{"id":3137,"date":"2011-11-11T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T09:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elysium-uk.com\/site\/?p=3137"},"modified":"2011-11-10T23:33:33","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T23:33:33","slug":"elysiums-guide-to-starting-your-own-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elysium-uk.com\/site\/all-news\/elysiums-guide-to-starting-your-own-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Elysium&#8217;s guide to starting your own business"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal;\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Aspire - have an idea, Desire - want to do something, Achieve - start a business\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6060\/6300452452_c4c99f573e_b_d.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"608\" height=\"406\" \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<p>Despite fears of a &#8216;double dip&#8217; people are still going solo and making their business a success. There are many people who &#8216;<em>Aspire<\/em>&#8216; to start a business but with no prior experience it is not easy.<span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<p>Elysium Magazine spoke to Guy Mucklow, Managing Director of Postcode Anywhere, who sought to &#8216;<em>Achieve<\/em>&#8216; his &#8216;<em>Desire<\/em>&#8216; to start his own business. Guy has provided some helpful hints on how to start your own business:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>1. \u00a0Getting the business model right<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p>We were fortunate in stumbling across the right model.\u00a0 The key points to consider are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ensure that you get paid up front.\u00a0 Cash flow is crucial.<\/li>\n<li>make sure that the service or product is attractive across many sectors.\u00a0 The wider the potential audience, the less sensitive the business will be to cyclical swings in the economy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>2.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t try and re-invent the wheel<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p>Find a better way of making it turn.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>3.\u00a0 Play to your strengths<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p>Small businesses are far more agile, innovative and can offer a more personal service than their larger competitors by virtue of the fact that they are less hide bound by process.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>4.\u00a0 It&#8217;s much easier starting a business in a sector where you have prior knowledge and contacts<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>5.\u00a0 Marketing is everything<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p>There are far more failures of great products\/services that have been poorly marketed than poor products\/services that have been well marketed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>6.\u00a0 Timing is crucial &#8211; both in relation to the economic cycles &amp; to technology cycles<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p>E.g.\u00a0trying to sell a new piece of technology that is reliant on an infrastructure which doesn&#8217;t exist, is impossible<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" title=\"Guy Mucklow\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6110\/6300599094_df228f5ef2_b_d.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"125\" height=\"186\" \/>Use these tips when thinking about starting your own business. Before founding Postcode Anywhere with Jamie Turner in 2001, Guy was finance director for the family property business, A&amp;J Mucklow Group Plc. He left the company at the height of the dotcom boom to realise a lifelong ambition to establish and manage his own. Prior to this, Guy spent over ten years as a fund manager at Invesco Plc. Guy is a chartered financial analyst, chartered secretary, and holds an MBA. A passionate follower of Worcester Rugby Club and sometime golfer, he is married with three children.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For further information visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.postcodeanywhere.co.uk\">www.postcodeanywhere.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guy Mucklow, Managing Director of Postcode Anywhere, provides Elysium his top tips to start your own business. Despite the gloomy outlook, many are using the recession as a way of encouraging innovation by starting a business &#8211; use these tips to ensure you are a few steps ahead.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[274,1,277],"tags":[3703,328,3700,326,3701,344,327,331,330,329,343],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.elysium-uk.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/6300452452_c4c99f573e_b_d.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elysium-uk.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elysium-uk.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elysium-uk.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elysium-uk.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elysium-uk.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.elysium-uk.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elysium-uk.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elysium-uk.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elysium-uk.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elysium-uk.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}