The 1st week: Introduction

The Path to Profit …

I gave a seminar recently, and asked:

“What is the one thing you must start out with
to give your business its best shot at success?”

I got answers like - good suppliers, strong lines of credit, excellent marketing, a great location, knowledgeable staff, the highest profit…

The answers are all on the target. But in business to score big you need to hit the bull’s eye. And none of them did.

The bull’s eye answer is -

Customers

FIRST you have to have customers: Your business must attract people who will (i) buy enough of your products or services (ii) at a price that makes you a profit.

Simple enough to say. But a lot of entrepreneurs underestimate what it takes to do
that.

And many of them don’t understand how much groundwork has to be done before the cash comes.

The result is that they don’t make the preparations that are essential – and the cash never comes.

So there’s your first very important business lesson. In just seven words -

The path to profit begins with preparation.

I don’t deal with every aspect of starting a business. The focus is on the things that

I regard as fundamental to setting up an operation that will work and make money.

I’ll show you how to avoid the three deadly business sins that do most beginners in, plus set out the 12 key steps that will set you firmly on the path to profit.

The steps are as easy to follow as I can make them. And I’ve worked hard to keep things interesting.

I can’t guarantee that everything in here is going to have you sitting on the edge of your seat, though, wondering what comes next. But -

What I can guarantee is that if it’s in here, it’s important. Don’t skip a line.

If you think that you don’t need to do the groundwork...

Or it all seems like too much trouble...

If you’re impatient to get started ...

Caution. Fail to follow the steps and you’re likely to spend most of your time trying to dig yourself out from under a pile of problems that will eventually bury you. And which could easily have been foreseen and avoided.
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Read the book online. Or print it out. But either way, read it when you don’t have a lot of other things going on around you and can concentrate.

I wouldn’t try to get through it all in one sitting. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you; what matters is that you do work through it, understand it - and apply the lessons.

First do what matters, what’s essential and will put you on the path to profit. Read and do the preparation.

The fun and the cash come after the foundations are properly laid.

Which is what this is all about.