New Business Start-up: The Anatomy of Business Planning 101
I’ve written in the small business and entrepreneurial niches since 2006, consulting and writing business plans to take aspiring business owners and entrepreneurs from their coveted business idea to launch.
During the past months, I’ve received a barrage of questions from people who want to start a business. With the coronavirus rampant, while keeping people on lockdown, isolated, and quarantined, there’s nothing unusual about the tsunami of questions since they are relative to what’s going on.
However, it’s the type of questions I’ve been asked that has helped me get inside the minds of aspiring business owners.
What I’ve discovered is, they feel they can think of something to sell or a service to provide, go on social media, connect with their followers, and they’re in business, which isn’t that simple.
Once I provide them an outline of steps to what it takes to start a business, there’s a shift in their perspective.
Whether you want to establish an online business or brick-and-mortar, a strategy is imperative.
Those with whom I’ve consulted did get the fact that business planning begins with an idea for a business. It can be a hobby, a passion, any type of experience you would like to turn into a business.
So, the questions you want to explore as you plan your business, are some of the basic, but important ones. Since I’m unable to include a comprehensive list of questions (approximately 115 of them) within this post, I will leave you with much to ponder.
Why do you want to start a business; what is your purpose? What are your goals and objectives? What are the mission and vision? Company description? Have you projected the profitability of the company you want to start?
What is your product and/or service? What are your markets/industries? Who is your target market? Who are your competitors? Sales and marketing, how will you communicate your products and/or services to your prospective customers? What will you do to convert them to buy from you?
These questions are only a fraction of those involved in planning to start a business.
There are also financial and legal questions. Your exit strategy and succession planning should be included. And not to forget your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement, along with your assets and liabilities.
Who’s going to operate your business? Do you have a management team? Who are they? What about your start-up capital? Are you seeking venture capitalists? Are you personally creditworthy?
In summary:
Starting a business is about your business idea, how profitable will it be, your mission and vision, the type of product and/or service you plan to offer, determining your customer, and how you plan to fund and operate your business, and the legal and management aspects.
You must also consider whether you are a business owner or an entrepreneur. There is a difference.
