Plan Before You Startup
Bryan Janeczko, Founder, Wicked Start, @wickedstart
As a corporate refugee-turned-entrepreneur, I know firsthand the excitement and fear of leaving a job - whether voluntarily or not - to start a business.
Flashback to 2003: I wanted to make the leap from a great idea, which I initially wrote on the proverbial cocktail napkin, to "give me the money and let's go!"
My idea was NuKitchen, the online diet service that would help New Yorkers eat better and lose weight using an online platform that I developed. I spent months writing the perfect plan, complete with pretty graphs of competitive analyses, a $1 billion market opportunity, and all sorts of descriptive offerings for my business. How hard could it be to access the necessary capital to make my dream a reality? After all, my business was going to change the world and help make people healthier. I was educated and even worked on Wall Street, so I must have known what I was doing. The money should have been pouring in, right?
Not so fast. Despite my arrogance that my idea was good enough to get funding (which it wasn't), I didn't have any practical experience or a prototype. It took nearly two years to get the experience, find the right partners, and finally acquire the money to launch NuKitchen.
My story is about planning - and I'm not talking about just a business plan, because anyone with half a brain can write one. I'm talking about the serious planning needed to launch a business that is focused on a niche market about which you are absolutely nuts. You need the team, energy, funding, and other resources to make it happen. If you don't, you'll fail - it's that simple.
After building NuKitchen from the ground up, I sold it to a national weight loss company. Since then, I've been advising and helping incubate startups across the country. I founded Wicked Start to share my experiences with other entrepreneurs hoping to start the business of their dreams.
Wicked Start is your free 'virtual' startup incubator - to turn your idea into a new business. We help you achieve success by providing you with a customized startup roadmap, online access to advisors, and priority access to funding platforms to launch your new venture. Starting a business isn't easy, but I'm here to make it as manageable as possible. Become a 'Wicked Starter' today!
Join Wicked Start and thousands of growing American startups today at the Startup America Partnership. Get your free membership here:
