As others have suggested it's a bit of a catch 22 situation in that you have to get it started to set the mixture but you need the mixture fairly close anyway for it to run.

But assuming the mixture is reasonably close..
The most important thing for easy starts is having it primed correctly. The amount will vary from engine to engine and usually even between hot and cold. Priming doesn't mean just sucking in a certain amount of fuel but also means getting it spread around inside the engine. It's an art not a science so you just have to experiment. The next most important is to have the plug glowing brightly enough. Orange heat is fine, white hot is no good. The least important (except it's the bit that gets it to run ) is whether to use a starter or chicken stick/finger. Set up correctly then one bump with the starter or one flick should have it running.

One trick you can try to see if it's ready to start is to put on the glow heat then hold the prop firmly and turn it over compression fairly slowly. If you feel a bump then it's ready to go.