Starting a Business For Dummies, 5th UK Edition

Chapter 1

Preparing for Business

IN THIS CHAPTER

Getting to grips with the basics of business strategy

Working up to opening up

Measuring your business’s viability

Growing for success

Since the last edition of this book, a host of well-established companies with decades of experience behind them have been rocked to their foundations. Burton, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Jaeger, Le Pain Quotidien, Oddbins, Pizza Express and Victoria’s Secret are just a few of the companies that have hit the buffers in the UK. Big-name catastrophes in the US include companies that have been around for over a century like Hertz, JCPenney and Brooks Brothers (which still hopes for life in some form after filing for bankruptcy).

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of failed UK businesses has averaged more than 330,000 annually over the past three years. This tough landscape is on top of conditions the past few decades that have seen unemployment pass 11 per cent, inflation hit 16 per cent, interest rates of 17 per cent and profits reduced by 35 per cent. ‘Normal’ ...