You have written your business plan, and now you’re wondering what you should do next. After thorough research, I have curated the next steps you should take after creating your business plan.
The Next Steps After Business Plan:
- Test the Idea (MVP)
- Review the Information
- Raise Startup Capital
- Find an Ideal Location for Your Business
- Hire a Team
- Open the Business
- Marketing
- Accounting Management
Below I have explained each step in detail. And, if you’re interested in learning how to be successful in your business, then keep reading.
What Is the Next Step After Business Plan?
Test the Idea (MVP)
Before doing anything else, you need to test your idea. You need to develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). An MVP is a version of your product that has just enough features usable by early customers.
The purpose of MVP is to collect feedback from your customers for future product development.
Review the Information
After you collect the feedback from the customers, you need to review it.
You need to analyze the data and determine which features made the customer happy and which were criticized the most.
Then work on the features that received the most appreciation and eliminate any features that the customers didn’t like.
By applying this strategy, you will build a product that your audience wants with the least amount of money spent.
This strategy falls in the Lean Startup Methodology.
The Lean Startup Methodology is a process of building a new company or introducing a new product or service to the market.
Raise Startup Capital
Now that you have built an MVP and reviewed the feedback, it’s time to raise funds for your business.
As you have already written your business plan, you must already have an estimated idea of the amount you need to finance your business.
But, if you don’t, then this is the time to think about the finances. First, write down the things that would need capital, such as the raw material for the product, employees’ salaries, rent of the inventory, etc.
Then you need to consider how you will raise the capital for your startup. A few ways you can use to raise funds are:
1) Savings: If you have some savings that you don’t need in the short term, you can use them to fund your startup.
2) Friends and Family: You can borrow money from your friends or family. But, make sure to return it on time so it won’t affect your relationship.
3) Bank Loans: Another option to fund your business is to take a loan from your bank. You need to keep in mind that banks will require some conventional security to lend you money.
4) Angel Investor: Last but not least way to raise funds is to get funds from someone with a high net worth (i.e., Angel Investor) in exchange for ownership equity.
Find an Ideal Location for Your Business
You need a location where you can conduct your business.
If you’re a home base business and have a physical product to sell, you will need a location for your inventory.
An ideal location for such inventory would be your home garage or somewhere near your home.
But, if you’re not a home-based business, then an ideal location would be where your customers can easily access your business. For example, a fast-food business would thrive in an area where there are a lot of offices. People would be in a hurry, and fast food (such as a burger) would be a convenient option for them for a meal.
Hire a Team
It isn’t easy to run a business without a good team. So, every entrepreneur needs a team that helps him/her in the most efficient way possible.
You have to make sure you have enough capital to afford your employees’ salaries.
You need to hire those you trust and who have the right skills for the job.
It is a good thing to put aside your ego and hire those who have skills you lack so that you can overcome your limitations as a business owner and form a versatile team.
Open the Business
Now that you have raised the capital for the startup, found an ideal location for your business, and hired the right team, this is the time to open your business.
You need to take action and start conducting business.
You have to develop your brand and have a backstory to sell your product/services.
You need to provide responsive services and be proactive.
Your brand will be the face of your business, so you need to have a professional-looking website and excellent customer care service.
Bad branding will make your business go down the drain, so you need to avoid it at all costs.
Marketing
Good branding goes alongside good marketing. Without marketing, no one will ever know what you offer.
So you need to have an excellent marketing strategy for your business.
As the pandemic has hit many businesses, it has become evident how important it is to have an online presence.
You need to create an online presence through content marketing via a blog or social media.
You need to post daily and be consistent. So that you can attract traffic to your blog or social channels, later on, you can turn your traffic to customers by offering your products.
Another way to market your brand is through paid traffic. For example, you can pay Facebook or Google to display your products’ ads.
But, paid ads can cost you a hefty amount, so you need to make sure you have the budget for it.
Accounting Management
If you have accounting knowledge, then well and good, but if you don’t, then you need to hire an accountant.
You need to know how much are you spending and how much revenue you’re generating.
Also, you need to know how to pay taxes and get tax exemptions as much as possible.
If you don’t want to work out all the boring accounting stuff of the business, then I would suggest you hire an accountant.
It will be worth it.
What must an entrepreneur do in order to be successful?
Review and Update Business Plan
Building a business is not a straight path. There will always be ups and downs in the business.
You need to review and update your business plan according to the circumstances now and then to be successful.
For example, you may fall short of the budget; you need to revise the budget plan accordingly.
Keeping the business plan updated will make sure you don’t face any difficulties in the future.
Measure the Business Health with Few KPIs
To know how well your business is doing, you need to study a few Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
A KPI is a statistic to measure your business performance.
There are varieties of KPIs available. Each industry has its own KPI. Even each department in a company has its own KPI.
To measure your business performance as a beginner, you only need one or two KPIs. For example, a service-based company would need to measure profit margin each month.
Get Help
After measuring the KPI, you need someone to guide you on how your business is performing. Again, getting help from a senior or mentor will be the best thing you can do for your business.
Because sometimes we can’t see things that our mentors can see. They will pinpoint the areas that need improvement in our business.
So If you want to be successful, you must get help from a specialist when you’re stuck.
Develop Good Habit to Grow Faster
Adopting good habits such as revising the business plan will grow your business faster. As a result, your company performance will increase, and you will tackle any challenge that comes your way.
Conclusion
After creating your business plan, the first step you should take is to test your idea by building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Then collect and review the feedback of your customers. Your product should contain those features that your customers want. Then you need to find a way to fund your business, such as a bank loan. After raising funds, you need a location for your business and the right team. Then you need to open your business and market it to your audience. Finally, when you start collecting revenue, you need to take care of the account management.
Thank you for reading this far. I hope you liked my article.
Make sure to visit my blog to read more articles about entrepreneurship.