The Start of Starting Your Business

You have an idea. You can tell your idea is a good business plan. Now what?

Well, we start building your business plan and putting your idea and vision on paper. The very first step is to identify your idea. Even if it is just for you, write or draw your idea on paper, so you can easily visualize it. The next step is to determine the goals. Do YOU want to run the business? Do you want to sell the idea? Are you going to develop your idea or is that going to be hired out? Is this a side hustle, or do you plan to replace your regular job? Where do you picture your idea's progress in one year? In three years? In five years?

Now is the first hurdle to planning a business: viability. Start with a basic internet search - is someone else, anywhere, already working your idea? How is their business different from what you envision? How is it similar? Is there a way to collaborate with them? What competition have they identified?

Next, look at the dollars. How much do you need to realize your vision to perfection? How much less is the doable, but still building vision? What funding options are available to you, for this idea?

Finally, check the industry. What customer base exists for this industry? How long do new businesses fare in this industry? What are the common trends for industry start-ups? Is the industry geographically sensitive?

Now that you have defined your vision and done your first viability check, it is time to start planning in earnest. Van's Consulting offers several video courses to walk you through these processes, but it comes down to asking the right questions to get complete answers. Your business plan should be no more than 6 pages with financial charts and spreadsheets - simple and direct is the best option for the first business plan. As you move into starting and running your business, you will add marketing plans, operational plans, and strategic plans.

You know your industry and some basic customer base information, along with precursory financials. Now you need a company name or brand name. Brainstorm some ideas while we call this Your Idea Company to move forward. When you come up with the perfect name, check for copyrights, domains, and your Secretary of State or Department of Revenue (in the USA) to see that your perfect name is not being used by someone else.

Your Idea Company needs a mission and a message. To come up with these, you need to know who you are trying to reach with that message. A narrowed customer base is a good thing, but too narrow can be a major limitation. For example, a city has 500,000 citizens => 254,000 citizens are female => 172,000 are women aged 25-45 => 153,000 are mothers aged 25-45 => 42,000 are mothers of three or more children => 23,000 are mothers with three children under the age of 18 => 12,628 are mothers with three children aged 6-18 => 7 are mothers of triplets => Zero are mothers of 12-year-old triplets. If your target market is women aged 25-45 with children, you have good-sized market in this city. If your target market is women aged 25-45 with 12-year-old triplets, then you might be in some trouble. Your message need to be as inclusive of your whole target market as you can be, without losing sight of your idea and mission statement. In the Mothers example, your message might be "self-care for busy moms" and your mission statement might be "You must care for yourself, in order to care for others."

Now, lets move to how to reach your customer base. Are they on social media? Which platforms? Business-to-business may be well-served on LinkedIn, but personal care may be more attractive to target customers on Instagram. Does your target market still consume traditional media, like nightly news broadcasts, radio, and newspapers? Or, are you targeting the customers that are most likely to use Google first than any other information source? This is your most basic marketing steps, in writing. In the business plan, this information will be three to six paragraphs, at most.

No business will operate for long without revenue. What is your primary revenue source? What is the one (or two) products or services that you REALLY want to focus on providing and selling? These are your primary products or services. In our Mothers example, the primary revenue source is our self-care routine that we are selling to women aged 25-45 with children in our city. Secondary revenue might include the products used in that routine, such as skin care or yoga mats, and branded merchandise, such as a Mothers water canteen and Mothers apparel.

Switch focus back to those goals. You have set one-, three-, and five-year goals above. What is the benchmark for these goals? As in, how do you measure that goal as a success? "Start Your Idea Company" is a goal, but at what point do you call it achieved - when you've registered the company and recieved all relevant licenses? When you make your first sale? Or is it started, and therefore goal met, once you finish your business plan? "Make a profit" is a good goal, and necessary to sustain a business, but is that gross profit, or net profit? Are you celebrating the first time your revenue outpaces your expenses, or are you waiting to celebrate until you are consistently pulling in 30% more revenue than all expenses? Determine what your benchmark for a goal achieved looks like for each of the goals you set. Adjust your goals, your timelines, and your benchmarks as necessary in order to set realistic and achievable goals for Your Idea Company.

You now have the basic information that you need to start writing your business plan. Join a Van's Consulting course or call a Van's Consultant today to complete your business plan and continue your journey with Your Idea Company.