Starting your Business

Every business needs a plan of action; at the very least a 12-month roadmap of where you’re going. Now, if you’ve got a great idea and you’re just getting the business up and running then a plan is even more essential. The value of a business plan has been debated but the skinny is that a good plan highlights the business strategy, direction, and key deliverables for the next 1 to 3 years, with a specific emphasis on the next 12 months.  This is so that the management team, key stakeholders, and potential investors can get in alignment. Notice I didn’t say a long business plan, which was more typical 10+ years ago when plans were often in excess of 40 or 50 pages!

Many business plans, especially those prepared by MBAs tend to be extraordinarily long-winded. I came from this exact same background and I fell into this trap. I wrote pages and pages describing the industry, competitive landscape, and excruciating detail about what my product was going to be and wasted the time that I could’ve better spent outlining the concrete steps to actually get my product launched. These areas are important but a couple of pages would have been sufficient.

So, here are two robust plan template from WickedStart and SCORE that are free to use. These templates can be modified for just about any business (or business idea). They’re comprehensive so you only need to use the parts that are relevant for you.  We used these templates to create a real business plan for a company that we helped get funding for- so we know they works.  Now, if you want to purchase a plan or planning services, I recommend iplanner, a great new startup too!

Go get these templates and keep me posted on your progress!

Bryan Janeczko - Founder, Wicked Start Bryan has 15 years of financial and entrepreneurial experience including co-founding start-ups like Nu-Kitchen, an online food retailer. Bryan is an active board member of the Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO) and StartOut. He is dedicated to the success of all small businesses. www.wickedstart.com | Facebook | @WickedStart | More from Bryan

Many entrepreneurs, including myself, think big – really big. Everyone has ideas and some of them are actually quite good but usually they’re too big and broad to actually execute. If you’re serious about building a great business, you’ll need to be incredibly focused to make it happen. Otherwise, your idea will never have a chance of leaving that cocktail napkin. From my experience, the only way you’ll actually get going is by taking many small steps to stay focused. These steps, one by one, will collectively build your foundation for a successful business. Save the world but start by fixing your neighborhood.

I recently had a conversation with a very inspiring and successful serial entrepreneur – the real deal - Eric Kuhn, who echoed my sentiments about staying focused. He founded Varsity Books which he took public and most recently launched FoundersCard, a members only community for leading entrepreneurs and innovators. (I joined and love the perks like free inflight wireless on American Airlines.)  I naturally asked what was his secret sauce for staying focused in helping FoundersCard achieve success. Here’s what he had to say:

1.  Niche Market?  Focus on a segment of customers and build a product that is exceptionally valuable and relevant to them. Don’t get distracted by trying to be too big too fast.  After you succeed in accomplishing success in your initial market, you will be much better positioned to grow beyond that initial market.

2. Lean Startup? Cash will always be king. Communicate spending priorities and make sure everyone on your team spends the company’s money as if it is theirs. Regardless of how much money is in the company’s bank account, intelligent and thoughtful spending leads to a healthier and more productive company.

3. Ditch the Outdated Business Plan.  Don’t be hostage to the original business plan after you raise the money. It’s irresponsible to execute on a plan that is outdated.  Constantly incorporate new insights from customer feedback to write plans that cover smaller increments of time.  I use a three month plan to account for the ever-changing nature of a new business.  Put the original business plan on the shelf and bring it out five years later.  You’ll get quite a laugh.

Hopefully, these tips can help you in building your own business or taking it to the next level. Feel free to share your own tips for staying focused.

Bryan Janeczko - Founder, Wicked Start Bryan has 15 years of financial and entrepreneurial experience including co-founding start-ups like Nu-Kitchen, an online food retailer. Bryan is an active board member of the Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO) and StartOut. He is dedicated to the success of all small businesses. www.wickedstart.com | Facebook | @WickedStart | More from Bryan