Starting up or Expanding… Tried and Tested Ways to Prepare for Success
When you have an idea for starting a business or expanding, where do you begin and where to next?
The fact that you have made this decision is already a good start. Many business ideas may never take off because it takes courage, a leap of faith, and major commitment to make the decision to take it from idea into a money-generating business. Equally, a danger facing all entrepreneurs is getting stuck in a comfort zone or getting into a rut. Hopefully the drive and initiative that made you an entrepreneur in the first place prevail and you continue striving for new goals – more clients, new services and products, new markets, higher profit.. etc. It can be harder to stop. Step back. Realize that you are in a rut – or even a downward spiral. Now it’s time to get planning to ensure your idea becomes a success. Preparation is key.
Creating a business plan is key to maximizing your chances of being successful
If you have identified that you want to start up a new business or expand your existing business – congratulations! I recently went from a corporate career of almost 20 years to starting my own business. So I thought I would share with you what I learnt in the process (and I realized along the journey that I have done tons of business planning and strategy along my career prior to being an entrepreneur, as you may too). Here is a short guide to get you to achieve your goal. You guessed it – it involves business planning.
Before you put pen to paper, ask questions to get feedback
Before you get started on that all-important business plan – solicit as much feedback and input as possible. This phase is about asking questions of the people around you. Employees, family, friends, competitors, peers and associates. What do your prospective or existing clients need? What do people think about your business idea? Tweak and target your proposed offering – this is all invaluable market intel that you should pay close attention to. And you’ll be surprised how many people want to help you succeed. I found that even potential competitors with experience in the industry are willing to lend a word or two of advice. What they did right, what they did wrong and a warning of the many pitfalls ahead. I see competitors both as just that, and as peers in the field. The exercise of soliciting feedback is also useful as it creates a group of cheerleaders, resources, and supporters around you that you can continue to draw on for input and advice when you run your business. Being an entrepreneur is after all sometimes a lonely race and we all benefit from an outside perspective now and then.
5 steps to creating your Business Plan and starting to implement your start-up or expansion idea
-
Do a SWOT Analysis:
Identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats relating to your business idea or expansion goal. I recommend you do the SWOT analysis before you get into the Vision, Mission and Values of your business plan, because (as you will notice) what you learn through this exercise feeds into the rest of your plan.
-
Create your Vision:
Yes, familiar and sounds simple. That’s because in some ways it is – the framework for creating a business plan has been around for decades. Starting with a vision is 101 textbook business management theory and it hasn’t changed for a reason. It’s got staying power because it is tried and tested. It works. Something to understand about business strategy is that the concepts are not rocket science. They were invented to make it easier for anyone to start a business. What is vitally important though, is that a clear vision holds the key to success and is not always as straight forward to articulate. It is the foundation of any business plan and should not be glossed over. The power in the exercise of creating a vision lies in thinking hard about What you are aiming to achieve. It does not reflect the state of your business today, it is a statement about what you want the future state of your business to be like in years to come.
-
State your Mission and Values:
Ensuring we start with the basics, the vision is what your ultimate goal is and the mission is how you will achieve it. Your vision is your high level futuristic goal, and your mission starts to create the building blocks of how you do this. E.g. the type of work or products you provide, who your target clients are, and the level of service. This may start to define your Unique Selling Point. Is your USP that you are a turnkey solution providing a service that clients normally have to use multiple suppliers for? Is it that you offer environmentally friendly products to give consumers an ethical choice that competitors do not? What makes you or your business the best positioned to deliver this to clients? What value do you add? How are you different from your competitors? While you are writing your mission take time to state your values. The values are the desired behaviors and culture of your company that guide the way it does business – today when you are a one-man business and in the future with however-many employees.
-
Map your network and create a marketing strategy:
Map out all players in your network that will help you deliver on your business idea. This includes network groups and industry forums to attend and exchange business cards at. Your client segment and companies to target with calls and visits. Research and identify the key individuals in organizations that will be responsible for making the purchase decision to buy your product or service. And don’t forget to create alliances with like minded peers in the industry or adjacent market segments that may become future collaboration partners. You don’t want to have to say no to a big job because you don’t have the capacity to deliver without help. Equally, those alliances will be able to refer business to you when they are in a similar position. Make sure you formulate an elevator pitch for your product or service offering and practice it, tweak it, and eventually you will nail it. To make this a powerful pitch I always think from the perspective of the client and ponder “what’s in it for me?”. If you can answer that question on behalf of the client you have a compelling sales argument.
-
Implement!
Perseverance and conviction are the last ingredients that will help you achieve your desired results. You’ve created your plan, now follow it step by step and implement. Don’t give up when the first, second and third prospect turns you down. Keep on asking questions and tweaking your business plan with new information you learn along the way. Give yourself at least 6 months to test your business idea and create a proof of concept. If you have not landed any new clients after 6 months – you may need to go back to the drawing board. Not every business idea works. But you give yourself the best chance of succeeding by being prepared and having a sound strategy.
Be prepared to sustain yourself for some months until your business starts generating revenue
A final word of advice: it may take many months before your business brings in revenue. Even longer for that revenue to become a regular income stream. Therefore it is key to ensure that you have a financial situation that can support you during the months that you endeavor to start a business. If you don’t, it may not be the right time to take on the challenge. Being reliant on the business bringing in a certain amount of money every month can mean that you lose perspective and make rash decisions. Your venture may end up failing even if you have a viable business idea. My advice to you then is likely to be to get a regular paying job with income security or alternatively a contract position that allows you to bridge your finances until your business starts taking off.
Strategic Leadership Team is a partner in the start-up and expansion journey
Sometimes what you need most is a sounding board and a partner to keep you accountable and focused to create and implement a strong business plan. Someone that will help you turn your ideas and assumptions inside out and make you think of an angle that you hadn’t considered. If you could benefit from further advice and want to explore how we can assist, click on the link to get in touch: Contact us.