The DNA of an entrepreneur has been hotly debated over the years. Grit, determination, staying power, energy, drive, vision, opportunist, and curiosity are all words you’ll see associated with pioneers.

And indeed our motivations as to why we do it are just as varied. But I’d bet that seeing a way to fix a problem and then turning your idea into a business is why most of us do it. It’s certainly true for me.

But the further along the road you go your idea becomes a different animal. It becomes a viable business and with enough hard work, commitment and a little bit of luck, suddenly you’ve got a contender for investment on your hands.

You start to ask yourself ‘What if? What if this is a business that can be my early retirement plan?’ Running off into the sunset clicking your heels in the air, doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me, especially if you can do it with a million pounds in your pocket.

But if you’re not savvy from the outset it’s easy to have the carrot of a million pounds yet find the reality is far from it. If you’re not careful investors can swoop in on the prize before you can blink.

"The people you give shares to must firstly prove themselves and secondly stick around to get the shares"

So what should you do? The entrepreneurs that make it are the ones that run tight financial ships without damaging customer satisfaction. Easy to say when you have an empire on your hands, so what’s the insight?

We learnt very early on that building a lean machine meant we could keep our service keen and offer impeccable service. Competitors that haven’t made every process wholly efficient from day one have found that once investors have got involved they have had to become mean in order to become lean. The business suffers because customers suffer.

But it’s not just about process it’s also about how you handle your finances.

While it may sound clichéd, you’re grandfather was right - if you look after the pennies the pounds will look after themselves. Some people thought I was mad when I told them I was moving to China to keep my living expenses at rock bottom while we set up inniAccounts.

But two years in Beijing gave our business a fast start. It released funds and meant we could develop our software quicker. It helped to accelerate our plans and has ensured that we have built a multi-million pound business sooner than expected.

I’d also ask yourself what’s your long-term plan – nationwide or international? You need to run lean across every facet of the business and location can play a big part.  If you are setting up in the UK but serving a burgeoning market in Asia you may find it advantageous to move your HQ to a location that’s nearer your customer.

Research the ex-pat market for skills, consider how time zones can work for and against you, and assess the financial incentives. You may find you can still manufacturer in the UK and commit to a ‘made in Britain’ tag but manage all the marketing and sales closer to the customer with people who understand the value of British made goods and the culture you’re selling to.

That brings me to my next point. Skills. When you’re starting out its really tempting to offer a slice of your company for free expertise. But if you’ve got ambition to sell for a £1 million then every 1% you give away is worth £10,000 to someone else when you sell.

I’ve heard of people giving away 10% of their company for key skills but have gone on to outgrow the capability, parted company and still had to honour the stake when they sell.  It’s a bitter pill to swallow knowing you paid well over the odds for their input.

Your best friends in these situations are ‘share vesting’, whereby the people you give shares to must firstly prove themselves and secondly stick around to get the shares, and ‘pre-emption rights’ a handy legal term that means you can dilute shareholding if people don’t keep up with the investment of cash or skills.

Your best bet is to not even entertain shares. Instead use funding schemes to pay for the skills you need and/or use low cost outsourcing to hire in consultants on an hourly basis.

Be sure to take advantage of the grants offered to start-ups. Your local Chamber of Commerce can help you access funding that’s earmarked for innovation or creating jobs.

And on the subject of creating jobs, we’ve found working with universities invaluable for finding talented graduates who will deliver specific pieces of work as part of an internship. We’ve then gone on to employ some of them. What’s more if you find the right university partner, they’ll offer you support in other ways and may even open up grants.

Money coming in to keep your business going is a fundamental but so is the way you structure the company and pay yourself. The good news is that the UK tax regime encourages entrepreneurs, and as such you’ll pay just 10% tax when selling your business.

Keep cash in the business and play the long game

However, you need to think smart to really make any tax relief work for you. That means minimising the amount you draw from the company all the time the company is running. The more value you keep in the business the better.

The sums are simple. Draw £100,000 every year over ten years and your tax bill will be £450,000 based on the 45% additional tax rate. On the other hand if you kept all that cash in the business you’d only have a £100k tax bill calculated from the 10% tax to pay on the sale of the business.

Though you might say this is a tactic in beating the investor, in actual fact it’s the sort of thing they assign value to. They want to know they are buying a well-run business, that observes business best practice and is self-sustaining without you at the helm.

Still it won’t stop them from looking for every opportunity to beat down the price they’ll offer so you have to think like an investor and make sure there are no blind spots.

Questions you should be asking: are customers locked in, either because it's difficult to switch or because we're beyond comparison? Do we deliver recurring, sustainable revenue and profit? Will my business survive without me at the helm?

Have we addressed and mitigated single points of failure? For example, dependency on a single vendor, supplier or license. Are we scalable? These are the questions that will hit you hard if you don’t have a well-considered answer.

Whether it's a Sunseeker and a beach-front pad or a life devoted to charity, it's important to exit right to achieve your plans

They also want to know you have your house in order and that means you must have a grasp of your IP. Often people think this means a patent, and of course it’s prudent to get one, but a brand can be the most powerful weapon you have.

Trademark your brand and logo – it’s inexpensive to do – and buy up the domain names and related names while you’re unknown. It will cost you a lot to do it retrospectively when you’re famous.

Knowing your way around trademark law, slander and comparative advertising is also worthwhile as you’ll be able to push the boundaries to draw attention to your competitors’ weaknesses without over-stepping the mark. And you’ll be able to spot when they go too far.

While we’re talking brand, don’t overlook that your business is worth what someone is prepared to pay. By investing in PR you’ll be showcasing what makes your brand unique, special and worth buying.

PR is one of the most cost effective ways you can market your business especially if you integrate it into your social media marketing. We saw a significant jump in quality of prospects and conversions after we made the decision to build a profile in the media.

There’s no doubt that making a million is a combination of a good idea, hard work and luck, but there is some science to be applied. Combine your financial foundation with an efficient operation and a strong brand and you’re on track for that Sunseeker in paradise.