I'm sure you've heard the one about "Failing to plan is planning to fail" and, equally, "If you don't know where you are going, how are you going to get there?"

Reveling in my divorce from the, often seemingly petty discipline of the corporate world, I'd become rebelliously lazy when it comes to the boring detail of planning.

One starts a project off with plenty of enthusiasm, but without a defined road map, when the going gets tough, it's clear why the not-so-tough get going nowhere.

Yes, I'm as guilty as the next person: as you, probably. Isn't it easy to think these things don't matter when you are just one "little person"? Nothing could be more wrong.

UK-based Corporate Recovery specialists, Begbies Traynor
http://www.begbies.com (who seem to have taken over the
vacated Arthur Andersen office in Birmingham I used to be
based at), say "Preparation is key for start-ups"

And you'd think that was obvious, wouldn't you? But ...

Their recent "Back to the Future" survey of 200 entrepreneurs found that "over 50% considered themselves inexperienced when they started up their businesses and almost half wished they had been better prepared."

It still amazes me why anyone would be that daft. It's one thing to take calculated risks once you have knowledge to back them up, but "wishing" you'd prepared more is no better than saying you "wish" you have the winning ticket! Also, I'm assuming they asked "real world" folk, because with the relative ease of slapping anything together that does a passable impression of being business, means that "preparation" and "online" are virtually conflicting terms.

Yet, the basic requirements for conducting business are not
and have never been different, online or off and, the basic
requirements to succeed in something are to know what it is
in which you wish to succeed and how you're gonna do it!

Nick Hood, Senior Partner at Begbies Traynor, offers the
following three nuggets of advice and wisdom:

* Take heed from what other people before you have learned

* Do background research in your intended market

* Get your business plan right

And, isn't that the same as every "guru", non-guru and his
dog preaches day in, day out? Please sit up and listen, do
your homework, or become another "recovery" statistic!

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Copyright © 2003 Pamela Heywood
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