Planning a new business? Answer these questions to help yourself succeed.

Are you thinking of starting a new business or a little venture on the side while keeping your full-time job? You will find a lot of materials online providing you with checklists, to-do lists, and recommendations where and how to start.  But there is very little information about considerations and some deeper thoughts you have to think.
When I was starting my first marketing consulting firm, a few years ago, my good friend prepared this list of questions for me to answer ahead of launch.
Of course, you are planning for success and to make a fortune and to be successful, at the same time, to have a clear idea of how to get there and what are your execrations and steps you have to take makes it a bit easier and prepares you for this exciting journey of an entrepreneur.
See below for some questions to prepare answers for, as part of your planning for your new business.

1. Describe what your business is going to do, in no more than 50 words.
2. Define your target market segment. Who is going to buy this solution and why?
3. Within your geographic reach, what is your list size?
4. What would they currently be doing instead of using this solution, how is this solution therefore going to be an improvement for them?
5. What is the price point for other solutions that people use?
6. What services you can provide to build your network into this target demographic?
7. Can you get beta clients, who are happy to give feedback on prototypes and start paying at a certain development threshold?
8. What will be your monthly running costs, excluding you, to build and maintain your minimum business operations?
9. How long do you think it will take to win your first client, what do you see as being the minimum investment requirement to achieve lift-off?

• Once you have paying clients, will you have to be full time in order to maintain the business from there? If so what will that mean for your costs, if not how do you plan to manage and grow your business if you’re part-time?

Finally, what would constitute a success for you with this business? Annual dividend? Sale? Define your overarching long term career goals and make sure that this business can help fulfill them.

About the author: Larysa Hale

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