How to Start and Launch Your Business
This post is for you if you are thinking about starting a business and are getting serious about taking that first step.
One of the most magical and rewarding things that you can do for yourself, is become an entrepreneur.
You will learn more about how you lead, communicate, empathize, make decisions, time manage, and stay resilient.
You will learn how to be your biggest advocate, your own cheerleader, and supporter.
But one thing that you must be focused on throughout your entire entrepreneurial journey is a plan for profit.
Here are five steps to building your profit plan.
1. Create your Business Playbook
A business plan will help you get to profit quickly. It will help you stay focused. And it will help you succeed.
It’s important to gain a clear understanding of what you want to do in business and how you will do it before you roll up your sleeves and call yourself an entrepreneur. Your business plan will help you get detailed and clear on how you will start and operate your business.
A business plan details out everything that you will need to know and do to get started.
It goes over your market research and market fit.
It details your strengths and weaknesses.
It details out the external risks of working in the market.
It covers your target market and what products and services you will be selling to your target market.
It dives deep into your operational model and how you will deliver your products and services to your customers.
A business model includes who’s on your team and what key resources you need to get the job done.
A business plan also includes your financial model, detail on how much you will need to start your business, and your financial plan over the next few years.
You can use these five questions to assess where you are with your business model or idea and how viable and suitable it is for the market.
Build a business playbook that details out:
- How you will sell
- How you will distribute your message
- How you will operate your business
- What systems you will use for your business
- The Key Resources (time, people, materials) you will need
2. Develop your MVP
The solution you deliver to your customers five years from now is not going to be the solution that you have in your mind right now.
Developing a Minimal Viable Product that solves your customer’s needs and gets to market quickly is the priority.
- What problem you are solving?
- How are you solving the problem?
- Who you are solving the problem for? Do they believe that it is a problem?
- Who else is solving the problem (i.e. who is your competition)?
- What resources do you need to solve the problem and reach your target market?
3. Build your Prospect List
You will want to focus on building your list of interested prospects and potential customers. Ways to do this include:
- Creating a free lead magnet
- Guest Blogging
- Guest Podcasting
- Showing up in Facebook and LinkedIn groups
- Collaborating with other entrepreneurs that share your audience
- Running paid advertisements
4. Focus on Sales
Upfront planning cannot be under-estimated in any type of business. However, too much planning and renumerating in the idea phase too long leads to… well it leads to a whole lot of nothing.
Sales are the lifeblood of your business, and without sales, you won’t have cash flow.
With your list of prospects, you will want to start engaging more with them and build a stronger business relationship.
If you have an offer that helps them, it’s time to showcase it to them and start the sales process.
5. Get Feedback
Done is better than perfect is the motto when you’re first starting out, but it’s important to be able to turn your customers into loyal and raving fans.
Start getting feedback from your customers on how they like working with you, your solution, and any areas of improvement.
Although you might get some constructive feedback, it will only help you grow your business as an entrepreneur.
By applying these five steps to the idea phase of your business, you will be able to launch your solution and start building your cash flow.
Once you’ve completed this exercise, it will give you clarity on what value you are bringing to the market, who you will be serving, and the resources that you will need to get started and serve the market.
If you’re getting excited about making the jump into starting your own business in the cannabis industry, make sure that you download the business startup checklist, which gives you tips and techniques to starting and running a profitable business.
