The Innovation Center would love to help you get your new business started. Fill this form out to begin!
Does your idea make for a viable business plan? Here are questions that can help to determine if it does. Some are easy, some are hard; answer them honestly and you will likely know better than anyone if you should accept the risk, responsibility and reward that go with a startup?
The questions fall into 4 categories.
1. What have the individual principals accomplished professionally and personally, that would indicate that a new venture is an attainable, desirable goal?
2. What are the employment histories of each principal - senior managers or new graduates? How does it relate to the venture opportunity?
3. What are the educational backgrounds of each principal?
4. Who would be the most prominent or powerful individual to speak on your venture's behalf and in support of your self assessment? Is there anyone else, individual or organization, in your corner?
5. Where is headquarters? Are all of the founders based at headquarters, or are they based in other places or regions of the state or regions of the country?
6. Who and what are missing? What skills or team members still need to be located for success to take place? What is the plan to recruit high-quality people to fill those spaces?
7. Who are your customers? How do they make purchase decisions?
8. What is the price for the product/service? How is that calculated?
9. What are your sustained needs for capital equipment, raw materials, supplies and personnel to maintain a critical mass of available product/service?
10. How will you market the product/service? Of the target customers listed, how specifically, will each be reached? How much will it cost to acquire one customer within each target group of customers?
11. How much does it cost to produce and deliver the product/service? How much does it cost to provide customer support post-purchase?
12. Who are your competitors? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
13. How can you see advancing technology change the market you are targeting?
14. Is there anyone else who could observe and exploit the same opportunity, and how likely are they to have a substantial competitive advantage?
15. What role can or does government regulation, policy or law play in your venture, the market it targets, or the revenues you expect to obtain?
16. Can your product/service offer value to overseas markets? How do the international opportunities compare to domestic opportunities for your product/service?
17. What is the total amount of money needed to launch the venture? How long will it be until the venture reaches positive cash flow?
18. Once in the black, how long will it be until the venture really gets going? What is the size of the potentiallong-term payoff?
19. What is the probability of ever reaching that maximum payoff? Short of the maximum, what is the probabilityof still realizing a significant return? What is the probability of realizing a total loss for investors? Under what scenarios would each of these probabilities play out?
20. What exit options are available for investors to get money out of the venture if it becomes successful?
For more information about how the Innovation Center can help you start your own business, contact us.