10 Step-by-Step Business Startup Guide – Step 3

STEP 3: Prepare a Business Plan

Once I have done all the preparations, I would start creating a detailed business plan – a document that will provide the priorities, strategies, agenda and sanity I’ll need to startup my business.

In my experience and observation of the business world, the “activity” of creating a business plan is as valuable as the end product itself. Just remember that the most important audience for a business plan is ME. I am accountable for all the statements, claims, statistics and facts. So if I try to “twist” the figure, I am actually lying to myself!

The business plan can also aid me as a tool to generate interest from financiers, venture capitalists, staffs, suppliers and strategic associates.

Regardless of the structure or format of my business plan, I will ensure that my business planning must contain answers for the following twelve questions:

1. What’s my business idea?

2. How does my idea address consumers’ needs/wants?

3. What business model suits me best?

4. What’s unique about my business idea over the rivals?

5. What is the market opportunity and potential?

6. What is my role and responsibility?

7. Who are the key staffs or workers (skip if I do not have any)?

8. What price will the customer pay and how will they buy?

9. How much money do I need to start and run the business?

10. What’s the source of my capital?

11. How will I measure the success of my business?

12. What are my key milestones?

While preparing my business plan, I would cover all the elements of a business plan shown in DAY 3. Just for your study aims, I have attached a sample business plan at the end of this section.

I must ensure that my business plan is concise and neatly formatted (i.e. Microsoft Word document for the bulk of the plan, with any financial documents as attached spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel), and need not include fancy graphics, flowery language or photos. The easier I make it to read, the better.

Alternatively, there are occasions I work better with business plan templates and wizards. Hence, I would search online as there are many business planning software packages available that only cost in the neighborhood of $ 100, as well as a few free online business plan templates. I would normally spend some time searching for the right software or templates to aid me in constructing my business plan.

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