10 Steps to Small Business Success
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Starting a business, given its share of rewards and risks, is a serious endeavor and requires considerable preparation. If you are going to accept the challenge, then you must do everything you can to improve your chances for success. This process involves the mastery of ten steps.
Develop your personal and company goals
New business success requires a combination of knowing what you are doing and capitalizing on a good opportunity. Develop and clearly state your goals in a written plan, which will then serve as your road map.
Define a viable market segment for your product or service
Define an unmet consumer need first, before you develop a product to satisfy that need. Regardless of how astute you may be in business, if the market isn't there to support you, then you cannot expect to go very far. However, the majority of entrepreneurs first come up with a product they think is "hot" before determining the existence of sufficient demand for the product.
Develop your marketing plan
The purpose of the marketing plan is to describe how you will attempt to create and maintain customers for a profit. It needs to state whom you are going to sell to, how you are going to penetrate the market, why you will be successful with your sales campaigns, and finally, how much you will sell annually over the next five years.
Write your initial version of the business plan
Your business plan must reflect the unique environment you will be operating in as well as what you plan to be your competitive advantage. It is an outline of the direction in which you plan to take your company, an analysis of your business strengths and weaknesses, and a skeleton from which your formal business plan will later be developed. It will assist you in securing the key people you need, and it will also help you to begin developing your financial projections.
Determine your financing needs
Once you have developed a rough business plan, you can begin to determine your financing needs, which will be incorporated into your formal business plan. Your marketing analysis leads to sales forecasts, which determine your staffing level, which defines your operating budget, from which you can generate financial projections and determine your projected cash flow.
Form your key teams: founders, management, and directors
You must make sure you have put together a solid management team. The rough business plan you developed in Level IV should help you to attract top talent to your company.
Finalize your financing needs and create your formal business plan
Starting with the rough business plan, put together a full-fledged formal business plan. A business plan should convincingly demonstrate that your business can sell enough of its product or service to make a satisfactory profit and be attractive to potential backers.
Develop a marketing strategy to obtain financing for your company
Set up a strategy to sell yourself and your company to financiers in order to raise the capital that your business needs.
Market your plan successfully, attracting capital on your terms
Once you've developed a strategy for approaching financing sources, you must make use of the negotiating tools that will give you an inside edge on the competition and enable you to attract capital.
Market your product/service and manage your business to achieve your goals
The last step in the process involves the ongoing management and marketing of your business. Getting a company started is only half the battle. Once you're in business, you will need strong management tools and marketing skills in order to make sure you stay in business.
posted at 5:53 AM
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