• You will hear five different people who all run their own business. They are t

Man: I’m a one-man, small business. Very small. It was terrible at first. Nobody wanted to know. Construction’s the first thing to be hit when there’s a recession. No-one wants new houses, schools, nothing. I just took a chance that if there was no new project going on then at least people would want repairs. I tried the banks but I couldn’t get any help from them. Nothing. No interest. Must have gone to twenty of them. I’d even done research. Showed them there was a demand for my work. But they’re not interested in small firms. Lucky I had a brother and an uncle with a bit of money who were willing to help me out. They lent me enough to get going. Now I’m doing OK.
Woman: I did everything by the book - projections, product research. I did the lot. Then I went round the local offices and noticed there was a niche in my part of town for another take-away. So I decided to go for it. I thought about sandwiches at first but then I knew it had to be hamburgers. What else! 90% of people I talked to said there would be a demand. I didn’t have any money so I approached a big company - one of the most famous in the world for this kind of business. I did a business plan and after a lot of work they took me on. I joined the franchise scheme. You know - where you borrow from the big company, use their name and pay them back from your profits. And I must say, it’s been very successful, so far. Very hard work, but well worth it.
Man: Well, after a long time teaching I thought - no I knew - I needed to move on, do something else, and it had to be a good idea to set up my own operation. You only have to look around Central London to see the demand. Everybody’s learning English and more and more business people need it. I had worked in business for a number of years and knew I had the experience to make it work. The one big drawback to the whole plan was that no-one was interested in lending me money. It was hopeless. I wasted so much time going to different banks without success. I was just about to give up when I read about the Government Start-up scheme. If they like your idea they give you money. I was lucky. It’s a great success.
Woman: It started as a group of friends getting together and talking about a common problem. The high cost of business trips and the need for a reasonable package. Once people know you are going away on business they think you have unlimited funds for it. And we all knew from our own experience that quite the opposite is true when you work for yourself. So we decided to start something ourselves. Our initial enthusiasm soon disappeared when we tried to raise the money to start, though. We were met with a complete lack of interest. So we put together a good business plan and went knocking on doors. We kept at it. We didn’t give up and eventually we found a sympathetic bank manager and they advanced us some money. We’re doing pretty well now.
Man: Take the number of MBAs for example. Courses are a real growth industry. And where you have courses you must have textbooks. It’s about ten standard texts for a first year Business Diploma alone. I thought it was a market I had to get into and everywhere I went people said I had a good idea. Until I asked for money. Then nothing. Goodbye. I knew it would be difficult but I didn’t think it would be impossible. But I was so determined, I decided to put my house on the market, and I put the money I got from that into the business. It was a huge gamble, and it could have ruined me completely, but it’s worked, it’s really paid off. I’m opening my second branch next year.