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This is the final milestone in preparing our Business (Ad)venture for lift off - Part 9 (step 12) of the process I have recorded for starting up my business. The previous steps and posts are given below. Step 1 – Draw up a list rough list of what needs to be done Step 2 – Identify any knowledge gaps Step 3 – Identify a suitable training course Step 4 – Attend the course T-8 – notes can be found here Step 5 – Learning all about business accounts T-7 – notes can be found here Step 6 – Finishing and passing the course T-6 – notes can be found here Step 7 – Deciding the format of how the business will trade T-5 – notes can be found here Step 8 – Finishing the Business Plan T-4 Step 9 -– Getting the Bank Account sorted T-3 Step 10 – Agreeing Business Designs T-2 Step 11 - Grant Application T-1  Sun rise over Kielder Water Actually starting trading does seem to be a slightly vague term. I took it to be the day when I actually got round to registering with HMRC http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/register.htm#4 . They take it as the day that the partnership was formed, though I do think that is a bit optimistic as one can't really do that much until the banking is all in place. What ever - we are now in business and looking towards the future. So now got to work hard to get our business Hungry Giraffe up and trading and not enjoying the country side, and celebrating as we have our first sales lead – just need to turn it into a sale..It is a good job that the sun has gone in and the rain come back again. 
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This is part 8 (step 11) Grant Application results - (not all the steps have blog entries against them) of my blog recording the count down to setting up my own business. With any project it is good to have a set of milestones, and these blog entries record some of these milestones Step 1 – Draw up a list rough list of what needs to be done Step 2 – Identify any knowledge gaps Step 3 – Identify a suitable training course Step 4 – Attend the course T-8 Step 5 – Learning all about business accounts T-7 Step 6 – Finishing and passing the course T-6 Step 7 – Deciding the format of how the business will trade T-5 Step 8 – Finishing the Business Plan T-4 Step 9 -– Getting the Bank Account sorted T-3 Step 10 – Agreeing Business Designs T-2 This leave one final entry - Step 12 – Start Trading  Spring Lamb Two months ago it seemed a good idea to apply for an Action Area grant from Northumberland national park as we live within one of their Action Areas towards our start up costs. More details on grants can be found here Colin Earnshaw, Community Enterprise Officer gave me some good advice and help with completing the form, and the application was duly submitted mid April.  After a 27 day wait and having to provide some supporting documents including my business plan, I hear that a small grant has been awarded towards the start up costs, and providing samples. So now got to work hard to get our business Hungry Giraffe up and trading and not enjoying the country side
This is part 7 (step 10) (not all the steps have blog entries against them) of my blog recording the count down to setting up my own business. With any project it is good to have a set of milestones, and these blog entries record some of these milestones
 Hungry Giraffe Logo Initially we were going to have a series of separate businesses but on advice we decided to merge them all into one, and as such wanted a catchy name, that would allow various different brands. Also a name that would tie in with one of our wild-scape images. So we came up with the name Hungry Giraffe  fullers FOLIO Website As we had already come up with a series of interrelated names for the various now brands within Hungry Giraffe  fullers WEB Website We choose a palette of colours based on the colours being used to make the Hungry Giraffe logo mainly yellows, browns and green.  fullers IT Website Originally the Hungry Giraffe site was also going to follow this colour collection, but probably due to the enormous amount of rain (and snow) that there has been recently, it has shifted slightly.  Hungry Giraffe Website The main home page has three images that reflect the three brands then blue for water, green grass and the dark night skies predominate the rest of the site. Hopefully giving a stunning clean clear look to it, which can be easily merged with our existing documentation.
This is part 6 (not all the steps have blog entries against them) of my blog recording the count down to setting up my own business. With any project it is good to have a set of milestones, and these blog entries record some of these milestones
Number 1 – It is probably a good idea to have a different bank for ones business to that which you use for your home banking. It makes it easier to differentiate between them both for you and for the bank. Form comments made some banks seem much worse than others at this Number 2 – It is a good idea to have a bank that has a real person, who you can talk to across a table as your business advisor, not just a random person at the end of the phone.  Padlock Number 3 – Bank charges – different banks charge varying amounts for different things, and it is good to try and choose one that will give you an account that minimises these charges. Ideally you will have already worked out where your sales are coming from and how the sales will be made as part of the business plan so you can work out how the money is going to come in and in what form. Put this into a simple spreadsheet along with the potential charges and see what comes out. You may be surprised at the result. Over the medium term say 5 years an account with low charges but a short free period may well work out less than an account with slightly longer free period but steeper charges. The thing to check is that you are not locked in and cannot escape.  Supporting Link Number 4 – Location and opening times of nearest branch – Yes you can do lots over the phone and via the internet, but sometime you will need to go into a branch (putting cheques into an envelope and putting it into the post does not seem the most reliable way of handling income)
Number 5 – Your view on how it has behaved with regard to the banking crisis over the last few years. (Maybe you think this is not relevant, but another way of looking at it is the ethics of the bank) So having done all these things, the next thing to do is to draw up a short list, and visit them. It does no harm in visiting your personal bank and asking them what they will offer. You will have to tell them anyway that you are starting out in business and you can then use their offering as a reference point and all other ones should be better than that. All in all this process took us about a month, but once we had found an account that we liked and signed all the relevant bits of paper, amazingly the account is up and running within the 5 working days promised. Hopefully over time the bank we have chosen will act as a support to our business, and perform better than expected. This is part 5 of my blog recording the count down to setting up my own business. With any project it is good to have a set of milestones, and these blog entries record some of these milestones
 Lamb Recently this has all been about numbers. My word processing package gives details of revisions and total time spent working on the document. I was amazed to find that it had had 122 revisions and I had spent just under 32 hours writing this 29 page document. It is a bit of a false claim to say that the business plan is finished as it is a living document, and will be updated very regularly especially the section on finance.  Twelve This is all about the numbers and trying to work out what will happen with them over the next twelve months. Fortunately our plans are not that grand so the numbers are reasonably small, so if we have got them wrong there should be wriggle room. Roughly twenty years ago I was involved in a project that was dealing with millions and the gearing ratio was fairly high. It seemed that everyone and their aunt wanted to see the monthly sales (& profit) figures. When they weren't quite up to mark the invoices were Factored out to generate short term better figures. Fortunately for that business things improved and the numbers went back on track.  Relaxing Goat I am sure once we do get to the point of starting trading then we will be comparing the real figures with those we have in the Business Plan. Lets hope they are better than we have got written down. What we must not do is sit back and rest, but strive on to get to the point where we start trading.
This is part 4 of my blog recording the count down to setting up my own business. Part 1 can be found here Part 2 can be found here and Part three here Today's post considers what type of business we are going to be. For a small business there are really four options:
For the second two the rules are not so complex, though adequate records need to be kept. National Insurance is class 2 and 4. There are also differences about how losses can be offset.  Two rusty wheels Having considered all the options, and going through all four of them over the last four months, we have finally decided on a Partnership. One of the other advantages of the last two options is that it is much easier to change status from 4 to 1 rather than the other way round.  Two worker bees Not that I think of the partnership as a pair of old rusty wheels rather more a pair of slick worker bees as can be seen here.
Now having made decided what we are going to trade as we can now finish our business plan. This is part 3 of my blog recording the count down to setting up my own business. Part 1 can be found here and part 2 can be found here  Celebrate Today's post is all about celebration as I have passed the pne “Start your own business course” and got my certificate of achievement to stick on the wall. 8 weeks of blood sweat and tears!!!! In fact it was a very interesting and useful course taken by some knowledge lecturers, especially Melissa Middleton the course leader.  Kielder Sunrise Now the real work starts and I have to finish off my financial (guesses) forecasts – cash flow, sales, profit and loss etc. for the business plan allowing me to finish off the plan. So that is my next goal get the plan finished. Then I will be able to sort out a bank account. Along with all the 101 things that are coming along. Oh what fun..
But I do need to make sure I have time to enjoy the fantastic weather as well. This is part 2 of my blog recording the count down to setting up my own business. Part 1 can be found here. The subject for this weeks business start-up course was business accounts, or maths as the lecturer Melissa Middleton kept informing us. I happen to like maths and am generally quite good at it, and was rather upset that I got the final National Insurance calculation wrong. I suppose I did have the excuse that it was late in the evening and I was tired and hungry. This is a good warning that doing such things as cash flow forecasts and profit and loss calculations should not be done when too tired as it is so easy to make mistakes  Cloud Reflection Earlier on in the day I had had a review of our Business Plan – where currently at and what needs more thinking, especially the figures. The joke is that it is like looking in a crystal ball that is totally opaque, rather than a cloud in a reflection.  Snail Still life moves on even if it is only at snails pace – role on next week more figures. Hopefully by then I will have this new version of the Business Plan almost finished – all ready for my visit to the bank. No doubt there will be more on that in further posts.
The observant follower may have noticed that over the last few weeks there have been less entries in my blog. This is not because I have forgotten about it, but I have not had time to write anything. In fact I am now two book reviews behind!! You are probably thinking to yourself – what has he been doing to be so busy. Well sadly one of the things is trundling up and down the motorway to the Midlands, helping sorting out my brother Stephen’s estate. The other is working on my new business plans. Yes the current plan is to have our new business venture up and running by the start of May 2012. As part of the planning process for this I am going weekly to business start-up course being run by the pne group at the city library – the lecturer is Melissa Middleton She is very good at keeping us awake and interested even when all we want to do is go home, get some tea and put our feet up rather than thinking about our new business plans. The course runs for 8 weeks and briefly covers all different aspects of business planning. Now half way through the course I thought it would be good to record the process to my business launch. I am sure in the future I will look back at this with feeling- quite what that feeling will be depends on how things turn out. Anyway hopefully I will try and document the next few weeks and record them as a weekly update.  A Jumbled Mess There is some form of process that the mind goes through when transferring a idea or thought down on paper. It means that the idea becomes fixed and recorded at that point in time. The process of writing a business plan makes sure that this is carried out for the business idea. Having committed the words to the plan, it can then further discussed and reviewed, trying to turn the jumbled mess of ideas into an ordered state. The ultimate feedback loop record => review => refine is being carried out. Our business plans have gone through this process. Prior to committing them to paper they have been knocked around for about 6 months The first version of the plan was written following a template from a bank. It was used in several initial discussions, and helped me realise that it would be helpful to go on a course (all be it refresher for me as I have run a business before – a decade ago) to improve our plans. The pne course has provided lots of resources, including a different business plan template. As it ties in with the course then this is the one we are currently working on. Each session in the course covers different areas of business planning and practice, challenging us to put into practice or update our business plans with what we have learnt that week.  Clearer Order The last session was on legal issues. We had a guest speaker Peter Millican the principle of Peter Millican Law http://www.petermillicanlaw.co.uk/ covering the different types of business models. What a brilliant speaker, covering complex issues in a clear and easy to understand manner. This was quite a challenge for me as until then I had thought I was going to set up a limited company, but probably this will be changed to a limited partnership. I did not fully realise that limited partnerships existed before then, nor did I quite realise the complexity of employment regulations that come into play as a limited company. Compliance with these seem a real hindrance to setting up a small company.
So the ideas get refined, and the business plan gets a re-write and the picture becomes clearer. Role on next week – what is going to have to be changed then? |
Tim Fuller
Dyslexic doodles on photography, food (growing, cooking & of course eating), faith and other fascinating things. This is a personal blog expressing my views. Archives
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