Building A Business

Building A Business An effective and simple process

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Building A Business 'Building A Business' is process driven. On learning this entrepreneurs are normally hugely relieved. Anything process driven is: Repeatable Measurable Controllable Hence, can produce predictable results The process of building a business model is often described as taking a 'Dream to Reality'. At the topmost level there are about five simple processes to understand and execute which helps craft a business model. 2

Process One Defining the purpose of the business in as concise a manner as is possible.  (A series of bullets in a M.S. Word document would be perfect.) OR  (A small tightly focused paragraph that speaks of the 'Why do I want to do this business') Lets call this the 'Mission Statement'. Why is a mission statement required? Without this startup focus point it’s often easy to drift when crafting a business model. A scary thought being, that after the business model is crafted, it is nothing like what was originally envisaged.

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Documentation Standards Most entrepreneurs first conceive a business model in their minds. Subsequently, this model needs to be defined and documented so that there is always a point of reference to return to if/when required. Bringing Standards To Documentation:  Choose an editor (eg. M.S. Word)  Choose a page size  Understand page structure  Understand the concept of a page 'Work Space‘  Understand the structure of page content  Create/use a template in M.S. Word to document the business model

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Documentation Standards

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Process Two Define the business structure. All business models have some sort of sections / departments This is largely determined by the functionality, which in turn determines the skill sets of that section’s manpower.

This business model has three sections / departments defined:  Quality  Usability Design  Development

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Process Three

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Process Four Since the business sections / departments of the have been structured it’s time to define: The type of employees Their labels, human, academic, work ex and other attributes Their power hierarchy In each section / department. Using a well structured form to do this helps a great deal. Lets take a look at such a form. EmptyAttributeForm.docx FilledAttributeForm.docx

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Process Five It’s time to begin to work out the overall costs of building the business. Business Costs: To structure business costs its best to use a spread sheet. NOTE: The format of M.S. Word does not facilitate the description of business costs. Business costs can be quickly divided into two sections: Fixed Costs Running Costs Normally there are three spread sheets used within one workbook. The first spread sheet describes details of business – Fixed costs The second spread sheet describes details of business – Running costs The third spread sheet is an amalgamation of Fixed and Running costs. ExpenseNew.xls

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Building A Business Model The End

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