Planning To Start A New Online Business – Ecommerce Web Solutions!

Planning, we don’t need no stinking planning!

Business planning is another step in the process of building your business that many people would rather skip entirely.

“Planning? We don’t need any stinking planning!”

If you’re not familiar with the line, then you’ve been deprived of a comedic masterpiece, but I digress. The point is that many of us prefer “do” vs. “plan.” However, sometimes you need to bite the bullet and do a little planning. This is one of those moments.

A business plan serves as both a roadmap for your business and as your primary sales tool for financing. Even if you have no intention of going to a bank to get start-up funds for your eCommerce business, you still need to develop a business plan.

A business plan will help you develop a real course of action to get your business off the ground. Most business plans contain the following:

Executive Summary – Discusses the high-level goals, mission statement, and keys to business success.

Start-up Costs: A list of the start-up costs to open the business.

Product Overview: What are you selling and why will it work?

Market Analysis: Find out who your target customers are and how you will attract them.

Competitive Analysis (SWOT): Determine your competitors and how you will beat them.

Sales strategy: how will you sell your products?

Sales projections: how much do you expect to sell in the next 3 years?

Website development plan: how will it connect? Who will make it happen?

Operating plans – Who will manage the business? How will it work?

Financial plan: when will you break even? What is the projected profit/loss for 3 years? Cash flow? Balance sheet?

Seems like a lot, right? Sure the concept can be overwhelming, but there’s no need to start from scratch either. What if I told you that there is one place to go and find over 500 different sample business plans that you could use to model your own business? Okay, so there is and I tell you.

I know you are ready to jump into the next chapter and avoid this important but intimidating step in launching your business. Don’t Even if you don’t plan to seek financing from traditional sources like a bank, this is a valuable process that will help you understand more about running a business.

If you’re going to seek financing from a bank or even from mom and pop, having a solid business plan will give you more confidence. Would you invest in a business that didn’t even have a plan?