Well actually no its not usually but it can be far better if you know what to expect and how to manage your new business.

Every new business owner starts off, full of hope, excitement and enthusiasm. How do you make sure that you are not on of the 80% of small businesses that fails in the first few years?

1. Remember you wont get a regular wage to start with. It takes some time for a new business to become profitable. Dont panic, make sure that you have enough money in the bank to make your bills for the first 6 months. How do you do that? Make sure that you build this cash flow requirement into your initial planning, loan requirements and cash flow.

2. Your business takes a lot of planning. The 6 months before you start your business and the 6 months after the start really requires a great deal of organizing and planning. Plan what your business will look like, how it will operate, where your market is and what you should sell at what price. That should be in your business plan you DO have a business plan right? As you start your business, revisit your plans and update them as necessary.

3. Become disciplined. Plan out your work day and produce a regular To Do list that you keep updated. Make sure that your plans are reflected in your work schedule. Ensure that you put in regular hours and that your office is manned when people want to contact you. Dont procrastinate, do things when they need to be done.

4. Learn from others. Look at what other company owners do and work out your business strategy along these lines.

5. Become self sufficient. You wont have the support of your work colleagues so build your own network.

6. Be professional. In your dealings with your customers, suppliers, staff and professional support team.

7. Establish your office. Ensure that you have your own office home or away where all your business tools and information are to hand. Explain to friends, family and children that this is where you work.

8. Persevere if you do it right it will get better. Keep motivated by setting your own personal goals. Overcome temporary set backs and remember that the potential rewards will make it all worth well.

Lee Lister

Lee Lister is Management Consultant and Program Manager with more than 25 year's management and consultancy experience and more than 20 year's program and project management experience in projects for Banking, Finance, Insurance, Leisure and Government bodies. She also have more than 10 years bid management experience ranging from bids for medium companies to large international and infrastructure bids.

British born, Lee received her BA(Hons) Financial Economics from the University of Essex. She went on to work in or for a considerable number of countries within Asia and Europe as well as Australia and the United States. While building a name for herself through helping company restructure, change management and project management consultancy, Lee became a well-known figure for her skills in analyzing, problem solving and trouble-shooting. She has consulted for many major industries, including banking, telecommunications, insurance, transportation, leisure and governments from many different countries. Some of the companies who have benefited from Lee?s expertise are Hewlett Packard, Siemans Nixdorf, Electrolux and the Philippines government.

Whilst working in the Far East she became a recognized expert on preparing and evaluating large World Bank Proposals (infrastructure projects within developing countries). These accomplishments called upon the skills of bid and project management, risk assessment, contract negotiation and supplier management and required dedicated work to very tight time scales. This expertise was acknowledged by an invitation to be the principle speaker at an International Business Development Conference in Washington, USA. She has also consulted at very senior level in several countries.

She owns and manages two companies, Biz Guru LLC in the USA and Biz Guru Services Ltd in the UK as well a considerable number of profitable web sites. She works almost entirely via the internet, visiting clients on site during major consultancies and training. Her Internet skills span from when major companies first started to consider obtaining their own web sites. During these years, she has kept up to date with the rapid changes on the internet, including the dot com boom and the resulting bust ? which her own web based companies survived.

She regularly consults, writes and lectures on business, bid management and marketing and has published numerous courses and books.