How to become your own bossBy Lucy Wallis BBC News
Richard Reed
Ever wanted to swap the day job for running your own business? It is more achievable than we think, says entrepreneur and founder of Innocent Drinks Richard Reed.
"If you have ever organised a wedding or a holiday for a group of friends you have got what it takes to set up a business," says Reed, who founded his company in 1998 with two friends from Cambridge University.
"It's just about getting a group of people to do a certain number of tasks in a certain amount of time for a certain amount of money. It's like organising a wedding without having to have arguments with the in-laws about what colour the serviettes are."
Reed has been looking for the next generation of start-up businesses to invest in and says that many people with aspirations to run their own company often over-exaggerate the risks involved and under-estimate the potential upside. So what are some of Reed's tips for budding entrepreneurs?
Get the idea right and work with a team
"It is about the idea, your commitment to the idea and your ability to execute that idea," says Reed.
The product or idea is fundamental as it is this that investors will have to believe in if they are going to part with their money. However they will also look at whether the team behind the idea have the skills to deliver it.
Light bulb
"I always say to people who are thinking about setting up a business, why not think about building the team from the beginning," says Reed. "We now invest in businesses and we are much more nervous about businesses which are a single person entity… because somebody needs to be thinking about the finances, someone has got be thinking about the marketing, someone has got to be thinking about the selling.
"You need all those things for the business to work and it's very rare to find someone who is as good financially as they are creatively, or as good selling."
Reed says you can try and find this "band of brothers" on social media sites or by advertising. But for those do want to do it all on their own...
"Work out what skills are needed for you to be able to execute your business well and make sure that you've got those skills. If you don't, make sure you find someone that does. It's like a jigsaw puzzle, you've got to see the bigger picture. What are all the pieces that I need to make sure this business will work, which ones can I cover, which ones do I need someone else to cover."
Be creative about funding
To kick start the business you will need seed capital, or an initial injection of money. Then once the idea is up and running, it is time to seek further investment to grow the business.
"You can try the banks and I think there are more options available to people these days. The government has done quite a lot to make start-up funds available to small businesses, but we got turned down by 20 banks in a row," says Reed who stresses the resilience you need as an entrepreneur when approaching potential investors.
"If you've got a good idea, you are committed enough to it and you are prepared to keep going, you will find someone that does believe in it."
There are also ways of structuring a business without securing the initial funding, says Reed. Some people sell their product to the consumer in advance, before they have to pay out for it.
Reed also encourages creative thinking around new ways to secure investment, such as crowdfunding.
"Rather than get one person to give you half a million quid, you could get half a million people to give you a quid each. "
LIME READ THIS NAOW!
