Steps for Startups #1
Typical Steps to Starting a Business
compiled by PeterCXO, Wiz4biz, 12/01/08
Monitoring your Progress: have regular meetings (weekly, monthly) to discuss the status of Project and what are the next steps.
1. Get Organized: Use a Planner to document what & when to do the most important Tasks. Review daily, weekly, monthly & quarterly.
2. Clarify your Concept: to know exactly what you are going to do and who your Customers are. Share with trusted Mentors, Advisors, Partners. (ie, How do I monetize your Biz Model?
3. Research Competition: to find out if anyone else is doing the same thing. What advantages would you have?
4. Plan your Biz Model
a) Value Proposition? What’s the Problem? What’s your Solution? What’s it’s value to Customers? Talk to a few prospective Customers and see if they’d buy it
b) Market Segment: to target. Try to keep as narrow a Niche’ as you can.
c) Competitive Strategy: How do you communicate your Advantages? Do you need to Partner-up with anyone to gain leverage?
d) Revenue Generation: After Launch, monitor Sales, Costs, Profit Margin & review frequently, so you can determine – what works & don’t. Control your Cash Flow, so you have enough to “survive” until you “thrive”.
5. Write a Business Plan:
a) do an Executive Summary to provide an overview of your plan,
b) do a Business Plan so you can detail Marketing approach, Team, Operations & Financial Projections and more . . .
6. Choose a Biz Structure
· Sole Proprietorship: if mainly you will be involved
· Partnerships: if you have one or more working with you
· Corporations: if you want a strong legal entity, because you expect to grow big.
[ Intellectual Property, Testing, Presentations, Pitch, controlling Expenses, Reviewing Results, etc continued in Premium Content ]