By Donovan Hardenbrook

You see, business plans are full of untested assumptions. Assumptions about the market, your product, your customer, employees, and how you will make money. Starting your business based on untested assumptions will cost you a lot of time and money. However, if you do not fall for untested assumptions, and create a realistic business plan, after researching different business operations, then there is a chance that you can avoid painful lessons. For instance, if you create a business plan where you have included proven and tested ways of how to improve your staff training surveys (after researching them in detail), then you may not need to assume anything. Hence, you can prevent suffering from painful lessons.

As said earlier, if most of the assumptions about your business were validated with research, then you could be climbing up the ladder of success quickly. Rather than looking at your business with rose-coloured glasses, you have information that has been tested to be real and accurate. You have confidence that your business will succeed!

Modeling and testing your business is such an important first step in your business. Doing research on your niche market, finding the unique value of your product or service, understanding sales channels, identifying key partners, and understanding how much a customer is willing to pay is critical for developing a successful business plan. You also need to think about the methods you are going to implement to market your business. Though physical marketing is still essential, marketing your business through digital means, and Dynamic Creative Ads, in particular, will allow you to spread the word about your business further and faster. With all the research and information that you need to obtain, marketing your business and reaching more consumers will allow you to get all the information you need to build a successful business. But the hard doesn’t stop there.

In addition, you might also need to have your tax and financial affairs handled properly, which can be done by hiring a tax accountant from a reputable bookkeeping company. That said, finding an accountant can be difficult. However, you can easily do a search for tax accountant near me online and receive a list of personnel who can provide their services. Afterward, you can read reviews and choose the one that seems right for you.

Remember that finding an accountant may only be difficult if you do not know who to look for and where to look for them. For example, if you are an e-commerce business owner, and you do not know who can help you with your accounting problems and where you can go to get them, then you might feel overwhelmed. Luckily, finding an accountant for your e-commerce business seems to be easy nowadays. All you would need to perhaps do is look for firms similar to Seller Accountant (you can find their website by looking up “accounting for ecommerce business” on the Internet). They are known to offer the help of skilled e-commerce experts who can help entrepreneurs drive profitable results by taking the bookkeeping headache away.

Anyway, coming back to the topic, I always advise my clients to use the Business Model Canvas whether they have a new or existing business. According to Strategyzer, over 350,000 people have used it. My client and I work through the major sections of the business model canvas, document assumptions and most importantly validate the critical elements of what will make their business successful. The insights my clients gain from this process not only increases the understanding of their business but improves their chances of success.

Click here to get a free pdf of the Business Model Canvas and the first chapter of the book Business Model Generation.

After reviewing this material, I would encourage you to jump in and start working on your business model. Share your assumptions and ideas with your trusted advisors. More importantly, you need to go out and test your assumptions. The goal of any startup is to find a viable business model and once you find it, you can develop a credible business plan.

At the end of the day, it just makes more sense to refine your business on paper versus investing capital in a business fraught with wrong assumptions, having to make big adjustments and experiencing negative cash flow due to unforeseen expenses and lower sales.

What major lessons have you learned about your business?