10 Point Checklist for Startups

In recent years India is evidencing boom in startup culture. Many young entrepreneurs are starting theirs venture and setting new benchmark in Indian Markets. These success stories inspire others to start their own venture and be “Start-up”.

If you are also planning to start your business – congratulations!  Once you get over the initial excitement, it’s time to break down the process of launching your startup into manageable chunks.

In this post we have listed out the preliminary task/checklist which you need to do before the launch:-

1. Learn from Leaders:

   Read some books written by great authors like Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini, PhD, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries etc or view interviews of successful businessman. It helped a lot of entrepreneurs know what they are getting into.

2. Analyse your Bulb:

   The bulb you wish to install in market must be viable in terms of commercial, technological and economical etc. Ask yourself: would you buy it for money? Do the math: how much costumer will pay to match the cost or to make profit. There may be chance that your product may be a “Revolution” for you, but market is not ready for such revolution. You would need to interact with prospective customers to know their feedback. Ideally, pick a pain point (product area) where you have original opinions on the markets gaps and what the customer wants.

3. Find your Business Soulmate:

   Yes, you need to find a soulmate for your business not a partner. A partner may leave you once you start incurring losses whereas you business soulmate will be with your till the time your business is alive. Further clear your terms with it. Draft a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) describing the roadmaps for all situations that you may face during your journey to success.

4. Find your Guru:

   To be successful you need to work “on” your business not work “in” your business. Business Guru (Mentor), may be your dad or any successful businessman or professional consultant, who will guide you to work on your business which are priceless and serve as a sounding board.

5. Draw your Road Map:

   Pen down the business plan for next 3-4 years, estimate your expenditures (Capital as well as Operational), revenue sources, market segment, marketing strategies and requisite teams. Further prepare a contingency plan for common issues like cash crunch, stock out or excess stock etc. (P.S. These plans needs to be realistic and should be based on your bulb analysis.)

6. Prepare your Pitch:

   Prepare a Pitch presentation describing your products, team, estimated expenditure, source of Income, profit projections, Funding required and exist option inventor. Pitch should be professionally drafted and should not be run over too many pages.

7. Source Finance:

   List out all the possibilities to fund your business. Chose the best available source which give lesser risk and take lowest equity in the business. Private Equity/Angel Investment could be best option but

8. Get Your IPR Protected:

   If you are using any business secret which gives you competitive advantage, get your secret protected from unauthorised copying our using unlawfully. IPR protection like patent, copywrite or trademark will protect from unethical business practice.

9. Hire a Corporate Lawyer:

   Before your start, you should aware of all legal risk involved in the business. A corporate lawyer will help you to list out the legal remedies available as well as legal consequences for any act. Further it will help you to draft your terms of use policy etc to protect you from otherwise avoidable legal suites.

10. Market Your Product:

    Use possible means whether online or office to reach with customers and inform them about your product. Make a product introduction video or white board video to explain the concept behind your product and share such video on social media platform like whatsapp, facebook, youtube etc. You may also allow pre-booking of your product to get the trend of demand.

Your initial checklist may be longer than this based on your nature & size of your bulb. However these  those task which one should do irrespective of its nature and size of your business.

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