Business Advice for Start-Ups & Growing Small Businesses
Practical, experience-based thinking to help you avoid costly mistakes before you start or grow a business.
What is The Proper Business Guide about?
What is The Proper Business Guide about?
What is The Proper Business Guide about?
The Proper Business Guide serves as a practical resource for individuals starting and managing real businesses. This guide is tailored for founders at various stages, from early-stage start-ups to established small businesses that are navigating growth, pressure, and complexity. The Guide aims to consolidate clear advice, structured cours
The Proper Business Guide serves as a practical resource for individuals starting and managing real businesses. This guide is tailored for founders at various stages, from early-stage start-ups to established small businesses that are navigating growth, pressure, and complexity. The Guide aims to consolidate clear advice, structured courses, and practical resources to assist with the complete spectrum of decisions involved in starting and running a business, covering everything from foundations and finance to marketing, operations, growth, and long-term sustainability. More tools and workbooks are coming. Sign up to the newsletter to be the first to know.
Hello, I'm Nicky
What is The Proper Business Guide about?
What is The Proper Business Guide about?
I have spent thirty years running businesses. Not advising on them, not studying them. Actually running them. That is what shaped The Proper Business Guide.
What I have seen, over those years, is the gap between how business is often written about and what it actually feels like day to day. Most advice is polished and confident. Very littl
I have spent thirty years running businesses. Not advising on them, not studying them. Actually running them. That is what shaped The Proper Business Guide.
What I have seen, over those years, is the gap between how business is often written about and what it actually feels like day to day. Most advice is polished and confident. Very little of it reflects the steady, practical thinking that running a business really requires.
I know how hard it is. I know how many decisions you face alone, and how rarely the advice available reflects what running a business is actually like. I also know how genuinely satisfying it is when you get it right.
That is why I built The Proper Business Guide. Clear, grounded guidance on the structural, financial and day-to-day realities of building something, drawn from real experience rather than a textbook.
The aim is simple: to help you think clearly, make better decisions, and build something that lasts.
How can I help you?
What is The Proper Business Guide about?
How can I help you?
Join The Proper Business Guide by subscribing to our weekly emails for clear thinking, practical courses, and grounded advice on starting and running a successful business.
A few hours of thinking now can save months of wasted time
Does your business idea work?
Most people don’t stop to answer that properly.They start building instead.
And that’s where things begin to go wrong.
Before you spend money, build a website,
or try to sell anything, you need to know if the idea makes sense.
This workbook helps you do that.
This is not a course about growth, marketing, or quick results.
It’s about something far more important.
Most early-stage business problems don’t come from lack of effort.
They come from skipping the thinking.
Often founders start by:
- building something no one actually wants
- guessing pricing without understanding margins
- targeting the wrong customer
- investing time and money before pressure-testing the idea
By the time they realise, they’re already committed.
This is the stage where most mistakes are made.
And they’re often the most expensive ones.
This workbook is designed to slow things down, in the right way.
It takes you through the thinking most people avoid:
- Does the idea solve a real problem?
- Who is it actually for?
- What would someone realistically pay?
- Where are the risks?
- How would it make money?
Not in theory. In a structured, practical way you can work through properly.
You can complete it in a few hours.
But it could save you months, or more, going in the wrong direction.
WHAT’S INSIDE
- 50-page structured workbook
- 13 focused sections
- 50+ practical exercises
- Designed to complete in 2–3 hours
This isn’t something you skim.
It’s something you sit down with and work through properly.
This is for you if:
- You have a business idea but aren’t sure if it’s viable
- You want to avoid wasting time and money
- You prefer clear thinking over guesswork
This is NOT for you if:
- You’re looking for quick wins
- You want motivation rather than decision-making
- You’ve already built and validated a business