Preparing to start a business is like planting a garden. We have to nurture seeds, or ideas, while they germinate, and we need to know what to do to allow them to bloom into a healthy plant, or enterprise.

Before any garden can be seeded, the ground has to be prepared. The stones and weeds need clearing, the earth has to be turned and the nutrients introduced.

Starting a business is the same way. You have to clear the clutter from your life, internally and externally. You have to create the right environment to be able to grow your vision.

You're about to make some major decisions that could affect the rest of your life. But until you've created some clean space, pulled out those weeds and removed those stones, you'll never really find the clarity of mind and focus that you'll need to move forward.

For many of us, space and time are probably two of the hardest qualities to find in our busy twenty-first century lives.

My own natural state is chaos, with millions of ideas and thoughts racing round my head. That's all very healthy during the creative process. But before I start a new project, I find it crucial to clear away as much of the internal and external clutter in my life as I can.

Your desk area
You'll need physical space for your SEED work: a place for a desk or table, files, bookshelves and so on. But with so much excess 'stuff' in every corner of your living environment, how do you begin to create a peaceful yet stimulating physical space?

Clutter can come in many shapes and forms, and it's amazing how easy it is to accumulate old circulars, last year's Christmas cards and magazines you've already read. Often 'preparing the ground' is simply a matter of dealing with these bits of paper that we put aside because we're sure they are to be important one day. Why not go through all your old files, letters and junk mail right now and throw away everything that you know you'll never look at again?

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Getting organised