Includes real-life examples and practical exercises, this guide to starting a small business looks at all aspects of the process, including planning the right marketing strategies and managing an effective team.

How do I know if my idea will work? How do I decide on the business model? How do I find my audience? Your digital business start-up journey begins here. From the bestselling author of The Small Business Start-up Workbook, Cheryl Rickman brings you a thoroughly practical guide to starting up a digital business, covering the full journey from idea to exit, with easy-to-implement strategies to make your online venture an ongoing success. With a combination of tips, exercises, checklists, anecdotes, case studies and lessons learned by business leaders, this workbook will guide you through each step of digital business. Learn how to: • Assess whether your business idea will work online/digitally • Choose the right business model for your proposition and avoid wasting time • Assess demand, viability and uncover untapped needs and gaps in the market • Build a usable, engaging website and mobile app • Create a buzz using social networking • Drive high quality traffic to your site and convert visitors into paying customers • Use search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing (SEM) tools effectively • Raise finance and protect your business • Build and maintain a strong brand • Recruit and retain a strong team • Sell the business or find a suitable successor. Reviews for the book: “If you want advice on starting your own internet business, don’t ask me, read this book instead. It is more up-to-date and costs far less than a good lunch.” Nick Jenkins, Founder of Moonpig.com “This book excels in providing practical guidance on how to create a successful digital business which exceeds customer expectations and keeps customers happy each step of the way.” Scott Weavers-Wright, CEO of Kiddicare.com, and MD of Morrison.com (non-food) “If you read just one book on digital business, make it this one... It is inspirational, informative and interactive in equal measure. Highly recommended!” Rowan Gormley, Founder and CEO of NakedWines.com “Interspersed with inspiring and useful stories from successful entrepreneurs, this book can help aspiring business owners through a step-by-step process of refining their start-up ideas and building a solid business.” Elizabeth Varley, Founder and CEO of TechHub

In this practical and comprehensive workbook, Cheryl Rickman, offers a modern approach to self-employment and business start-up. Packed with real-life case studies and practical exercises, checklists and worksheets, it provides a step-by-step guide to researching and formulating your business ideas, planning the right marketing strategies, and managing a team that will drive your vision forward with you. You'll discover what, with hindsight, well-known entrepreneurs would have done differently, what their biggest mistakes have been and what they've learnt: Dame Anita Roddick, Julie Meyer, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Simon Woodroffe and others reveal their best and worst decisions and contribute their wisdom and tips for succeeding in business. You'll learn how to: develop, research and plan "the idea"; design and create the right products and services; define and understand your customers and target audience; secure finance and manage cash flow and accounts; create a winning brand and marketing message; gain and retain customers; achieve competitive advantage; plan, create, launch and promote your website; and manage your business and time. This fresh approach to small business start-up also includes information and recommendations on making your business ethical and socially responsible, along with exercises to help build self-confidence and visualize success.

In 2017 34% of the workforce was considered part of the gig economy. This growing workforce of freelancers and side-giggers is also estimated to grow to 43% by 2020. That’s 4 million freelancers, soon to be 7 million by 2020. Whether it’s people looking to earn extra money, those tired of their 9-to-5, to entrepreneurs looking to grow their side hustle, Entrepreneur is uniquely qualified to guide a new generation of bold individuals looking to live their best lives and make it happen on their own terms. Whatever industry or jobs this new workforce takes, Start Your Own Business will guide them through the first three years of business. They’ll gain the know-how of more than 30 years of collective advice from those who’ve come before them to: How to avoid analysis paralysis when launching a business Tips for testing ideas in the real-world before going to market with insights from Gary Vaynerchuk Decide between building, buying, or becoming a distributor What to consider when looking for funding from venture capitalists, loans, cash advances, etc. Whether or not a co-working space is a right move Tips on running successful Facebook and Google ads as part of a marketing campaign Use micro-influencers to successfully promote your brand on social media

Everything that is needed to set up a small business sole proprietorship is contained in this valuable reference. State-by-State rules for sole proprietorship are included in the appendix.

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

This 4th Edition of Steps to Small Business Start-Up is the finest resource available for small business start- up. Prospective entrepreneurs from all backgrounds will immediately benefit from its proven step-by-step methods to launch a new venture. Readers will learn in straightforward detail all the mechanics of starting up a business, including how to: choose the business that best suits you, research the market to target profitable customers and address all of the money and financial issues. Each chapter in this new edition now includes information on how best to utilise technology, specifically the Internet. Also included are a wealth of forms, worksheets, samples and examples throughout.