Startup Business Plans

Vision Meets Reality

• Business planning begins with an idea and three questions. What do you want to accomplish on the business frontier? What products or services do you want to supply consumers? And who are your potential customers?
  
  Next: a private inventory and more questions. Do you personally have what it takes to set this business idea in motion? Are you willing to make the necessary sacrifices that building a business entails? Are your family circumstances conducive to seeing this business endeavor through? And, very importantly, can you weather the financial reordering that is often associated with new business ventures?
  
  If, after carefully and candidly answering the aforementioned questions, you are convinced that you are entrepreneurial timber and that your idea is sound, it's time to determine whether or not it can fly in the real world. In other words, time to put actual numbers down on paper regarding both your capital requirements and anticipated sources of capital.
  
  In addition to matters of financing, you simultaneously need to analyze your market, as well as the competition within it. Startup business planning enlightens you as to whether or not you can realistically tap into the market. It's imperative that you have a credible feel for what's transpiring in the marketplace, as well as an understanding how you can differentiate yourself from the competition.
  
  You will also need to project your cash flow in the short term. Business startups frequently wither on the vine because they both overestimate their initial cash revenues and underestimate their initial cash outlays. A startup business plan will assist you in avoiding such potentially fatal mistakes.
  
  

The Company Blueprint

• Once you have established your vision, completed market research, and identified your customer base, prepare the blueprint. Document with facts and figures how you anticipate your winning business concept becoming a business success story. This is your startup business plan.
  
  Put on paper a plan grounded in painstaking research and realism, and not pie-in-the-sky possibilities. Define your company's abiding mission, along with a cogent explanation of what makes it different from the competition. Gauge the state of your market today and divine its future, too. Chronicle in detail exactly what you intend on doing to capture your share of the market when you first open your doors, the day after that, and next year, too.
  
  If you're seeking financing from a bank or investors, you will need a business plan: a map of your road to profitability, how long it will take to reach it, and the estimated magnitude of said profits. If your business plan is thorough and sincere, you'll get the investment dollars.
  
  

Minimize Surprises

• Above all else, fledgling businesses need to minimize surprises like unexpected liquidity crunches. Startup business plans tackle financing, the market, competition, and project to the future as well.
  
  If your startup business plan is wholly grounded in reality and your numbers add up, you will more than likely succeed.