Anti-Business Plan
"The One Paragraph Start-Up Plan"- section heading in Scott Gerber's book Never Get a Real Job
I am currently reading this book. The first eighty pages were all about what not to do. Even though I agreed with most things I could care less about what not to do. But when I saw this section immediately I started to enjoy the book.
Most business plans are not worth the paper that they are written on. People over predict a rosy picture that is not realistic. But just because someone writes it down it must be important. Some plans are so full of pages that they require a book binding.
Scott suggestion is brilliant. Write a very tight one paragraph business plan. That by itself is brilliant but what I really was impressed with is that he tells you to convert it into an action step and to test it as if it is a hypothesis(belief that could be true or false). He suggests that you test each sentence by doing it and using these eight questions: "
1. What is the service your business performs or the product it provides today?
2. How does your business produce or provide the product or service right now?
3. How will customers use your product or service as it exists right now?
4. How will your business generate immediate revenue?
5. Who are the primary clients your business will target immediately?
6. How will you market your start-up to prospective clients with the resources you have at your direct disposal?
7. How are you different than your competitors right now?
8. What are the secondary and tertiary client bases you will target once you've attains success with your primary base?"
This idea lines up well with the Lean Start-Up idea of producing a minimum product and testing it. Once each step has been completed he suggest that you evaluate your overall findings by asking yourself these six questions:"
1. What worked and what didn't?
2. What was the result of each action step?
3. Was the overall experience positive or negative? Why?
4. What did you learn during the process?
5. Which steps can be modified or improved for better results? How?
6. Which steps need to be deleted all together?"
Pretty cool!
Today's question is:
"Can you narrow your start-up idea to one paragraph and break it apart into actionable steps?"
"The One Paragraph Start-Up Plan"- section heading in Scott Gerber's book Never Get a Real Job
I am currently reading this book. The first eighty pages were all about what not to do. Even though I agreed with most things I could care less about what not to do. But when I saw this section immediately I started to enjoy the book.
Most business plans are not worth the paper that they are written on. People over predict a rosy picture that is not realistic. But just because someone writes it down it must be important. Some plans are so full of pages that they require a book binding.
Scott suggestion is brilliant. Write a very tight one paragraph business plan. That by itself is brilliant but what I really was impressed with is that he tells you to convert it into an action step and to test it as if it is a hypothesis(belief that could be true or false). He suggests that you test each sentence by doing it and using these eight questions: "
1. What is the service your business performs or the product it provides today?
2. How does your business produce or provide the product or service right now?
3. How will customers use your product or service as it exists right now?
4. How will your business generate immediate revenue?
5. Who are the primary clients your business will target immediately?
6. How will you market your start-up to prospective clients with the resources you have at your direct disposal?
7. How are you different than your competitors right now?
8. What are the secondary and tertiary client bases you will target once you've attains success with your primary base?"
This idea lines up well with the Lean Start-Up idea of producing a minimum product and testing it. Once each step has been completed he suggest that you evaluate your overall findings by asking yourself these six questions:"
1. What worked and what didn't?
2. What was the result of each action step?
3. Was the overall experience positive or negative? Why?
4. What did you learn during the process?
5. Which steps can be modified or improved for better results? How?
6. Which steps need to be deleted all together?"
Pretty cool!
Today's question is:
"Can you narrow your start-up idea to one paragraph and break it apart into actionable steps?"
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