Constructing a Biz Plan
Lesson 6 from: FAST CLASS: Business 101: Start-up ConsiderationsKaren Okonkwo
Constructing a Biz Plan
Lesson 6 from: FAST CLASS: Business 101: Start-up ConsiderationsKaren Okonkwo
Lesson Info
6. Constructing a Biz Plan
Lessons
Lesson Info
Constructing a Biz Plan
Alright, so your business plan. Um I also believe I included a copy of that in the worksheets that you guys have. And sometimes this can be the most exciting, but maybe the most daunting part of your business because this is time for you to execute all the excitement that you've had, all the research that you've done now. It's time for you to actually put a plan together. And sometimes it's hard for us, it's business owners to have a lot of foresight. And so it's hard for us to think, okay, what's the five year plan? Because in reality, you first have to even understand, what type of business do you want to be? Do you want to be a small business or do you want to be a big business? You know, small business, very great. And they're necessary in this world. Um but you are trading your time in for money. So you have to ask yourself in knowing that I am doing that and knowing that I am the business, I am the asset, what do I want to make sure that I am laying out as my plan and same thing ...
if you want to be a big business, what is your plan in order for you to achieve that? Because it's going to require different activities. And so that has to be the thing that you have to get clear with the most. And sometimes people unfortunately get into business, they start chugging along. They start to build this resentment because they weren't clear on what they wanted. And I will say that if you do decide to go into partnership with someone, make sure that your why and there, why is the same? Because if you're why is that? You want to be a small business. But there, why is they want to create a big business? You're gonna have some tough crossroads when you reach the point where you're chugging along and you didn't create a business plan, because if you created a business plan, you would have seen that. But you're gonna be chugging along in one day, it's just the business will break because you guys are butting heads. So I would just get clear on what you want in that spectrum. Um, so you can decide if you want to create a one year business plan, you can decide if you want to do a five year business plan and you can decide how intricate you want it to be. Sometimes, you know, people can just use, um, uh, they can use, like there's this little canvas, I think I put it in, uh, the sheet here that just kind of breaks out just a smaller scale strategy and how you want to maneuver if you want to be a little bit more interested in specific, That usually is because you're trying to share this business plan with an investor. So just decide on where you want to start in that, but you just wanna make sure that your concise with the intention of adapting it as you grow. So I mentioned earlier that if you're smaller business or start up a little bit more of a straightforward approach is using this business model canvas. I think you guys have probably seen it before. Um, it's by Alex Oster Walder And there are nine components to it. So I'll break down those components for you. Um, the first here are key partnerships, so these are just the businesses or services that you guys will be working alongside, uh, to help your business function. So this can be suppliers, this can be manufacturers, it can be subcontractors, graphic designers, you just want to be really clear on who are going to be those key partnerships for you. The next here um would be key resources. So you want to list all the resources that you plan on leveraging um to create value for your customers. So you know these are assets which can be people or things. So what are the resources that you're gonna leverage um to get your business uh functioning the next year? Would be your value proposition. And this is basically your mission statement. Um It should be digestible and compelling statement about the value that your company is going to bring to the market that you're serving. Mhm. Uh Next year your customer relationships. So you're gonna just detail exactly how you plan on interacting with your customers. Uh For example, you know is it in person transactions, is it online? You know, will it be again automated or more personal? So you just want to consider the user experience or the customer experience from start to finish next year, our customer segments. Um So the sixth component of the personal uh Oscar Walder is the customer segment where, you know, you're just trying to figure out who are you going to serve? You know, your business. It just won't be for everybody. And that's something that you have to be clear on, you know, identify and list who your target market is. And you pretty much did that earlier on when you were talking, when you're identifying who the ideal customer is. So you're really taking a lot of the research that you've done during your market research and putting that on your business plan and then channels. So um it basically, in other words, is how will you actually talk to your customers? You know, will you be face to face on a website, you know, via social media, through a call center, via direct mail. Um It can certainly be a mix of all of those things. It's just that you want to pinpoint the one that works the best for the type of customer you have. So if your customers are predominantly millennials, maybe it doesn't make sense to send them direct mail, they're probably not going to read it, you know? But if you send them something that's maybe an email marketing or something through a social channel, maybe that would reach them better. So it's just deciding on which channels will be best for your ideal customer. Um and then your cost structure, so you pretty much went through this when you're doing your research here, but basically what's your your cost of profit ratio. Um and knowing this, you can see if your business is actually profitable, you know, under the structure that you that you create. Um so you just want to understand what's going to be the most significant cost that you'll face on the journey as you're starting with your business and then finally you want to understand your revenue streams. So basically how is your company going to get this money? So, you know, let's all the possible revenue streams, which can include direct sales, uh membership fees, subscriptions, selling advertising space, um speaking engagements, uh industry events, um there's so many different revenue streams that you can utilize. So with that being said, I wanted to thank you guys so much for having me here. Um it's been a wonderful time just trying to uh really be effective here in teaching some of the things that I've uncovered while uh going through business. So if you guys ever want to reach out to me, this is my social media here on both instagram and twitter at Karen Okonkwo
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