Tweak your Life: EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR FOR YOUR START UP

Everything you need for a start up

We all know the success of business could not be measured in terms of a single great part. Success of a business depends on several factors, such as a strong team, right attitude, vision, right marketing strategies and also a great innovation.

A great innovation will not help you in making your business a success. Based on my experience, I have some suggestions for you.

Build a strong team of multi-talented people. Please do not induce every your relative or friend based on relationships. Search for people in the internet (You can find a lot of young optimists in (www.dare.co.in). Look for people who have skill which you don't have. For example, if you are planning to start a website, a person with web-designing skills can reduce your investment to a considerable extent. Also check the person is having the right attitude like you.

Plan your work and then work your plan. I have a bad experience from one of my start up mentors. I got fired and by him, that opened my eyes to a considerable extent. You will not have to run to a consultant pay some thousands or lakh's to prepare your business plan. If you know your business, then you can simply write your business plan. Certainly the most important function is to attract funding, if you show 100% dedication in your business plan, it will not fail with funding.

A Simple Plan For Start-ups

Outline	Topic
1.0	Executive Summary
1.1	Objectives
1.2	Mission
1.3	Keys to Success
2.0	Company Summary
3.0	Product Description
4.1	Market Segmentation
4.2	Target Market Segment Strategy
4.3	Market Need

5.0	Strategy and Implementation Summary
<5.1	Competitive Edge
5.2	Sales Strategy
6.0	Management Summary
7.0	Financial Plan

7.2	Projected Profit and Loss
7.3	Projected Cash Flow

Even the plan is simple, you should develop the concepts to greater sights. Ultimately, the choice of plan isn’t based as much on the stage of business as it is on the type of business, financing requirements, and business objective. Here are some important indicators of the level of plan you’ll need, even as a startup:

Some of the simpler businesses keep a plan in the head of the owner, but every business has a plan. Even a one-person business can benefit from creating a plan document with ideas written down, because the process of producing a plan is useful and valuable.

As soon as a second person is involved, the need for planning multiplies. The plan is critical for communicating values, goals, strategies, and detailed implementation.

As soon as anybody outside the company is involved, then you have to provide more information. When a plan is for internal use only, you may not need to describe company history and product features, for example. Stick to the topics that add value, that make you think, that help support decisions. When you involve people outside the company, then you need to provide more background information as part of the plan.

For discussion purposes, text is enough to get a plan started. Try describing your mission, objective, keys to success, target market, competitive advantage, and basic strategies. How well does this cover your business idea?

Can you live without a sales and expense forecast? Sometimes the one-person business keeps numbers in its (the owner’s) head. However, it’s much easier to use some tools that can put the numbers in front of you, and add and subtract them automatically. That’s where a plan helps.

Do you really know your market? A good market analysis can help you see opportunities that might not otherwise be obvious. Understand why people buy from you. What are the needs being served? How many people are out there, as potential customers?

Do you manage significant amounts of inventory? That makes your cash management more complicated, and usually requires a more sophisticated plan. You need to buy inventory before you sell it.

Do you sell on credit? If you are a business selling to businesses, then you probably do have to sell on credit, and that normally means you have to manage money owed to you by your customers, called accounts receivable. Making the sale is no longer the same thing as getting the money. That usually requires a more sophisticated plan.

Do you do your taxes on a cash basis, or accrual basis? If you don’t know, and you are a very small (one person, maybe 2-3 people) business, then you’re likely to be on a cash basis. That makes your planning easier. However, most businesses big enough to work with a CPA and have separate tax statements use accrual accounting because they want to deduct expenses as they are incurred, even if they aren’t fully paid for. By the time you are using accrual accounting, you’ll probably need more sophisticated cash flow tools, and a more extensive business plan.

As you approach banks and other lending institutions, expect to provide more detail on personal net worth, collateral, and your business’ financial position. Some banks will accept a very superficial business plan as long as the collateral looks good. Others will demand to see detailed monthly projections. No bank can lend money on a business plan alone; that would be against banking law. But a good bank wants to see a good plan.

If you’re looking for venture investment, take a good look at your plan. Professional investors will expect your plan to provide proof, not just promises. They’ll want to see market data, competitive advantage, and management track records. They’ll want to see robust and comprehensive financial projections. True, you’ll hear stories about investors backing new companies without a plan, but those are the exceptions, not the rule.

So, however you cut it, your business plan is very important, even at the early startup stage, and even if you can keep it in your head. Before you purchase business stationery, telephones, or rent a location, you should do a business plan.

Business ideas aren’t protected

In 30 years of business and consulting, I’ve never heard of any laws to protect business ideas. Laws protect inventions with patents, creative works with copyright, and trade names with trademarks.

The closest thing to it that I’ve ever heard is recent rulings on “business model” patents related to the Internet and Internet businesses. What I’ve heard is that some patents have been granted for specific flow of information and commerce on specific Internet sites. If you’re serious about that you’d have to talk to a patent attorney.

Real investors don’t sign NDAs

You also hear a lot about “non-disclosure” agreements (NDA), legal documents in which parties agree not to tell secrets that they disclose to each other. These are used a lot in business development and are a good idea in many business occasions. Non-disclosures are often impractical and hard to enforce, but they are used anyhow.

Real investors don’t sign NDAs. They don’t have to because ideas are cheap and plentiful. They don’t want to because an NDA could be used against them for nuisance lawsuits, even if they didn’t disclose. And they really can’t sign an NDA because they can’t afford to promise they won’t do a similar business with somebody else. The next person in the door, right after they turn you down, might have a similar idea and a more convincing business plan. Each time they signed an NDA they would be ruling out some kind of future business, and they can’t afford to do that.

Please remember, however, that I’m not an attorney. My view on NDAs is not an attorney’s opinion. Furthermore, do understand that I am not saying that you should forget about NDAs entirely, I’m just sharing my disappointment for how often they are rejected and how little protection they really afford. It’s a fine point, but important. Do work with an attorney on this.

Good ideas will be copied
So in the business world good ideas are copied all the time. Most successful businesses are copies. Look at sports utility vehicles, or fancy coffee shops, or websites selling books or CDs, or web-based free email. Every good idea gets copied. Expect it.