Introduction

Setting up a business venture is not as easy as many would want it. A lot goes into idea generation, planning, strategy, before the actual execution of the new business. We have witnesses some startups that rose spectacularly and continued to maintain the growth. We have also seen many brilliant businesses that took off and crashed even before one could blink. A lot of factors contribute to business failure. It could be economic or other reasons. However, lots of startups fail because crucial aspects of business planning were not done properly or not done at all.

This article examines 3 crucial elements of a business startup that must be there. A neglect of any one of them could prove fatal to the success of the venture. Lets look at them one after the other.

The importance of Feasibility study, marketing plan and financial plan

1. Feasibility Study Here is one nice definition of a Feasibility study:

an assessment of the practicality of a proposed project or system. A feasibility study aims to objectively and rationally uncover the strengths and weaknesses of an existing business or proposed venture, opportunities and threats present in the natural environment, the resources required to carry through, and ultimately the prospects for success.

So basically, a feasibilty study aims to ascertain whether a proposed business idea is viable. Through the feasibility study, an entrepreneur should determine how they business will do once launched. The feasisbilty shows analyzes factors for bsuiness growth or failure. Through a feasibility study, it becomes obvious whether there are existing businesses that offer the same products and services and how the new venture would fare in competition with them. The study also compares the proposed business strategy, goals and practicability of the idea. A proper feasibility study wil help you see the challenges that your new business will face, the advantages it has and the opportunities for growth. Any startup that fails to do a good feasibility study will likely crash because they will be completely unaware of the challenges that will hit the new business unexpectedly.

A good feasibility study normally examines the cost of setting up the business. Here is why this is crucial.

2. Financial plan: The financial plan aims to describe how your business will secure and spend funds needed to achieve its goals. Funding is a crucial part of a startup that must never be left to chances. Ideas are usually useless if there are no funds to excecute them. An entrepreneur should clearly have a map of how to secure funds needed to run the entire project. This includes the initial funds needed to take care of preliminary activities during startup. The financial plan will also cover the running capital and other funding requirements. Why is financial plan necessary?

Without a proper financial plan, an entrepreneur may not have the funds to implement the idea. Worse yet, we have seen many businesses ventures startup successfully. But because there wan no proper homework done on the financial plan, funds dried up after some few months and the new business goes into bankruptcy. So to run a startup successfully and maintain business growth, entrepreneurs must design a workable finanicail plan to excecute the project. This may invlove getting professional help to do it. However, it is something so crucial to success of the business that it must be given sufficient attention.

There is yet another aspect of business planning that requires care and serious thought. It is....

3. Marketing plan: Every business has its set goals and objectives. To achieve these goals requires an efficient marketing plan. The marketing plan defines the advertisement strategy of the new business. How to get the word out and ensure effective communication of the business is a product of the marketing plan. Without the marketing plan, an otherwise brilliant idea might end up as a failure because it is relatively unknown. Large organizations understand the power of marketing and invest huge resources to reach out to potential customers. Today, there are many forms of marketing which includes the traditional marketing methods and digittal marketing. The marketing plan will mapp out which forms of advertisement the business will utilize and in what manner it will do that. Below is a list of some benefits of a good marketing plan:

a. It is crucial to help your business focus on its objectives.
b. A marketing plan is useful for tracking and measuring efficiency of your business strategy.
c. It helps the business channel funds on activities that yield positive results
d. A marketing plan helps the business to stay organized and work according to plan.
e. A marketing plan helps you to remain consistent.

The importance a marketing plan cannot be over-emphasized. Hence, entrepreneurs must work hard to see that their marketing plan is clear, unambigous and practical. This is necessary to ensure success in the short and long run.

Conclusion

Running a startup is challenging, but doing the right things at the right time will ensure you maximize your chances of success. While there are many crucial aspects of the startup that require planning and attention, the feasibility study should always be a priority. It gives valuable insight into the future of your business. A financial plan helps you to know if you have enough funds to run your idea, while a marketing plan helps you to sell your idea successfully. Together, these 3 elements and others will guarantee a success launching of your startup and and the capability to sustain growth in the future.