The last group in the ASP Lancement d'une entreprise that we teach at the CFP Calixa-Lavallée finishes this month. We began teaching the program in April 2021, so this marks four years. It is a good time to take stock, before the next project begins.
The program runs for 12 weeks and is designed for people starting a business. It is fully online and free for students, with two days a week of virtual class and three days of coaching. We taught the entire program, from start to finish, and coached every student on their own project. Over the four years, we taught three versions of it, each with its own group: new Quebec residents starting a business here, people building e-commerce and remote online businesses, and people launching health care businesses. The projects were very different, but the points where participants got stuck were largely the same.
This article sets out what we would keep: not the curriculum itself, but the handful of practices that consistently helped participants move from "I have an idea" to "I have a plan I can explain."
What matters most in a first business plan?
Clarity matters more than ambition. Most first business plans are too broad. An entrepreneur wants to open a café, and also a catering service, perhaps sell sauces online, and eventually franchise, all in the first draft.
The reason is understandable: ambition feels like proof of commitment. However, a plan that tries to do five things cannot be tested, cannot be costed and cannot be pitched in under ten minutes. Readers do not know what they are actually being asked to believe.
What worked better, consistently, was reducing the idea to a single sentence: who buys, what they buy, and why they buy from you. If that sentence is unclear, the other forty pages will be unclear as well.
The Business Model Canvas proved very helpful here, more than we expected at the outset. It consists of nine boxes on one page: customer segments, value proposition, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partners and cost structure. Its value lies in its size. A vague idea cannot be hidden in a box that small. It can also be redone in twenty minutes when something changes, which is not the case for a full business plan.
The sequence we recommend for someone starting out:
- One sentence.
- One canvas.
- Then the written business plan, built from the canvas, not the reverse.
How can new entrepreneurs approach the financial section?
By starting early, with rough figures. The financial section is the most common obstacle we observed: break-even, cash flow, startup costs. Many new entrepreneurs write ten pages of marketing ideas and leave the numbers for "later."
Postponing the numbers weakens the plan.
Our observation is that the apprehension comes mostly from the blank spreadsheet. Once someone has written down their rent, their equipment, the cost of a single sale and the price they charge for it, the anxiety decreases. The task becomes arithmetic. That arithmetic can be uncomfortable, because the first version almost never works, but it remains arithmetic.
We therefore encourage entrepreneurs to write rough numbers early, even imperfect ones. An incorrect estimate that can be corrected is worth more than a perfect one that is never written. The moment the numbers do not work is the most useful moment in the entire process, because that is when the plan becomes realistic.
Can anyone learn to pitch a business?
Yes. Many people assume that pitching is a personality trait, that some people are "natural salespeople" and others should stay behind the counter.
Our experience shows otherwise. An elevator pitch is a structure, and structures can be learned: who you help, the problem they have, what you do about it, why you are the right person, and what you want from the listener. It takes thirty seconds, perhaps forty-five.
A reserved person with a clear structure can be more convincing than an outgoing person without one. No performance is required, only a clear statement. That is what a banker or a local economic development officer wants to hear. They have seen a great deal of enthusiasm, and not enough clarity.
A pitch deck applies the same principle at greater length: ten or twelve slides, one idea per slide, with numbers where they belong. If the pitch cannot be delivered aloud without the slides, the slides will not compensate for it.
Why document a business from the first day?
This practice is less visible, but essential. We recommend recording your suppliers, your prices and when they changed, how recurring tasks are carried out, your passwords in a secure location, and your domain name along with whom it is registered to.
New entrepreneurs often skip this step because they are the only person in the business and everything is in their head. That works until they become ill, hire someone, try to sell, or apply for funding and need three years of records. Documentation seems unimportant until it becomes the only thing that matters.
What resources are available to small startups in Quebec?
People starting out are often unaware of how much support exists. Some of it is free, and some of it is financing.
- Futurpreneur Canada serves entrepreneurs aged 18 to 39. Since last September, the loan, with BDC as co-lender, goes up to $75,000, and businesses up to two years old can apply. It includes a mentor, a benefit that is often underestimated.
- Your regional SADC or CAE, depending on your location. They know the local programs better than anyone.
- Services Québec's self-employment support program (Soutien au travail autonome), for those who qualify.
- Your MRC's economic development office. Small regions often offer more direct access to the right people than cities do.
Each of these organizations will ask for a plan, which leads back to the starting point: the clearer the plan, the shorter the conversation, and the better the chances of success.
Which elements of a standard business course can be set aside?
Not every element of a standard business course earns its place. Long, detailed templates are the first we would reduce. A forty-section business plan outline appears thorough but tends to stall participants. We would limit it to what a lender actually reads.
We would also devote less time to theory and more time to having participants present their idea aloud. When someone explains their business to another person, the idea becomes more precise. A written page raises no objections; a listener asks questions.
Over these four years, the most valuable moment remained the same: when a participant's unstructured idea becomes one sentence they can state without looking at their notes.