log 169: ask

learn

Another project I have been working on recently is a business plan. While I had the pieces of a complete plan at the very start of my business, I needed to take another look at it. I need to review the path that I’m taking my business on to have a clear direction for any choices I need to make in the future. However, I had no idea how to put a comprehensive plan together, so I asked. I asked my father about the critical components of a plan and how to write them. This is what we talked about: 

Preliminary questions: 

What problem in society does this business/project solve? 

What is the knowledge/technology needed to make it work? Do you/the team have that capability?

Who is leading the business, and who is on the team?

Product Development Plan:

Who is the target client?

What is the timeline? What are the milestones?

When will the alpha, beta, and product launch be?

Marketing Plan:

What are the 5 P’s: Product, Pricing, Promotion, Path, and People? 

What is the budget?

Financial Plan: 

What is the forecast for the next 8 quarters?

Include things like a Profit and Loss Statement, Balance Sheet, etc.

While a comprehensive business plan has more components, for a small business, this is sufficient. By filling out this template, I better understood the direction in which I want to take my business and career. Hopefully, next week, I’ll start progressing faster with the development of the next iteration of Kynetik.