Starting a Business - So Much to Do

Yesterday I alluded to a new business I am hoping to start. While I've explored what it would take to do this, and indeed, I worked at a start up technology company for 7 years so I saw a lot in the early days, I've never had to deal with the details.

My business partner and I got serious about this business a month ago when two things happened. First, he lost his management job unexpectedly when a major client pulled a project representing over half his company's revenues. Second, we found an investor. Funny thing is, our investor had been lurking in the shadows for quite some time.

I mentioned persistence yesterday. Set your mind to something, be laser focused, and ignore the naysayers. Our seed money can be attributed to our persistence. That investor could have stepped up at any time. It was our unwavering desire to do this that convinced our investor we could turn this into a successful investment.

I don't want to spill the beans just yet about what I'm doing. There's one more obstacle that I want to overcome before officially announcing anything. For now, let me tell you some of the things we have been working on:

• Site selection. After looking at several potential sites, we have identified a site we think will work. Next step is negotiating a lease.
• Formalizing the business. We will establish an LLC. The paperwork will be filed to make this a living business any day now.
• Creating a budget. I have created an exhaustive set of scenarios in Excel using variables such as revenues, fixed and variable expenses. My goal is to be able to plug in our expected revenue amount and let Excel tell me what we can budget to each line item expense and then estimate our profit or loss.
• Creating our product. No hints just yet. Well, maybe a little one: We are entering a somewhat commoditized market with a unique offering. We have a lot of competition, but none of our competitors will be doing exactly what we are doing.
• Networking. I have a small network of people I trust and can bounce ideas off. For example, the CFO of the company I used to work for (the start up I was at for 7 years) is meeting with me in a few days to review my plan and offer feedback.