H1N1 Vaccine Risk

The major disadvantage to setting up your own business today is the amount of capital required. Very few entrepreneurs start off with enough capital. So you’ve put together a comprehensive business plan and have carefully planned out all of your start-up cost but seldom in life does anything go according to your plan. Established businesses with a proven track record setting up a new venture or launching a new store or branch can afford to invest large sums of capital; the amount of capital a new start-up business hopes to turnover in their first year. A large established business would typically invest £60,000 – £100,000 to launch a new website. A full page colour advertisement in a popular national newspaper with a high readership can cost up to £40,000 alone.    

Larger companies incur the same bank charges as a start-up, but they can get their hands on much larger levels of financial support. Because of their size, banks consider them a lower risk than a start-up. It isn’t a level playing field and don’t let anyone suggest otherwise.  You should compare trying to compete with the big boys with running against them in a race with your feet tied together. The big boys are allowed to use the best running shoes and many times are given a head start just because they can. You’re not going to win so you might as well not try to compete with them.  

When times get tough for the start-up business, you quickly realise just how many people (other businesses) have their hands in your pockets. It doesn’t seem to matter how quickly you can fill you pockets up again someone is back for more. During the good years they want a bigger piece of your pie. They no longer accept just scraps from your cake, now they want the cake and the icing on top. You begin to wonder if you’re in business to feed your family or theirs.  And when it all starts going bad – like during a recession – they don’t give back any of the cake; their stomachs have grown and they demand the same quantity of cake from you. Your costs are the only area of your business that will not even notice a recession going on. Not even a hint. This is the time to call on your capital reserves. Didn’t plan for that though do we? Bank overdraft quickly exceeds the agreed limit and then they stop feeding the vultures. The vultures, one by one move in to strip off any flesh still left on your dying business.  The bank pulls you in, wanting their money back within the week. Before you know it your business is dead, you no longer have a job to go to and the little mouths still need to be fed.  

Unfortunately that’s pretty much how it goes for most start-up businesses. Most don’t survive their first year and those that remain will have been whittled down to a handful by the end of year three.  

Yet there are some success stories being reported from start-up Internet businesses. News of a young school boy who setup his very first website when he was just 12-years has gone onto earning over £100,000 using his website. It may have taken him 4 years to properly establish his Internet business but his earnings if averaged out over that period are equivalent to £25,000 per annum. Not bad for someone who’s only 18-years of age. His initial capital investment to get his successful Internet business start-up earning him this much was nothing near the amount of capital that would be required to open a store on his local high street.