the smarta way to do business: by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs; your ultimate guide to starting...

8/7/2019 The SMARTA Way to Do Business: By Entrepreneurs, for Entrepreneurs; Your Ultimate Guide to Starting a Business

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FREEebook

sampler!

The Smarta Way to Do Businessis the real deal. Its like having 70

top mentors at your fngertipsDuncan Bannatyne


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Wouldnt it be incredible i you

could have a quick one-to-one with

Theo Paphitis, Duncan Bannatyne,

Deborah Meaden or Martha Lane Fox

every time you neededbusiness advice?

Well now you can.


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The Smarta Way to Do Business is the frst defnitive,all-you-need-to-know guide to bring you real-world insight rompeople who really know what it takes to grow a successulbusiness; entrepreneurs whove been there, done it, and aredoing it now.

This book will provide you with all the insider knowledge YOUneed to build a successul business right NOW.

The Smarta Way to Do Business is brought to you by

Smarta.com, the UKs ultimate resource or business advice,networking and tools. Started by Sh Wasmund and backedby Dragons Den stars Theo and Deborah, as well as Beboounder Michael Birch, the team at Smarta.com are the expertsin all things business.

Whether youre just starting out, looking to take your businessto the next level or exploring how social media and emerging

technologies could treble your customer sales, The SmartaWay to Do Business has the answers youre looking or.


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Smarta.com is the ultimate onlinedestination or practical business advice,tools and networking or anyone starting

or running their own business. Smartabelieve the only way to learn is either by

your own mistakes or rom people whohave been there and done it. Smartaexists as a place to access the advice andknowledge o established entrepreneursand market-leading experts and to

network with like-minded small businessowners like you.

The brainchild o co-author ShWasmund and backed by Dragons DensTheo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden aswell as a number o other experienced

entrepreneurs, Smarta prides itsel inproviding advice by business people orbusiness people.


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The Smarta Way to Do Business eatures

tips, pointers and revelations rom someserious entrepreneurial heavyweightsincluding

sy

DarrynLyons

DuncanBannatyne

Deborah

Meaden

TrevorBaylis

PeterJones

RachelElnaugh

TheoPaphitis

SarahBeeny

JulieMeyer

DougRichard

SimonWoodroe

MarthaLane Fox

JameMurraWells

TimCampbell

TimFerriss

FraserDoherty

MichaelBirch

Lastminute.com

Sahar

Hashemi

Kiss FM

Glasses

Direct

LynneFranks

MikeClare


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1. Why theSmartestBusinesses

will be StartedThis Decade

4. What itTakes toBuild a Smart

Business

6. WorkingSmarter...on you

5. WorkingSmarter...on yourBusiness

2. What SmartBusinessesDo that makesThem Smart

3. What SmartPeople Do thatmakes ThemSmart

Inside the Book


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Part 1 Why the Smartest BusinessesWill be Started This Decade

1.1 Welcome to the New World Order: All the Rules Have Changed (in Your Favour)

This is a great time to start a business. A recession brings its own opportunity,

because everyone is looking at things dierently, seeking resh answers or a new

approach. The commercial world doesnt stop ar rom it. Consumers want

great value or originality and investors are looking to back great passion, com-

mitment and ingenuity plus there are some great deals to be done out there as

suppliers compete to service your new business. I your idea is strong, and yourdetermination levels are high, the uture is very exciting.

Sophie Cornish, Not On The High Street

Were going through a revolution again. There is another transormation

happening. The costs o starting a business are being decimated again, the speed

at which you can bring something to the world is increasing in speed again. Thus

i we can do the whole thing much aster and cheaper were going to be able to

do dierent businesses in dierent ways. Theres a new way to start a business

coming it takes very little time, very ew people, very little capital and can be

protable quite quickly. Thus the rules are about to change again.

Doug Richard, School or Startups and Dragons Den


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I theres one thing all the entrepreneurs Smarta

speaks to have in common, its that theyre all

thoroughly energized and excited about being in

business right now. Oh, and theyre impatient. They

cant sit still because they want to get moving. Theydont have enough hours in the day or days in the week

or the ideas in their head because they realize what

opportunity-rich times we nd ourselves in.Smartas

excited too and our belie that weve entered a new,

exciting time or business was our main reason or

writing this book. Reject, ignore and banish any notion

rom the national press, politicians or even business

lobby groups o doom and gloom, economic hardshipand credit crunch. Were not denying any o those

things, were just not like all the smartest business

people right now unnecessarily occupying ourselves

with them either. The truth is, or the people starting

exceptional businesses, the economy is irrelevant. Yes,

we said it and yes, we stand by it.

Make no mistake: this is a phenomenally exciting

time to be starting or running a really smart business.

I youre thinking o starting a mediocre business we

might be more cautious. But i you want success bad

enough then you genuinely have never had so many

opportunities to make that happen. And its never a bad

time to start a great business.

The world has changed. The rules have changed

and we promise you, theyve changed in your avour.Whatever the state o the economy and the national

debt and whether or not weve got stealth taxes coming

out o ears, business is open or trade like never

It took almost a year and took a lot o meetings and a lot o persuasion or people to see what were doing. But

some orward-thinking, innovative investors could see how the entertainment landscape was changing with the

internet, new video, how a short phone video was going to play a greater part going orward, more interactive orms

o entertainment where its not passive, where you dont sit and watch. Some people thought we were completely

crazy and some people got the concept.

Michael Smith, Mind Candy and Firebox


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beore.What do we mean when we say everything has

changed?

We mean everything. Again, orget the business world

or a moment thats rarely where the best busi-nesses

are dreamt up, ater all.Instead, ocus on the world around you. In the past

ew years its changed immeas-urably. Compared to

ten or even ive years ago, the way we work, play,

communicate, consume, earn money, spend money,

borrow money, save money and take in our news

these have all changed unrecognizably.

Every raw unction o our lives has been touched by

the emergence, convergence and development o

technology and the internet. These innovations have

changed not just our unctions but how we orm

opinions, express opinions, our expectations and our

desires.

The hurtling pace o change shows no sign o slowing

and yet this is only the start. The internet has only

been in most o our lives or 13 years or so. Its barelya teenager with spots, or heavens sake. Imagine its

potential when its ully grown up and graduated.

The smart businesses out there are already busy

keeping up with this new world, adapting and tailoring

their products and services to its ever-evolving

demands, while the even savvier are constantly looking

to push, lead and help infuence the uture by pre-

empting consumer patterns.

These businesses arent pushing products atconsumers, theyre using social media to hear what

products consumers want and then providing them.

Welcome to the new world order.As the consumer

demands more and more choice, were seeing more

and more exible, small businesses serving the niche

markets that cumbersome big businesses are too

languid to service and too archaic to spot. Next time

you see a household brand go crashing, as sad as

it is or the employees, ask yoursel how many were

actually catering or their ormer customers changing

needs. Not many.And or every monolith that crashes

into the wasteland there are opportunities aplenty

or small businesses waiting to pick up the crumbs

and do a superior job. Technology isnt only uelling

the crash o big businesses, its powering the rise o

small businesses as well. And heres where the rules

have changed in your avour.All the costs o starting

a business which or years have been prohibitive

to those without money and given the power to

those with money have all but been eroded. The

undamental and crucial components you need to start


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and establish a business are increasingly, by the day,

becoming almost ree.Serious barriers to entry such

as the cost o building a website or hiring a developer

and a marketing executive, which even three years ago

might have cost 50,000100,00 have now almost

disappeared.Brilliant ideas which could have becomebillion-dollar businesses but never got past a ailed bank

loan application now dont need that bank loan. Their

ounders can make them a reality or almost no cost.You

can turn yoursel into an expert and a respected brand

on Twitter, build yoursel a website on WordPress, start

trading globally on eBay and hire your rst employees

without spending any real money or even thinking about

an oce and all beore youve even quit your dayjob. Do you know what? You might never quit your day

job!There isnt one path any more. The options arent

ew and constrictive, theyre many and empowering.

Theres no one way to start or run a business any

longer. Instead there are many ways and youre ree to

choose the one thats right or you.Business has been

democratised. You dont need to be skilled, you just

need to put the time in and you no longer vast sumso money either. In the new world order o business,

skills are cheap and passion, knowledge and time are

the important currencies.Collaboration has replaced

obsessive and deensive competition. We no longer

see ourselves as one person or one small business

ercely competing against all the thousands o other

businesses, but were starting or at least the smartest

businesses are starting to work collaboratively with

other small businesses.More businesses will orm

alliances, i not ull joint ventures, with other small busi-nesses, whereby you can work together or the shared,

greater good rather than competing with each other. The

successul entrepreneurs o this decade wont be hard-

nosed sales tycoons or, contrary to popular belie, social

media gurus, but simply people who understand people.

Those leaders who stay close to their customers, their

sta and their partners and build powerul relationships

with all three will prosper and be those most able to

capitalise on change.

Youll always have

multinationals, but therell be

ewer o them. For every 200-

employee business there will be

ten 20-person companies working

more fexibly and creatively


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Being exceptional will be the

benchmark or business success

in the 2010s. To be exceptional

you have to go over and above

what other people are prepared

to do

The business landscape will change still urther. There

will be more small businesses and ewer big businesses.

Obviously youll always have the mul-tinationals, your

BPs, your Tescos, your BTs, but there will be ewer o

them. For every 200-employee business there will be

ten 20-person com-panies working more fexibly andcreatively, in terms o both how they do business and

how they do their work.O course, not everyone who

starts up a business will survive. Opportunity ensures

nothing. With the explosion in opportunity and the

number o small businesses, the need to be exceptional

at what you do only intensies. Being exceptional will

be the benchmark or business success in the 2010s,

whether youre big or small, well estab-lished or a dayold. Be exceptional and people will want to work with

you and spend their money with you.To be exceptional

you have to go over and above what other people are

prepared to do.

So success depends on whether youre prepared to

go the extra mile in customer service or put in the

extra hour on a Sunday night, on how you treat your

employees, partners and customers, on whether youre

able to think outside o the box and recognize change.

The only certainty in business now is uncertainty but

you have to work with that uncertainty and embrace it

as an opportunity to get ahead.The truth is, what we

You have to workwith uncertaintyand embrace it as

an opportunity toget ahead


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know today could be completely outdated

in a years time. There are people who

still cling to the belie that what worked

in the 1980s and 1990s and made them

successul will carry on working now. In

some small respects they might be right,but as a whole whats working now wont

work in two years time and youve got to

keep adapting.

I theres one thing you wont nd

rom the entrepreneurs and business

leaders oering advice in this book, its

predictions about how the business

landscape will look in 10 years time.

Why? Because they dont know. But what

they do know is you cant look to the past

either. You can only chase the uture by

embracing the present.

Smarter in Five

2. The barriers to entry havebeen shot to pieces.

1. All the rules have changedin your avour.

3. This is only the start: theweb is still a teenager.

5. Nobody knows the uture,but are you operating inthe present?

4. Social media has changedthe ace o business.


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In America being an entrepreneur is very, very encouraged. It happens less in

the UK. So I think we just want to say you can do this: you can have an idea, you

can launch it, especially i its web-based. Its never been a better time to do that

because its aordable and somewhat recession-proo because your costs are

very low.

Ryan Carson, Carsonifed

1.2 Its Never Been Easier or Anyone to Start a Really Smart Business

I think every single person is an entrepreneur. My book is called Anyone Can

Do It because I believe anyone can do it! I believe every single one o us have

entrepreneur qualities within us, it is just the entrepreneur within can remain

dormant all your lie. Entrepreneurs just happen to activate what everyone has

already got.

Sahar Hashemi, Coee Republic

What weve got to get away rom is this idea that entrepreneurs are better than

or dierent to business people. An entrepreneur is that person who goes out and

risks their own money and their own time and energy in a private endeavour, and

anybody can do that.

Tim Campbell, Bright Ideas Trus


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Lets get one thing clear rom the o: you can start

a business and you have as much chance as

succeeding as the next person with a bright idea

even i you dont have one yet. For the reasons weve

just explained, theres never been a more level playing

eld or starting or growing a business.Encouragingthough it is, this isnt news. Two o the bestselling

business books in recent years, by our riends Sahar

Hashemi and Duncan Bannatyne, have taken the title

Anyone Can Do It and demonstrated how anyone,

rom any background and without any ormal business

training, qualications or training, can apply themselves

and achieve astonishing levels o success.We know

this and the business world, as highlighted by Smarta.com, is increasingly ull o brilliant, inspira-tional stories

o people whove battled against the odds to achieve

business success. But the purpose o this book, and

specically this chapter, isnt only to prove that anyone

can start a busi-ness, but to show that its now easier

than its ever been or everyone to start a business or

to monetize their lie on some level outside a traditional

salaried job.While technology has completely recon

gured key business unctions, it has also led a culturaland ideological shit. More people now believe they can

start a business and more people want to. In the past

they might have wanted to do, and in practice actually

been capable o doing so, but or whatever reasons

elt it was beyond them.For decades, one o the chie

psychological barriers preventing many more people

starting their own business has been the perceived level

o risk involved. While embraced by true entrepreneurs,

risk is something generally associated with dangeror most people and so best avoided. However, now

the costs o starting and market-ing a business have

become so low, what might once have elt like an

almighty gamble is now much more o a calculated risk.

Ten years ago when the Tomorrows World notion

o starting a business or next to nothing in a matter

o minutes with just a laptop and a mobile started to

emerge, it was at best anciul and worked better as

iconography than in reality. You couldnt make a decente-commerce website or under 20 000 and while you

might be able to work rom home and on your own, you

were in trouble the minute you let your phone. It simply

wasnt real lie.

Everyone can start a busi-ness

or monetize their lie outside atraditional salaried job


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But now not just the nancial cost o starting a business

but the skills needed have also been transormed. When

we talk about the ability to make your own website

that is perectly presentable to the public, we no longer

include the caveat provided youve got pretty damn

impressive HTML skills. Were beyond early adopterstage. Setting up a website now isnt only or techies

who understand the potential and know how to use the

technology. It isnt part o mainstream consciousness

yet, but we are at the next stage where the tools are

legitimately useable or those who try.Its also too

simplistic to say that those on the demographic ringes

previously restricted by cost and time, such as those

with children, those with low earnings and students,are now more likely to start businesses, because

while its true that they undoubtedly benet rom the

advancements and shits were seeing, the benets are

empowering or all demographics.

More than anything, technology has created a belie: an

entrepreneurial or enterprise mindset, shared by more

people than ever beore. Whether youre 21

or 51 and running any type o business, you can takeadvantage o the new tools and opportunities open

to you and harness the power o social media and

its various gadgets and widgets to make you more

produc-tive, become more competitive and help you

secure more customers.What you need is a mindset

that embraces the opportunity and doesnt stand still,

ignore the potential or be scared o by any obstacles.

The real shit is the drawing o a new starting line in

the sand, the levelling o the playing eld. While in the

past anyone who had the right skills to get ahead inbusiness was not stopped rom doing so, undoubtedly

it remained harder or some than others. But now skills

are cheap and ideas and knowledge are valuable. With

many o the traditional obstacles removed, anyone with

the intellectual property and entrepreneurial mindset

can succeed.In addition, whether its been statistically

proved or not, its now widely perceived to be saer

to start a business than it was in the past. Starting

your own business is the number one career choice

o young people under the age o 23. Given that we

institutionalize people through education, and more

oten than not parental guidance is to pick a sae and

Whoever you are, you can harness the

power o social media to make you more

productive, become more competitive and

help you secure more customers


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earnest career, thats a quite a compelling act.

Jobs or lie certainly dont exist any longer.

So i there isnt a sae job, whats the next

saest thing you can do? When you work or

yoursel youre in control o your own destiny.

You are responsible or whether somethingsucceeds or not. As the costs o starting up

all and the need to borrow diminishes, so

does the level o risk. People o all ages are

seeing starting a business as an equal career

choice to becoming an accountant or a lawyer

or any other career where ultimately your

perormance doesnt necessarily dictate how

secure your income is.Starting a business has

growing appeal or all ages. Those towards the

end o their traditional careers are beginning

to see it as an opportunity to utilize all the

skills and experiences theyve picked up to

earn money or themselves and take on a new

challenge. Young people tend to have ewer

responsibilities and see running their own

business as a viable career option thats just

as viable as becoming a teacher or a lawyer.Given that the average student debt now tops

23,500, theres certainly a case or it being

a cheaper option.Welcome to the enterprise

nation.

Smarter in Five

2. The barriers to entry havebeen shot to pieces.

1. All the rules have changedin your avour.

3. This is only the start: theweb is still a teenager.

5. Nobody knows the uture,but are you operating inthe present?

4. Social media has changedthe ace o business.


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The Smarta Way to Do Business is

the real deal. Its like having 70 top

mentors at your fngertips

Duncan Bannatyne


18/20

Start your ownbusiness todayall the advice youneed in one book.

Exclusive giveaways

Step-by-step tips and

advice or each step o

your business journey


19/20

Available rom all bookshops

and online rom

ISBN: 978-1-907312-52-6 | November 2010
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SMARTA-Way-Do-Business-Entrepreneurs/dp/1907312528/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288714738&sr=8-1http://www.amazon.co.uk/SMARTA-Way-Do-Business-Entrepreneurs/dp/1907312528/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288714738&sr=8-1http://www.amazon.co.uk/SMARTA-Way-Do-Business-Entrepreneurs/dp/1907312528/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288714738&sr=8-1http://www.amazon.co.uk/SMARTA-Way-Do-Business-Entrepreneurs/dp/1907312528/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288714738&sr=8-1


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