[jhhardin]

Hello everyone!

I am what could be considered a "struggling entrepreneur," but I haven't actually started a business just yet. I have quite a few ideas that I feel could be very successful, but I am having a difficult time getting them organized. I was hoping to draw on the wealth of knowledge and experience here to help me organize a business plan. What I am looking for are ways that you all have used to organize your thoughts and ensure that every aspect of the business is accounted for before you actually start the physical process of building it.

Thank you so much for you input!

[CP Mr Ofevaw]

I would suggest doing extensive research prior to starting the actual business plan. Cover all aspects such as; market research, competition, product or service pricing, product or service development, needed investments, etc..

After doing that, I would make a BASIC business plan... Chances are high that the first business plan you create WON'T be complete or even close to accurate, so make it as a "rough draft". Once you begin executing your plan, you'll discover that 1) you need more people to help you, 2) you need more capital, 3) your product/service is being used by a large market that you didn't see... After you discover that, it's time to re-write the plan.

So, to sum it up... Do extensive research. The idea of a business plan isn't to organize unstructured business ideas, it's to create a plan of execution for structured business ideas.

[bbalfour]

Your whole mindset is wrong. If you constantly look to plan and make sure you have "everything covered" before you start, you will never start.

To be a succesfull entrepreneur you have to have a bias towards action! No startup will ever have all their bases covered before starting. Start doing something about your ideas and let things develop naturally.

You can never plan for what will happen. Things will always be different then what you plan for. That is why writing Business Plans before you even start your business is absolutely pointless. You will have nothing to base your Business Plan on.

Quit planning, start doing. For more advice you can visit my blog by going to the link below.

[jimmiejo]

Ready. Fire. Aim.

[akula]

Originally Posted by jhhardin

Hello everyone!

I am what could be considered a "struggling entrepreneur," but I haven't actually started a business just yet. I have quite a few ideas that I feel could be very successful, but I am having a difficult time getting them organized. I was hoping to draw on the wealth of knowledge and experience here to help me organize a business plan. What I am looking for are ways that you all have used to organize your thoughts and ensure that every aspect of the business is accounted for before you actually start the physical process of building it.

Thank you so much for you input!

You're knee deep in shit.

There's nothing more to add other than suggesting that you stop doing what ever you are doing because it's not working.

There is a method to starting companies. It doesn't involve writing business plans. There are enumerated reasons for that. All of this, you should have learnt already.

I mean, what do you want me to tell you?

How serious are you about this whole be-an-entrepreneur-follow-your-dreams song and dance?

[akula]

Originally Posted by bbalfour

Your whole mindset is wrong. If you constantly look to plan and make sure you have "everything covered" before you start, you will never start.

To be a succesfull entrepreneur you have to have a bias towards action! No startup will ever have all their bases covered before starting. Start doing something about your ideas and let things develop naturally.

You can never plan for what will happen. Things will always be different then what you plan for. That is why writing Business Plans before you even start your business is absolutely pointless. You will have nothing to base your Business Plan on.

Quit planning, start doing. For more advice you can visit my blog by going to the link below.

yep. death by analysis paralysis. common outcome of applied mediocrity.

people just don't care to manage their startup-infant-death-syndrome risk as much as they used to.

[toptemp]

Originally Posted by bbalfour

Your whole mindset is wrong. If you constantly look to plan and make sure you have "everything covered" before you start, you will never start.

To be a succesfull entrepreneur you have to have a bias towards action! No startup will ever have all their bases covered before starting. Start doing something about your ideas and let things develop naturally.

You can never plan for what will happen. Things will always be different then what you plan for. That is why writing Business Plans before you even start your business is absolutely pointless. You will have nothing to base your Business Plan on.

Quit planning, start doing. For more advice you can visit my blog by going to the link below.

I'll admit that trying to have "every aspect of the business covered' is sure to lead to nothing, however, you can plan and you can plan well. You can write a business plan before you start your business and not be insane. There's obviously a difference between being prepared and too prepared, but the former is clearly necessary in an unpredictable business environment. I will always have a bias towards learning and preparing. If you're not afraid of failure or uncertainty or whatever else, action will follow when necessary.

What do you think the 95% of business that fail do? Covered their bases and know how to run a business or just "did it" without enough know how? True, failing is probably better than not trying, but succeeding is the best and that takes some preparation.

[akula]

Originally Posted by toptemp

I'll admit that trying to have "every aspect of the business covered' is sure to lead to nothing, however, you can plan and you can plan well. You can write a business plan before you start your business and not be insane. There's obviously a difference between being prepared and too prepared, but the former is clearly necessary in an unpredictable business environment. I will always have a bias towards learning and preparing. If you're not afraid of failure or uncertainty or whatever else, action will follow when necessary.

What do you think the 95% of business that fail do? Covered their bases and know how to run a business or just "did it" without enough know how? True, failing is probably better than not trying, but succeeding is the best and that takes some preparation.

man, you gotta run a few ventures if you're interested in this stuff

the complete picture of why businesses succeed and fail is more complicated than one might imagine

you've really gotta do this stuff to see what it's like

trust me, sooner or later you're gonna get tired of making guesses, theorising about these things, and reinventing the proverbial wheel.

stop wasting time, be kind to your self, get to work and make a difference in the world.

I'll be your first customer

[CP Mr Ofevaw]

Since the discussion has turned, I some new opinions...

I see companies, particularly dot-com companies, that develop and this the product/service FIRST ... and THEN create the business plan later. If you are on the cutting edge of something new and have a well-planned product, then these are probably the best steps:

1) Have a world-changing idea
2) Research the business aspects of your idea, and create a "basic" plan
3) Develop the product
4) Ship the product or service (as BETA)
5) Get feedback
6) Tweak
7) Re-release
8) Create a REAL business plan, if you haven't already been bought out yet

I am NOT saying "do not write a business plan". Of course you should have a basic plan and lots of research, but I am talking about a formal take-to-investors business plan -- in the beginning, developing and releasing a product is much more important IMO. If you can't even produce the product, why do you need a formal plan? You definitely can't approach most VC's at this stage anyway. Find angel investors or early seed stage investors to help you get a prototype up and running (heck, try http://www.day2.org)...

Once you submit your product/service to the public, THEY become your R&D team and help you shape your product into something much more useful. After that, then you have a much stronger foundation to write a complete business plan with. Imagine if Microsoft never launched, and only concerned themselves with the business aspects. What if they were constantly updating, upgrading, making it better, tweaking, yet never releasing? We'd still be looking at an Apple Greenscreen (okay, that may be in dispute).

It should be noted that most modern companies (Yahoo, Google, Delicious) are NOT started as business ventures, but with the ultimate goal of "making something better" or "making things easier".

[jhhardin]

Originally Posted by akula

You're knee deep in shit.

There's nothing more to add other than suggesting that you stop doing what ever you are doing because it's not working.

There is a method to starting companies. It doesn't involve writing business plans. There are enumerated reasons for that. All of this, you should have learnt already.

I mean, what do you want me to tell you?

How serious are you about this whole be-an-entrepreneur-follow-your-dreams song and dance?

Lets try to remember the purpose of this forum: To support other aspiring entreprenerrs, not to destroy a persons dreams or asperations, even if you feel they are wasting their time. I do see your point of view and it does have merit, as most of the others here seem to agree.

There is something to be said for orginization though. Perhaps I should reword the question. How have you all orginized things in a way that allows you to get started?

Many of you may think this a simple question, and it is. Orginization is simply a problem I have.