Honestly, I chose this book because I was looking for additional authors to quote in my thesis. But! I found out, that this book is really great for someone looking to start any type of business for the first time. It contains all the essential tools, including a step-by-step guide on how to write a good business plan. In the end, this book is not for me at this stage of my journey, because honestly, it is a bit basic. It really reminds me of the book „Podnikání z lavice“, the length, the language used, the simple guides. Contradictory to all of this I was surprised, by how much this book contains, you really could start a business after reading it. At the same time, it knows its limitations and every step of the way reminds its readers of the need for more research.
I used this book also to explore a bit of my ideas for business after I leave school.
Notes
Initial Idea
Evaluate yourself
Firstly, before you start doing anything you have to look inside. Are you ready to run a business? You should evaluate yourself and your current situation.
Use questions like: Do you have enough capital? Are you able to handle the pressure? Are you willing to follow your plan? Is your objective solely to earn money, or do you want to develop and grow along the way? And others…
I do it in a form of thought with help from our Skill Profile and feedback from my peers.
Research and develop your idea
You have an amazing idea. But is it any good? What are the details of your idea? I am starting to develop an idea for creating a similar environment for teampreneurs, who graduated in the form of open offices inspired by the Finish Crazy Town concept.
Business Plan
When your idea gets through your simple evaluation and development you have to put it in writing. It not only helps you to gather and organise your thoughts, but it can also reveal major flaws or opportunities in your idea.
Why are you writing this plan?
First ask yourself, who is this plan written for? Is it for your own purposes, is it for an investor or are you going to present it to a bank? This all affects the way your document will look like.
Research business plans and choose one
There is plenty authors that tell you how to write a business plan, just look for the one, that you feel is the most useful for you. (Or use the template in this book) Research is key
Business Model Canvas
Simple, yet effective way to visualise your future business. BMC is a lean tool, that helps you do it. Just fill out these areas:
Business plan
Now for the real and detailed business plan. This book provides you with a great summary of what it should contain.
Who is going on the journey with you?
You can’t forget to think about if you want or need some business partner. If yes, who should it be? Is that person relible? What will the arrangement look like? How does it work legally? That's all the questions you need to ask.
In my view, doing business with someone is better than alone. Yes, it comes with risks and challenges but the potential rewards are in my opinion greater. You will learn more, more minds know more, there is a level of support you can give each other, and so on…
How are you going to finance your business?
That is perhaps the most important question you have to tackle. From the financial plan, you should know how much money you need to start, but how will you get it? Have you saved up? Will you take out a loan or try a crow-funding peer-to-peer loan, or perhaps find an angel investor? This is the most important thing to figure out!
Setting up your business - a formal way of doing it
What's interesting, the book offers a step-by-step guide on how to set up a company, and it is actually relevant from 2021. Unfortunately, it is an US book, so not really relevant to us. But if I’ll ever want to set up a company in the US, I know how to.
Team Hiring
People in your organization are the most important element of your entire business. It is vital to focus on this part.
Who do you need? What roles need to be filled? What skills do those people need to have? Do you have enough diversity in your team? What type of contract do your employees have? How much will you pay them? And so on…
Marketing
Author explains the importance of marketing and gives us the basic 4Ps. - Product, Price, Place, Promotion. I wrote a series of essays about marketing books from Kotler and I explain a lot in them.
Overall It is a great book for anyone who has never started any type of business. It gives you the basics. For those more experienced it could be very well used as a guide to not forget any part of your business plan. I used some of the structure from this book to create my own business plan.
