Business Planning, Starting a Business

Prove Your Business Case: Selling Laptops to Polar Bears

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The purpose of business planning is to prove or disprove your business case.

Scary as that might sound, it’s as simple as making sure your business will draw enough customers to pay enough money for your products or services to enable your business and you to survive and perhaps even thrive.

What’s proof to some may not be proof to others. While absolute proof is hard to come by, there are many ways to strengthen or weaken your business case. The stronger your case, the more confident you will be in your business idea. Your confidence will come about as a result of a number of things you do. The important thing is to use building blocks that make sense to you, and to those you may be trying to romance with your business plan.

Newbies tend to experience uncertainty at the beginning of any business venture. A business plan provides an opportunity for you to gain confidence in your ideas. In other words, prove it to yourself and you will be in a better position to convince others.

Here is a glimpse of how it works. Imagine you have $100,000 and I am trying to entice you to invest it in my hot new business idea; selling laptop computers to polar bears.

When I first mention my business idea, you might think I’m crazy and set your browser to block my emails.

If I back my claim up with letters of support from the Northern Polar Bear Association, you might be curious enough to want to know more.

If I show you written orders for 20 laptops, signed by furry bad-breathed polar bears, you might start returning my phone calls.

If I increase the number of orders to 100 and include a couple of long-term contracts with established retailers in polar bear country, you might take me more seriously. You might even Google me, my ancestors, polar bears (your misdirected search for “bare laptops”, proves to be nasty!).

If I provide you with credible financial projections that detail how you can earn a staggering return on your investment over the next 18 months, you might consider the case “proven” and lunge for your chequebook.

The business plan is an opportunity to build your business case, step by logical step. By the time you get through it you will either have proven your business case, or not. Prove it and you may be ready to go into business. If you can’t prove it, don’t give up your day job just yet.

Business Planning, Entrepreneurship, Starting a Business

Ten Ways to Strengthen Your Business Plan

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The most important reason to write a business plan is create a roadmap for the entrepreneur or business owner. A business plan can also be a valuable tool for communicating your business idea to others, for example, to secure financing or attract investors.

Whatever your reasons, any business plan will be stronger by following these basic guidelines.

  1. Anticipate the questions readers will have and answer them in your business plan. They’ll want to know about you, your business, and your industry. They’ll be interested in your financial and employment history. They’ll need to know that you understand your customer, and that you know how to makes sales and serve customers.
  2. Forecast sales a bit lower than you think they will be. Smart business planners will intentionally err on the conservative side, showing viability with as few sales as possible.
  3. Estimate expenses a little higher than you believe they might be. The brutal truth is that contingencies or expense buffers are all too often necessary and get spent once the business is in play.
  4. Remove some of the guesswork from your sales projections by gathering items such as signed contracts, letters of intent or some other form of written confirmation that customers are willing to buy your products or services from your business.
  5. Provide a complete set of clear and realistic financial forecasts, and make sure you know them well enough to discuss them intelligently with your banker or investor. Demonstrate your understanding of how money flows in and out of your business, and convey your knowledge with sales projections, a cash flow forecast, and pro forma income statements and balance sheets.
  6. Be frugal. In your business plan, show readers that you make wise buying decisions and that you are sourcing the best products and materials. If you can get by with an older truck, don’t ask for financing for that shiny new one.
  7. Be realistic and factual throughout your business plan. Nothing undermines your credibility quicker than inaccuracies. Where it makes sense to do so, state where the information comes from.
  8. Communicate various ways that you know your business, including, understanding your customers, having a savvy approach to pricing, and knowing how to make the operation work efficiently.
  9. Your business plan needs to communicate your knowledge of the industry you will operate in. What types of goods are sold? Who are your competitors? What competitive advantage will motivate customers to buy from you?
  10. Somewhere in your plan you’ll want to talk about your qualifications, and share information about any business-relevant assets such as your educational background or work experience.

Everything you do to create a business plan will increase or decrease your confidence in the business idea. As your confidence increases you move toward launching the business; if it decreases, you have more work to do.

For most small business or micro-business ventures, the business plan doesn’t need to convince anyone that you’ll be wealthy or retire early. It has only to demonstrate viability, that is, to show that the business will provide you with enough of a salary to pay your monthly living expenses, and hopefully earn a bit of profit as well.

Ready to write your business plan? Get started with our free business plan template or become a member of the Oasis today!

Market Research, Owning a Business, Starting a Business

Tips for Naming Your Business

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Naming a business can be thrilling and spooky. It’s exciting because naming a business always gives a feeling of getting closer to bringing your fledgling business into the world. But it can also be stressful because the wrong name can cost you.

Today’s environment is such that, even when you do everything right according to the local authorities, you can still be blindsided by a business owner from a far off jurisdiction.

When a local business owner started her housecleaning business a couple of years ago, she did her research, registered her name with the provincial corporate registry, and started building her business. A few months later she was advised by her lawyer that she should stop using her business name because someone else had the trademark pending for all of Canada.

Now, many months later, she has successfully changed her business name, but the cost has been considerable. She has redone her business cards, brochures, vehicle signage, media advertising, and rebuilt her website at naturallyneat.ca.

This situation is not unique. With that in mind, here are a few tips for naming a business.

  1. Search your name ideas using any of the search engines, such as www.google.com or www.bing.com. Too many hits might mean the name is overused. Be sure to try using different search engines, because they don’t all pull up the same information.
  2. Use the built-in search functions at domain registry websites to determine if the domains are available for your preferred business name. A couple of domain search websites are www.godaddy.com and www.hover.com. The search results will tell you whether your name is available in the .com, .net, .org, .biz or .info versions. If your name idea is already taken, some of the registry sites will also list a number of suggestions that are close or related to your name.
  3. Keep the name as brief as possible. Throughout the life of your business, you and others will write, type, think or speak your business name many times. If you wish to inspire others to repeat your business name, make it easy for them to do so. The worst names are those that are difficult to pronounce, or they are so long that you need an acronym to shorten them. Brief is better.
  4. Search copyrights and trademarks to determine if someone has already secured the name. You can either hire a trademark lawyer to do this or you can do it yourself by visiting the appropriate government agency or website. Use a search engine to search using keywords “trademark” and your location (example, “trademark Canada”) to locate the website.
  5. Ask others for feedback on your business name. How does the name fit the business? What do others think of when they hear the name? Does the name sound right for the image you wish to portray?
  6. Once you have chosen your name, register it in the jurisdiction where you intend to operate the business. For example, in British Columbia you will need to register your business with the Corporate Registry.

A great business name will help you avoid costly court disputes or name change exercises, at the same time drawing the right customers to your business. A little due diligence before settling on a business name can save you loads of trouble later. While there are no guarantees, the steps above should help you narrow your focus and choose that magic and hopefully – unique business name.

Are you ready to start your business plan? Get a free business plan template and get started today.

Entrepreneurship, Self-Employment, Starting a Business

Hone Your Small Business Skills before Tackling Venture Capitalists

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While Dragons’ Den is educational and entertaining, I hope the theatrics don’t scare off too many wannabe small business owners.

After being in business for 30 years, I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to have to report daily to a job or punch a time clock. I’d like to see more people enjoy the thrill of owning a small business.

Entrepreneurs need to invest the time and effort needed to learn the business trade before attempting to attract investors like the Dragons. And the most effective way I know of to learn about business is to own one. Like every other discipline, the road to success is littered with tough lessons, long hours and a lot of determination.

The Dragons sift through a lot of pitches in order to find a few investment-ready high growth opportunities. For every idea that hits the jackpot, there are several that simply don’t meet the standard set by the investors.

There’s no doubt in my mind that each of the Dragons have earned the right to sit in an elevated chair and cuff the spit out of the gutsy hopefuls who dare to venture into the Den. However, as some of those rejected souls scurry from the set with their shredded egos in tow, I find myself hoping they don’t give up on their dreams. A rejection isn’t necessarily the end of the trail. A “no” doesn’t always mean the business idea is a throw away. It might only mean the idea isn’t enticing enough to tempt these particular investors.

The Dragons come from a wealthy perspective. Most of them already have more money than they could possibly spend in this lifetime. They are seeking partnerships that assure high rates of return. It’s all about money and partnering with great people. They simply don’t need to take on projects or people that are at the wrong end of the learning curve.

Whatever else can be said about the Dragons, they offer an absolute goldmine of business know-how and each episode is a terrific opportunity to learn. Here are three lessons that that stand out with every session:

  1. Investors buy into people. The business concepts and numbers have to work, but ultimately it is the quality of the people that attract or turn them away.
  2. There’s plenty of money available for savvy people with the right ideas. The Dragons are just a handful of investors in a big, big world full of funding options.
  3. Applicants must prepare for the big investment league by starting small. Learn to run a tiny business before tackling a large one.

The marketplace is full of perfectly healthy small businesses that never grow beyond employing the owner and a handful of workers, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Scads of business ideas might not appeal to fire breathing billionaires and yet still be perfectly suited to meet an entrepreneur’s financial needs.

Dream big, but start small—and one day you too might slay the Dragons and walk out of the Den with a pot of gold.

Your Business. Your Plan. Your Way.