Story: Putting yourself in the client’s shoes
Last week, I had a couple of meeting with new clients. I heard their background, story and business. I am pleased to contribute to their business with my expertise.
Design, itself, is the part of the business for a client. They need to think about a concept, target(audience or market), HR(team), location and equipment (depends on the business), finance, marketing, etc. The conversation will be different for each client. What I want to say is that we need to know the business whatever the client’s business is. It influences an engagement with your client and your initial estimation in the end.
Business Plan Writing 101: Wharton Entrepreneurship Series
©Wharton School
1. What is the company?
2. Who am I giving $ to? (Team)
3. How does it work? (Team)
4. Where does this belong? (Market)
5. Why hasn’t this been done? (Competition)
6. How quickly will I know if I will make or lose money? (Roadmap)
7. What are the numbers? (Revenue)
8. How much do you need? (Fund)
Idea/imagination is fun, but the process of a startup is hell. The discussion is good as long as we do execution. Learning continues in whole life.
How to Write a Business Plan Step by Step in 2021
©Young Entrepreneurs Forum
– Business plan = research and refine documents
– Loan or funding
– Objective
– Review
– Partner
– Evaluate
– Unique selling proposition
– Purpose
– Description
– Goal
– Structure
– Product or service
– Resource
– Financial plan
– Operation
How To EASILY Write A Coffee Shop Business Plan [Step-by-Step] | Start A Coffee Shop Business 2021
©Wilson K Lee – How To Open A Restaurant / F&B Shop
He focuses on the food industry even under the COVID. That’s a brave and good positioning on YouTube.
– Write a business plan to raise a fund
– Find a partner
– Clarify
– Concept
– Problem and answer
– Team, resourceful
– Target market, audience
– Destination location or high-traffic location
– Density
– Sample menu
– Ask to customer
– Design
– SWOT, strength, weakness, opportunity, threat
– Marketing
– Financial
Just remind that I watched these videos to talk with clients, not for writing a business plan. I worked with food industry clients in my early stage of freelance. In my impression, 70%-80% of restaurant does not need a design. They need sales and marketing. At least, they should not spend 5K on the logo and menu. It’s not a priority to start a business. If I knew it, my conversation was different at that time.
Why Startups should NOT write a Business Plan
©Slidebean
Radical or opponent subject increases clicks on YouTube. Either way, you need to have an idea. If you work with developers, you need to explain what you want, prepare objections and persuade them. If so, just an idea is not enough, more than an idea, less than a business plan.
– validate the business rather than write a business plan
– The Lean Startup
– Objective and strategy
– 20 to 40 pages template, that’s a lot.
– Test an assumption fast
– Starting a company is a race against time
– Build > measure > learn > build…
– How big can it be? (I don’t like to think this way)
= How large issues can you solve?
– How fast can you get there?
Promoting their products during the video, but Slidebean is a pitch deck design platform for startups and small businesses.
E1084: David Sacks on his foolproof operating philosophy: “The Cadence”
©This Week in Startups
Not only this episode, but this Week in Startups channel talks about startup business. Jason Calacanis is an angel investor and over-decade podcaster. You can learn a lot about business.
The David Rubenstein Show: Accenture CEO Julie Sweet
©David Rubenstein
– Everyone is a consultant
– Execute, relevant and result
– Help solving problem
– Move fast
– Charge a fixed fee or profit share
– Hired consultant, Katie Kessler?
– Learning speech/debate is a good investment during student
– Willingness to learning
I enjoy his questions. You don’t have to follow David Rubenstein nor Harvard Business Review, but you have to learn the business as a freelance web/graphic designer. Otherwise, you have to compete with another ordinal web/graphic designer in a third country.
Need a Roadmap? Here’s How to Write a Business Plan You’ll Actually Use
– Planning
– Evaluating ideas
– Research
– Recruiting
– Partnerships
– Competitions
– Executive summary, the contents look like a pitch deck.
– Company description
– Market analysis
– Management and organization
– Products and services
– Customer segmentation
– Marketing plan
– Logistics and operations plan
– Financial plan
*Even the business plan is imperfect, if you are clearly imaging a customer, it will be okay.
A business plan makes everyone overwhelmed. Most of the people hesitate and don’t execute. A business plan is not only for fundraising, but also to organize and visualize your idea. As a human being, we don’t seriously learn if we don’t do anything. Planning is important, but if you have an idea, please make it happen even you did not complete a business plan. You may fail or give up, or pivot during the process. All the experiences will be valuable depends on how serious you are.
Resource: Shopify Blog
Conclusion: MBA
Business is not learning, it’s an execution. Local and small brick and the mortar shop owner is better than MBA student only if they are running a business seriously. No need to be cool, keep hands dirty, face an issue and overcome. If so, the business must be improved day by day.
I respect all the clients who start their own businesses. I will keep learning the business of design to contribute to their business growth.
