On April 29, 2020, my team was selected for the 2020 Preliminary Start-up Package supported by the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development. There’s still a long way to go, but I think it’s a good idea to write down my current experiences from scratch.
How did I become a founding member? I quit my job in March to prepare for my master’s degree in Germany, and I was studying German while taking a course at KNOU (Korea National Open University). The offer came abruptly.
It wasn’t a bad proposal to take on as a side hustle (I thought I could do it as a side job at the time), and I decided to go ahead with the expectation that working as a founding member would allow me to gain a lot of new experiences. With the spirit of ‘JUST DO IT’.
■ Challenge! Preliminary Start-up Package
The Preliminary Start-up Package is one of the few programs for prospective founders who are not currently in business – that is, they are not registered. It is also true that the competition between teams before starting anything seems a little easier, as the resources are poured in to compete with teams that have already started.
Nevertheless, the recruitment industry is diverse and large in size. Around 1,100 people are selected, and up to 100 million won (51 million won on average) is a very attractive program. (If you are preparing to start a business, I recommend you check out the recruitment announcement (click) and apply for it!)
The documents are relatively brief; if you complete a 10-chapter or so business plan, you are all ready to go. In this article, I will share some tips you might want to consider when writing a business plan.
■ The Start of The Business Plan – General Status
The business plan for the preliminary start-up package begins with the general status.
1. Selecting a Host Organization / Considering the Location of the Business
Based on remote work, we were relatively free to locate the host organization and the business site. If you’re going to work in an office, you’ll probably choose the organizer depending on the location of the office, but consider that the competition rate will vary by region.
Additionally, there is a tax reduction for small and medium-sized businesses, depending on their location. If you haven’t yet decided on a business location, you might want to think about it (if you’re founded outside the metropolitan area, you’ll be eligible for a reduction in income tax or corporate tax for five years from the tax year in which your initial income occurred).
2. Business Name and Items
The name of the start-up item is easy to overlook, but it is very important. The names of our products and services should be envisioned at this stage. Brand naming is like the first impression of a product, so make it easy to remember while implying the meaning of your business. If you think about trademark application in the future… In our case, we didn’t search for a trademark yet because we made a new word by combining two words together.
■ Flower of business plan – start-up item summary
Certainly! Here’s the corrected version of your blog post:
On April 29, 2020, my team was selected for the 2020 Preliminary Start-up Package supported by the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development. There’s still a long way to go, but I think it’s a good idea to write down my current experiences from scratch, so let’s create a category called “Somehow, start-up”.
How did I become a founding member?
I quit my job in March to prepare for my master’s degree in Germany, and I was studying German while taking a course at KNOU (Korea National Open University). The offer came abruptly.
The founder who found the best colleague… from One Piece, a Japanese animation
It wasn’t a bad proposal to take on as a side hustle (I thought I could do it as a side job at the time), and I decided to go ahead with the expectation that working as a founding member would allow me to gain a lot of new experiences. With the spirit of ‘JUST DO IT’.
Challenge! Preliminary Start-up Package
The Preliminary Start-up Package is one of the few programs for prospective founders who are not currently in business – that is, they are not registered. It is also true that the competition between teams before starting anything seems a little easier, as the resources are poured in to compete with teams that have already started.
Nevertheless, the recruitment industry is diverse and large in size. Around 1,100 people are selected, and up to 100 million won (51 million won on average) is a very attractive program. (If you are preparing to start a business, I recommend you check out the recruitment announcement and apply for it!)
The documents are relatively brief; if you complete a 10-chapter or so business plan, you are all ready to go. In this article, I will share some tips you might want to consider when writing a business plan.
The Start of The Business Plan – General Status
The business plan for the preliminary start-up package begins with the general status.
1. Selecting a Host Organization / Considering the Location of the Business
Based on remote work, we were relatively free to locate the host organization and the business site. If you’re going to work in an office, you’ll probably choose the organizer depending on the location of the office, but consider that the competition rate will vary by region.
Additionally, there is a tax reduction for small and medium-sized businesses, depending on their location. If you haven’t yet decided on a business location, you might want to think about it (if you’re founded outside the metropolitan area, you’ll be eligible for a reduction in income tax or corporate tax for five years from the tax year in which your initial income occurred).
2. Business Name and Items
The name of the start-up item is easy to overlook, but it is very important. The names of our products and services should be envisioned at this stage. Brand naming is like the first impression of a product, so make it easy to remember while implying the meaning of your business. If you think about trademark application in the future… In our case, we didn’t search for a trademark yet because we made a new word by combining two words together.
Flower of Business Plan – Start-up Item Summary
It’s time to introduce start-up items. Let’s be prepared to explain everything on this summary page. There is an opportunity to give details later on, but will there be physical and psychological time for judges to scrutinize so many business plans? Just like writing a letter of self-introduction, we should revise it and make a “self-introduction” of our business.
1. Write a subheading / within 3 pages / Insert the image properly
A good-looking presentation is also good to read. If you want people to read your business plan, you need to make it easy to read. Use subheadings and do not write too long.
2. Introduction – Why/What/How, Give Your Answer
Why – Let’s explain why this project is important. The market is getting bigger and bigger, or the general importance of this field should be highlighted at the beginning. If you write in a very professional manner right away, the reader may not understand what it is. Therefore, we need to start at a point where everyone can understand it and specifically point out the importance of the business.
What – Write what your business wants to do in this important field. Picture the current market’s problem. The pain point must be clearly shown at this step. The essence of a startup should not be a vitamin (better to have) but a pain killer (must-have item to alleviate pain).
How – Provide a brief explanation of how to solve existing problems. Summarize the main characteristics and strengths of the service.
3. Differentiation of Start-up Items – Competitor Analysis and Customer Benefits
Analysis of the current market is needed. If there is no certain data on who the competitors are and their market share, then you need to take a logical approach and estimate the market yourself. For example, we estimated the software market in the lab by looking up published papers from the last five years on Google Scholar.
We focused on the benefits that our future customers will get compared to the competitors. Instead of ending with ‘There is such a function,’ try further like ‘These functions allow customers to do research faster/more accurately.’ Let’s continue to address the pain points.
4. Size of Target Markets – Scalability, Prospects, and Market Approach
Let’s estimate the size of the market with TAM-SAM-SOM analysis. In addition, the expected sales figures for achieving a share of X% along with the pricing policy were written. If I went back and revised the business plan, I would like to put a graph of the market in this part.
In addition, define who the primary target of the service is. We simply tabled their demographics, the purchasing process, their needs, the current problems they were facing, and how to approach them.
The next step is marketing. We wrote about which channels to use for promotion. If there is a clear definition of the target segment, it will be relatively easy to find and promote to the customers.
5. Image
Simply image the expected appearance of the service so the judges can imagine what it looks like on the web/app. We also added a second image to compare before and after using our feature.
■ Problem Awareness – Motivation for Start-ups and the Need for Start-Up Items
This part was relatively easier to write than the outline part because there were no restrictions on the volume (within 5 pages is good). The motivation for the development of the start-up items was divided into technical and social/economic issues.
Technical problems include the lack of such programs, describing in detail how researchers are currently doing their research manually, and pointing out in socio-economic issues, the high cost of commercial programs specialized for the study, which is approximately KRW 100 million. It is difficult to use such a program in a lab with limited capital, like a small lab, which results in a difference in research results and speed.
Finally, we wrote about how we would solve these problems with our start-up items. We concluded this part by suggesting solutions to the technical and social/economic problems we had written about earlier.
■ Feasibility – BM/Business Strategy and Scalibility Analysis
In the feasibility section, we tabled the current service development situation, describing which algorithms have been developed and writing about the future direction of the project.
The business strategy is something that I am still working on. We decided to use a subscription economic model and wrote a price plan.
The scalability analysis explains how the TAM-SAM-SOM was estimated in the summary page, and we inserted a table comparing the players in the current market, comparing aspects like prices, key features, convenience, awareness, and market share. We also inserted one SWOT analysis, the simplest framework (personally I think SWOT analysis is meaningless).
■ Growth Strategy – Budget and Prospects
We stipulated the budget to promote the current project. I wrote it down according to the amount I applied for, but when I looked at the presentation materials later, there were a lot of ridiculous items…
In fact, labor costs are the most expensive, but when it is written, it is held in the name of development/investment (after passing, the item itself is not significant, and all it needs to do is to show a plan to spend roughly the amount requested). I’ll talk about it again later, but I didn’t realize that labor costs were so significant… This is one of the few moments when I experienced the difference between the employer’s and the employee’s perspectives.
The market entry and performance creation strategy outlined the channels and direction for conducting marketing. This is also a point of constant concern for me. Our target is bio-experimental researchers, so where should we access them most efficiently… It’s a very tight budget, so we’ll need to find the most effective way quickly!
■ Teaming up
This section describes the history of the representative and team members. In addition to the team’s simple history, we emphasized aspects like “startup career”, “knowledge related to XX” and “writing papers on XX” to show that our experiences are aligned with our business goals.
We also wrote about our plans to hire additional personnel (even if not immediate). This is because it’s important to show that we have long-term planning and the right mindset for doing business.
We also filled in plans for cooperation agencies, although we did not have an “agreement” at the time. We are now working with the agency after we passed this program.
■ Other references – make sure you have any points to get
We need a mindset to fill everything that can be included in a business plan. In our case, we could earn extra points for ‘team-building’. It seems to be the easiest item to fill, so don’t miss it. However, if a person who is hired as a team member has a history of benefiting from the previous year’s project, they may not be able to be hired as an employee, and family members may be included as team members, but there may be restrictions on paying wages, so check the rules carefully.
To Sum It Up…
It seems important to focus on the outline in the business plan and to visualize with images, tables, and graphs appropriately. Honestly, there were some things we didn’t think about at all, but the document asks us to prepare. So we talked a lot while writing this document.
Because there are parts where we need to persuade others – and I believe this document exists for that purpose. Don’t think of it as a formality, but as a step of checking and preparing for the project in advance, it’s not that difficult to pass the document stage! Good luck to all prospective entrepreneurs. 🙂
What is the primary purpose of your business plan? Is it to secure funding, attract investors, or direct the company’s internal strategy? Regard Telkom University
Hi, the primary purpose of our business plan is to secure funding from government projects, specifically through the Preliminary Start-up Package supported by the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development. This plan is crafted to align with the requirements and objectives of such funding programs, demonstrating the feasibility and potential impact of our startup.
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