STARTUP GUIDE

JJooee OOlluubbiittaann

SSStttaaarrrtttuuuppp GGGuuuiiidddeee

Your greatest possibilities will often come from the most common situations

around you. Visit www.me-skillz.com , www.olujoe.com

Introduction

There is nothing as sweet as becoming your own boss. You decide

where to go, how much you will earn, when to sleep, when to wake up,

how to affect the society and economy and above all, you are

ULTIMATELY in charge of how your life is run!

The journey to becoming your own boss starts with knowing what to

do, how to do it, and when to do it. In this book, I have highlighted the

Ten (10) steps you MUST take to starting your own business and

becoming your own boss.

I understand from my research that many desires to start their own

business but could not. Many also start but the business(es) failed

along the way due to certain errors that were committed on their part,

wrong advices received from people that know nothing about business

or even “friends” that envy their bold step in setting up a business

enterprise.

If you are an entrepreneur, or student at whatever level of your

academic pursuit who desires to have your own business; or you

already started one but needed a guide book on how to ensure that it

did not crumble and become history, then….

This book, Startup Guide was written with you in mind. It is a step-by-

step guide on what to do to ensure the success of your business(es).

Studies had shown overtime that more than 70% of small businesses

“dies” within the first three(3) years of their operations. This can be

alluded to various reasons.



However, there is something that the remaining less than 30% are

doing correctly that is makes them to survive and develop into big

enterprises.

You don’t necessarily need to go to a business school before you can

succeed in business neither do you need a degree in business before

you itch your mark on the “arena” of business success. Business success

is about business opportunities meeting YOUR business preparedness.

The business moguls we have around us today, the ones that have

passed and the ones that will come in the future, on seek to take

advantage of the opportunities that came their ways, and because of

their determination and preparation, we call them “the successful”

today.

Are you ready to join the league of the successful in business? Or you

are out to create another standard that the business world will see and

follow? If you are out to reshape and set a new record that others will

begin to have sleepless nights to achieve. I congratulate you.

Take a sit and strap your seat belt, as I take you through these ten steps

that will Guide you to a Successful Startup Business.



Step #1 PPPlllaaannn aaannnddd SSStttrrraaattteeegggiiizzzeee

A builder that intends to build will first lay out the plan of the building

in view. A person that wants to embark on a journey will first map out

the route to his or her destination. Even our Lord Jesus Christ underpin

the importance of planning when He said, “any that wants to go to war

with another nation must first plan and check his military strength

(resources) before embarking on any military campaign”.

Planning is the first step in any management process. It gives direction.

It points the way to go and help to know beforehand if the structure

will hold or fall. It is a major component in business, and it defines

means, conducts and ends of a business.

Strategy on the other hand is the formulation of the means and ways to

carry out the planned actions and business(es). It succinctly, map-out

the prerequisites needed and that will be involved in the actualization

of the goals and objectives of the business.

Planning is setting up of objectives, goals, mission and standard of the

business enterprise that you want to establish while; strategy on the

other hand is the laying down of the modalities that will be adopted in

carrying out the goals, mission, and objectives.

Hence, in your startup process, you need to identify the objective of the

business enterprise you want to go into. This means that, you need to

ask yourself what am I going to do in this business? The main reason

why businesses are set up is for profit but you need to identify what

your own objective(s) will be. You state your purpose, either for profit

or for fun, for better product or for philanthropic reasons or otherwise.



Just as in building, where after determining if what you are building is

private house or office building, bungalow or duplex, there is need to

specify the numbers of room, restrooms and other facilities. So also is

business. Planning does not end with you stating your objectives for

starting the business.

The type of business/organizational structure that will exist; the

offices/posts and responsibilities to start with and number of staff need

to be stated and put in writing. The modalities for carrying out the

business functions and activities, i. e the strategies for achieving your

plans must be put in pen and paper.

After ensuring that all these are on ground and after much cross

checking, cross referencing and corrections, then you are now certain

of taking the next step.



Step #2 DDDeeevvveeellloooppp ttthhheee IIIdddeeeaaa

Idea development is an important factor in ensuring the viability of

your business. It comes after putting in place your plans and strategies.

Take note that, the second step is not idea generation but idea

development. You are not going into business just because you want to

do business but because there is an idea that had been brooding in

your mind for a while. In fact, idea generation comes first before you

start to plan and strategize.

If you have not gotten any business idea to work, you need to take a

break and settle that aspect. Intending to start a business without

having a business idea is like a person that wants to travel with not

particular destination in mind. Materials abound on the various

business ideas and opportunities that exist in business. I recommend

Unlocking the Enterprise in You, an in-depth book I wrote on releasing,

starting and managing an enterprise. It contains 101 business ideas you

can start with little capital, advice on how to run a business among

other things.

With you on this paragraph, it means you already generated your

business idea(s) and the next step is developing them.

Step #2 of your startup journey is to develop the idea you have in mind.

To successfully start a business, you must have a good idea. And to

ensure that your business goes beyond pen and paper, you need to

develop your idea.

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Developing an idea can be simple and can be hectic; it depends on the

value and lifespan of the business you are pursuing. If you want a

business that will live after you have left, a business that will turn the

table and make it business unusual for competitors and those that you

met on the field then, your idea development must be vigorous and up

to standard.

In showing you how to develop an idea, I will present you will a cycle

model I called the ORC Branding Model. The ORC branding model

which I develop through years of study and research of high flying

brands and corporations is hinged on a tripod stand of:

1. Original Idea: this is the idea you got from other business/the

environment and happenings around you.

2. Rebranding Product: you rebrand by way of modification, the

original idea to suit your goal, environment and clients/customers

into a viable product.

3. Competitive Brand: turning the product into a competitive brand

that no one can do without. Making it the preferred in the

market.

To developing your idea, follow the above model; taking each stage of

the idea branding as your business progress. However, before you start

your business you must have reached the second stage in the model

and also have a sketchy view of what your stage three will be.

You asked me how you will know what the preferred product will be.

How will you ascertain the acceptability of your brand and make it

competitive. You are now ready for the next step.

http://www.olujoe.com/business-ideas/orc-branding-model



Step #3

Welcome to Step #3 of your Startup journey. The adage goes that Rome

was not built in a day, neither were the big corporations and business

conglomerates that you see around you. What you are holding in your

hand, yes this book you are reading too was not built in a day. It is as a

result of years of hard work and research.

Feasibility study according to BusinessDictionary.com is an analysis and

evaluation of a proposed project to determine if it:

Is technically feasible

Is feasible within the estimated cost

Will be profitable.

The purpose of this study is to identify, the “make or break” issues that

would prevent your business from being successful in the marketplace.

In essence, it is used to determine the marketability of the business

idea you have.

A feasibility study looks at three major areas:

a. market issues

b. organizational issues

c. financial issues

Market analysis involves asking questions pertaining to the following

issues:

What is the state of the market? Is it dynamic, static or shrinking?

Is the market big enough to worth your effort and time? Is it

worth the while?



What specifically is the level of the market? Where will my

business be located to be advantageous?

Information generated here will reveal one or two things about the

market structure and customer perception of your business idea.

After the market issue is the organizational or technical issues that are

related and relevant to your business ideas. You need to ask certain

questions as it relates to your ideas.

a. What organizational structure will I adopt? Which one am I

starting with?

b. Who will occupy which post? What will be their qualifications;

SSCE, OND, HND or degree?

c. Who will manage is in my absence?

d. What will be my staffing need and how will I strengthen it

within the next 2-5 years?

e. What are my technological needs?

f. Where and how can I obtain the technical equipment needed?

Is by purchase or by hire?

g. When will it be needed and how much will it cost?

While you need not to know all the answers to all the other questions

in order for the business to be feasible, they must all be satisfactorily

answered before you begin operations. Technology does necessarily

have to be costly but your personal basic equipments sometime can

serve the purpose.

Once the market and organizational issues have been completed, the

third and final step of feasibility study is to take a look at key financial

issues. At this point, you must be able to answer the following



questions correctly and specifically so you won’t run into deep water in

the startup process.

1. Startup Costs: the cost you will incur in starting the business. Land, building, office and equipments costs, etc.

2. Operating Costs: these are the ongoing costs such as rents, utilities and wages that are incurred in the day to day running of the business.

3. Revenue Projections: the pricing of your goods and services will be factor in here. What will be your estimated monthly revenue?

4. Sources of Financing: you may want to startup with your personal money or borrowed money; but the sources of continuous financing of your business must be ascertained. You need to research on potential lending sources.

5. Profitability Analysis: this is the baseline of your business. Will the cost and revenue projections above be able to give your enterprise enough revenue to meet your running cost? Will you break even, lose money, or make profit?

Your feasibility study must give clear-cut insight to whether business

idea is sound or not. Although an unsuccessful feasibility study may

appear to be a failure, it’s not. The real failure would have happen if

you had invested financial and then lost it due to barriers you failed to

research in advance.

So if your feasibility study failed, it does not mean the end but to go

back to the drawing board and start over. Go back to step #2 and

redevelop your business idea. Remember, your business should be your

passion, and passion should propel you to success.



The next step is for a successful feasibility study. If we are on the same

page, then let’s take the next important step together.



Step #4 Business Planning

If the feasibility study indicates that your business idea is sound, the

next step is a business plan. The business plan takes the analysis to a

deeper level. It builds on the foundation made by the feasibility study.

A business plan gives you the opportunity to find weaknesses and

reveal any hidden problems ahead of time.

Business plans serves two major purposes; to analyze how well the

business will work out and serves as a document for securing loan for

your business.

According to university of California Centre for Cooperatives, the

purpose of a business plan is to minimize the risk associated with new

business and maximize the chances of success through research and

planning.

Although business plans are often submitted to a bank as part of a loan

request, that’s not the most important thing about this process. It is

that it forces you to think ahead. It is sometimes described as a

document of your thought process as you analyze your competition,

the market, your operating expenses, management and staffing

needs, manufacturing process etc.

For an in depth components of a winning business plan, consult my

book Unlocking the Enterprise in You.




Step #5 Get Registered

Having concluded the prerequisite activities for your business

enterprise, the next step is to get your business registered. Registering

of business ventures shows how serious you are with your business. It

makes you qualify to get certain opportunities and incentives from

government, financial institutions and other private firms.

Business registration is done in Nigeria by the Corporate Affairs

Commission (C.A.C) and they have offices across all the state of the

federation. You can either go directly to their office, or visit their

website for do-it-yourself registration. However, there are business

promoters who had been accredited by CAC for this purpose, you can

contact them for better result, quick registration and hassle free

process.

There three form of business registration. These are:

Business Name Registration

Limited Liability Company Registration, and

Company Incorporation

For small businesses and startups with little capital, it is always better

to go for business name registration. This will afford you the

opportunity to operate as a business enterprise, and to preserve your

business name before others get ahead of you. You must also know

that there is a limit to the business activities that can be perform with a

business name. So as fast as possible, as your business expands, it will



be advisable to incorporate it or register it as a limited liability

company.

Registering your business will also afford you the opportunity of taking

your business to the global level. There certain opportunities that

abound due to bilateral relationship between countries; and this had

created what is called Trade Liberalization which afford businesses to

market and sell their products in the international market.

Business registration will also afford you to copyright your ideas, have

trademark ownership of your trade name, among other benefits.

Obtain all the necessary permits and legal documents to do your

business.



Step #6

Your Marketing Team

P. Kotler defined marketing as a social and management process by

which individuals (sole proprietors) and groups (companies) obtain

what they need and want (profit and customers) through creating,

offering and exchanging products of value with others.

Marketing is the link between your business and the public. It is the

process of ensuring that the public (potential customers) know your

business and what you are offering. Marketing process enables you to

know what the customers’ needs and wants are so as to meet them

with the highest level of satisfaction.

The importance of marketing hence cannot be over emphasized.

Hence, the need to have a formidable marketing team. Your marketing

team will surely starts with you during your startup process. You are

the number #1 marketer of your brand and business.

In this age of social media strength, you can use the various social

media channel to create awareness and market your business at no

cost. This will help you to reach a wide audience within a short period

of time and also reduce your running cost tentatively.

However, as your business grows, there will be need to employ

competent hands in marketing. The expansion of your business will

determine the qualification and staff strength of your marketing team.

Your marketing team is the tentacle through which your business

reaches your customers and you also get feedback from the

customers through them. Build a strong marketing team.



Step #7

Know Your Competitors

Welcome to step #7 of your guide to startup business. You are

gradually getting to the actualization point. You are not yet there but

with the look of things, you are a few steps away to starting a

formidable business enterprise.

I want to pause and ask you a question and your sincere answer will go

a long way in determining you business success. Are you the first to

initiate this line and type of business? Will your products be the only

ones in the market? If your answer is yes, I congratulate you and you

can just go and take hold of the market for yourself.

However, if your answer to the questions are no, then you need this

step for your business success. Competitors are the business and

products that are vying for the same customers as you are. They may

be “oldies” in the business with many years of experience and

committed customers; and may also be new entrants like you.

According to infoentrepreneurs.org, knowing who your competitors

are, and what they are offering, can help you to make your products,

services and marketing stand out.

You should delegate your team to know more about your competitors

as much as you know about your customers if not even more. You

should be able to know the customers’ perception of their products and

services. These assist your business to know what makes the customers

to be committed to them and how to package/brand and market your

products and services for acceptance.

http://www.infoentrepreneurs.org/



Do some research about their next move as regards their next product

line, their PR strength, and their customer social responsibility. This

may look too big for startups but a little knowledge about your

competitors is what will keep you on before your products becomes a

cannot-do-without in the market.

You can gain some info from their website, their social media page, etc.

Monitor the way they do business. It will enable you to set your prices

competitively and help you to respond to rival marketing campaigns

with your own initiatives.

Here is a look at the few things to look at for in knowing your

competitors:

Their products and services and their marketing styles.

The price of their products and services.

The customer social responsibility channel that enhance

customer loyalty.

Branding and designs.

Business methods and innovativeness.

Their workforce skills level.

Media activities- social media, TV, radio, bill boards, posters

etc.

Knowing your competitors should not be a onetime activity but a

continuous one so that you can strategize towards a competitive edge

in the market.



Step #8

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For you to succeed in life and business there is a need to be organized.

Getting organized won’t make you vulnerable to the wave and storm

that will likely come. It will help you to complete tasks and be on top of

the game in your business.

What it takes to build a competitive business is not just having a great

idea but the organizing teams of talented people in such a way that

will truly let them shine. The existence of your business cannot rely on

the idea or brand that the business prides itself in but in a team that

strategize continually for other businesses to follow rather than

emulating others.

As your business starts and progress, there will be temptation of

allowing bureaucracy to crawl in…AVOID IT!

Instead empower you workforce to make decisions and carry it through

with them. Most of the time decisions move up the organization

structure to people who have less or no knowledge to make best the

decision. A decision that will catapult a company to the limelight can be

frustrated, rubbished and thrown out by someone who have no idea

about it.

There is this story of an incidence that happens few years back in

Microsoft. An employee made a fatal mistake that cost the organization

so much financially. But rather than firing the concerned staff, Bill Gates

who was then the CEO said “it has cost us so much for this guy to know



that what he tried out won’t work, if we fire him, we will lose him to

our competitors.”

Bill Gates did the unthinkable and being a strategic programmer and

business man himself, he rather saw that error as a training and

investment for the employee than a loss to the company.

Allow employees to take responsibility. Be a strategic organization.

Focus more on strategy rather than structure. The “results and

solutions” should be your watchword. According to Kevin

O’Connor(who have founded and cofounded several companies),

figuring out where the company should be heading in a waste of time,

rather it should be on building a robust and great products and

services.

Businesses are all about products and services. If much of your time is

devoted to anything other than that, then you are not progressing.

You should be strategically thinking and planning on problems to solve,

demands to meet, needs to satisfy and not about projections, profits

and forecasts.

Strategic organization is one that has a smart team that can always

come up with the right answers. Figure out which team members

should be involved in a particular brainstorming based on each problem

at hand.

Decisions should be based on merit and not seniority. The fact that it’s

the decision of a superior does not mean that the subordinate’s

decision is less effective. Research has shown that subordinates

sometimes and most of the time come up with a better idea and

solution on a problem than their superior.



And finally, take note that the most obvious solutions are frequently

overlooked. Don’t think that because a solution is simple then it can’t

be. Too often, the obvious solutions are the least costly and most

effective.

Know what the customers’ problems are but don’t allow them to

dictate the solutions. Customers sometimes see problems that you

don’t because you are too engrossed in the product. Hear them out,

but the solution lies within your business to proffer. Your team should

be the one to come out with the best solutions to customers’

problems.

Are you ready for the next step?



Step #9

SSStttaaarrrttt IIIttt

START IT!

Many potential businesses got stuck at this stage.

Start it!!

This is the reason for your preparations. Don’t allow fear to stop you.

America was unknown until Colombus ventured out. He confronted the

fear that had plague Europe for centuries and He discovered America.

Start your business now!!!



Step #10 MMMaaaiiinnntttaaaiiinnn IIIttt

I welcome you to the final step in this Startup Guide. By now you should

have started you business enterprise. Various business activities and

process would have been on ground in your business location.

Starting a company is not as important as maintaining it. If you start a

good business and lack the potential and where withal to maintain it,

you will end back to square one. I want to share with you a concept

that you can always adopt in reviewing your business process and

planning. It will be useful in checking the quality of your business

activities.

SWOT analysis is a business concept of reviewing the organization’s

major internal Strengths, Weaknesses, together with an assessment of

those Opportunities and Threats in the external environment which are

likely to make an impact on strategic choices of the company.

In maintaining and ensuring that your company stands against the tides

in the business environment, the performance of your business as

regards your strengths and weakness must be known. Also, the external

factors that can affect your business proposed plans for the future in

terms of opportunities and threats must be looked into.

You are to make qualitative decisions about performance based on

assessment of customer satisfaction, employee motivation and other

non-quantifiable elements in the total performance of the organization.



The likely impact of technological, economic, political and social trends,

together with the activities of competitors on your company should be

assessed by your “brainstorming” team.

Among other things that are cogent in maintain your business are the

following:

Maintain your market share in existing markets with existing

products and services.

Expand into new markets with existing or new products and

services.

Seek long-term, low-interest loans only for projects, products or

services that will yield the return.

Have profit centers.

Have a long term plan of divesting into non-core businesses.

For an insight and list of advice on how to maintain a business to

survive and last long, consult my book on Unlocking the Enterprise in

You.






Let’s Interact!

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.olujoe.com

www.me-skillz.com

Facebook: http//www.facebook.com/joeolubitan

Twitter: http//www.twitter.com/olujoey

About Joe

Joe Olubitan have an unusual zeal and passion for

youths and their personal development. He has the

burning desire to impact lives in this generation and

beyond for their purposeful fulfillment. He is an

entrepreneur, academia, business developer and

analyst, youth leader, motivator, and blogger.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Ladoke Akintola

University of Technology, Ogbomoso, and Master’s degree in

Management with specialization in Entrepreneurship in the same

university. A member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of

Nigeria,(ICAN), and member of Junior Chambers International, Nigeria

(JCIN).

Joe is the Founder/CEO of Me-Skillz Consult, a business development

and management consulting firm that focuses on Startups, SMEs and

self development. He has the opportunity to lead in various capacities

from his younger days and he is currently the youth president of his

local church and has always delivered with result per excellence. He

sees service to humanity as a passion and calling. He is happily married

to Mary.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.olujoe.com/

http://www.me-skillz.com/

http://www.me-skillz.com/

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