Business Plan - Which questions should be answered

1) What is the need that your business exists to satisfy?

• Every business exists because of some noticeable opportunity that you have discovered within the market. So you must clearly define the need and/or problem you are solving with this business.

2) How will your business satisfy the need?

• Introduce and describe the business itself. Consider including a mission or vision statement with objectives detailing how the business satisfies the need in the market.

3) How does your company differentiate itself?

• Describe your business model and competitive advantage. This will help you to outline how the business will sustain its position within the market.

4) Who will be the key players in the business?

• Name the management team, board and advisers to the business. Highlight their expertise and experiences.

5) How big is the market you are entering?

• Only after understanding the industry you are entering – its size, attractiveness and profit potential – can you truly justify the opportunity.

6) Who will you be targeting as customers?

• Narrowing down your target customer will help enhance and define your marketing strategy.

7) What will be your most effective marketing and promotional strategies?

• Once you’ve identified your target client, you’ll need to develop and implement a strategy on how best to reach them (e.g. PPC, television, radio, social, etc). And this in large part will be influenced by where your target client consumes information.

8) What are the economics of your business?

• Define your revenue streams including pricing structure, costs, margins and expenses.

9) How much money is required to get your business started and generating revenue?

• Identify needed capital requirements by determining where your business stands today, and what is needed in order to move forward.  Also, if you are in need of outside funding, what will be the sources and uses of funds requested.

10) What needs to happen to break-even?

• Play around with financial projections and forecasts to determine the volume of sales needed to cover your expenses and to become profitable.  Include monthly breakdowns for the first two years.

7 Sales Skills to Improve On

Sales Skill #1: Qualifying Fast to Avoid Wasting Sales Time

Do you chase after your prospects until they tell you yes or no? Do you ever tell your prospects "No", as in "No, I am not going to sell to you"? There are many things in selling that you do not and will not be able to control. The one thing that you do have control over is your time and how you choose to use it.

To qualify fast you must have a set of criteria describing who you will and will not sell to. You want to sell to the prospects likely to buy your products, and drop the prospects unlikely to buy (so that you can find more good prospects). Sounds simple, but too many salespeople let sludge buildup in their pipeline, constricting the total revenue that flows out.

KEY TIP: Develop a list of sales qualifying criteria that prospect's must meet in order for you to invest your sales time with them.

Sales Skill #2: Motivating Prospects

Qualifying goes beyond budget, authority, and need. You want to sell to prospects who *want* to buy from you. Finding prospects that need our products usually is not difficult. Finding those who really want our products though can be very hard if we wait for them to come to us.

Products sold by professional salespeople are more complex and offer more value than commodity products offered through stores, catalogs and brokers. Prospects generally do not know they need such products, until they first discover that they have a problem. This process can take seconds or years depending on the nature of the problem (and the prospect!). Prospects get motivated to work with you when you help them to discover that you solve their problem better than anyone does
else.

KEY TIP: Determine which problems that you eliminate or solve for your prospects. Plan and ask questions to uncover and agitate those problems.

Sales Skill #3: Selling to People Outside Your Comfort Zone

Most salespeople who are "people persons", already think that they are good at this. Let me ask you a question. When you last lost a sale, how was your rapport with the key person who decided against you?

You can't afford to look away and ignore people that you don't have natural rapport with. The good news is that people like people like themselves. All you have to do to gain rapport is stretch your behavior outside or your comfort zone until you become like another person.

KEY TIP: Match speech patterns with people to gain rapport outside of your typical sports or weather conversation.

Sales Skill #4: Reaching Decision-Makers Through Voicemail

There's two ways to make more sales. One is to close more of the prospects you do contact. The other is to get more prospects into the pipeline. When prospecting, you can look at voicemail as either your friend or your enemy. With 70% of your prospecting calls going to voicemail, it is time to make friends with it.

Although you will never get even close to getting every voicemail returned, you can get a significant number of your messages returned when treat them as a one-on-one commercials.

KEY TIP: Prepare 3-5 separate benefit-focused voicemail messages that you can leave over a period of days or weeks for a single decision-maker before you give up on her. Each message should focus on a single unique customer-focused benefit.

Sales Skill #5: Delivering "I Gotta Have That" Presentations

Let's face it, a lot of business presentations are really boring. Salespeople talk about why their product is great, why their company is great, and the history of their company. Prospects don't relate to this. That's why they look so bored.

Great presentations get the prospect's imagination involved. The best way to involve the imagination is through storytelling. Stories rich in descriptive detail get the prospect picturing them using your product and evoke that "I Gotta Have That" reaction.

KEY TIP: Study 1-3 of your best customers and develop detailed customer success stories that will put emotional power into your presentations.

Sales Skill #6: Gaining Commitments Instead of Closing

Eliminate "Closing Cheese" from Your Vocabulary. You know what I am talking about: "Would you like that in gray or in black?" or "If I can show you how this will help you will you buy today?". Lines like these are why salespeople are down on the bottom of society's respect list somewhere near lawyers.

Learn the power of asking for incremental commitments from the beginning of your sales cycle. It is not an easy shift to make. First you got to get the prospect to show you what they most want (Hint: See Skill #2 above). Then you can negotiate incremental commitments in return for more of your time, information or resources.

KEY TIP: Practice asking for simple commitments once someone has expressed a clear want, pain, or desire.

Sales Skill #7: Have More Fun

Sales is fun when you are in control and closing deals. Selling is miserable when you are under pressure to close business.
Take the pressure off yourself to close and instead focus on qualifying and motivating your prospects.

KEY TIP: Shift the responsibility back to the prospect to solve his own problems, and the pressure to make the sale will be gone. Focus on selling at your best only to qualified prospects and you'll close more and have fun doing it.

Bonus Sales Tip

When you are giving a presentation, selling on the telephone or one-on-one in your prospect's office, picture your prospect as having the words SO WHAT stamped on his forehead. Imagine that for everything you say, the prospect is asking "so what, why should I care?".

Remember, prospects only care about how what you are selling can eliminate a problem that they have or help make their business or life better. The answer to this question is always what your product does for them (benefits), not what your product is (features).

Benefits of Outsourcing

Outsourcing — the practice of using outside firms to handle work normally performed within a company — is a familiar concept to many entrepreneurs. Small companies routinely outsource their payroll processing, accounting, distribution, and many other important functions — often because they have no other choice. Many large companies turn to outsourcing to cut costs. In response, entire industries have evolved to serve companies' outsourcing needs. 

But not many businesses thoroughly understand the benefits of outsourcing. It's true that outsourcing can save money, but that's not the only (or even the most important) reason to do it. As many firms discovered during the outsourcing "mania" of the early 1990s, outsourcing too much can be an even bigger mistake than not outsourcing any work at all. The flat economy caused many companies into huge layoffs and subsequently outsourced functions that were better kept in-house. Wise outsourcing, however, can provide a number of long-term benefits: 

Control capital costs. Cost-cutting may not be the only reason to outsource, but it's certainly a major factor. Outsourcing converts fixed costs into variable costs, releases capital for investment elsewhere in your business, and allows you to avoid large expenditures in the early stages of your business. Outsourcing can also make your firm more attractive to investors, since you're able to pump more capital directly into revenue-producing activities. 

Increase efficiency. Companies that do everything themselves have much higher research, development, marketing, and distribution expenses, all of which must be passed on to customers. An outside provider's cost structure and economy of scale can give your firm an important competitive advantage.
Reduce labor costs. Hiring and training staff for short-term or peripheral projects can be very expensive, and temporary employees don't always live up to your expectations. Outsourcing lets you focus your human resources where you need them most. 

Start new projects quickly. A good outsourcing firm has the resources to start a project right away. Handling the same project in-house might involve taking weeks or months to hire the right people, train them, and provide the support they need. And if a project requires major capital investments (such as building a series of distribution centers), the startup process can be even more difficult. 

Focus on your core business. Every business has limited resources, and every manager has limited time and attention. Outsourcing can help your business to shift its focus from peripheral activities toward work that serves the customer, and it can help managers set their priorities more clearly. 

Level the playing field. Most small firms simply can't afford to match the in-house support services that larger companies maintain. Outsourcing can help small firms act "big" by giving them access to the same economies of scale, efficiency, and expertise that large companies enjoy. 

Reduce risk. Every business investment carries a certain amount of risk. Markets, competition, government regulations, financial conditions, and technologies all change very quickly. Outsourcing providers assume and manage this risk for you, and they generally are much better at deciding how to avoid risk in their areas of expertise.

Research - Base of Successful Business

When it comes to running a successful business, information is power. The best way to gain information is through organized research. A competent business owner will know what areas to do research in to gain the most relevant and useful information for his business. The process of founding a business starts with research into the feasibility of the idea.

1. Research Before Startup

   When an entrepreneur first has an idea, he needs to begin with research into the market he is considering. Often, research reveals that the business idea would not be feasible, either because of an excess of competition or lack of a market. In this case, good research saves a business person money rather than making him money, by preventing him from entering into a venture that didn't have good prospects. If research does reveal good prospects, it can then provide further information about optimum times, locations and conditions under which to found the business.
   

   Market Research

   Market research is the lifeblood of many businesses. Because so many businesses function with a very narrow profit margin, they can't afford to engage in advertising, marketing or product development in fields that won't show a profit. Market research allows businesses to focus their resources in areas that will show a return. Market research may consist of focus groups, test products that are released within limited markets or public polls about product preferences. Companies also can learn a great deal by researching their own prior business records and learning lessons from their own successes and failures.
   

   Competition Research

   In order to succeed, any business needs to provide a product or service that is as good as or better than its competition, and at the same or lower price. To do this, a business needs to know what its competition is doing and how it is doing it. This type of research can range from buying and examining the competition's products all the way to legally gray areas involving corporate espionage. Corporate responses to this research can include improving its own products, pulling out of a certain market because it doesn't feel it can compete, or attempting to take over the competition through a merger or acquisition.
   

   Research and Development

   One of the most important areas of research in which business engages is in the development of new products. Depending on what field a particular business is in, products can range from the sublime to the ridiculous. Some businesses research improvements to human necessities, such as food, clothing and shelter, while others apply research methods to developing the latest profitable craze, such as hula hoops or iPods.There is at times a thin line between research devoted to fulfilling human needs and research devoted to creating new ones.