Sometimes we don’t ask for the things that mean a lot to us. It’s scary – what happens if you are turned down? Then you have to face the disappointment of… well… reality.

It’s worse, though, to guarantee disappointment by not asking for what you want. If you don’t try, you don’t have to face failure. But if you don’t try, the world cannot become aware of your needs and wants.

Too often, entrepreneurs do everything they can personally do to make a startup move forward… but then they freeze up when it comes time to ask for something from others. This is why many people focus on the product they are building, or the software they are developing, or the Website of their services company. These things can be controlled and built almost completely by the entrepreneur themselves.

What about the investor money needed to market the product effectively, though? Or the signed contract from the customer? What about the additional members of the management team who you want to work for no paycheck (equity only)? The experienced entrepreneur in your industry who you want on the board of advisors?

Most businesses do not get off the ground without a lot of connections to the world at large. Most of them also require the efforts of several people. You can’t get these things without asking for them. If you need the advice and network connections of someone in your industry, but you can’t pay them anything, then you’ll just have to find out if they are willing to help. Finding out requires the old-fashioned method of actually requesting this help in a direct fashion. It is true that this experienced person may say “no”. They certainly can’t say “yes” to a question that has not been asked, however.

I have watched quite a few entrepreneurs reach a point in their startup when it became time to ask for serious help, or a substantial investment. They froze up and somehow just never got up the courage to take the next step. In fact, an acquaintance of mine recently told me that he was seriously frustrated by the number of entrepreneurs that never followed up with him after initial conversations about placing an investment from his firm into their startup business. He managed to reach some of them to ask them why, and several admitted that they were scared to take the next step… so they chose to avoid the situation, instead.

When your dream – your vision – requires a bold move to take the next step forward, you may want to take a minute to think it through. Are you nervous? Worried it may not pan out? There is only one way to make it happen, and it is going to take courage. Ask for what you want in a very direct fashion. Be clear about the terms and amounts, and be confident. You are asking because you believe in what you want… and you should let that shine through. If you get turned down, at least you can move forward with other options. Not making a move will only keep you frozen in a holding pattern.

I am approached rather often by would-be entrepreneurs who ask how they can overcome their fear of the risks involved in starting something of their own. I don’t know how to respond, except to tell them that they are already in a risky position. That’s because they’ve identified something they want from life, and now there is a serious consequence to “taking the normal path” and not following their heart.

There are many things to consider before choosing to start a new venture, of course. Money is a concern, as well as health insurance for the family, and so on. All of these concerns are valid… but they are not the essence of the decision that needs to be made. They are only factors. The real decision is whether or not to follow one’s vision, or follow one’s bliss, as Joseph Campbell would say.

Before a person becomes aware of something they want, there is no question. There is no pain of not having it, and no joy from thinking about it. There is also no decision to be made… and no risk. He can stay with his current job and proceed as planned. Once he becomes aware of his “big idea”, however, everything changes. He finds it hard to concentrate on the day-to-day matters and starts to spend all of his free time putting effort into his idea. Sometimes he even starts slacking in other areas of his life in order to spend more time on his vision. Now the risk has already begun.

If the man asks whether or not he should pursue his dream, he is really asking if he should break his own plans. We plan – all the time – and then do our best to carry out those plans to completion. But life doesn’t like plans that last for very long, unfortunately. It tends to prefer plans that get interrupted partway through. To break from a commitment to a job, or a career path, or even a location is commonplace… but most of us only allow those breaks when they come from an outside force. When it is our decision, such as the man in question, we like to hesitate and add 1,000 factors to the decision so that it appears very risky to break the current plans and go with something new. The greatest risk, however, is waiting for happiness to find you instead of seeking it yourself.

There is one thing all the entrepreneurs (that I know personally) have in common. They are happy to be pursuing what they want. The first-time entrepreneurs usually say that their only regret is not making a change earlier. Nobody lays upon his deathbed and says “I only wish I’d spent less time seeking what I wanted”, after all.

There is almost always a way to make your vision come to life. This is not just blind optimism, though. All the challenges, difficulties, and worries will still be part of the journey. And you still might fail. But ask yourself… which is better – to fail at something meaningful or succeed at something you don’t really want?

Perhaps some of this sounds familiar to you? That “spark” inside you that burns for a greater goal is an indicator of what you really want. Working toward that goal is sometimes hard, but it’s very important and should not be ignored. It is not an interruption of your life. It IS your life… trying to get out from under the layers of how you thought everything should turn out. Who ever promised you that the plans you made five years ago were the final plans?

If you find that your idea or vision will not go away, and keeps popping up, then you don’t have much of a choice. It’s more like a plan change that you just have to accept and get used to… because nobody knows what you want more accurately than you.

I’m no expert in how to find happiness, or how anyone else should live their life. I can only tell the story of how – again and again – I’ve seen people find a greater source of joy in themselves and their existence by summoning their courage and pursuing their dreams. From what I’ve seen, it doesn’t look like there is any such thing as a “proven path” or a “right way to do things”. There are only people who follow their vision and those who do not.

If you’ve missed a chance, or you’re unable to “take the risk”… then consider what is truly at risk. Every day you have another chance to make a decision, and every day you have the ability to decide something new. Perhaps today you should try a different route – one that leads toward your personal vision. I can’t answer the question of whether or not you should take action on your idea. That’s a personal choice. I can answer, however, that finding something which produces a joy in you is a blessing in itself. The greatest risk is losing that sense of purpose, not all those little risks that make you hesitate. If you have the courage, don’t let it go to waste.

A mistake I have made is to think of a startup like a business too much – to the extent that I forget to factor in all of the personal interactions that will be impacted by my decisions. If running young companies was only a matter of getting the numbers and strategy correct, it would be an awful lot easier to get one off the ground. Investors sometimes make the same mistake, putting the returns of their investment and the performance of the firm ahead of everything else.

It makes sense to be concerned about the performance of a company as a business. Why else would you invest in one or help start one? I’m not suggesting that anyone abandon the process of focusing on business results. Better business results come from proper treatment of people, though. The two concerns are deeply intertwined.

Being in business with someone is like being married. Communication is critical, and honesty is the only foundation that will last over time. When the business arrangement no longer works for one person in the situation, then either the situation must change or the partnership must collapse. Expect the business relationship to be fluid and dynamic, requiring frequent updates and maintenance efforts.

Here’s a real-world example of this mistake. As a company was beginning to grow, the duties of the partners needed to be divided up so everything could be handled on time. The division of duties meant one person would focus on the legal and finance matters of the firm while the other would focus on the sales and operations. This division seemed perfect, and it certainly worked in terms of workload and personal skill sets. The part that didn’t work, however, was the breakdown of communication once duties were split. Decisions were previously made jointly regarding larger issues. Under the new arrangement, both parties were receiving information about important decisions only after the fact. This started to create resentment and distrust. Imagine if a married couple agreed that one person would take care of the children and the other would take care of the finances and housing matters… and then they stopped discussing their challenges and decisions with each other. It would likely result in the same schism of trust and well-being.

In the business situation, the repair required understanding that the people operating the business together were not machines that could tolerate running point on a particular topic and going without the interaction of the previous partnership arrangement. Once it was figured out, it wasn’t too difficult to solve. Everything had to go back to the original state of cooperation and then grow into a division of labor that retained the interpersonal communication that made the damn business work in the first place. The relationship had to be reset, in other words. I only wish other relationships could be repaired so easily.

Try thinking about your startup company in the same terms. In one of my companies, where I am an active daily manager, we try our best to turn the work into a game. If you’re familiar with the growing trend towards gamification, or have read Reality Is Broken by Jane McGonigal, then you can probably see where this article is headed. If not, you may be thinking that I am “playing around” with capital and business in a foolhardy way. The truth is that turning important things (such as reaching business objectives) into a game produces better results. You’ll just have to trust me on that for now.

The talent of the current generation does not want to let their brains go underutilized. That helps explain the constant browsing of diverse topics on the World Wide Web during all waking hours. They also do not want to be “stuck” in a workplace that feels stagnant or lacks the opportunity for new healthy challenges.

Your startup should have talent within it. That part is obvious. But to make the most from that talent, and to give that talent the most satisfying experience, the company environment should be run differently than a standard “process and efficiency” model. Company goals should be translated into personal goals for each member of the team. You may want to assign point values to the goals and create a rewards system associated with the points. Turn the company into a game with levels, challenges, and a feedback system that allows employees and managers to judge for themselves whether or not they are playing well each day.

One example is the scheduling of work on different projects. Instead of simply prioritizing projects according to deadlines or management directives, we move the deadlines around when possible to create an “increasing challenge” experience for the team members. Boring and tedious projects are scheduled in such a way that the pains of working on them are interspersed with the enjoyable challenges that the team members desire. This way, the cool projects are earned as a reward for reaching the next goal within the crappy projects. This may seem like a manipulation of employees in order to increase outcomes… and it is. So what. It’s also the system I use to manage my own time, because frankly I will never be able to motivate myself to prepare a quarterly financial statement for investor review without some much more enjoyable task scheduled after it as a reward.

If you are reading this with excitement, then you should give it a try in your startup. If you disagree, perhaps this comparison will make more sense to you…

You have two departments in your company. One is customer service. The other is software development. Both departments have a 26-year-old employee within them. In customer service, the employee is required to be at his desk for the entire day, and is only allowed to leave for lunch and a couple of breaks. His goal is the same every day – to answer the phone and respond to email. This employee was genuinely happy to join the company, but now he is increasingly turning to computer puzzle games and surfing the Web to make it through each day. He’s at his desk 100% of the time, but his brain is only present about 60% of the amount it used to be.

In your other department, software development, the 26-year-old employee is much happier. He does not have to be at his desk with any regularity, yet you find that he is always right where he should be, working on his projects. This employee was equally happy to join the company, and started at the same time as the other employee working in customer service. Why is this person happier and more engaged in his work?

The nature of the software development job includes game elements. The challenges of computer programming naturally produce a wide variety of goals that differ from day to day. As the software becomes more advanced, the employee rises to the next level when he is ready… by seeing ways to make his own engineering efforts even more functional, efficient, or advanced.

Would you like your customer service employee to put 100% of his brain back into his job? Then turn that run-of-the-mill department into a game. Your employee at that desk is smart, so he knows that there are ways that technology can allow him to get out of his cubicle and still be available to answer phone and email requests immediately (it’s called a cell phone). Free him up to find his own solutions to reach his goals, and gear the department toward an “increasing challenge” mechanism. Then you’ll be generating more results for the same amount of salary expense, and you may even discover that your company is capable of achieving greater things because you’re allowing your talented employees to manifest their talents.

Treat your startup like a game, and allow the entire team to do the same. Business is a part of life, after all, and that is just one big game, too.

There’s no point to this article except to express my love for, and increasing shortage of time. I hope you’re making the most of yours.

I’m not saying that building something amazing is pointless…just that doing so is not the last effort. Marketing and business strategy is just as important as it ever was, if not more. The world does not seek out new solutions and arrive at your door as soon as your gadget or Website is announced. The world is too busy, and this situation will continue. Hang on – we’ll get into marketing strategy in a minute.

Too often, entrepreneurs or engineers build a better solution to a problem and wonder why it doesn’t take hold in the marketplace. The better solution is not as welcome in the consumer’s mind as folks might think. How often do you personally abandon your current products or services in order to try something better? It takes a serious improvement to make you switch, right? How about a serious drawback to your current solution? That helps make switching easier, too. The adoption of innovations is FAR greater, though, when the problem has not yet been solved. If no satisfactory solution exists for an important problem, then you might find the world beating a path to your door.

When deciding whether or not to pursue an idea, ask yourself what problem it’s really solving. If you have a reliable answer, then ask a bunch of other people who have the problem if they like your solution. Do this before you put much effort into your idea. You may learn that nobody cares or no one is willing to spend the right amount of money on your innovation. Then you will have saved time, money, and emotional pain. If you’re really smart, and good at inventing things, then you should be smart enough to realize that market research is like a scientist’s field data. It can – and should – invalidate your hypothesis that you have created something with business potential. Of course, you may also find that everyone you speak to is foaming at the mouth to get a hold of your wonderful creation. That would be great!

Have you ever seen a comedy sketch where the players act out a commercial for a fake product? Commonly, the fake product is something only marginally useful. How about a cell phone case that also holds your money and credit cards? At first blush it sounds somewhat interesting…until you realize that you’ll be holding your wallet up to your face in the middle of the Chicago Loop about 10 times per day…as if to say “Would you rob me, please?” Not so good.

I tried really hard to find a picture of the cell phone wallet I described. No luck - only sensible products like this one. Point's still valid, though.

The reason silly inventions are fodder for comedy is because we’ve all seen them…and all find it entertaining that a bad idea would have good effort behind it. We ask our friends “Someone ACTUALLY MADE that?!?” and have a good laugh. Maybe we even take a picture of it on the store shelves and send it around. How did all this happen? Some entrepreneur thought it was a good enough idea to spend valuable time bringing it to market. My guess is that they figured it was a good product and therefore the world would embrace it. Chances are good that thorough market research was not a part of the startup efforts. Ugghhh…I wouldn’t want to be that person.

Ok – I assume you get the point. Don’t build things that nobody wants. What about the truly valuable things that still don’t succeed? That’s the real entrepreneurial mistake. Perfectly good solutions need to be placed in front of the people who need them. Simply building the solution does not make it sell…and without sales you haven’t solved any of the world’s problems. You’ve just created a big one for yourself and your investors.

There is far too much information swirling around everyone these days. This makes it harder for good solutions to get noticed. One advantage of the massive information flow, however, is that it is easier than ever to discover connection points with your target market. Let’s give ourselves a product to work with here…how about a nice little iPhone app that plans all the drop-off and pick-up times for your daughter’s soccer games? This is certainly useful for those parents who need to make these schedules. Go ahead and build it, and then put it in the App Store. Watch it not sell.

Why didn’t it get 2,000 downloads in the first week (or month or year)? There are plenty of parents with iPhones with children who play after-school sports, right? Yes. There are plenty of people who would prefer to have an app keep track of the schedule instead of using Post-It notes on the family whiteboard, right? Yes again. What went wrong is customer awareness. All those parents were not – and are still not – aware that your wonderful solution exists. You were caught in a Field of Dreams mindset and you figured they would somehow stumble across it and buy it. That didn’t happen because they weren’t looking in the App Store to solve their problem. They won’t start doing that, either.

The way to gather sales for your app is the same way you would gather sales for any other product. You will need to reach your target market actively instead of passively. Try reaching out to the administrators of the soccer clubs or the team coaches. They have direct access to the parents who will care about your app, and they might even help you spread the word because they would prefer to have more players arriving and leaving on time. Now you’re reaching your market!

The growing mobile apps industry made me want to write this article. I’ve seen too many appreneurs¹ losing money recently because they forgot that an app is just a tiny software business. It still needs the business part of the formula. You must market your apps the way Proctor & Gamble markets its consumer goods. By reaching the people who will want to buy them.

The lesson here is to remember that an engineering mindset can get your innovation built, but that alone will not lead to success. If you build it, they still won’t come…unless they want it and they know about it. Think about how you are going to reach your target market before you spend a significant part of your life running with a turd toward the finish line. The planning you do will pay great dividends later on, and it may even help you overcome some other entrepreneurial mistakes (such as #1 where you don’t share your equity because you think you can do everything alone).

¹ The term “appreneurs” is what Jeb Ory uses to describe entrepreneurs making mobile apps. Ask him – he loves talking about it.

You can patent anything.  Also, not everything can be patented.

Both of these statements are true.  With a bit of creativity, and a good patent attorney, a patent can be secured on just about anything.  Expect a cost of about $14,000 in the United States.  You can probably get it done cheaper, but please read on.

With regard to the second statement, you may think that your invention is ready to patent, but in its current state it may not be patentable.  There are an awful lot of filings in the system, and sometimes your innovation just doesn’t pass the test when compared to existing intellectual property (IP).

Why do you want a patent on your invention?  It’s true that patents provide protection.  The protection, though, is often what is misunderstood.  Patents to not prevent anyone from competing against you.  They do not prevent anyone from building what you have invented, either.  Patents give you the right to defend your invention in the courts.  After the expense of fighting, you may not gain anything substantial.

What if you patent an invention and then another company begins producing the same thing?  Let’s assume that both you and your competitor spend about $150,000 bringing the invention to market.  If your competitor has not made any money yet, then what are you fighting over?  You certainly want the other guys to stop doing what they’re doing.  You may notify them of a suspected patent infringement with the hopes that they cease.  They just spent a bit of money, so they may not want to.  Get ready for legal expenses!

If you bring a lawsuit against your competitors and win, they can be barred from producing your invention.  That’s good…especially if you win back your legal fees.  If they don’t have any money, though, you may only get the satisfaction of ceased competition.  This is not such a rosey picture as the “pure protection” that many people assume a patent provides.

What if you lose the lawsuit?  Your competitor could have a patent of their own that was just issued, and carefully crafted to work around yours.  You could end up paying their legal fees on top of your own.

I am not, by any means, recommending that you avoid seeking a patent on your invention.  Just consider the reality of patent protection and whether or not a patent makes financial sense.  If it’s likely that your patent can be worked around, then it may not be worth the cost.  And – more importantly – remember that patents don’t make money.  Businesses make money.  Worry about a patent after you have fully explored the possibility (and process) of turning your invention into a business.

April 26th, 2011 addendum – special thanks to Micah for correcting my terminology.

When a contract is written and signed, a certain state of the world exists as the foundation.  All parties agree to specific terms and timeframes, otherwise the contract will not be executed (signed).  At the moment of execution, a well-written contract will appear to address the challenging situations expected to occur.  When unexpected situations arise, however, the terms of the contract may no longer seem fair to one or more parties involved.  This is where a contract becomes a point of contention instead of a problem solver.

The way two parties handle difficulties can be determined more by the personalities and attitudes of the people involved than by the terms of the agreement.  Those who want to fight with litigation (or arbitration if stated in the contract) will do so.  Period.  You can’t convince a person to come to the negotiating table if they are unwilling.  You may try to point out the large expense of litigation, and how easily things can be solved by revisiting the terms of the contract.  I hope it works…but what if it doesn’t?

Let’s explore this problem with a fake contract between a transportation company and a dog toy manufacturer.  Suppose the contract states that the transport firm will charge the dog toy maker a total fee of $100.00 to move newly made toys from the factory to the distributor in the next city.  When the contract is signed, the dog toy company agrees to ship a truckload of products each day and the transporter agrees to charge the same fee for each shipment.  Both parties are comfortable with the terms, because the amounts are within the range of expected changes.  Then the price of fuel unexpectedly skyrockets and the shipping firm can’t make money on the original $100.00 fee.

Since the dog toy company is still holding up its end of the deal, it’s too bad for the shipping company, right?  Well, yes…according to the contract.  But the transport firm will have a strong reason to break the contract, or renegotiate the terms.  Who wants to lose money?!  If the two companies used to be better off when working together, then a disruption in the relationship is more serious than just a few dollars.

The companies can get their lawyers and start spending money fighting.  The toy maker can stick to the rules of the agreement and fight the shipper on the grounds that it has not honored the contracted price.  The shipper can start poking around the contract and transaction history, trying to identify a term that the manufacturer has violated.  This is not a pretty process for anyone involved.  Is there a better way to solve it?  Sure, if both parties are willing to work on the problem collaboratively.

Collaboration won’t take place unless the people behind the contracts put forth the effort, though.

Perhaps an increase in the shipping fee will be acceptable to the manufacturer if the required volume of shipments is relaxed?  Or could the fee be changed to a price that fluctuates with the market price of fuel, so the toy maker benefits from a drop and suffers from an increase?  Many solutions are likely possible, but only fighting can take place without the right perspective from both sides.

When writing or entering contracts, get to know the people on the other side, if possible.  The way the group handles the unexpected but eventual problems down the road will be greatly influenced by the human beings, not the pieces of paper.

When the leader of a company chooses a direction, he believes it will be beneficial.  If it turns out wrong, that’s a shame.  One never knows, though.  Since any direction can end up as a mistake, the ability to lead is more important.  Without passionate leadership, the company culture suffers and the team never solidifies into a formidable action center.  In essence, a poorly led group does not become a team but remains just a group of associated individuals.  Without a good team, the company is less likely to reach the goal at the end of the path.  So – the essential point is that good leadership gets the company somewhere.  Whether that somewhere is the right place to be – or not – is less important than making sure you get there because you will definitely not succeed without reaching a goal.

If we frame the startup leadership situation as something more cut-and-dry, it becomes easier to accept.  What if the leader of a startup was actually a stock picker.  This person may or may not choose the right stocks for investment.  That can’t be known with certainty at the beginning.  If the stock picker does not choose anything, however, and fails to make a commitment to purchase any shares, then the outcome will certainly be a gain of zero.

Well…what’s so bad about playing it safe and not making a move?  It’s the stock picker’s (or startup CEO’s) job to find a calculated risk and pursue it.  Startup companies do not make any money or progress by holding onto the current situation.  If investors and startup employees wanted to remain motionless, they would put their cash in a savings account and stay with a regular job, respectively.

Bad leadership in a startup often feels like a winding road that curves far to the right and left and only slowly moves ahead.  The people at the head of the group are the ones determining the direction, and they are feeling out the path in a cautious way instead of making a straight line for what appears to be an oasis on the horizon.  It may be that the next great business opportunity is not visible…and the leader needs to predict it.  That’s called “vision” and not everyone has it.  It may be that a great opportunity is in the line of sight but it’s doubtful if the team can reach it…and the leader needs to find a way.  That’s called “courage” and not everyone has that, either.

In the real world of startups, there will always be times when the company does not have its sights on the next great thing.  There will even be times when the team is lost.  What’s important, though, is that the leader understands his or her role in the organization.  A big part of the job is to pick the direction of travel – as sensibly as possible – and move everyone toward it with gusto.

We all start in the middle of the desert.  The oasis ahead may end up being a mirage or it may be as good as it seems.  You’ll never know unless you get there and manage to motivate the team to come with you.  Get moving.

The main points an investor will want you to cover are something like this outline:

1. A general description of the business concept
2. How much money is needed?
3. How much money is expected to be returned?
4. How long does all this take?
5. How are you going to make it happen?
6. Why is your plan believable?

For the general description, write something like an executive summary.  Provide some history, your reasons for wanting to pursue this opportunity, and enough information about the business idea that would allow someone to “get it” in a few paragraphs.

To write about the money that is needed, you’ll just have to do some deep thinking about the expenses that lie ahead.  I use a spreadsheet and lay out each month for the first two years.  The common business expenses, such as Web hosting, office rent, and accounting are likely to be in the list.  Each business has its own particular expenses, too, related to the actual business activities.  A company with products, for example, will likely incur photography costs so the items can be displayed in marketing materials and on the Internet.  Total up the cash needed to get the business through the “proof of concept” phase and list that as your money need.

Similar projections should be done for the amount of money returned.  Plan out the first two years on a monthly basis, and then the next three years after that in summary form.  If you don’t already have figures for the number of clients or amount of sales that should be generated during this timeframe, try building the figures from the ground up.  If your business is a services firm with contracted clients, for instance, then you can build your numbers from your projected expenses.  If you have one salesperson on staff, ask yourself how many clients that salesperson can gather in the first two years.  Be reaslistic and then discount it by 25%.  How does it look?  You should still be able to make money with less-than-desired sales levels.  When you’ve gotten a grip on the projected revenue, see if you make or lose money based upon your expenses.  If you make money, highlight this fact in the “amount of money returned” section.  If you lose money, call this out in your writing along with a description of how that will be remedied when the business has fully ramped up.  If you can’t make it work past the 2-year mark, consider whether you are just being optimistic about this business opportunity and go back to square one.

The “how long it should take” section is all about projecting a timeline and placing key activities on the timeline.  Predict the future by looking at the major steps that will need to be covered as the business launches and operates.  Don’t get into too much detail or your timeline will be unreadable.  Keep it simple so an investor can see when you are executing certain “big picture” plan steps.  Your investor will likely see these milestones as a way to plan the investment.  Most investors will make an agreement to distribute funds to your business based upon success at points in the timeline.

To describe how you are going to make it happen, break this section into topical areas.  Cover marketing, sales, construction / development, technology investment, intellectual property filings, and so on.  This can potentially be a very large section, so try to summarize instead of listing low-level details.  The point is to know how you are going to get the business off the ground and explain that clearly.

When explaining why your plan is believable, you are going to need outside information.  Point out similar businesses that have been successful with your operating model.  List some research figures about your market, and be sure to list whether it is growing or not.  Check yourself against the research.  If your market is 1,000 potential clients and you need to have 300 of those in order to succeed, you may be in trouble.  Can you really get 30% of the entire market?  Perhaps, but that is what your investor will be asking so be ready to defend why your business is going to be so overwhelmingly popular.  You’ll also want to describe the operating team in this section.  If your team is not fit to run the business, it will show.  Talk about why you are the right person to pursue this venture.  Cover your competitors and suppliers, too.

Business planning is about knowing what you are going to do, when you are going to do it, and why it is important.  The real world of operating the business will not follow the plan, so you shouldn’t spend so much time on it that you delay starting up.  You shouldn’t start working very much without a solid plan, though, either.  Fit yourself in the middle and make a solid plan that avoids time-consuming writing about the accounting software you are going to use or the bank you are going to select to hold the business funds.  That material is like writing “first, get in the car and turn the ignition” when you are giving someone directions to drive to your house.  It’s already understood so avoid listing it and just focus on the topics here.

To put a framework around what you are writing (and speed things up), you also may want to try business plan crafting software.  A good example is Business Plan Pro by Tim Berry’s company, Palo Alto Software. You can find it at www.paloalto.com