JOIN THE MOVE You Can Your Own Business
Starting your own business without a proper plan
and strategy in place is one of the reason why many businesses fail . To be successful on anything you want to do in life , you need to have a plan . A plan in your mind or a written plan , it does not matter what type of plan you might have . A kind of the plan we want to talk about won ’ t cost any cent but requires you to invest time on it . Before you develop any business plan , you need to have a plan of what you want to offer and who are your potential customers . Once you identify a need in your community , tested the desire from the community to satisfy the need and are in a position to provide solution for that need – then you have the plan and you need to follow the following 6 steps to successfully make your plan a reality .
Step 1 : Test Your Business Idea
Remember you have identified the need , performed a test by asking your neighbors about their desire to satisfy their need and have the solution or the potential to provide a solution to satisfy their need . The first test has been done and now you need take the second test that will give a guideline on where or what to do next – you need to ask yourself the following questions and provide answers before you can move to the next step :
• Is this idea going to satisfy the whole need or part of the need ?
• Is this need a once-off or a recurring need ?
• Can I really satisfy this need ?
• Am I going to need any assistance in meeting this need ?
• Do I have right skills to satisfy this need ?
Once you are happy with your answers and have no doubt at all , then move to the next step .
Step 2 : What About Market Research ? You did ask your neighbors about the need and their
desires , so you need to expand your test to more people around your community and extend your scope /
questions to cover the following important aspects of determining whether your solution will be supported or not .
Remember , your neighbors might be jealous or not have told you the truth because they didn ’ t want to hurt your feelings . But the majority won ’ t lie to you . Ask the following questions to at least a minimum of ten people :
• What do you think about the problem ? Specify the need you want to satisfy .
• Do you think we need a solution for this problem ?
• Is there any solution or alternative you might know ?
• If there ’ s a solution or alternative , why is this problem still continuing ?
• Can you pay your money to get this problem solved ?
• Do you know other people who might pay their money to solve this problem ? The results will hlp to identify your target market and customers . They will also help you to identify your competitors and how to compete effectively .
Whatever the results you have , don ’ t try to cook them . Be as honest and truthful as possible to save yourself from disaster .
Step 3 : What Are Your Business Requirements ? It ’ s obvious when you have reached this step , you are happy with first two steps and are in a position to assess the requirements of starting your own business . You have people with a problem and who are willing to pay someone to solve their problem , you have the solution for the problem and now need to meet all the requirements pertaining to solving the problem . You look at the location , staff , skills , educational , production , legal , statutory and compliance requirements such as licenses , permits , certificates , etc . The list is dependent on the type of solution or product you will offer to the community .
You must find out about the requirements pertaining to the industry you want to operate in . Don ’ t start the process before you gather all the details about the requirements otherwise you might find yourself on the wrong side of the law .
Step 4 : What are your Investment Requirements ?
Once a determination of the business requirement is done , meaning when you know which processes to follow from the registration point to the product / solution
development point you can easily determine the amount of capital required to start your business . Do not make up your business start-up costs rather get quotations and prices of all the things including services that are required to start your business .
development point you can easily determine the amount of capital required to start your business .
Do not make up your business start-up costs rather get quotations and prices of all the things including services that are required to start your business .
To start your with less capital is more like engraving your name on your tombstone while you waiting for the day you die , while borrowing more capital will open up a door for you to assume that the business is making it because you can afford to pay for operational costs whereas they are paid with the loan surplus .
Step 5 : Developing your Marketing Strategy
How are you going to get customers ? You may think that this is not important and you deal with it once you get started . The truth is , if you don ’ t deal with it now you won ’ t find time to deal with it when the business has started because once you start your business there are other pressing matters that you will have to deal with on a daily basis . At this stage , you don ’ t a complicated strategy that can cost you thousands of Rands . What you need is to come with your own unique way of how you are going to get customers and the whole marketing strategy of the business when it has started will built upon that block .
It would be wise to research on how to develop a marketing strategy for start-up businesses on your industry . With a marketing strategy in place , you cannot measure the results .
Step 6 : And Finally . . . Write your Business Plan This is a part where most of the people get it wrong by thinking that a business plan is document that should be prepared when it is requested somewhere or when there is a need to raise funds . Every business must have its business plan prepared and reviewed quarterly , in fact each business must 3 types of business plans drawn which short-term , medium term and long term business plans . And
again a business plan must be authored by the business founder . The breathe of the founder must be alive in that business plan from setup up to the financial assumptions of the plan . We are not all experts and there experts who develops business plans but the plan is yours therefore you should own it . Consultants are there to guide and help you find ways of presenting your plan more professionally . They are not there to do all the work for you . Own your business and start mapping out your business plan . Find available templates to guide you and try by all means possible to include everything in your plan . At this stage , your business plan does not have to be perfect but it talk about everything that you want to do in when you start your own business . When you are happy with your business plan , you can now take it to the experts for review and advice on how to improve on it .
Your business map is a measuring tool that you need to measure your progress .