If there’s one thing that I was taught during undergraduate school and getting my MBA it was to make certain that I had a solid business plan before ever starting a business. Which, is precisely what I haven’t done.
It’s not that we didn’t do back of the envelope research on the need for our core product, business model or opportunity. And, to be honest I did do a pretty competitor / comparable assessment before we got started but to say we had more than a business outline and solid assumptions would be an exaggeration.
We’re now nearing the stage in development that it’s time to start pulling together some solid research and putting together our plan. The winter holiday season has given me more day-to-day time to think through our markets and to do some good desk-based research on market size. Hell, even market opportunity.
The nice thing is that so far my research is supporting our long held assumptions. Right now I’m all about the secondary research into both B2C and B2B markets. My plan is to have this finished up by next week and start doing some SWAG projections.
I think it’s time to start doing some closed door meetings with a few investors that I trust – not because I want their money, but because I want their thoughts on the right way to get early stage funding.
[For the record, I’m also interested in their money ;)]