Step 2 - A Business Plan

Although starting, branding, and running your own business can bring a lot of satisfaction to your life, do not forget that your success will require your recognition that it is also a daily war filled with small battles. Going into any war requires an overall strategy and individual battle plans to help navigate through to victory. I know, a bit of an extreme analogy, but it helps to push the point that in your excitement to get your business moving, it is easy to overlook planning as a waste of your limited time, but your business plan will be the cornerstone and building blocks of your organization and without this solid foundation of business focus, your efforts can easily become scattered. This plan should be revisited often, and reassessed.

There are a number of software programs out there that can help you with this. One example is BusinessPlan Pro, but there are templates in Microsoft Office via Word or Presentation that help you create a business plan as well. The point is you need one, so find some solution to help you creat it. You should have at least some basic business plan before starting on your day-to-day operations. Generally, it will describe your specific business endeavor in detail, and address where and how you expect your business to grow over the next few years. Revisiting the plan will allow you (and others financially interested in your business) to gauge whether you on track. It is important to note that it is unlikely you will exactly land where you have planned, but that is what the revisting is for. Think of it like climbing a mountain. You plan your assent, but there are externalities like weather, areas that are too dangerous to cross, your own endurance, the tools you have access to, that all affect changes in your plan as you go along. But as you make those changes you need to keep in mind the ultimate goal you set out to accomplish to ensure that those changes are still bringing you to that goal.

"Tools" are a key element. Tools can be reduced to financing, your (and any partners you might have) own expertise, and the weekly aggregate time you have to spend on your business. Where "you" are limited, you can use that financing to compensate - whether that be with additional people, equipment or services. Because your financing at some point is always limited, the decisions of how you spend that financing is material in your potential for success. Staying"lean" is always a mantra in any start-up business, but you can't expect much in results if your only funding enough to stay on life support.

At the beginning employees and rent are two of the more expensive areas that create monthly financial stress against sales and investment capital. In some businesses, this is mandatory. In some other businesses you can go a long way before even needing to consider these; as a result there is a lot of savings that can be redirected in other areas that can better impact your sales. Generally, manufacturing, wholesale, and online retail businesses in this world of global commerce and outsourcing can be done almost entirely virtually. That means no overhead (employees and rent) and low start up costs. We liked the baby manufacturing business because a) we were parents and had a great understanding of what was needed and what was lacking, b) it was a market boutique niche that had lower barriers to entry, c) the baby market was growing in size and had global potential for us, d) our entertainment and celebrity access lent well to the branding growth, e) it was a season-less business in that babies were being born all year long, and f) marketing to the luxury end of the baby products demographic limited sales impact in the event of a recession.