PLANNING

Planning is an essential part of your business success.  If you fail to plan well you will not be able to execute well; and ultimately, your business will fail no matter how good your product idea may be.  Planning is a never ending process; you will always be planning something when starting a business.  Plan you work and work your plan has been a recipe for success forever.  

When I speak about planning, I am not necessarily referring to developing a formal business plan.  Many entrepreneurs start off with that in mind and waste endless amounts of time trying to polish a formal business document before they ever get started.  As we go through this process of starting a new business, you will need to build on your research as you go to develop the material for writing a business plan. To help you think through the necessary elements of a good plan, I recommend purchasing the business plan template software from www.bplans.com.  Their software will help guide you through the process of how to write a business plan as you go along.  They provide a business plan outline that will help you with that business startup checklist.  I will; however, discuss a formal business plan format in Chapter 16 as a part of the funding process.  There are several types of documents that you will need when you hit the money raising trail that all tie into your formal business plan.   But don’t try to develop a thorough plan before you get started. There is a lot of work in front of you and some good old trial and error may be necessary before you will even know what to write.

In the Planning Section, we will talk about the fundamentals of business, product, team, capital, profits, and determination.   All of these elements are equally important, but each in their own way.  Creating a product idea with real value to the consumer is the first step.  In order to find that magic product you will need to do a lot of research.  Today, the Internet makes this process much easier than it was a generation ago.  You need to know what your market is, who the consumer is in that market and how to reach them.