Get Backed, Get Big, Get Bought: Plan your start-up with the end in mind

Introduction: Be careful what you wish for

Every year, millions of people start their own business. They come from every walk of life and social group. As many over-50s as under-25s launch out on their own. The same is true for women and men, immigrants and natives, the educated and the barely literate, the brave and the timid, those with creative genius or the self-confessed plodders. The triggers that unleash their desire to go into business are equally eclectic. Legacy, redundancy, boredom and relocation vie with insight and inspiration in the lexicon of sources of their business ideas.

They do, however, all have one common thread, one that is often unspoken but none the less present. They hope they will 'make it'. By that they usually mean ...