8. Leading up to setting up your business, what are the 5 things that you learned that helped your business to get off the road?

I started off with 5 core principles that I still stick to now:

1. I never spend any money on the business that has not been earned already – my start-up budget was zero!

2. I aim to make some money every day. I think I’ve managed to achieve that most days over the last 5 years – even if it means flogging a book on Amazon or doing a car boot sale (I’ve done both when things are tight!!)

3. Give things away – but only to people who don’t ask for them.

4. Cut the crap – a lot of small business fold because they spend money on non-essentials. We’ve been trading for five years now – and we ordered our first lot of headed notepaper last week!

5. Never pay for advertising – if you’re any good, people will come to you.

9. What 3 things did you wish you had learned or done?

My main lack was not knowing how to use Microsoft-based IT. I had always used Apple, but had to convert because everyone else seemed to be using Windows and there were compatibility issues.

I wish I’d spent a month learning Windows, Word etc – my biggest frustration still comes from IT. I’ll never know how Bill Gates made such a lot of money from such a useless product!

This is only one thing – but counts for three!

10. What did you do as preparation to set up your business?

Er – nothing! I just kinda gave it a whirl, and have been giving it a whirl ever since!!