Entrepreneurs are eager beavers – they have a business idea that must take-off immediately, right now, without further delay, asap, and so on – you get the idea! Well, taking off on a start-up without adequate planning is like flying a plane without a pilot – you go from one air pocket into another and keep going until you are left with only air in your pockets, no money, and then you crash land!
So, planning a start-up is the first step on the ladder of success, and the following tips will do their darnedest to help you out. Needless to say, a general article of this type is meant only to act as a guide that you can follow while making your own start-up plan. Every business is unique and has its own unique requirements. So, formulating an elaborate and perfect blueprint of a successful start-up for your business is in your hands. Here are some things you must keep in mind while making your business start-up plan:
1. Give your business some character
A new business may evolve out of an idea, but the idea needs a strong backbone to stand erect and to fall back upon. The first thing any entrepreneur should do is to lend some character to his business. Lending character to a business gives the business a voice that is heard by bankers, vendors, employees and the society.
Your business gets its character when you lay down your business objectives, mission, vision and goals. You can formulate these statements by analyzing the following:
- Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) – don't hesitate to spell it out.
- Your customer – always identify your customer base because customers make or break the markets. After that, analyze how you will cater to them economically/socially/ psychologically. This will give your business a whole new meaning.
- Your product – this is the life and soul of your business, and it needs special treatment. You understand it well – simplify it for others too.
- Your future plans and ultimate business goals – are you in this business for a quick buck, or are you committed to your idea. Of course, you are committed – just don't forget to say it. Bankers and employees love to read about growth plans. Goals, when written in a powerful language, not only inspire you, they motivate your employees too.
2. Get into the skin of your customer
Customer analysis is very important because customer behavior can make or break your business. If you are operating in a price-sensitive market, then your customers will ditch you if they get a similar product for a few cents cheaper; if you're hawking a niche product, then there are chances its novelty factor may wear out after a brief period – maybe, a competitor will cotton on and produce a slicker product at a cheaper rate, and when such situations come up, will your customers stick with you?
Understand, we are living in a world where lifestyles are evolving rapidly, a world that's being ruled by technology, which again is fast getting obsolete by the day. Therefore, it is important for any entrepreneur to get into his customers' psyche and think like them. It is no longer enough to begin a business because people demand a product – it is imperative to get into the skin of your customers, think like them and then reconcile this thinking to determine whether or not a product will survive for a long term in the market.
3. Compute your competitors
Think your customers through, then think about your competitors, and then go on to outthink them – this is one business rule every entrepreneur must follow. Competitors teach you things – and here's what you must try to learn about them:
- What is it about their products that makes people buy them?
- How are they thriving in a competitive market?
- What are their publicity tactics and how clever is their communication?
Once you understand how your competitors tick, you then need to work on strategies on how to outsmart them. For that, you have to understand their strengths, sniff out their weaknesses and then exploit them to your advantage.
4. Money matters most
To an entrepreneur, money's not funny – either he doesn't have it or he doesn't have enough of it – unless he's the son of Warren Buffet, or something like that. Here are some typical financial hiccups in an entrepreneur's early life:
- He needs seed capital to begin his business.
- He needs working capital to sustain his business until it breaks even.
- More often than not, he is short of capital – so he approaches a financial institution for money, which scrutinizes his business plan. When they're doing that, he can only hope his plan passes muster, unless he's 100% sure of his plan.
- After he gets his money, he has to walk his talk and prove to himself, his stakeholders, his employees and his lenders that his product is indeed profitable.
So every entrepreneur has to prepare a detailed financial report – one part of this report talks about how he plans to raise the initial capital, how he will deploy it, and how will investors/lenders get their capital back. The second part of the report will carry profitability projections.
5. Marketing strategies
The marketing plan is another component of the business start-up planning process. The entrepreneur has to identify his market, target it, test it and figure out the best ways of leveraging his marketing strategies in order to maximize returns. This report makes the final part of the business plan.
These were the various components that you need to strategize while planning a business start-up.
In conclusion, you need to make various reports – a report that lends character to your business, a report that discusses and analyzes your customers and competitors, a report that shows your plan of capital flows and, finally, a report that lays down your marketing strategies. Once all the reports are in, they must collectively make good financial sense. If they don't, your business won't work; if they do, you're on a winning streak. Good luck!
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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."
