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A Startup is a company that is in the initial stages of business growth.
Talk to me to discover how your business can grow on your terms.
Everything starts somewhere.
The biggest companies in the world, from Apple to Amazon, have all had very humble beginnings that escalated into the superpower they are today. A new business concept starts with an idea that can, with enough support, ambition and drive, be just as successful in the future.
Yes, for every Google there is an Ask Jeeves, from every Ford there is a Sinclair - thousands of new business ideas do not always make the grade as a result of poor management, blind hindsight and sheer bad luck.
In a time where more people than ever are considering their own personal business adventures, it's imperative to ask the question - why launch a start-up business?
The biggest reward is control. Imagining being the focal point and lead decision-maker on your own product or service - one who 'calls the shots' and poses for paparazzi pictures at world premieres. Or even the quite inventor who simply rewards their success with further isolation in a 10 storey castle. Being THE person behind a launch as a huge motivation factor for many entrepreneurs.
For smaller start-up operations, the sheer flexibility of working for yourself and not having to follow business rules is a huge satisfaction that drives motivation more than anything.
But the real reward? Stumbling onto an idea that could make your fame and fortune.
Every product or service, even if copied from something else but simply improved upon, starts with the fundamental decision to try. Thanks to an avalanche of new and improved marketing assets and tools at your fingertips, now is a better time than ever to try.
Asking the Question
The very first question you’ve got to ask yourself before any startup activity should sound like “Did anybody implement the same idea before, and if 'yes' how can I improve and if ‘no’ then why not?”
How do you get from business idea to a real launch?
A lot of mistakes are made in the process by virgin entrepreneurs. Most aren’t deadly, but they can prove to be very expensive later on. These 6 steps to launch your business will help you skip the pitfalls and start on a better foundation. Carry on reading below.
Is there a desire for your product or service? Can you be sure it something that customers want and need?
How many people would be interested in your offering? Why should they want it?
What are the income range and employment rate? What funding can you start with?
Where do your customers live and where can your business reach? Are you local, regional, national or worldwide?
How many similar options are already available to consumers? What do customers need differently?
What do potential customers pay for these alternatives? What pricing structure is measurable against your own offering?
A business plan is a formal written document containing the goals of a business, the methods for attaining those goals, and the time-frame for the achievement of the goals. Our guide is as follows:
Executive summary
Briefly tell your reader what your company is and why it will be successful. Include your mission statement, your product or service, and basic information about your company’s leadership team, employees, and location. You should also include financial information and high-level growth plans if you plan to ask for financing.
Company description
Use your company description to provide detailed information about your company. Go into detail about the problems your business solves. Be specific, and list out the consumers, organisation, or businesses your company plans to serve.
Explain the competitive advantages that will make your business a success. Are there experts on your team? Have you found the perfect location for your store? Your company description is the place to boast about your strengths.
Market analysis
You will need a good understanding of your industry outlook and target market. Competitive research will show you what other businesses are doing and what their strengths are. In your market research, look for trends and themes. What do successful competitors do? Why does it work? Can you do it better? Now's the time to answer these questions.
Organisation and management
Tell your reader how your company will be structured and who will run it.
Describe the legal structure of your business. State whether you have or intend to incorporate your business as a C or an S corporation, form a general or limited partnership, or if you are a sole proprietor or LLC.
Use an organisational chart to lay out who oversees what in your company. Show how each person's unique experience will contribute to the success of your venture.
Service or product line
Describe what you sell or what service you offer. Explain how it benefits your customers and what the product lifecycle looks like. Share your plans for intellectual property, like copyright or patent filings. If you are doing research and development for your service or product, explain it in detail.
Funding request
If you are asking for funding, this is where you will outline your funding requirements. Your goal is to clearly explain how much funding you will need over the next five years and what you will use it for.
Specify whether you want debt or equity, the terms you would like applied, and the length of time your request will cover. Give a detailed description of how you will use your funds. Specify if you need funds to buy equipment or materials, pay salaries, or cover specific bills until revenue increases. Always include a description of your future strategic financial plans, like paying off debt or selling your business.
Financial projections
Supplement your funding request with financial projections. Your goal is to convince the reader that your business is stable and will be a financial success.
If your business is already established, include income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements for the last three to five years. If you have other collateral you could put against a loan, make sure to list it now.
Provide a prospective financial outlook for the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and capital expenditure budgets. For the first year, be even more specific and use quarterly — or even monthly — projections. Make sure to clearly explain your projections and match them to your funding requests.
This is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business.
Appendix
Use your appendix to provide supporting documents or other materials were specially requested. Common items to include are credit histories, resumes, product pictures, letters of reference, licenses, permits, or patents, legal documents, permits, and other contracts.
Does your business or product have a name? Do you require registration and a trademark?
Have you registered the name with companies house in the UK? Are you free to trade as a business?
Does your brand have a message? What does your brand image mean? Have you checked to make sure you can use it?
A product and service is nothing if you have no means to promote it. Marketing assets include anything used by an organisation to promote its products, services, or brand that can be measured and showcase the best of what your business does. These include:
Apart from your product or service, this is your number 1 marketing asset. Your website is the most prominent channel for your customers to visit.
With attention spans of customers peaking at 8 seconds, your visual content strategy is imperative to showcase your brands.
Free and easy to use, social media will give your brand a voice, a presence, a means of interaction and a way to share your business offering.
Ground zero start-ups will have to build data lists from scratch, but its important to have a data strategy. Established businesses with historical data need to cleanse and optimise your lists.
Once you have your data lists and categories, you want to have an email platform to be able to send out company information. Start with a free tool like MailChimp to test your market and strategy.
For ease of understanding, how-to guides, business brochures and introduction sales presentations will support your promotional messaging.
Content is, and always will be, King. Devising a killer content concept that mirrors your audiences tone of voice is a skill very few have yet to master.
How are you going to manage your customer relationships? How will potential leads be nurtured? Time to look at a CRM platform
Will your Brand draw a lot of attention? Will you expect to measure your potential customers? Let's consider an automated marketing platform.
All set up with the Google suite of applications? Confident that you can measure and report marketing efforts?
With the first steps followed, we can lay the foundations of a marketing and sales plan for the business. Start with the key objective: "How Will My Business Grow?"
Managing the project is essential. By nominating key stakeholders, setting timelines, budgets and partnership building strategies all need to be managed by a central system.
Outline your partners in this launch. Who are you working with? What platforms are you using? Which partners are measurable and adding to the profit line?
Run a full Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis of your business. This will help indemnify your immediate goals.
Identified via the Market Research, deep dive into 5-10 competitors who either have similar brands or are attracting the same customers.
Your Marketing Plan needs to prove your brand. Start with a basic spreadsheet and personalise all your findings ready for action.
Public relations defines how a company communicates with people. Make sure you have a defined press and PR strategy as part of your brand launch.
Seems easy right? This is just the beginning of your journey. For the past 20 years our team of experts, analysts, business leaders and marketing professionals have launched over 500 start-up and SME businesses.
"Delighted with the effort and drive to get our microphones and audio technology seen and heard in the UK market. Brad really showed great appetite and marketing know-how to lead our brand message"
Branislav Zivkovic - Global Sales Director
Working with Samson
A new vendor for CMS Distribution, Samson is a Microphone technology company producing state-of-the-art audio solutions. Keen to break into the UK market, they needed to work with Brad to establish a demand base and consider new marketing and promotion opportunities to create a stronger share of voice.
Our Work with Samson
Working with the Samson team in the US, we had to establish a consumer demand for the product, especially focusing on the work-from-home, podcasting, gaming and creative markets in the retail industry. With a demand strategy met, we could begin the promotion of the products.
Opening up the Samson brand to the UK retail market by booking them into a retail partner forum to showcase to high-end retail partners.
Create a Press and PR promotion strategy to launch the Samson brand in the UK and gather feedback from partners, networks, and affiliates.
The Results
Samson is now an established vendor with CMS Distribution, supplying audio technology to the retail and B2B channel
"We want to thank Bradchuck for the introduction, guidance, and calm and collected way in which he helped introduce and promote our brands into the UK Channel" Samson Tech
"It is rare to meet someone with a skill-set to strategically think as well as to effectively execute at the same time, and I believe Bradchuck has both in abundance. He practices what he preaches and he is someone who has 360-degree marketing ability"
Waleed Zafar - Commercial Director
Our Consultancy Offer:
The Offer
A simple consultancy meeting or call to outline the three-step bradchuck marketing plans of action for your business - this is your free, impartial and confidential conversation to outline your business needs
Knowledge
Collecting over 20 years of direct knowledge and understanding of the marketing and PR landscape, we will formulate a plan of action that relevant and financially acceptable to your brand or service.
Connections
Connecting with like-minded businesses is key, so let us build that relationship and introduce your offer to a wider audience
Partnerships
Sourcing and finding the right partners and partnerships platforms and concepts for your business are not easy - let us evaluate and determine the right partners for your business needs.
Training
Integrating new tools and services into your business will need training and understanding on how best to use your new marketing platforms - let us do that for you.
Implementation
Sometimes a company will need more than a plan and an idea - we can implement and drive any marketing strategy to help your business grow.
After being approached by the CEO of Wand Education, I was presented with the idea of taking this unknown start-up and driving it forward in the UK education and teacher marketplace. Click below for a more detailed breakdown of the support I offered and delivered.
As a Startup specialist, I have a track record of consulting and delivering marketing, sales and PR strategies that form the backbone of business growth and success - see more examples of my work and contact me today to get your business idea up and running.
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