You Only Need 3 Weeks
By Kara Ohngren Prior •
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He carefully outlined each task that must be accomplished during the vital three-week period.
Week One:
- Create your main idea and define success.
- Talk to co-founders.
- Get it in writing.
- Name your business.
- Create an initial sales forecast.
- Create an initial expense budget.
- Estimate starting costs.
- Make the first sale.
- Define your marketing strategy.
- Create your look and feel.
- Get a presence on the web.
- Create a merchant account.
- Set up insurance.
- Create an initial expense budget.
- Recruit potential employees.
- Find a location.
- Set up bookkeeping.
- Make it legal.
- Initial hiring.
- Settle the financing.
- Make the sale.
- Make the sale.
- Pay your taxes.
- Focus on customer service.
- Marketing.
- Create employer policies, systems.
- Unrealistic Forecasts
- Incomplete Teams
- Misunderstanding Equity
- Investment or Bust
- Ideas Do Not Equal Opportunities
- Trying to do Everything
- Pricing too Low
- Failing to Plan
- Not Enough Cash
- No Real Need in the Marketplace
Tim Berry, president of Palo Alto Software Inc., started creating his own software for business planning and forecasting to bridge what he calls "the know-how gap" that exists between what personal computers can potentially do for businesspeople and what they are actually doing.
The author of several books, The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan, and his most recent 3 Weeks to Startup, are published by Entrepreneur Press. Also, checkout Berry's blogs: http//timberry.bplans.com and http://upandrunning.entrepreneur.com.