1. Points of emphasis in a start-up business plan and how this plan can evolve with time
Visionary entrepreneurs know the value of having a comprehensive start-up business plan. While all businesses are unique and have their specific challenges, there are at least two points of emphasis in any start-up plan that help many entrepreneurs to be miles ahead within a short period from where they began.
The first point of emphasis is keeping the start-up plan brief. While drafting the plan, one should not think too far ahead, but approach it as a living document. Some uninformed business people think that a business plan is the novelization of the right way of starting and running a company that puts together all dreams, hopes, and projected profits into a pages-long document. A good start-up business plan, however, needs to detail the main things that will be required to keep the business running optimally. Such a simple document makes it easy to grasp the objectives and mission of the business and strategies that the business intends to use to achieve its mission (Sullivan, 2009).
The other point is being thorough. When business experts say that a start-up business plan needs to be simple, it does not mean it should be full of loopholes. An ideal start-up business plan is effective at outlining the characteristics of the business that are most critical. For a businessman to ensure no important detail is left out, he should clearly put down every important thing from a personnel onboarding plan to securing the required trademarks and name rights (Mutel, 2010).
Research has shown that there are a few things that an entrepreneur must do to ensure the start-up plan is efficient. An entrepreneur must describe their business, their products or services, the competitive environment of the product, and how their business will make money. Other must-do tasks include describing how to market the business, how the product is going to be produced, and the financial projection of the business (Mutel, 2010).
Start-up plans always evolve as business grows. As it evolves to an ongoing business plan, the entrepreneur needs to accommodate many changes. When developing a start-up plan, entrepreneurs often make some assumptions. However, after getting into the business, they learn that some of their initial considerations are not implementable and cannot work. Lenders often want business plans that reflect the reality on the ground. So as a start-up business plan can help when seeking the initial round of funding, an evolved business plan is necessary for seeking future funding. The plan must be refined to capture the reality on the ground (Ibbotson & Stephens, 2006).
2. For businesses, especially technology-based companies, to be successful, they need to keep up with the rapidly changing markets, products, and competitors. A business should use an appropriate technology awareness strategy to achieve this milestone. A good technology strategy has four steps (Growth paths of technology-based companies, 2003).
The first step is determining their business needs. An entrepreneur can determine their needs from the type of technology that they work and live with, their existing knowledge base, and their learning style. After handling on the fundamentals such as sound, fluid behavior, light, electricity, and light, businessman needs to learn more about the specific devices they use. Knowing how these fundamentals work is a plus (Nichelson, 2016).
The second step is assessing the resources available to the business. A Businessman can find technology-related information from books, journals, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet. It is critical to explore all the available options and figure out the types of resources that work best for their business.
The third step is ranking the resources in order of the expediency that they will offer you. There are a lot of resources, and a prudent entrepreneur will develop ways of weeding some of them out. Most of them chose all resources available, including those that have a little chance of working for them and arranging in order of priority.
After going through these three steps, they finally make the time to use these resources. This is where one needs to take a lot of care. You can read some of these resources just once and then move on, but you will need to keep some of them for future reference. This strategy is easy to implement after the integration of technology education into one’s daily routine (Nichelson, 2016).
When it comes to which element between strategy and resources are critical for the success of technology-based companies, it appears that both of them are equally vital. Technology changes hastily, and it is important technology-based companies with rapidly changing markets, products, and competitors to use the appropriate strategy to be successful. For an entrepreneur to fully implement an appropriate technology awareness strategy, they must use a variety of resources as has been shown above. For this reason, strategy and resources are all essential for the success of a technology-based company with rapidly changing markets, products, and competitors (Keeping up with Technology at Work, n.d.).
3. The benefits and the risks of outsourcing the manufacturing of products to foreign countries.
When it comes to international business, outsourcing manufacturing is often a major consideration. One of the benefits of this practice is lower costs. It is easier and quite cheaper to rent a factory in some foreign markets than maintain them yourself. Most contract manufacturers also offer many other services beyond production such as storing and shipping at affordable rates. Lower tariffs and duties and local market access are some of the other elements to contribute to the lowering of costs (Writer, 2011).
Outsourcing your production overseas can ensure you have access to skilled labor. Outsourced labor often includes multilingual, skilled, and highly educated workers. There is also the advantage of having support workers who have the ability to respond to your global customers in many languages (Writer, 2011).
The quality of labor is often great. Most people who have used any Apple product, for instance, can attest to the high quality. These sophisticated products are manufactured by Chinese workers many of whom make less than seventeen dollar per day (Editors, 2012).
While there are several benefits to outsourcing your production overseas, a trader needs to be careful to remedy the associated risks. In some cases, this practice can introduce communication barriers, which can ultimately get on the way of timely production and delivery of goods. Some foreign managers and workers have no solid understanding of international languages. This factor can lead to miscommunication and confusion about deadlines, costs, and quantities. It can also be hard to schedule meetings due to time zone differences, which can lead to a lag in response time with electronic communication (Bennett, 2016).
Control concerns can also crop in at any time. Whenever you outsource your production overseas, you cede some daily control to your contractor. This might mean you have to compete with other customers of the factory to get your work done as you want (Rolstads, 2014).
There are also public relations issues. The reputation of a company that outsources its production can get damaged. Leaders of the company can be viewed by locals as unpatriotic. This may negatively affect the company’s image and make it necessary for the company to spend extra money on public relations and advertising so as to be able to make up for all the sales lost due to negative publicity (Rolstads, 2014).
References
Bennett, B. (2016). Pros and cons of outsourcing your manufacturing in the international business environment. Retrieved March 18, 2017, from https://www.tradeready.ca/2014/trade-takeaways/pros-cons-outsourcing-your-manufacturing-international-business/
Editors, E. (2012). The iEconomy: How Much Do Foxconn Workers Make? Retrieved March 18, 2017, from https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/the-ieconomy-how-much-do-foxconn-workers-make/
Growth paths of technology-based companies in life sciences and information technology. (2003). Luxembourg: Office for official publications of the European communities.
Ibbotson, M., & Stephens, B. (2006). Business start-up. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Keeping up with Technology at Work. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2017, from https://www.americasjobexchange.com/career-advice/technology-at-work
Mutel, D. (2010). Business plan. Orchamps: Atelier Didier Mutel.
Nichelson, P. B. (2016). Keeping Up With Technology: Four Steps and Resources. Retrieved March 18, 2017, from https://www.thebalance.com/keeping-up-with-technology-1200433
Rolstads, A. (2014). Manufacturing outsourcing: a knowledge perspective. Place of publication not identified: Springer.
Sullivan, P. (2009). Start-up business plan: communities for condos. Halifax, N.S.: Saint Mary's University.
Writer, L. G. (2011). Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing Production. Retrieved March 18, 2017, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-outsourcing-production-18244.html
