Come to think of it, a Startup is just another business which is new, just like a baby is just another human which is just born. By categorising it in that way all we are doing is giving it a chance to be molly-cuddled and pampered till it takes off to be the next BIG thing. ?

Agreed that every business is different, but

Every business needs a business plan which in turn describes its

• Value Proposition

  • What does it bring to the table and why should people buy from it rather than its competitors?

• Team Requirements

  • Who will help you build your Startup, how will you get them on board and what will be their roles and responsibilities?

• Business Financials

  • I am not asking you to be a CA here. All I am saying is every business needs to know what are its products/services, what is the value at which they want to sell each one of those, what will be their expenses and in the end what will be their PnL. Is the business even viable to be taken up?

• Product Strategy

  • When I say product here, I am talking about the presence that you create for your business on the internet. It could be a simple website or an app. Or for that matter, if you belong to the software domain, your product offering is an app itself which provides some benefit to the user be it productivity or finance or health or anything else.

• Marketing, Sales and Post Sales Strategy

  • With technology touching every sphere of a business, now your business can have a local, national or global reach via Digital Marketing techniques. Automation at each step reduces costs and Go to Market time and is the smart way to work in this century. Once you have a customer on board, gone are the days when you would have to set up a BPO office to take care of their needs. Tools have made it easy and convenient for both the customer and the customer rep to interact with each other and solve issues.

  • Strategising these 3 aspects of a business and putting them in a business plan is a very important step that every business must take before it even starts manufacturing the product.