How Shelf Companies Lost Their Appeal and What to Do Now
Also known as a ready-made company or an off-the-shelf company, a shelf company is a pre-registered business you can buy and customise.
There are a lot of people that are very unhappy in their job. Hundreds of thousands of workers go to work every day and simply go through the motions while at the same time harbouring dreams of becoming their own boss.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of people never realise their dream. They can often be too scared to make a move away from the security of a paid job, or they honestly cannot think of a good business idea to lead with.
However, the appeal of becoming your own is very strong indeed. From having the chance to be more creative with your time to the opportunity of building a business that you can pass on to your children one day – sometimes the pull is too hard to resist!
What are the advantages of starting your own business?
With good research, the right planning and some good luck, many entrepreneurs manage to escape the rat-race and enjoy a more productive life doing work that they can be really proud of.
But why would anyone want to go it alone? What are the advantages of striking out and setting up your own business? Let’s take a look at some of the main benefits:
1: Be your own boss
This is probably the most obvious reason for becoming an entrepreneur. If you are fed up with your manager giving you a hard time at work, by starting your own business the only person you will be responsible to is you!
2: Do something that you are passionate about
If you loathe your job or find it boring and repetitive, you can give yourself the chance to do something that you are genuinely interested in.
You get to choose what kind of business you set up and which customers you want to target, and how you go about attracting them.
You may already have an interest or hobby that you are passionate about. You can look at ways of turning this into a lucrative business.
3: Set your own pace
As you already know, working for someone else means having to aim for performance targets and meet deadlines. This can be very soul destroying because when you work hard and strive to meet these targets your bosses simply move the goal-posts and set higher targets.
As your own boss, you get to set your own deadlines. You can work at a pace that is productive and satisfying without the added pressure or raised stress levels of meeting unrealistic targets.
4: Fuel your creativity
One of the biggest bug-bears for an employee is having to fit into a pre-defined work structure that can feel very constrictive.
As your own boss, you have the freedom to get creative and set up your own work structure to fit your particular way of working. You can build in the flexibility you need that allows you to work more efficiently and deliver higher quality results.
5: Setting up your business isn’t difficult
Today it is much easier and more straight forward than ever to set up and run a business. From registering yourself as self-employed with HMRC, to forming your own Limited Company and managing your tax, you can do all of this very easily online.
You can even form your own limited company by yourself with you as the Company Director and main shareholder. You can choose to sell shares and bring others on board – or not! It is up to you.
These days there is so much less red tape and difficulties with managing small business taxes that you don’t need to hire a team of expensive accountants to manage your books (and take most of your profits in fees).
6: You can find a profitable niche
It is not only the huge corporations that can turn over a profit. Many solo-entrepreneurs manage just fine on their own and can turn a decent profit on their business idea.
The great thing about being your own boss is that you don’t need to turn your business idea into a multi-global mega-corporation. You can grow your business to a size that suits you.
If you feel like taking on extra staff or employ your own family members, this will be totally your decision.
7: It is more interesting work
When you are employed in a role with a large employer you may find that role to be quite limiting and repetitive. It is basically doing the same job, day in, day out, year in, year out.
Being your own boss will add more variety to your day to day tasks. One minute you will be chatting with prospective customers or B2B partners, the next you will be emailing a supplier and ordering stock, dealing with spreadsheets or developing a marketing plan.
As an entrepreneur, you will not only be kept busy, but your work will be varied and interesting.
8: You can build your business on the side
There are no rules that say you have to give up your job to start your own business. If you want to test out a new business idea you can do this on the side of working your regular job.
If the idea doesn’t pan out then you haven’t lost anything in trying and you still have a regular income coming in to support yourself while trying something else on the side.
9: Save yourself time and money
If you decide to go it alone you may want to keep your overheads as low as possible by working from home.
Starting off in a spare bedroom, garage or even from the kitchen table will help to reduce your costs drastically. Don’t forget that you will save a lot of valuable time on your commute to the office every day and there will be zero commuting fuel or travel costs to factor in too!
10: Leaving a legacy behind
Having the flexibility of starting small and growing your business over the years means that you can bring your family members on board.
As your children mature they may want to join the family business. This means that eventually you can retire and leave the business that you set up in the hands of your family to continue on your good work.
From small Acorns…
Remember that all large and well-established businesses had to start somewhere. For example, look at the very successful Body Shop. This was started by the owner in the 1970’s on a shoestring budget.
What started as one small shop in Brighton escalated into a national change of stores across the UK. The brand has now gone global and is taking off in America.
Choosing a business with staying power
No one can predict that any business started today will still be around in ten, fifteen or twenty years time. But it will help to thoroughly research your chosen niche to see if it will have the staying power to last.
Choosing an evergreen business idea is a good step as this will have more chance of being around for many years to come.
Even the biggest global brands in the world have had their ups and downs over the years. Take a look at this cool visual from Visual Capitalists. It perfectly showcases the largest companies in the world, by year.
This graphic shows just how much things can change over the years. In just 15 years things have changed drastically and you can see the emergence of the tech companies.
Even some of the biggest names that have dominated business for years have disappeared (AIG) due to the ever-shifting demands and desires coming from the market.
Sustainability and future-proofing
What can affect big business can almost certainly affect small business. What is today’s hot commodity will eventually end up being tomorrow’s bargain-basement deal.
While there is little that you can do to influence giant market trends, you can do a lot to ensure you manage your business well and offer more evergreen products or services that you know will be consistently in demand – no matter what is hot on the market right now.
You can work on your niche marketplace knowledge, expertise and marketing skills. You can also continue to research, test and source new products that fit your niche and that your customers will find useful.
Do all of these things and you shouldn’t need to worry about what is trending and what is not right now.
Simply work on your business to build quality, trust, customer confidence and loyalty. You will soon be able to turn a profit.
Take the first step today by forming your own Limited Company with Your Company Formations. We have years of experience helping new business owners get their ideas off the ground as quickly and smoothly as possible.
Do not hesitate to contact our friendly team if you need more help with setting up your limited company. We are here to help!
