Billion Dollar Venture- Steps to starting a successful business

Chapter 4|Planning

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

-Benjamin Franklin

According to (SBA) Small Business Administration around 70 % of new businesses don't last at least 2 years. When I had my first business idea I thought it would change the world. I emailed hundreds of venture capitalist firms. From Silicon Valley firms to South African based firms. The capitalists never got to reply. After all the time I spent searching for their contacts they seemed not to care.

One year down the line I noticed that the investors would never reply because they saw that I had not planned the idea, I was merely asking for cash which was not calculated, money that I was guessing would build the product. The request was poorly written and did not highlight that I had written down a business plan. I thought that the investors would just throw money at me, I had written it so terribly that I showed them every product detail on an email instead of a business plan. The way you approach Investors counts, It illustrates if you planned to make your idea ubiquitous and shows if you can make them big money.

So what is a business plan?

A business plan is an engagement ring between your idea and success. It is the preparation of a startup.

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

-Benjamin Franklin

To be honest the Idea isn't the most important thing in your business, nobody cares about your 'great' Idea, all they want to see it Idea on paper a plan shows whether you are fully armed for success or not. It means that to succeed you must be able to implement a 'Good Plan'.

THE BUSINESS PLAN.

Tip:

· Never start a business without drafting a business plan.

· Products are the centre businesses so be wise to choose one.

· When writing the plan don't add a lot of jargon

A business Plan is no doubt one of the most important things when starting a business. You need tremendous research to pull it off.

Know your idea very well and the competitors so much that it becomes easy to beat existing products.

"The business plan structure is not as important as the content."-Evan Carmichael

Know exactly what sets your product apart from existing products. That's the job of a Business Plan, to tell apart the differences of your idea and existing competitors.

This just shows how important a Business Plan is. You will need to know the structure of a business plan.

They are sites that offer free templates. You can try and visit StartupDaddy.com or just search on Bing/Google.

If you know the structure already all you need is a computer with a products such as MS word or Libre office etc... and you also need a printer.

Next step you need to a company Name and it has to be registered. Go to your local Municipality to find out more details on Registration.

Your Plan may determine whether you succeed or not. It's not the idea that does the job take your time and learn from existing businesses. After all they are not the enemy; they are competitors and should also be respected. If you can't learn from them you can't beat them.

Take notice of what lacks in the market. That will help you draft a good Business plan, and get to know what other businesses are up to so your product won't fall behind.

Take your time when writing the Plan. It's what counts the most.

There are three things investors look at.

Executive Summary

It is the signature of a business plan but a lot of entrepreneurs put a lot of jargon in their executive summary and the next you know, it's the trash bin. According to Evan Carmichael a plan should be so easy to understand that it passes the "grandmother test" a term they use in the venture capitalist world.

Financials

Believe it or not most investors are said to look at the financial plan before going through the whole business plan. So be careful when you are writing a business plans don't add useless stuff on it, because it might just cost you your dream,

Partners

Believe it or not investors are more likely going to believe in a group rather than an individual. If you are alone then well... you may have to rely on experience or a degree in the field.

This is what I call the startup graph:

=Sey