So is a business case just about money or not? There are differing views:

“Business, that’s easily defined, it’s other people’s money.”  Peter Drucker

Disneyland is a work of love.  We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.”  Walt Disney

There is something of a paradox at work here.  If people are fulfilled in their jobs then they would say that they are not working just for the money. But equally, a business will go under unless it can turn a profit.

The bottom line is cash

Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, and Alan Sugar are men who have made a lot of money. They all know the importance of being profitable. But, even after they made enough money to retire comfortably, they worked on; why? It is obvious that these men (who all know the importance of a good business case) have another drive. There is a greater vision and mission. These go beyond just cash flow and profit.

A business case has to look at the bottom line, the money. But in general, it is primarily a formal way of expressing the vision, values and mission of an organisation.  Developing a business case can seem like a daunting process at times. Particularly so, as there are so many different templates and examples available. But the core of the business case is very simple; it is just answering some basic questions, questions that are covered in ‘The Right Questions’ framework.

At some point for a business plan, you will have to prove the figures. This means examining the detail of profit and cash flow. But for now, we are just going to concentrate on the top-level questions. These are the strategic framing of the business; seeing where what we are passionate about intersects with an opportunity to create revenue.  In this way, we can help identify our vocation.

What makes you and your product or service different?

A business case is generally focused on the need to make money; if a business proposition doesn’t demonstrate the ability to make money it has to be adapted or discarded. But, the ability to make money is driven by the fact that something you do or make should be attractive enough to make someone buy that service or product.  You need to stand out, make yourself different from the competition, to give you that competitive advantage. This is your unique selling proposition (USP).

Working out what makes us different is not always obvious.  Not many of us launch a completely new idea or industry.  In fact, it is a fallacy that you need a completely new concept to be an entrepreneur or successful business person.  It may not be a completely new idea or product but you certainly need to do something different in order to stand out.

For example, you might offer better customer service or better value for money than the competition. Or you may pursue a particular under-exploited section of an existing market. If you are just starting up you need to make the offering attractive enough for people to buy your product or service, rather than those of the competition. You also need to overcome the buyer’s concern that purchasing from a new business might be risky. But, if you solve the customers’ problems sufficiently, they should need and want what you sell. That is the best incentive for getting people to buy anything.

Finding your USP

We find that it is primarily our character and abilities that make us stand out from other businesses.  Therefore to identify what makes us different we can start by looking at ourselves and look at where our values, our skills and a need in a market all intersect.  From this, we can see what makes us unique.

After that we can look at the broader marketing narrative and answer the sort of questions we find more commonly in a business case.  By going through this process we get a good overview of why the business exists, what it is going to do and indicate how it is going to make money.

Therefore as we continue to ask ‘The Right Questions’ you will find that you will naturally find the answers you need to build a business case. If you want to go through the process of writing a business case then read How to Write a Business Case:

Whether you are starting a new business, or looking for ways of developing an existing business, you will need to create and evaluate ideas for products and services that you might want to sell. For some people the challenge is coming up with the ideas, for others (and this is often the case with entrepreneurs) the problem can be knowing how to capture, sift and prioritise the many ideas. This post will outline a simple process to help you identify and work through your ideas from the moment of inspiration to the point of launching the business. Whether they are for a home based business, a small business or a new business case within a larger existing company the process is very similar and you can follow the same steps.

When is the best time to consider new ideas?

A business person should always be on the look out for inspiration and new business ideas but all ideas have to have some sort of context. They have to be checked against the big concepts, such as your values and direction, and good ideas will have to be tested by some sort of planning process.

The concept of looking at options comes up in the ‘which’ of The Right Questions approach. It is a pivotal question because once you have your situational analysis, having collected facts and considered big questions, then looking at options creates the transition to more detailed planning, as demonstrated in the diagram below.

Step 1: Generate new business ideas

We all come up with good ideas but we don’t all remember or action them. Therefore I recommend that you keep some sort of list. This can be a list on your phone, a document on your computer, lots of post-it notes on a wall or a note in a pad – whatever works for you. What matters is that you keep ideas so they can be assessed at some later date. Beware; when you start thinking of ideas and recording them you will find that the flow of ideas is likely to increase!

As well as any ideas you already have you may want to generate a bunch of new ideas. Set aside some time – it can be as little as five minutes –  when you are not going to be distracted and then use the time to brainstorm as many ideas as you can. You will probably find it easier to create ideas if you think about a specific area of business or sector. For example brainstorming ideas specifically for a courier service or thinking about products thing you could create with a 3D printer is easier than just trying to come up with random unrelated business ideas. Make sure you capture your ideas as you go.

You may want to approach the brainstorming session with some other people in a workshop; this could be an existing team of colleagues or just a group of friends. Sometimes having people not related to the industry is helpful as they can think beyond the normal confines of the sector.

Lateral thinking techniques may also be useful in generating a larger and more varied list of ideas that you can capture. Using random words or pictures can help inspire new approaches to business ideas. You can find out more about creating new ideas here: options and lateral thinking.

Step 2: Sift and prioritise the business Ideas

For each idea you brainstorm a list of pros and cons (this should only take a minute or two for each option). This will help you take a more quantative approach to assessing your ideas and help you to prioritise them.

Step 3: Identify your top three business ideas

Decide on your top three ideas based upon these pros and cons. Don’t discard the others but put them aside for the time being.

Step 4: Write a short business case for each option

Create one-page business cases for each of the top three ideas. Try and address the following categories and questions:

1. Where? (Situation and Vision): What present situation and the problem that needs to be solved? What is the opportunity?
2. What? (Mission): What is the solution? What are the key elements? What would success look like?
3. Why? (Values and Priorities): What is the value proposition? Why is this idea unique? What is the USP? What are the benefits (financial and non-financial)?
4. Who? (Competition and Market): Who is the competition and what will differentiate you from your competitors? Who are the target customers? How big is the market?
5. How? (Planning, Strategy and Resources): What are the channels to market? What is the outline plan? What are the constraints you know about and the assumptions you have made? What are the next steps to launch the plan? What is the financial potential? What is the revenue model? What resources are necessary? What are the non-financial costs?
6. When? (Time): What are the outline timings and milestones? When would be the optimum time to launch?
7. Which? (Risk and Options): What are the risks? Is the idea feasible? If not what needs to change to make it possible? How do we test this concept? How will you validate the idea and improve on the concept in the short term?

Step 5: Test these business cases

Now take your three one-page business cases to someone you trust and try to sell your idea to them. Choose someone who will give you constructive criticism and use the resulting discussion to test and refine your options.

Step 6: Market test your idea

Before you do for a full launch of your new product or service do a small validation exercise to market test your business case. You should have identified some ideas for this in your one pager so you can put them into practise before writing a detailed business plan. This test might be as simple as stopping ten people in the street and asking them to buy something, or it could be putting up an advert on Google around relevant key words, or trialling a service for a limited period. Whatever approaches you choose, be certain that you test your assumptions about the size and appetite of the market. If people do not want to buy what you are offering then it is probably time to look at another option.

Step 7: Develop a business plan and then go for it

Take the best of the ideas and develop the business case into a more detailed plan. This does not need to be a huge document but it needs to have enough detail for you to turn your business case into action. If you want some hints on how to get going you can read this post on project planning.

You will now have created a business case, tested the market and created a plan. You are ready to launch!