Checklist for a business plan
Ok. So you plan to start your business and need to develop a business plan. I’ve made up a checklist of the elements to be included in a Business Plan:
1. Your purpose. What exactly do you want to accomplish? What are your goals for your business?
2. Describe your business. What is your legal structure? When was it formed? Who owns and operates it?
3. Define your market. What are you going to sell? A product or service? Or both? You’ll want to describe exactly what is going to be sold. Is there a need for your product or service? Who are you selling to? Why will your business have a competitive edge over other businesses?
4. Explain how you intend to meet those needs. How will you produce the product/service? How will your customers receive your goods?
5. Define your staff, or suppliers, if any.
6. Make a time table. Do you expect to reach a certain goal in a specific amount of time?
7. Calculate and State Your Financial Requirements clearly
8. How much capital will it cost you to get the materials you need to start-up? Give detailed information about how the capital will be spent.
Licenses or fees?
Advertising?
Operate your business until you see a profit?
Deliver your product or service?
Subcontractors?
Pay staff?
Workout a plan that’s not too easy and not too challenging. A realistic plan.
Wish you all success 
Is your web host hospitable enough?
There are many hosting companies out there, big companies, small home offices, resellers. Be wary while choosing your web host. The top 7 things you need to consider before choosing your web host
The most important features you need to check with them are: Read more
How to choose a domain name?
As I mentioned in an earlier post, a domain name is a unique address to your website like www.yahoo.com, www.unicef.org etc.
To ensure that each domain name is unique, a database (Domain Name Server) is maintained by ICANN (International corporation for assigned names and numbers). It is better to buy domains from an ICANN accredited domain registrar.
You can buy a domain name Read more
Holiday season online shopping
The heaviest online spending day of the season thus far was Cyber Monday (November 26) with $733 million in sales, quite a bit higher than estimated. comScore, Inc. released an update of holiday season e-commerce spending covering the first 30 days (November 1 – 30) of the November – December 2007 holiday season. More than $13.4 billion has been spent online during the season-to-date, marking an 18-percent gain versus the corresponding days last year.
A quick must have list to create your website
Ok! You want to create a website. Here’s a quick check list.
1. Domain name: A domain name is your website’s address. Like www.yahoo.com, www.unicef.org etc.
2. Hosting account: A folder on the server to store your website files from where they will be distributed on the world wide web.
3. Website Platform: This is a critical step. Taking time to research a little at this step will save you from loss of revenue and frustration.
4. Design: Ready made websites are the best to start with.
5. Content: Professional catchy content rich with keywords.
6. Images: Images improve the appeal of the website. You can choose to take pictures yourself or hire a professional or procure royalty free stockphoto on the net
7. FTP client: A software to transfer the website files on your hard drive to your hosting server.
Business plan checklist
Ok. So you plan to start your business and need to develop a business plan. I’ve made up a checklist of the elements to be included in a Business Plan:
1. Your purpose. What exactly do you want to accomplish? What are your goals for your business?
2. Describe your business. What is your legal structure? When was it formed? Who owns and operates it?
3. Define your market. What are you going to sell? A product or service? Or both? You’ll want to describe exactly what is going to be sold. Is there a need for your product or service? Who are you selling to? Why will your business have a competitive edge over other businesses?
4. Explain how you intend to meet those needs. How will you produce the product/service? How will your customers receive your goods?
5. Define your staff, or suppliers, if any.
6. Make a time table. Do you expect to reach a certain goal in a specific amount of time?
7. Calculate and State Your Financial Requirements clearly
8. How much capital will it cost you to get the materials you need to start-up? Give detailed information about how the capital will be spent.
- Licenses or fees?
- Advertising?
- Operate your business until you see a profit?
- Deliver your product or service?
- Subcontractors?
- Pay staff?
Workout a plan that’s not too easy and not too challenging. A realistic plan.
Wish you all success