Find what is unique about you, and get started on the path to a successful business. Designed to bring out your inner entrepreneur, our To-Do List will help you find your uniqueness, draft a business plan and get started doing business.
Top 10 To-Dos to Start Your Business
1) Write a Mission Statement
2) Create a Vision
3) Define Your Core Business
4) Form Core Competencies
5) Formulate a Business Strategy
6) Drafting a Complete Business Plan
7) Create a Marketing Plan
8) Craft a Road Map
9) Acquire the Necessary Resources
10) Start Your Business
-Before reading further, bookmark this page so you can return to it and reference easily. Write a Mission Statement
A mission statement helps narrow down what your business will do and what you will stand for. It should state who your customers are, where and how you do business, what makes your business unique and the types of offerings you provide.
Create a Vision
Your vision should be a short statement that describes where your business is today and where it will be 3 years from the day you write the statement.
Define Your Core Business
What industry are you in? How are you different from the competition? Who are your ideal customers? What services/goods makeup your core offering?
Form Core Competencies
Forget about good. What are you great at? Make that your core! How do you differentiate and stand out amongst the competition?
Formulate a Business Strategy
Your strategy needs to emphasize why you are different/better than the competition and find ways to reach your customers to convey and produce that level of service/goods.
Draft a Complete Business Plan
A business plan contains the fundamentals of starting a business. Your business plan will include: the mission statement, vision and definition of your core business and competencies. Further, you will outline any research you have gathered that support your business strategy.
Create a Marketing Plan
Once you have a strategy, creating the marketing plan will be easy. Your marketing plan will contain ideas about how to reach your ideal customers and persuade them that you are the right choice. Marketing plans contain a “Big Idea” that makes your uniqueness the focus and guides decisions, such as creative execution and media buys.
Craft a Road map
A road map is a guide to the future of your business. In your road map, you take a long term look at the opportunities and threats to your business.
Acquire the Necessary Resources
If you need operating capital, your business plan will not only help you get a loan but also estimate how much operating capital you will need. If you need a warehouse or an
office space, find a
commercial real estate agent to help you find a location. Recruit help executing your marketing plan. Freelancers often do great work at lower prices.
Start Your Business
Get started! If you’re waiting for the perfect time to start your business, forget it. There never is. There are only better moments.
These are not hard and fast rules. They’re guide posts to help you along your way. You may find that you continue to revise your business plan much like a living document. You are encouraged at minimum to revisit your plan once a year, to evaluate changes in your business model. You may decide you’re right on course, or business objectives and goals need to be changed. Treat it like a process, and come back to reference this to-do list.