04 June 2025

Don’t Follow the Crowd:

 

Starting a business in 2025 is an exciting and potentially rewarding journey. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or new to the game, there’s no denying the potential of a successful startup.

With the right preparation and dedication, you can make your dream of owning a business a reality. Today, we’ll explore the many steps needed to start a business in 2025. 

We show you a simple step-by-step guide on writing a business plan, advice on creating a brand book and website, and tips on finding the perfect business name.

By the end of this article, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of the key elements needed to have startup success in 2025.

Here’s the Best Way to Create Startup Success in 2025

1 Validate your Buisness Idea
Finding the right business idea is the first step to starting a business in 2025. Popular startup ideas include e-commerce, software development, and services. However, it’s important to find a business idea that aligns with your strengths and passions.

Testing out startup ideas can help you find the perfect business for you. Try out different business ideas and brainstorm potential problems that customers may face. This will help you find the business idea that best fits your unique skills and interests. To take advantage of our free coaching session to brainstorm your idea, feel free to book a session here.

For example, if you’re passionate about photography, you could start a business offering photography services and products.

You may consider creating an e-commerce store, offering photography editing services, or creating an online course to teach others photography.

Think through the potential problems that customers may have with these services and how your business can offer solutions.


Make sure you research your competitors’ brands, products, services, pricing, and distribution channels. For example, if you’re starting a photography business, you may research popular photography services and products already in the market.

You may also research what their customers are saying about them and their competitive advantages. Identifying your competitors’ weaknesses can help you determine where you can differentiate your business.

3 Visit Competitors

Visit at a minimum two businesses that sell products or services like the ones you desire to sell. Pick businesses that are not near your town so that they will have the freedom to share information with you. Be honest and tell them that you are visiting them to get advice because you are planning to open a similar business as they have, but not near them. Be specific where your business will be located. Dont be surprised if some people may not want to share all this information. Obviously take whatever information they will give you. 

4 Plan Your Production Process Planning your production process is essential for efficiency and quality control. Here’s a structured approach:
a. Labour 
b.Materials and Supplies
c. Equipment
d. Work Area
e. Production Process
Theses points can be further analysed, for a more detailed description and analysis, take advantage of our free coaching session to brainstorm your idea, feel free to book a session here

5 Plan Your Costs
Understanding the Importance of cost planning is a crucial aspect when it comes to managing finances and ensuring the success of any project or business. Cost planning involves analyzing and estimating the expenses associated with a starting a business,, allowing for effective budgeting and resource allocationFrom a business perspective, cost planning helps in determining the feasibility and profitability of a project. By carefully assessing the costs involved, byusiness startuppreneurs can make informed decisions regarding pricing, investment, and resource allocation. It enables businesses to identify potential cost-saving opportunities and optimize their financial resources.


6 The LEAN Business Canvas

A Lean Business Canvas is a streamlined tool for entrepreneurs to map out their business model efficiently. Here’s why it’s beneficial:
- Simplifies Planning – It condenses complex business strategies into a single-page framework.
- Focuses on Key Elements – Prioritizes customer problems, solutions, and revenue streams.
- Encourages Agility – Helps businesses adapt quickly to market changes.
- Reduces Risk – Identifies potential pitfalls early in the process.
- Enhances Communication – Makes it easier to share ideas with stakeholders.
It’s particularly useful for startups looking to refine their business model without getting bogged down in lengthy documentation.

To learn more on the above process, take advantage of our free coaching session to brainstorm your idea, feel free to book a session here.

Conclusion
Startup success requires dedication and preparation. It’s important to find the perfect business idea that aligns with your skills and passions, create a LEAN business canvas, perform competitive analysis, create a brand book, plan your costs, and find the perfect name.
If you follow the simple paths outlined in this article, you’ll be on the right path to launching a successful business in 2025.

Write to us on nevillesol@icloud for our free branding booklet and the LEAN canvas model description.

29 May 2025

Why Business Coaching

 

Why Business Coaching Services are

Vital for a Small Business Owner

business coaching services

In such financially testing times, you might think that hiring business coaching services has no place on your list of priorities. However, the opposite is actually true. As shown in this blog post on the ‘Benefits of Coaching,’ plenty of entrepreneurs have testified to the wonders of gaining outside business coaching. From growing their business more efficiently to helping them overcome hurdles along the way.

Whatever the state of the economy is, you’ll need all the help that you can get. To prove this point further, we’ve listed some of the top reasons why every small business owner needs the business coaching services of an executive coach, a business coach, or an entrepreneur coach, regardless of circumstances.

Identify any issues in your business

More often than not, we become so buried in our trade that it becomes difficult to see what we’re doing wrong. A business coach can offer you an objective rundown of your business. They easily discover systemic problems that you may have overlooked and help you find the best solutions for them.

For example, this article lists a couple of challenges coaches can help you with, including the lack of business growth, which is a common problem for many business owners. Acting as a second pair of eyes and providing invaluable insight, coaches can help you identify the points you can improve on.

Enforce accountability and offer feedback

Sometimes, the biggest setback to the growth of a business isn’t its operations but its owner’s negligent practices. This could come from any angle. Such as your leniency with employees, forgotten campaigns, or even accounts you’re not paying attention to. A business coach can help you prioritize projects and keep you on track. Plus, their steady feedback will be crucial in knowing how far you’ve come in your journey to achieving your biggest goals.

Recommend solutions for growth and expansion

For small businesses, boosting brand awareness and gaining a large customer base can be an uphill struggle. And, for those who are feeling unsure of how to improve their business performance, a small business coach can offer tailored recommendations to help them overcome this particular roadblock. 

Smaller businesses often have difficulty with strategic planning and lack a cohesive digital marketing and social media plan. Instead of following the herd and doing the same as anybody, hiring a coach could give you the direction that fits your personality and behavior. It will make it easier to execute and, even more importantly, keep up with it. Thus increasing your chances of success.

Challenge your mindset and offer new perspectives

You know how the adage goes: two heads are better than one. This is a wise principle to have, especially for small business owners and even more so for those who operate as self-employed people. Whether you’re thinking of new campaigns, sales strategies, leadership skills, or reforms to better your operations, your ideas will always turn out better if you run them through an experienced professional.

A business coaching program with like-minded owners who exchange ideas and opinions supervised by a professional coach, that asks the right questions no employee, friend, or family member asks. Business coaches don’t only suggest solutions to the CEO. Moreover, they help refine the systems you – as the business leader – already have in place as well.

If you still wonder why you would need a coach, picture this: suppose you were a talented singer (or the parent of one) with ambitions, surely you would want as much help as you can get?  

Share their vast expertise and knowledge

You may think that you know all that there is to know about your trade. However, you’d be surprised at the sheer amount of insight business coaches can provide you with. “What we’re taught about sales and marketing isn’t relevant,” says business coach Katrina Ruth as she narrates the things she has discovered over her 13-year career. “The way to connect with people, call them to action, and create change in their lives is to be a heart-and soul-led person.”

Experience is indeed the best teacher, and a small business coach or executive coach – has it in spades whether you’re new to the industry or a long-time player. Whether it’s an average market day or the midst of an economic crisis, a small business coach will always play a significant role in the success of your business. Thus, coaches will challenge your thinking, provide solutions, and walk you through the path to success.

Failures are the stepping stones to success.

Click on the HELPFUL Links in the side menu for more actions 

21 May 2025

Why startups failed in 2022

 

Why startups failed in 2022

Startup Founders Talk Business

Being your own boss sounds like a dream come true for some people, but it's not without challenges. More people than ever are starting their own businesses, but what can they do to keep from becoming one of the 20% that fail within the first two years?

To find out, we surveyed around 500 startup founders about what worked, what didn't, and what they might have done differently in their initial business phases. In addition, we analyzed data on startup failures from the past five years to see what went wrong.

Failure To Land

The effects of the pandemic left scars on the business world. But there's more to the story for many of the startups that failed in 2022. First, let's see what some of the top causes were.

Almost half of startups failed in 2022 due to insufficient funding or investor interest. Nearly as many business owners simply ran out of cash. Surprisingly, although many businesses failed in recent years due to issues related to COVID-19, the pandemic was the third most common cause we found and responsible for only one-third of startup failures.

Remaining vigilant and being innovative is still key. If we've learned one thing from the pandemic, it's the importance of being able to pivot — which is why we're diving into that next.

Pivotal Momentum

Succeeding in the face of disaster requires both obstacle awareness and adaptability. How likely were businesses to pivot from their initial strategy, and what worked for them?

Flexibility and adaptability are crucial during challenging times. Without them, a business can find itself quickly struggling when up against even the slightest strain. In 2022, 40% of startup founders had to pivot to avoid failure. Redirecting a business requires unorthodox thinking, and the methods used to do it varied, even between the sexes.

No matter how a founder pivots to save a business, there's no way to know if it will succeed. Women tended to show more confidence in their strategies than men, with 39% saying they felt "very confident" that their pivot would be successful. Meanwhile, men most commonly reported feeling only "moderately" so (34%).

While even the best-laid plans can lead to ruin, business ownership means putting your best foot forward. Fortunately for those who put time and effort into these readjustments, their pivots were successful 75% of the time. Now, the question is, what worked best?

Words to the Wise

Founders have advice for anyone looking to take the leap and launch a new business. Whether you're trying to run your own company or collaborating with those who do, consider these recommendations they shared.

Preventing failure begins with preparation. That's probably why, given the chance of a redo, 58% of founders said they would do more research and create a stronger business plan before launching a new business. Half of them also wished they'd had better marketing to reach their target customers.

As for the top advice for aspiring business owners, most founders (79%) shared that learning from mistakes is the most important skill to cultivate. Over half also said that creating a solid business plan, listening to your customers, and making sure there's a demand for your product in the first place is vital. All these tips are sure to make for an adaptable business that's ready to hit any curveballs the world throws.

Steering Away From the Crash

Although we found a strong business plan and thorough research to be top keys to startup success, one of the most important (albeit difficult) tips was learning from what hasn't worked in the past. But overall, a combination of strategy and adaptability are the best skills to hone for anyone looking to start a business. Take it from your peers who have launched businesses through the pandemic and survived to tell the tale.


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