Six-Week Start-Up. Rhonda Abrams

       WEEK 4: TAKE CARE OF OPERATIONS

       WEEK 5: DEAL WITH MONEY ISSUES

       WEEK 6: OPEN YOUR DOORS!

      Week 1

       Main accomplishments:

      #1 Clarify your business vision and concept

      #2 Create your company identity

      #3 Get organized

       Make appointments with:

       Graphic designer

       SBDC counselor

      Lay the Foundation. . .

      Congratulations! you’re now officially starting your new business. During this first week, you’ll jump right in with some of the fun stuff of starting a business—like choosing a business name and developing a corporate identity. But most of the week is devoted to establishing a strong foundation for your new company: making sure your business concept is solid, developing a network of advisors and supporters to help you build and grow your company, and taking care of the organizational details to make day-to-day business life more effective and efficient.

      In other words, we’re going to make sure you get off to the right start.

      Even if you are starting a one-person business, you’ll find it beneficial to develop a network of colleagues and associates, referral sources and supporters. No one succeeds alone—so right from Week One, you’ll start building your network.

GOALS FOR STARTING MY BUSINESS

       Specific Goals:

       Enter the number or amount you hope to achieve for your business in one year, five years, and ten years.

       Priorities:

       Rate your priorities for your business.

ACCOMPLISHMENT #1:

       Clarify your business concept

       My Checklist:

       Identify your personal goals

       Spell out your business values

       Remind yourself of your source of inspiration

       Describe your business concept

       Identify your strategic position

       Decide whether you want partners

       Decide whether you want investors

       Consider potential exit strategies

       Discuss the impact of starting a business with your family

      If you were building a house, before you drew up the blueprints, laid the foundation, or even bought the land, you’d first have a vision of what you’d want that house to be: big or small, one story or two, in the city or in the country. You’d have a “vision” of your future home. The same is true when building a company: You need a vision of what you hope to achieve.

      When you imagine your business, what do you hope for? To make a lot of money? Use your creativity? Have more flexibility in your life? Do you see yourself working alone or building a company with employees? Do you hope your company grows very large or do you want it to stay small?

      As you launch your new company, it’s important to clarify and evaluate your business concept. What is your long-term vision? What are your personal goals? What do you see as the business opportunity? From that, how do you define your business specifics—what it does, whom it serves, how it differs from the competition?

       Check It Out

      For a list of the most popular sole proprietor businesses in the U.S., go to the Census Bureau’s nonemployee statistics: www.census.gov/econ/nonemployer

      Some entrepreneurs describe themselves as “visionaries” because they can conceive of grand schemes or bold new inventions. They envision their companies clobbering the competition, defining new product categories, perhaps growing to hundreds of millions—if not billions—of dollars.

MY PERSONAL GOALS: THE FOUR Cs

       Make copies of this worksheet for yourself and your partners or key employees, if any. Check the level of importance to you in each area.

      But a business “vision” doesn’t have to be revolutionary. The important part is that you identify what you see your business becoming: what it will do or make, how it will grow and compete, how big it will get.

      Over time, your business vision will almost certainly change. As you gain experience and confidence, you may change the nature of your products or services, your personal goals may evolve, and the things that seem most important to you now may be much less so in the next few years.

      Nevertheless, clarifying your current business vision and articulating your specific business concept gives you a stronger start as you begin building your company. Use the “Goals for Starting My Business” worksheet on page 4 as a starting place for defining your business goals.

Identify your personal goals

      What are your personal goals in growing your business? Some businesses fail, and others flounder, because their founders or executives are uncertain of what they really want to achieve, and they don’t structure the company and their responsibilities in ways that satisfy their personal needs and ambitions.

       The Four Cs

      For most entrepreneurs, their personal goals can be summed up by the Four Cs: Creativity, Control, Challenge, and Cash. Of course, we each want all four of these to some degree, but knowing which we most want or need can help us structure our companies to best achieve our goals.

      For instance, my very first clients were the owners of a small sportswear apparel company. The designer began the business because she was good at—and loved—designing clothes. Her primary motivation was being able to act on her creativity. But an apparel company doesn’t run on designs alone. There is a myriad of purely “business” aspects of the company—sales, operations, manufacturing, etc. If she hadn’t