Whether you're about to start your own business or have already taken the plunge and want to keep everything on track, make sure you have a copy of The Financial Times Guide to Business Start Up on your shelf. Regularly updated, this edition covers all the latest legal and financial changes you need to be aware of following the Budget. Everything you need to know to start up and run your business Comply with the most up-to-date financial, tax and legal requirements How to fund your business, whether through traditional channels or online platforms Discover how to develop your idea and refine your business model Build your online presence, benefit from social media and advertise effectively online All you need to know to make your start up a success.

This book, first published in 1998, is an attempt to better understand the human resource programs utilized by small firms and the basis for their choice. Much of the study is designed to provide a working framework from which to begin to understand the myriad of human resource decisions made in these companies on a daily basis. In this way the research seeks to make some contribution to the development of a theoretical grounding for human resources in the small business area. This title will be of interest to students of business studies and human resource management.

Focusing on international entrepreneurship, this research book explores the accelerated internationalization of young firms. Known variously as international new ventures (INVs) or "born globals," such firms have come to be viewed as legitimate actors on the global stage alongside large multinational enterprises (MNEs). However, the current approach taken by scholars - studying large MNEs and born globals separately - is questionable. This book explores the crucial MNE/INV interface - a fascinating, yet under-researched relationship in international entrepreneurship. Drawing upon a decade of case-based research, the author argues that the MNE influence on born globals must be considered more carefully and suggests how new ventures can leverage MNE networks in the pursuit of their rapid internationalization. Furthermore, it demonstrates that, as firms enhance their levels of innovation, new pathways emerge via multinational corporation networks, a phenomenon vividly demonstrated in the emerging economy context of the Bangalore software industry. This innovative research text will be of interest to academics, researchers, and advanced students with an interest in international entrepreneurship and business, strategy, innovation, and new ventures.

The Routledge Companion to Family Business offers a definitive survey of a field that has seen rapid growth in research in recent years. Edited by leading scholars with contributions from the top minds in family business from around the world, this volume provides researchers and scholars with a comprehensive understanding of the state of the discipline. Over 25 chapters address a wide variety of subjects, providing readers with a thorough review of the key research themes in the modern family firm, such as corporate social responsibility and bank debt rationing. International examples cover a wide range of economies including China, Europe, and Latin America. The book will appeal to undergraduates, postgraduates and business instructors seeking a definitive view of the issues and solutions that affect and support family business.

In this fascinating study, Neri Karra examines entrepreneurial family businesses in emerging markets by integrating three schools of thought: agency theory, an institutional framework, and the altruism perspective. Providing an in-depth treatment of the area as well as a real-life case study, it provides a theoretical perspective as well as qualitative insights. It also offers practical observations and future research implications. This book will be valuable reading to students and researchers of entrepreneurship, family businesses, and altruism in management.

Innovation as an activity is not new - what has changed is the pace at which firms have to innovate. This book analyzes the innovation success at the company, rather than the project level and contributes to the development of a new theory on innovation management in small- and medium-sized enterprises. The author uses studies from 63 companies from 35 different industry and service sectors in order to obtain non-sector specific findings. He concludes that innovative success is based on a combination of technological, marketing and organizational competencies and that successfully innovating companies can be said to have a strong internal locus of control.

Although the new small and medium enterprises (SME) sector is emerging as one of the driving forces in transition economies, little is known about the conditions behind its successful development or about policies that could facilitate its expansion. This unique book explores the complex relationship between the growth of the SME sector and the current policies and institutional, historical and cultural forces that shape its fate.

In The Automatic Customer, John Warrillow provides the essential blueprint for turning your customers into subscribers The lifeblood of your business is repeat customers. But customers can be fickle, markets shift and competitors are ruthless. So how do you ensure a steady flow of business? The secret - no matter what industry you're in - is finding and keeping automatic customers. These days virtually anything you need can come through a subscription. Far beyond Spotify and Netflix, companies in nearly any industry, from home contractors to florists, can build subscriptions into their business. Subscription is the key to increasing cash flow, igniting growth and boosting the value of your company. Whether you want to transform your entire business into a recurring revenue engine or just pick up an extra 5 per cent of sales growth, The Automatic Customer will be your secret weapon. 'Read, apply and watch your bank deposits grow every month' Chris Guillebeau, bestselling author of The $100 Startup 'If you have a business, or are thinking about starting one, this book will be the best investment you've ever made' Bo Burlingham, editor-at-large of Inc. and author of Small Giants and Finish Big John Warrillow, the author of Built to Sell, is the founder of The Value Builder System (TM) where advisors help company owners increase the value of their business. Previously, he founded Warrillow & Co., a subscription-based research business dedicated to helping Fortune 500 companies market to small business owners. A sought-after speaker and popular Inc.com columnist, he lives in Toronto.

Everything you need to know to run a profitable and satisfying wedding photography business from your home.

Examines regulatory and other strategies for improving chemical risk management in small enterprises in the European Union. This book considers what supports are necessary to secure the implementation of these strategies and is particularly concerned with the role of chemical product supply as envisaged by REACH.

Some 543,000 small businesses are started from scratch each month. The Website Investor explains how to buy existing website businesses and bypass the start-from-scratch process. The little known but massive marketplace for websites is unveiled along with a detailed guide to finding, evaluating, and acquiring profitable online businesses.

This book is divided into two main parts. Part I contains details of the wide range of materials that can be recycled and the processes involved. Part II describes how to set up and run a small business recycling wastes.

There is more to setting up a successful business than just a good idea. Creating a Business examines concisely all the relevant aspects: the excitement and satisfaction that business entails, the challenges that face the entrepreneur, the risks that lie in wait. The textbook is organized around a practical example: a company setting out to launch a new line of clothing. Aspects of setting up a business, including management, marketing, legislation, and financial management are examined. Including pedagogical features, such as end-of-chapter questions and illustrations, Creating a Business will interest students of small business and entrepreneurship.

Since the 1980s, governments have often sought to encourage entrepreneurship on the assumption that it creates small businesses which are the primary drivers of job creation. Largely because of this assumption, entrepreneurship has become a valid subject for academic research attracting extensive funding. Yet despite this explosion of scholarship, there is no accepted model of how entrepreneurship operates or even a commonly accepted definition of what it is. Simon Bridge posits that this is because entrepreneurship has been studied as if it were a deterministic science, based on the false assumption that it exists as a specific discrete identifiable phenomenon operating in accordance with consistent, predictable 'rules'. This challenging book contends that this misdirected search has produced more questions than answers. Accepting that entrepreneurship as we have conceived it does not exist could lead to new and valuable insights into what the different forms of entrepreneurship are and how they might be influenced. Scholars, advanced students and policy makers will find this a thought-provoking insight into the myths and misconceptions of 'entrepreneurship'.

Dependent self-employment is widely perceived as a rapidly growing form of precarious work conducted by marginalised lower-skilled workers subcontracted by large corporations. Unpacking a comprehensive survey of 35 European countries, Colin C. Williams and Ioana Alexandra Horodnic map the lived realities of the distribution and characteristics of dependent self-employment to challenge this broad and erroneous perception. Featuring rigorous empirical research, Dependent Self-Employment moves beyond the reliance on anecdotal evidence to fill in gaping lacunae in our understanding of employment. Reporting on the European Working Conditions Survey of 2015, this impressive book provides a crucial contribution to our understanding of dependent self-employment in the 21st century, challenging not only academic perceptions, but also depictions of work in the media and political discourse. The authors expertly navigate the 'grey zone' of defining dependent self-employment, embracing the spectrum of employment relationships and outlining the limits to the rights and authority of the dependently self-employed. Bold and comprehensive, this timely book offers critical insight for researchers at all levels exploring the nature and distribution of employment in Europe. Given the current public debates on the platform economy, this book will also prove useful for practitioners and policy-makers in labour inspectorates, tax administrations and social security institutions worldwide.

The challenges and opportunities that are presented to both small and medium-sized enterprises have changed dramatically in recent decades as the world's economy becomes more globalised. The policies of open borders, a decrease in protectionism and the demise of the nation-state, have enabled small and large firms to engage in international activity from the outset. Understanding the Born Global Firm, combines the many different theoretical perspectives on born globals that have been previously researched, providing a unified framework to connect the antecedents, types and outcomes of entrepreneurial activities pursued by such new ventures. A central case study of an international fashion firm which operates in over nine countries, runs through the text, highlighting the formation and success of born globals and the importance of cultural competence. This book will be invaluable to post-graduate students in the field of international business; entrepreneurship; ethnic entrepreneurs; global entrepreneurship, and international networks.

Micro-econometric analyses cover a wide range of new innovation 'input' and 'output' indicators. Among the robust findings about determinants of innovation is evidence on the importance of technological opportunity, of appropriability of innovation benefits, and of Schmooklerian demand-pull effects. As opposed to the evidence from standard R&D data, small firms appear more innovative and the impact of market power on innovation is, in the best case, modest.

Small businesses make up some 90-95 percent of all global firms. Many undervalue the importance of information and communication technology (ICT). Within the small business segment there can be significant differences amongst the avid early adopters of ICT and the laggards. Research on early adopters tends be more prevalent as they are perceived to have a more interesting and positive story. However, late adopters and 'laggards' also have their own interesting stories that are under-reported. Small Business and Effective ICT draws on research undertaken over several years and documents the adoption/use of ICT across 'better' users of ICT (Leaders), typical ICT users (Operationals) and late adopters (Laggards). The findings are presented using a re-formulation of the LIASE framework which addresses a number of areas that include ICT literacy (L), information content/communication (I), Access (A), Infrastructure (I), Support (S) and Evaluation (E). Some 60 businesses were investigated in Australia and the UK, with each business presented as a concise vignette. The vignettes serve to show that small businesses are not as conservative in their use of ICT as the literature suggests, with examples of innovative uses of ICT in small businesses provided. Lessons for the effective use of ICT by small businesses are presented. The research design, methods adopted, presentation of findings through the vignettes, and 'take away' lessons have been written in manner to appeal to a broad range of readers including academics, researchers, students and policy makers in the discipline.

When this book was first published in 1991, political ideology had thrust small-firm issues to the forefront of attempts to revitalize the British economy. In the Thatcher years the emphasis had been on individual enterprise and initiative with the number of small firms increasing rapidly. This was reflected in the growth in the number of specialist studies analysis small-firm revivalism. Small Business and Society clarifies the issues and debates that surround the small business and its place in society. In particular, the complex nature of its social role is examined: on the one hand, the entrepreneur can be seen as the innovator exploiting free-market capitalism to strengthen the economy; on the other, employment conditions and industrial relations are said to suffer. Moreover, the growing importance of 'green' issues now brings into question the extent to which the small firm benefits the environment. This book will be of interest to students of business and sociology.

Much research in entrepreneurship presents results as if they are universally and timelessly valid. Entrepreneurship in Context takes the opposite tack - it studies entrepreneurship as a context bound phenomenon. For entrepreneurship, the importance of context goes beyond gaining understanding and avoiding mistakes. The reciprocal influence exercised by the entrepreneurial venture and its corresponding context is at the very heart of the entrepreneur as an agent of change. The book addresses context in a narrow sense, i.e. a person's life situation and local, situational characteristics. It also deals with wider contexts such as social, industry, cultural, ethnic, sustainability-related, institutional, and historical contexts. The book studies the interconnectedness of all these various sub-contexts. It zooms in on the actions that entrepreneurs take to involve, engage, and influence their context and shows the changing and dynamic nature of context. It provides lessons for entrepreneurs about which contextual elements should be prioritized, engaged and sought out.

This book brings together thirty years of original empirical research on key aspects of the formation and development of small firms from selected articles authored or co-authored by Peter Johnson. Complete with a comprehensive introduction from the author placing the work in relation to the contemporary debates on the subject and providing a cohesive overview, these essays provide an excellent historical context for current research in this area. Many of the studies in this book emphasise the interrelatedness of economic activity and decisions, an emphasis that serves as an important reminder of the complex business environments in which small firms operate. The book is divided into five sections. The first part focuses on the process of business formation. In part two, the role of new firms in regional development is considered. The third section deals with employment issues, whilst part four looks at various aspects of growth and development. Finally, the book concludes with two articles on policy.

A new analytical approach to small firms' cases, which * Uses rich primary source data on modern small businesses * Combines business strategy and industrial organization * Presents detailed Profiles on diverse small businesses * Shows how successful small businesses achieve competitive advantage * Considers both extended rivalry and financial structure * Shows how to `ground' small business theory in reality Profiles in Small Businesses has a companion volume Small Business Enterprise by Gavin Reid (also published by Routledge, Hb: 0-415-05681-0: GBP45.00) which contains a full analysis (ranging from econometrics to the ethics of competition) of the larger sample of small businesses from which the Profiles are drawn.

'Kind, realistic and genuinely helpful' Observer 'Bravo on the publication of this witty, wise guide to solo working' Alice Lascelles 'Filled to the brim with advice . . . Such a brilliant book' Emma Gannon Whether by choice or circumstance, as a freelancer or a company employee working from home, more of us are becoming solo workers than ever before. But once you've made the leap, how to do you actually work well in isolation? And how can you thrive while working alone? Picking up where the freelancer bibles stop, Solo addresses what we gain but also miss when we shift from the structure of an office environment to the solitary confines of our homes or studios. Blending the latest research in psychology, economics and social science with guided self-examination and more than ten years of freelance experience, Rebecca Seal shows you how to stay resilient, productive and focused in a company of one. Practical and inspiring, she also explores the idea of meaningful work and helps you define your own success.

Discover new insights on how to setup, manage, and advise wealthy families and their family offices The Complete Family Office: A Guide for Affluent Families and the Advisors Who Serve Them, 2nd Edition represents the newest update to an essential series. This book prepares the members of wealthy families to collectively manage, sustain, and grow their wealth across multiple generations. It also assists professionals who advise families to better serve their needs. This book teaches those who advise family offices and wealthy families on: - How to setup, structure, and advise a family office - Current compliance, fiduciary and risk management practices for a family office - Forward-thinking investment management, estate planning, and private trust company considerations - Fresh insights on philanthropy, legacy, and impact investing - Best practices to managing family wealth education and preparing next generation owners - New insights on family governance, strategic planning, and succession - Methods to create a family constitution, mission, and vision for families and their family offices. The Complete Family Office Handbook provides the most comprehensive, current research, practical guidance, and approaches from leading family offices from around the globe and illustrates, by way of practical case studies and examples, how families can effectively manage their wealth for the long term.

This book adopts a novel analytical approach to understanding how Russia's stalled democratisation is related to the incomplete liberalisation of the economy. Based on extensive original comparative study of Russia's regions, the book explores the precise channels of interaction that create the mutuality of property rights, entrepreneurship, rule of law, norms of citizenship and liberal democracy. It demonstrates that the extent of democratisation varies across regions, and that this variation is connected to the extent of liberalisation of the economy. Moreover, it argues that the key factor in producing this linkage is the relative prominence of small business owners and their supporters in articulating their interests vis-a-vis regional and local administrations, especially through the institutionalisation of networks and business associations. The book develops its key theses by means of detailed analysis of the experiences of four case study regions. Overall, the book provides a major contribution to understanding the path of democratisation in Russia.