What an entrepreneur must do after creating a business plan

I finished my business plan; what should I do next?

If I remember correctly, I asked the same question myself. Not so long ago, I had just finished my business plan for Upmetrics and was clueless about the next steps.

It happens to most entrepreneurs, and it’s okay. After doing some research and talking to some startup founders in my network, I got my answer.

Don’t worry; you don’t have to go through the hassle. I’ll answer it for you. Here are the steps entrepreneurs must take after creating a business plan.

Let’s explore each of these steps, starting with understanding the purpose of your plan.

Ask yourself why am I writing a business plan, and you’ll have your answer. The reason you’re writing a business plan can be to:

• Validate business idea
• Secure funds for your startup
• Launch your business plan and set it for growth
• Streamline existing business operations
• Or anything else.

These are just a few of the dozens of other use cases for creating a business plan.

Cutting to the chase, you know the purpose of your plan, right? Then, let’s head straight to the main course. Check out the steps to follow after creating a business plan.

1. Review and refine the plan

It hits hard when you realize finishing the first draft of your plan was just the beginning. A business plan is a dynamic document that requires continuous revision and refinement to remain relevant to your market dynamics and business landscape.

Since you’ve just finished your first draft, it may not require significant changes, but a thorough review of each section and financials is necessary before you take it to investors.

When asked for thoughts on reviewing and refining business plans, Simon Bacher, co-founder of the Ling App, a language learning app, emphasizes the importance of the process.

“A business plan isn’t a one-off document that you finish and forget. It’s a guiding compass that must be adjusted as the landscape shifts. To put it in terms of programming—think of it as an application. You start with the first version but never stop debugging and updating.”

Simon also mentioned how they primarily focused on fun and gamified language learning experiences but changed their plan and strategies, seeing the growing demand among digital nomads.

“This key insight led us to shift our marketing and product development strategies, thereby opening up a whole new consumer segment for us.” Says Simon.

Here are some tips for effective review and refinement of your plan:

• Seek feedback from your team members, business mentors, and industry experts.
• Re-evaluate your financial projections to ensure you’re not under/over-estimating your financials.
• Consider what-if scenario analysis to plan for best and worst-case business scenarios.
• Ensure you’ve set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals.
• Using an AI business plan generator can streamline regular business plan updating and reviewing processes.

Note that these are the tips for a basic review of your plan. Moving forward, there will be a lot more to consider in the quarterly or annual reviews.

2. Register your business

Registering your business is the first step in laying a solid foundation. The process of registering a business may significantly vary depending on your country or region.

While some legal stuff and paperwork may change, the general process is almost the same. Here’s what it includes:

• Selecting a business structure
• Registering a business name
• Applying for tax registration and business EIN
• Obtaining required licenses and permits
• Opening a business bank account

Business registration is a thorough process that can fill an entire blog post. I tried my best to cover the basics.

3. Consider your funding options

Here comes the elephant in the room. Most entrepreneurs at this stage create business plans to raise funds.

While multiple funding options exist, not all would suit all business types. For instance, a Venture Capitalist couldn’t care less about investing in a coffee cart, whereas a wine bar may not be able to get government grants.

Let’s check out the most common funding options for startups and who they are best suited for:

• Bootstrapping—Invest your own savings or business revenue.
• Venture Capital—Professional organization that manages pooled funds from multiple investors to invest in startups.
• Angel Investors—Individual investors offering capital in exchange for equity or convertible debt.
• Crowdfunding—Raising money from a large number of people, typically through the Internet.
• Business grants—Funds provided by governments, institutions, or corporations. A grant is usually the money you don’t pay back.
• Bank loans—The Bank lends money that must be repaid with interest.

Some other funding options include term loans, business lines of credit, SBA loans, merchant cash advances, and others.

4. Develop a pitch (optional)

The word “optional” in the title means you won’t need a pitch deck unless you plan to raise capital through investors or VCs.

(skip this section if you don’t)

Consider a pitch deck as a brief and visually rich version of your plan. These concise and punchy presentations are designed to grab investors’ attention and get you a chair in the next meeting.

A pitch deck briefly explains your business to your investors, including details about your products or services, your business goals, and how you plan to achieve them.

With more AI tools coming up in this space, designing a pitch deck has become much easier than before. Consider using a tool like Upmetrics to simplify the process.

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5. Start networking

Networking is one of the most common yet misunderstood aspects of entrepreneurship. While some consider it purely transactional relationships, others only associate it with formal events..

Networking is simply establishing long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with people you meet professionally and personally.

You can attend industry events, workshops, seminars, and conferences or connect with other entrepreneurs and business professionals on social media.

This isn’t the only way—establishing and nurturing long-term relations with your employees, operational partners, suppliers, and lenders can also be considered networking.

Networking helps you stay connected with your industry peers and informed about changing industry dynamics. Many funding opportunities can arise from personal connections and introductions.

6. Identify potential investors & stakeholders

Your stakeholders are individuals, entities, or groups whose interests are associated with the success or failure of your company.

Since they directly or indirectly influence business operations, goals, and decision-making, their acceptance and support are critical for your business growth.

The key stakeholders in the startup ecosystem generally involve employees and team members, investors or financial institutions, customers and clients, vendors and supplies, business partners, and others.

While each stakeholder brings unique value to your startup, identifying potential investors should be your priority.

The networking part would help you get in the eyes of your investors. Next, it is up to you to pitch your idea, grab their attention, and get them on board.

7. Build a core team

Hiring the right employees and building a team of professionals whose goals are aligned with yours is essential for long-term business success.

While you may have filled some critical positions, identify areas that require the most help and search for the right people to fill those roles.

You cannot know everything; no one can. Hiring experienced individuals in positions where you lack expertise can also be a smart call. It will allow you to shift your focus and strength to other areas and trust team members with aspects they’ve been doing for a while.

8. Set up milestones and KPIs

Starting, operating, and succeeding in a business is a long journey, and things may sometimes get overwhelming. You have a business plan ready, but entrepreneurs need an actionable timeline with small goals and business milestones to make it work.

Some benefits of setting up milestones and KPIs might include:

• Milestones help break down long-term business goals into small, manageable steps, simplifying progress tracking.
• It helps keep the team aligned and focused on the core business objectives.
• Performance tracking helps evaluate and measure individual and team performances.
• The right approach to performance tracking can help with better resource allocation.

These are just a few of many benefits—a no-brainer, why it is a necessary step for entrepreneurs moving forward.

9. Refine your branding & marketing strategies

I know you have created a business plan with branding and marketing strategies. Yet, I suggest refining your marketing plan before you use it. 

Building an ideal buyer persona can help you better understand your customers’ preferences, pain points, and requirements. This information can then be utilized to tailor your products or services to their needs.

Not to mention—it helps you tailor your branding and marketing strategies and target the right marketing channel. 

For example, LinkedIn is suitable for targeting B2B clients, while Instagram is better for a D2C brand. That’s what a buyer persona can help you with.

10. Launch your product or service

By the time you reach this step, you will have everything in place to make your business available to your customers. Launching is your first step in entering business operations.

Although you have a detailed plan, it’s good to have a plan for your launch, like setting launch goals, creating a buzz, etc.

You may host giveaways or contests, offer early access to your product or service, or utilize influencer marketing to create buzz and increase curiosity about your offerings among users.

11. Monitor business performance & adjust your plan

Picture this: you are efficiently operating a profitable clothing business. However, market trends changed, and millennials (your target audience) started making such purchases online.

Your graphs started falling. Would you still go with the same business plan and marketing strategies?

No, right? That’s why regular monitoring of your business performance is essential. It helps you identify areas to work on and adjust your strategies for better outcomes.

Monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) is critical for assessing progress and making informed decisions. You can identify the KPIs relevant to your business and start tracking them to monitor your performance.

We are done with the steps here; let’s check out some common pitfalls entrepreneurs must avoid.

1. Over-optimized financial projections

It happens—when we prioritize a task, we put our hearts and souls into it—but end up overdoing it.

Over Optimizing financial projections can lead to unrealistic expectations, misallocation of resources, strategic missteps, funding issues, and an impact on your stakeholders’ trust.

2. Underestimating cash burn-rate

Although it is a part of financial projections, the number of entrepreneurs who avoid them makes it deserving of this special mention.

There could be multiple potential reasons for this pitfall. However, the most common ones include underestimating business expenses, lack of contingency planning, over hiring, and poor cash management.

3. Lack of contingency planning

Every entrepreneur must set aside contingency funds to cover unexpected costs. Lack of contingency planning can lead to operational disruptions, financial losses, legal and compliance risks, etc.

It can also impact your supply chain, increasing the risk of going out of business.

4. Scaling too quickly

Rapid scaling requires spending a lot of money. You may need to hire more employees, spend more on marketing, increase production, and stock up inventories.

While it sounds exciting, scaling too quickly can result in cash flow issues, infrastructural challenges, Quality control & compliance issues, and may jeopardize customer trust.

5. Ignoring user feedback

If you ask me, users are the ones who are genuinely interested in improving your product or service.

For instance, at Upmetrics, we constantly ask users for feedback, such as what feature they enjoyed using, where they think we need to improve, what part of the tool is hard to understand, and more.

So you can say that our users helped us with the present-day version of Upmetrics’ AI business plan generator.

Lesson: Never ignore user feedback.

You’re all set to start your business

Starting and growing a business from scratch is a different feeling. There will be so many ups and downs; you will face situations and problems you’ve never heard of before, but having the right plan and team by your side will get you through.

Since you already have a solid business plan and the next steps, it all boils down to how you executive it to achieve your goals.

The ideation, brainstorming, and strategizing have been done; now it’s time for you to prepare for some groundwork. Welcome to entrepreneurship—it won’t be easy, but you will love it.

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