New business start up workbook now available!

The award winning Germinate Enterprise material published by Germinate: The Arthur Rank Centre, originally for a rural context, has been completely rewritten, updated, extended and published as “Mind your own business” .

This brand new programme provides a practical step by step guide to setting up a small business or social enterprise. The workbook is written by entrepreneurs who have set up a variety of small yet successful businesses.

The programme helps you choose the right business for you to start; and then helps you work out whether your business ideas is viable.

Part 1 provides background and encouragement. Part 2 is the core business start up material, a series of 10 double page spreads with information, areas for discussion, action points and case studies. Part 3 covers vital information on the early stages of running a businesses, including how to set up a website; more information on sales and marketing; crowd funding and crowd sourcing; compliance; exporting and how to sell your business.

No previous experience is required. The workbook is written in a straightforward way for a wide variety of contexts, urban and rural, UK and beyond.

As well as the workbook, there is a business plan template and a cash flow template. Download all the materials free of charge.

The workbook and other resources are available here.