New Series: The Pre Launch

By June Ramli

Writing A Killer Business Plan

Thank you for reading DailyStraits.com thus far. We appreciate every single click that you have given us.

So, today we would like to introduce you to our new series simply called “The Pre-Launch”.

It’s a series where entrepreneurs can talk about their products anonymously and the challenges they face in getting the product up and running.

You don’t have to reveal the product’s name, we are okay if you just want to talk about it without naming the product because we value your intellectual property about the product details.

But should you feel comfortable unveiling the product, we are more than happy to accommodate.

We understand the hardship and the work that goes into creating something new as we ourselves are a new venture.

The reason behind the series is simple, it is a way to give entrepreneurs a place to let some steam off or have a good old fashion rant with the dear readers of DailyStraits.com.

While for the readers you get to learn the innings about starting a product or service-based business from scratch.

So, I will get the ball rolling, I have started dabbling in creating a couple of products but for this series, I’ll go with the one that I believe has the most potential in seeing commercialisation.

I am going anonymous with this one and decided to call it “Product XYZ.”

It is a great product and has a lot of potentials to go big with the right marketing of course but being an entrepreneur before, I know that that’s not enough to determine the success of the product.

Many things must come to play before you start a product and much more before it can become formidable.

First and foremost, an iron-clad business plan that spells out every minuet detail in your business, like where you want to be in a year or two needs to be laid out.

Next, the brand name, the logo, the label (if you need one) and finally producing your first sample itself.

Producing one’s first sample is both exciting and tiresome at the same time. There are times you are not sure if the product you are producing is any good and would be purchased by the masses.

So far, I’ve done everything above except the business plan. Don’t get me wrong, I have written business plans before for my previous start-ups but I never really found them useful. The only time I wrote a business plan was because I wanted to get a business loan with PUNB, a Malaysian government agency that helps entrepreneurs like me with seed money.

But after producing the business plan, I find that I never really relied on it.

But this time, I want this changed. I want to write out an iron-clad business plan that would help me carve out a kick-ass business and see if I can ace an investor with it.

As Michael Pillon, the founder of Famous Co said in one of our podcast series, a lot of businesses fail in the first 18 months because most start-ups fail to plan.

Just like this famous quote by Benjamin Franklin goes, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”

Okay, so next week, tune in again and I will reveal to you all my tips in writing a business plan from start to finish.

For those of you who would like to be apart of the series, just send your article to editor@dailystraits.com along with a headshot and we will do the rest.

You can focus on any sort of struggles that you face in your journey as a start-up entrepreneur.

And with that folks, Fazleena and I are happy to formally launch our latest series called “The Pre-Launch.”