This is your how-to down-lo on the what, the where, the why and the how of your business plan before you dive in. So find a sunny spot. Grab a notebook. Have an open mind and get writing (if you need to do research on some answers, that’s cool too).
Lets’ get going by answering the following questions that cover four main areas:
Strategic Focus
Describe your business idea in a simple way.
- Why do you want to create this business?
- What makes it unique?
- What is the long term goal of the business?
- What won’t your business do?
Marketing Plan
- Who is your product/service intended for?
- Is anyone else doing something similar?
- How are you going to price your product?
- How are you going to get your product to your market?
List all the factors about your business that will bring you success eg. Is it in a good place, is it cheap to manufacture, is it very high quality?
Operations Plan
- Who will help you (who is your fan club)?
- Who will supply you with what you need?
- What do you have at your disposal to get started eg. empty room; swimming pool; lots of wood etc (whatever is relevant to your product)?
- How will you manage your business and your studies?
Financial Plan
- How much money do you think you will need to get started?
- Where will you be getting funding?
- How will you use the funds?
- If you need a loan how are you going to pay it back and over what time period?
- How many sales of your product do you need to make to make a profit?
You’ve now made a start. At this point, now that you have connected the initial dots, you may want to set up time to connect with your ‘fan club’ to take your plan to the next level. To start the dialogue and listen to other opinions before you initiate count down and GO FOR IT!
