Resilience is Recession-Proof

June 2009:

About a week into my internship, I knew that investment banking wasn’t for me.  The sad part was that my hours weren’t even that bad. Compared with the hours some of my friends work, I may as well have been on vacation.

Most of my time working was split between importing information into the company computer drives and updating PowerPoint presentations to ensure they had the perfect font and alignment on every slide.  As important as my work was to the firm’s well-being, I generally had my head in the clouds, thinking about the idea I had come up with for a business.  I was constantly brainstorming and thinking what the business would actually look like.  I hadn’t really taken any notes, but I tried to think in as much detail as I possibly could.

Meanwhile, I had just heard of a great website for entrepreneurs called inc.com.  As you can imagine, I had quite a bit of idle time, which I used to read the start-up advice on my new favorite website and daydream about what it might be like to be an entrepreneur.  I found myself constantly reading about the best entrepreneurs under the age of 30, as I still often do (30 Under 30: America’s Coolest Young Entrepreneurs).  It was extremely inspirational to see what these young entrepreneurs had accomplished at such a young age, and I thought if they could do it, I could do it.

Because I was neither a full-time employee nor getting paid, I took days off here and there.  Generally, I would use those days off to relax or play golf.  After reading the importance of writing a business plan, however, I decided to use my next day off to get my ideas onto paper.

I firmly believe that writing a business plan is the first step that any entrepreneur must take in starting a business.  Until you put your words on paper, your idea is nothing more than pie in the sky.  Even after you put your words onto paper, you may very well have nothing, but chances are you won’t know it until you actually sit down and try to write a complete business plan.

In fact, I consider the business plan to be the first litmus test of whether or not your idea is a viable candidate for a business.  Most ideas seem incredible until you begin to break out the details.  What will the costs look like?  Is there anyone doing what you propose right now?  Who is the biggest competition?  Does this address a need in society that is not being fulfilled by the current market place?  And most importantly, will this business generate profits?

It was at this point that I started to regret never taking any entrepreneurial studies classes in college.  They always seemed interesting but never fit in my schedule.  Consequentially, I didn’t know much about writing a business plan.  Of course I had a good understanding of the individual components, mostly from strategy classes I had taken, but I had never tried to put all of the pieces together in one document before.

Using the knowledge that I had accumulated over the past three years and some of the resources on inc.com, I was able to put together a preliminary version of a business plan, which included the following:

• What is the business?
• How will the business function?
• Features of the business
• Customers
• Competition (Present and Future)
• Competitive Advantage
• Revenue Generation
• Costs
• Risks
• Timeline

It wasn’t really that hard to come up with all of the information since I had been brainstorming for about two weeks, and once I got into the flow of writing, the words just kind of came naturally.  It took me about eight hours to write the twelve page document in its entirety, but I was able to do it in two sessions with one three hour break.

Although the business plan would evolve into a completely different document in the ensuing months, this was the first major step I had taken.  When I was done, I took a step back and realized I was looking at a step by step guide to making millions.