that went well over the year and;
• the things that didn’t go so well. 

Pro tip: Go through your diary month by month if it helps you remember and make sure that you’re honest with yourself about what happened. Capture as much as you can.

Once you have your 2 lists, you can then assess what you would do differently or more of, next time. Make...