The goals for this lesson are:
1. Find a domain name for your business
2. Begin to organize your business plan
In this lesson, we will review how to write your business plan including choosing a business field, researching existing businesses in that field, choosing your business name and then writing your actual business plan.
Choose a Business Field
In choosing a business field, it is wise to consider the Law of Supply and Demand we discussed in the last session. The best way to insure a successful business is to pick a field with a big demand – in other words a lot of customers – but a limited supply. Put another way, choose a problem, product or service that is not currently being addressed by many other businesses and then develop a plan to meet that need.
Another important factor in creating a successful business is to choose a field that you are personally interested in and a field that you have already spent a lot of time researching. Starting your own successful business will require a lot of hours of your time. To follow it through, you will need to have a personal interest in the field you are entering.
Finally write down more than one idea for a business to give you other options if your first idea falls through or your business plan reveals that there is no way for your first idea to make a profit. Write down how will your business will meet an unfulfilled need and what products or services your business will provide.
Research existing businesses in that field
Next do an online or community search of other businesses like the one you want to start. A key question to answer as you research other businesses is what could you offer to customers that would be better than what customers already get from other existing businesses. Why should customers choose your business? What will be unique about your business? Write down the benefits of your business. You may want to include these in the name of your business. And you certainly should include these reasons in the first couple of paragraphs on the Home page of your business website. Also find out what the costs and expenses of other businesses might be. Are they successful? Could you use some of the ideas other businesses use to promote themselves as ideas you could use to promote your new business?
Finding a Domain Name for your Business
One of the most important decisions in starting a new business is choosing a unique, simple and memorable business name. Begin with a list of options. See if friends and family have ideas too.
After you have a few business names, you need to do an internet search on each of your business name ideas to see if the business names, also called Domain Names, have already been taken. You need to have a domain name to have a website.
Go online to see if your Domain Name is taken
If someone’s business is already actively using a Domain Name, such as Worlds Best Lemonade, then choose a different Domain Name such as Worlds Best Lemonade Stand or Worlds Greatest Lemonade. It costs about $10 per year to own a Domain Name.
You should also get a free Gmail address associated with your business name.
What is a good name for your business? _______________________
You have to choose a name for your business that can easily be converted into a domain name.
Think about your business plan
Business owners always create a business plan. This plan helps business owners stay organized.
A real business plan for a new business is pretty complicated. It has areas to fill out about taxes and cash flow and other things that are hard to learn about in a short course. For our purposes, we will use a simple business plan with nine sections:
1. What are you interested in and why are you interested in it?
2. What is your business idea?
3. What is your business name?
4. How will your business meet an unfulfilled need?
5. What products or services will your business provide?
6. How is your business different from other similar existing businesses?
7 Marketing... How will you let others know your business exists?
8. How much will it cost to start your business and where will you get the money?
9. How much will you have to sell your products or services for to make a profit?
For homework you will answer these questions and give them to your teacher. Now we will talk about how and where to store your very important business documents.
We will create our business plans together during our next class. It is an important document to help you organize your business. During this class, we will practice creating folders with our computers to put our business documents in.