Hi everyone.
I'm attorney Aiden Kramer with The Law Office of Aiden H. Kramer in Colorado, and you're
watching All Up In Yo' Business.
And I am so glad you're here!
I know a lot of you stumble upon my channel and my videos because you are thinking about
starting a business.
Maybe you have a great idea and a great concept for a business, and you are just not sure
where to begin.
You don't know exactly how to start this fantastic business idea that you have.
So that gave me this idea for a series of videos of the 10 Steps to Starting a Business!
The first step to starting a business is a business plan.
Now, I know that for a lot of business owners and aspiring business owners, making a business
plan can definitely be one of the toughest parts of starting a business.
It can seem very daunting to have to think about every aspect of this new business when
maybe all you have so far it an idea.
But that is exactly what the business plan is for.
It is meant for those juices to start flowing in your head and get you thinking about every
detail of your business so when you do start it, you know exactly where you are going to
go with it.
The business plan doesn't have to be one static thing.
It changes.
You want to forecast all of these things that I am going to talk about 3, 4, or 5 years
out.
But along the way, you are going to make changes and you are going to modify that business
plan.
Here are a few of the most important items that you want to put into your business plan:
First, you want to put an Executive Summary.
An Executive Summary is especially important if you are going to be seeking investors or
a business loan to help finance your business.
They are going to want to see your business plan and the Executive Summary is what they
are going to pay the most attention to.
The Executive Summary should highlight the biggest aspects and ideas of your business.
For example, what makes your business unique, why your business is going to succeed, obviously
a summary of what your business is, and it should really be just the most important parts
of your business plan so that if somebody only has 30 seconds to read over your business
plan, they can scan the executive summary and get a good idea of what the business is.
Your business plan should also include an analysis of your industry.
What does the market look like in the industry that your business is going to be in?
Who are some of your competitors and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
Who is your target audience?
What is your audience's demographic?
Who exactly are you going to be aiming for with your business?
Your business plan should also include a marketing analysis.
How do you plan to market your business?
What are some of the marketing strategies and channels that you are going to use?
Any unique or special ideas you have for marketing your business?
Those should all be included in your marketing plan.
Your business plan should also include an operations plan.
What type of personnel are you going to hire?
What are some of the processes that you are going to need to follow in the execution of
your business?
And the operations plan is a great place to put some of the milestones that you are hoping
to accomplish.
If you want to reach a certain goal or a certain milestone by year 1 or year 2, put that in
there and that will help keep you on track to reaching those goals.
And finally, a financial plan should also be included in your business plan.
What is your budget going to look like?
How much money are you starting with?
How much do you think you are going to need just to get the business going?
Try to budget out what your business is going to need.
Make some financial projections for your business: what you think you can make within a given
amount of time, what you expect to bring in, and what you expect to spend.
This is another great place to put some goals.
If you hope to reach a certain amount of income by a specific date, put that in there!
That will help pull you towards that goal.
Also include information about pricing.
How are you going to price your product or your service?
How does that compare to some of your competitors pricing?
Put all of that in the financial plan.
So, the business plan, again, is meant to be a roadmap and to help guide you along while
you are starting and growing your business.
It can be altered, it can be changed, maybe your goals will change, or maybe you try something
out for marketing and you find out that doesn't work?
That's okay, scrap it and try something else.
But absolutely the most important step when starting a business is to have a plan of attack
for the business, and that is what your business plan does.
There is a lot of information online about how to write a business plan.
A lot of business plan templates are available and there is a lot of free information out
there if you need assistance with writing your business plan.
If any of you have had experiences or successes or pitfalls when you were writing your business
plan or as your business started to grow and changing that business plan, I would love
to hear some of your comments and some of your experiences with your business plan!
If you are in Colorado and your are seeking some assistance with your business and your
business plan, feel free to contact me.
My phone number and email are below.
Be sure to subscribe to my channel and to stay tuned over the next few weeks for the
remaining steps in the 10 Steps to Starting a Business.
Thank you all so much for watching!
I'm Aiden Kramer, and I will see you next time!