BUSINESS START-UP ROADMAP€¦ · Knowing your business environment Selecting the best location Analyzing your market Analyzing your competition BUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION Identifying

Passionately partnering with our clients

© 2014 Higher Ground International

BUSINESS START-UP ROADMAP

READINESS ASSESSMENT Reasons for starting a business Are you business owner material Life Priorities Assessment Spiritual Gifts Assessment Financial Assessment

DEFINING YOUR BUSINESS Naming your business What do you have to offer that others

will buy? Knowing your business environment Selecting the best location Analyzing your market Analyzing your competition

BUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION Identifying the purpose for your

business Creating Your Company’s Core

Values for Success Discovering the Company’s Vision

and Mission of your business Establishing your strategy Declaring Your Non-Negotiables

(Code of Ethics)

STRUCTURING YOUR BUSINESS Selecting the Legal Entity for your

Business Registering with the Tax Authorities Licensing & Certifications Accounting and Bookkeeping Branding your business Establishing an advisory team

DEVELOPING YOUR BUSINESS PLAN

Start-up Financing

MANAGING YOUR BUSINESS Systematizing Your Business (Client

Retention Systems, Administration Systems, Operations Systems, and Financial Systems

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS

Marketing & Advertising Effectively

Sales

Getting contracts with the Government and large corporations

Taking Your Company International

Utilizing Information Technology

Protecting your business (I.D. Theft, Recordkeeping and other compliance areas)

The people side of the business

Excellence in business through customer service

Building a Solid Foundation

© 2014 Higher Ground International 2

Assessing Your Readiness to Lead

Carefully consider each of the following questions. 1. Are you a self-starter?

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2. How well do you get along with different personalities?

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3. How good are you at making decisions?

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4. Do you have the physical and emotional stamina to run a business?

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5. How well do you plan and organize? _____________________________________________________________________

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Assessing Your Readiness to Lead (Continued)

6. Is your drive strong enough?

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7. Do you have self-confidence? _____________________________________________________________

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8. How will the business affect your family? _____________________________________________________________

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9. Do you have a need to achieve? _____________________________________________________________

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10. Are you change-able?

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11. How do you respond under stress? _____________________________________________________________

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Leadership Development Planning

Starting your business will require you to take a hard look at how you currently spend your time. If you are serious about starting your business and making it a success there is a strong chance that you will need to reprioritize how you spend your time and who you spend it with. It may even require you to stop doing some things that you love to do for a period of time. The important thing is to remember why you are temporarily putting some things on hold and changing how you spend your time.

Consider the Following:

How are you currently spending your time?

How do you balance all areas of your life and build or grow your business?

Do you need to reprioritize your life?

Do you know the status of your personal and business financial strength?

Tips for gaining balance in your life



Something to Think About

Be sure that the business meets all of your needs - financial, mental/emotional,

physical and spiritual. Does it fit into your lifestyle?

How will your family feel about your business? Are they supportive?

Try to plan time for your family and yourself outside of your business. Include your family in your business wherever possible. Listening to their thoughts and opinions will make them feel more a part of your business. Running a successful business at the exclusion of all else in life means that the success of the business was obtained at a horribly high price. Trading a success in business for a failure in life is not a good trade. It is not worth losing your family or yourself along the way. The best reason for running a business? It enables you to succeed in your life goals. With good planning and realistic goals, you can fit the business into your life without creating a disaster. Therefore, your plan should help you to balance in all six areas. You should have a plan that stretches you to continue your development spiritually, mentally (soul), physically, socially, communally, and financially.



Balancing Your Life & Your Business

Connecting various segments of your life and your business are critical to have the type of success that you would want for as a business owner.

Balancing Life Definitions

Spiritual: The spiritual is the part of the person that seeks a relationship with God.

Mental/Emotional: The mental/emotional is where decisions are made. The mental/emotional governs the body, but should also be under the direction of the spiritual.

Body/Physical: The body is the physical expression of the spiritual and mental/emotional.

Social: The social aspect of a person defines his or her personal relationships with immediate and extended family members, friends, employees and others.

Community: Each of us is part of the world community. One’s perspective on life must be global, national, regional, and local. While we relate primarily to a local community, we also relate to world affairs, local government, voting, and drought and crisis, across the street and around the world.

Financial: We need to provide for our families, help financially in areas that are important to us, and be good stewards over the money we have.



Assessment Directions:

Please use the Life Priorities Worksheet to complete your assessment.

Step 1: Define the percentage of time you currently spend per week in the “Now” column for each category. Be honest with yourself!

Step 2: Assign a numerical ranking to each category in the “Current Priority”

column (1 = most important and 6 = least important) based on how you said you spend your time in the “Now” column. The category in the “Now” column that shows the highest percentage is your number one priority. You may not like the results, but it is your current reality.

Step 3: Review the information and decide how you would like to spend your

time per week or your “Preferred Priority” going forward. (1 = most important and 6 = least important)

Step 4: Determine the percentage of time you will want to spend in order to

place the categories in the priority you would like to have with as much balance as possible.



Life Priorities Worksheet

CATEGORY % OF TIME SPENT “NOW”

CURRENT PRIORITY

PREFERRED PRIORITY

% of TIME SPENT

“FUTURE”

Spiritual

Mental/Emotional

Body/Physical

Social

Community

Financial (business, job, investments, etc.)



1. CATEGORY TO BE CHANGED: ___________________________________________________________________

WHAT WILL BE DIFFERENT & WHY: ___________________________________________________________________

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WHEN WILL YOU MAKE THE CHANGE? ___________________________________________________________________

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WHO NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THE CHANGE? ___________________________________________________________________

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11 © 2014 Higher Ground International

Tips for Gaining Balance in Your Life

Spiritual

Spend quiet time in prayer, worship, reading, meditation

Connect with a local church, synagogue, etc.

Mind

Take at least one class in a subject you are interested in (can be on-line)

Develop a goal to read one chapter of a book each day

Learn a new hobby

Play educational games Body

Walk more – don’t park close to the door

Get your physical check-ups (head to toe)

Drink lots of water, cut out one item that is not healthy

Get some sleep!

Take time to do something that relaxes you. That could be doing nothing at all or a hobby.

Social

Stay in touch with friends that you haven’t talked with in a while

Renew a friendship with someone you have lost touch with

Begin to repair broken relationships

Community

Volunteer in the community

Vote and make your voice heard

Financial

Determine where you can cut your expenses

Develop a plan to eliminate debt

Find a way to increase your income

Start a savings account

Work with a credit counselor



Discovering the Vision and Mission for your business

It is important to have clearly articulated Vision and Mission statements because:

You need to have a clear, compelling direction.

A well-focused Mission statement provides the destination on

the map toward which the entire company takes flight.

The Vision and Mission allow you to focus all your energy in a

single direction.

The Vision and Mission statements tell you exactly what you

are supposed to be doing. It answers the question of what

have you been called to accomplish through your business.

If successfully implemented, the Vision and Mission

predetermine your company’s preferred future. They show you

what success looks like.

They provide boundaries for decision making, inspire unity,

encourage helpful change and shape your strategies.



The difference between your Purpose, the Core Values, Vision and the Mission

They are defined differently, are different in length, purpose

and activity

PPuurrppoossee (WHY)

CCoorree VVaalluueess (NON-NEGOTIABLES)

VViissiioonn (FUTURE PICTURE)

MMiissssiioonn (WHAT)



For the sake of convenience and continuity, we will use “working

definitions”. These definitions may not agree with the common use of the terms. However, we must “speak the same language”.

Vision Statement

Paints a word picture of your completed mission – or –

It is the picture of the future we seek to create

Source: Definition adopted from The Fifth Discipline, Peter M. Senge, 1990

Example: I have a dream that one-day on the red hills of Georgia, the

sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood (Dr. Martin Luther King)

Example: Empowering individuals and families toward abundant living (DOVE Enterprise - Draft as of 9/11/03)

Example: Passionately partnering with our clients to elevate their organizations to higher ground (Higher Ground International)

Example: To have a man on the moon by the end of the decade.1

(John Kennedy, 1961)



A clearly articulated Vision is a challenging picture of the future state of the organization.

It has the following elements:

The vision has clarity. You cannot accomplish what you do not know.

The vision challenges people to accomplish great things. It inspires or motivates them.

The vision is a mental picture. As passion is a “feeling” word, so vision is a “seeing” word.

The vision is a description of the organization’s preferred future. It’s a mental picture of what tomorrow will look like. It’s an expression of all your hopes and dreams for your business.

A good vision is feasible. It exists in the realm of possibility. It is not concerned about “what is”, but “what can be.”

The vision describes urgency. Not only does the visionary believe that the vision can be, he or she is convinced that it must be. The survival of the organization depends on it.

There is passion behind the vision. The visionary feels very strongly about it and the disparity between what is and what can be ignites the passion in the leader’s heart.



What the Vision is and is not

Here are some thoughts to assist you while thinking about your picture.

What It Is

What It Is Not

It is strategic Dull and boring

It is lofty Commonplace

It is optimistic and innovative A Cliché’

Unifying and passionate Expected and practical

Spiritual and radical Measurable target

Inspiring The business you are in

Idealistic to the point of being embarrassing

A market share goal or a desired industry position



Development Activity

Purpose:

To establish your company’s Vision: the picture of the future we seek to create

Directions:

1. Consider your personal picture of what the organization is ideally seeking to create.

2. Brainstorm the question “What is the organization’s ideal vision?”

Remember: While brainstorming, don’t edit, comment, or criticize any ideas.

3. Discuss, analyze, combine and edit the statements on your list.

4. Compile a composite picture that sums up what you want the organization’s vision to look like.

5. Does your vision match what the Visioning description defines? If not, adjust it accordingly.



1. How would you describe the ultimate objective for your company?

2. If you overhear a conversation about your organization one year/two

years/ three years down the road, what do you want people to say

about your company?

3. What would it be like around your organization if you were really

excited about going to work every day?

4. If you could create the ultimate work environment, how would you

describe it?

5. What would you be doing that would have you excited about being

part of it?

Your Company’s Vision



The Vision Audit

1. Is your vision clear? Do the people who are a part of your organization understand the vision? Can they articulate it? Does it pass the “people test”?

2. Is the dream challenging? Does it excite people? Does it move people to action?

3. Does the vision create a picture in people’s minds? Can they see your dream?

4. Is your dream future oriented? Does it create a picture of your organization’s future? Does it give everyone an idea of what lies ahead?

5. Do you believe that this dream can be? Given who you are and your organization’s circumstances, is it feasible?

6. Are you convinced that it must be? Do you feel strongly about this vision? Has it touched you emotionally? Will your organization or your community be better for it?



Mission Statement

Declares what you want to do

Source: Definition adopted from Ministry Nuts and Bolts, Aubrey Malphurs, 1997

It should define…

WHO,

The customer, along with their needs within the process or system that the organization is addressing,

WHAT,

The nature and scope of the product or service the organization will deliver to meet the need,

HOW,

The general strategy and overall means by which the organization intends to deliver that product or service.

Example: DOVE is an outreach organization that meets the human and social needs of local families and citizens of the Inland Empire. Our purpose is to relieve critical needs by providing programs, services and referrals. We accomplish this through partnerships with individuals, churches, community organizations, government entities and business. (Draft as of 9/11/03)



The Mission is the thing that asks the what question and has the following elements.

A Mission is broad and all-embracing. The organization’s Mission takes precedence over all its goals and activities.

The Mission is brief. While there is no regulation for size and length, it should be short. Some say no more than one to two sentences. Highly effective organizations, no matter how complex, can summarize what they’re supposed to be doing in a succinct, simple way.

The Mission is a written statement so people will know and understand the overall goal. Writing it out in the form of a statement forces you to gather your thoughts and clearly think through what you’re saying. It also puts it in a form that you can consistently communicate in a variety of ways.

The Mission is what the organization is supposed to accomplish. It’s what business you are in.



Development Activity

Purpose:

To clarify or develop a mission statement for your organization

Directions:

1. Give team members three large post-it notes each and have them clearly print their idea of the who, what and how of the Mission statement on separate notes.

2. Create a Mission Statement Worksheet and have team members stick their post-its at the appropriate corners.

3. Compare and contrast the various statements of the who, discuss differences and come to consensus.

4. Now do the same for the what and the how. Don’t be disturbed if you find yourselves considering these at the same time since they are interdependent.

5. Use the agreed-upon ideas to put together a Mission statement that makes sense. Don’t worry about precise wordsmithing. Effective teams usually delegate details like this once conceptual agreement is reached.

6. Evaluate the statement developed using the Mission Statement Checklist.



MISSION STATEMENT WORKSHEET

How What

Who

MMiissssiioonn

SSttaatteemmeenntt



The Mission Audit

1. What are you doing?

2. If you continue on your present course, where will the business be two, five or ten years from now?

3. Do your key leaders know where the business is and where it’s going?

4. What will it take to change course and move in a new direction?

5. Are you and the leadership willing to do whatever it takes to move the organization in a new direction?



References

1. Bible, King James Version

2. Enlightened Leadership, Ed Oakley and Doug Krug, Simon & Schuster, NY, 1994

3. Ministry Nuts and Bolts, Aubrey Malphurs, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI, 1997

4. TEAMWORKS Leading High-Performing Teams Workshop, Viability Group, Inc., Developed by Sandy Pokas & Susan L. Harris, PhD., August 1993

5. The Fifth Discipline, The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, Peter M. Senge, Doubleday/Currency, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036, 1990

1 William Manchester, The Glory and the Dream (Boston: Little, Brown and Company), 1974

Documents

BUSINESS START-UP ROADMAP€¦ · Knowing your business environment Selecting the best location Analyzing your market Analyzing your competition BUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION Identifying