After telling you abut the wonderful virtues of a business plan, I find myself preparing one for a business that my son and I are contemplating together.
Though I find a business plan to be extremely useful, it doesn’t mean that I actually enjoy preparing one, frankly my eyes a glazing over just thinking about it. But the enterprise that we are thinking about is relatively unfamiliar to us, so it is doubly important that we know what we are getting ourselves into.
My main focus at this point is the market analysis, because this part of the plan will tell us a lot about the future success of our business. I believe that studying the competition will reveal much about how to market, how to price our product, and most importantly, how to differentiate ourselves from our future competitors.
Another area in which I am seeking answers is in the starting capital that we will need, and how fast we think we can recuperate our initial investment.
The way I see it is that it is not a waste of time if after the completion of the plan we decide that this business is not for us. Better to spend several weeks preparing the plan, and studying it, than to spend months and a ton of money only to get to the same conclusion.
So I am practicing what I preach, and I am dutifully working on the business plan. This exercise will surely take the pink lenses off our eyes, but will also make us more confident about our final decision.
If you are thinking about starting a business, I advise you to work on a business plan. You will find plenty of help in the Small Business Administration website at sba.gov
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