Answering these questions (and many more) about yourself and your abilities isn’t necessarily going to ensure you’re successful, but it will get you thinking about your goals and about what motivates and inspires you. Use this time to make sure that you are matching the business you want to start to your personal aspirations.
As you’re thinking about where you want to set up shop (including the city and state), consider the following:
Now it’s not enough to just think you have a good idea and run with it. You need to validate that there is a need. You also need to start addressing whether this idea is sustainable or not.
To stand a realistic chance of getting hold of the funds you need to get started, you’d be better off first focusing on your “pitch.” Not only will it be easier to fix because it contains less, but you’ll also get feedback on it—most investors don’t bother reading the full business plan, though they may still expect you to have it.
2. Refine your idea
“The more you know about your industry, the more advantage and protection you will have.”— Tim Berry | Founder of Palo Alto Software
Before diving into the details of your potential business, it’s best to take stock of yourself and your situation.
If you will be seeking outside financing, a business plan is a necessity. But, even if you are going to finance the venture yourself, a business plan will help you figure out how much money you will need to get started, what it will take to make your business profitable, what needs to get done when, and where you are headed.
Here at Palo Alto Software (makers of Bplans), our mission statement is this: “We help people succeed in business.” It’s simple and encompasses everything we do from the types of products that we build to the kind of marketing that we do.
You don’t have to give away trade secrets in your business plan, but you do need to describe how your technology is different and better than other solutions out there. At a high level, you will want to describe how your technology works. You don’t need to go into excruciating detail here, though—if an investor is interested in more detail they will ask for it, and you can provide that information in your appendix.
A sales forecast is typically broken down into several rows, with a row for each core product or service that you are offering. Don’t make the mistake of breaking down your sales forecast into excruciating detail. Just focus on high-level buckets at this point.
Your positioning strategy will often be a major driver of how you price your offerings. Price sends a very strong message to consumers and can be an important tool to communicate your positioning to consumers. If you are offering a premium product, a premium price will quickly communicate that message to consumers.
Mission statement
People who read your business plan will already know a little bit about your business because they read your executive summary. But this chapter is still hugely important because it’s where you expand on your initial overview, providing more details and answering additional questions that you won’t cover in the executive summary.
The personnel plan will also include what is typically called “employee burden,” which is the cost of an employee beyond salary. This includes payroll taxes, insurance, and other necessary costs that you will incur every month for having an employee on your payroll.
For product companies, a distribution plan is an important part of the complete business plan. For the most part, service companies can skip this piece and move on.
Last, but certainly not least, is your financial plan chapter. This is often what entrepreneurs find most daunting, but it doesn’t have to be as intimidating as it seems. Business financials for most startups are less complicated than you think, and a business degree is certainly not required to build a solid financial forecast. That said, if you need additional help, there are plenty of tools and resources out there to help you build a solid financial plan.
460,000 people visited the George Washington National Forest during the last 12 months. While the outdoor tourism industry as a whole is flat, the park expects its number of visitors to grow over the next few years.
Fortunately, most entrepreneurs have a better handle on their operations plan than on any other aspect of their business. After all, while it may not seem natural to analyze your market or your competition, most budding entrepreneurs tend to spend a lot of time thinking about how they will run their businesses.
So first let's gain a little perspective on why you need a business plan.
Fortunately, you've already done some of the legwork. You've already defined and mapped out your products and services. The Market Opportunities section provides a sense-check of that analysis, which is particularly important since choosing the right products and services is such a critical factor in business success.
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4. Potential joint ventures. Joint ventures are like partnerships between two companies. A joint venture is a formal agreement to share the work--and share the revenue and profit. As a new company, you will likely be an unknown quantity in your market. Setting up a joint venture with an established partner could make all the difference in getting your business off the ground.
Operations plans should be highly specific to your industry, your market sector, and your customers. Instead of providing an example like I've done with other sections, use the following to determine the key areas your plan should address:
Out target market has one basic need: The availability to source bicycle rentals at a competitive price. Our only other competition are the bike shops in Harrisonburg, VA, and our location will give us a competitive advantage over those and other companies who try to serve our market.
Launching a startup company is exciting. It’s easy to get so caught up in the moment that you rush into things.
I’ll show you how to write different elements of your business plan and provide some helpful tips along the way. Here’s what you need to know to get started.
Don’t ease into this one step at a time. Come out fast. Even before your company officially launches, you can start building your website and social media profiles.
- executive summary
- company description
- market research
- description of products and/or services
- management and operational structure
- marketing and sales strategy
- financials
Getting Started
You definitely want it to be detailed and thorough, but don’t go overboard. There’s no exact number of pages it should be, but have at least one page per section.
- launch a website
- stay active on social media platforms
- start building an email subscriber list
- focus on customer retention
- come up with customer loyalty programs.
When you’re writing a business plan, your startup doesn’t exist yet. Nobody knows about you. Don’t expect to be successful if you’re planning to launch a competitor’s carbon copy.
But if you take the time to write a business plan, you may discover there’s not a viable market for your startup before it’s too late. It’s much better to learn this information in these preliminary stages than after you’ve dumped a ton of money into your venture.
Most successful entrepreneurs focus on testing ideas fast and taking action.
This may be hard for some of you, but you want to find a way to test and confirm your idea.
But if data isn’t supporting your goal, like people aren’t buying your products or services.
You can start learning how to start a business, work on it in your spare time, and not spend tons of money.
What to Avoid
If you neglect some of these important aspects of your business, it is going to be harder for you to succeed.
- Marketing Text
- Colors (text, buttons, backgrounds)
- Prices ( Beat Prices )
- Product or Beat Names
- Simplifying Your Website
- Removing Distractions
What this means is you want to run a test to see if somebody will actually pay for what you have to offer.