The Financial Times Guide to Business Start Up 2007

by Sara Williams, Jonquil Lowe

For almost 20 years and under its previous title as the Lloyds TSB Small Business Guide, this book was the start up bible for over a million people. Last year this bestselling guide was rebranded as the FT Guide to Business Start-Up . The ever valuable FT branding has catapulted this already successful book even higher in the charts. The FT Guide to Business Start Up remains the only small business guide to be updated annually, making it the most up-to-date resource and reference book for anybody serious about starting and growing their own business. The fully updated 2006/2007 edition of the FT Guide to Business Start Up takes you quickly and simply through finance, tax and law. This edition has been completely revised to reflect the latest financial and legal changes in employment law regulations and budget changes for Tax and VAT. This essential guide also offers valuable advice on all of the crucial areas of running a business, and this advice has also been fully updated to reflect today’s business environment. Areas covered include the minefields of recruiting, premises, marketing, sales, pricing and people management - everything an entrepreneur has to tackle to succeed. Starting a business can feel risky – but this bang-up-to-date guide covers all the bases and will ensure both you and your business are heading for success.

Genres: Business, Finance, Entrepreneurship, Reference, Nonfiction

438 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Sara Williams is a former investment analyst and financial journalist. She has contributed many articles on tax and finance for national newspaper and for a number of years wrote for Which?, including the Which? Tax-Saving Guide and the Which? Book of Tax. She is also the author of The Financial Times Guide to Business Start Up. She is now the CEO of AIM-listed Vitesse Media, an online, events and print media business. Its titles include What Investment, Business XL, Growth Company Investor, Information Age, M&A, The AIM Guide, SmallBusiness.co.uk and GrowthBusiness.co.uk.
She is a qualified investment manager and adviser.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth the read for any aspiring entrepreneur. As expected, it leans more towards producing larger businesses - namely in the product-selling market; however, it provides plenty of tips for smaller businesses alike. The book covers a multitude of areas: from creating a brand name & image; to hiring staff; to the gritty financial aspects such as tax & VAT; and much more. Although the book doesn't cover every area in intense detail (that would make for a massive read), it certainly packs in a lot of information in a very concise and informative manner. Undoubtedly, due to it covering a large number of factors, taking notes to best suit your business idea would be wise.

The only true reason I'd give it four stars (though I'd pick 4.5 if I could) is because of the date that I'm writing this; naturally, not everything is going to be fully up-to-date (Google+, anyone?), and so I would urge anyone to bear that in mind as they read. However, that aside, I'd argue that the mass majority of information provided remains key to starting a business, and until an updated release, I'd recommend this to anyone.

[Alex Trembath · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plenty of useful practical information, but I felt it was too heavily positioned for businesses based on selling products, which dominated the working examples given. It would benefit from more balance and variance on business models and examples, for example digital businesses. Also, I felt that on areas such as employment obligations, there was too much of an emphasis on what is the bare minimum, i.e. "this is what you can get away with". No mention or discussion of ethics, or how businesses might benefit from doing more than the bare minimum.

[Lesego · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was phenomenal in that it gave me a great footing in business education. I really learnt a lot from the book and will soon be applying and practicing the theory in the businesses I will soon launch.

This is a fantastic primer for anyone getting into business, its just unfortunate that majority of the case studies and practices relating to tax and laws are from a British perspective, apart from that it was a great read.

[Aneta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite helpful read and some practical advice

[May · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful starting points.

[Daniel Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave a very good overview of all the things one needs to keep in mind when thinking about a new business. true to the title