If your thoughts have crystallized into an idea for a business, you’ll need a sound business plan with a well thought out business model.

Entrepreneurs face huge challenges: signs of a saturated market, changing consumer behaviour, digitalisation and the time factor are just a few of the keywords here. It is crucial to recognise these changes in good time and respond with suitable measures. That’s why both startups and established companies plan responsibly for the future with a simple but sound business plan containing the following:

Management summary

Summarise your ideas briefly and concisely. Content: business idea, vision, services, customer benefits, protection, legal form, achievements, milestones, key financials, proposals and reasoning.

Analysis

Peer analysis: information about the most important competitors. SWOT analysis: strengths and weaknesses of your company, opportunities and threats in your market, and what you’ve learned.

Strategy

Description of strategic competitive advantages and differentiation from competitors. Priorities relating to your most important target customers, market partners, offers, target markets and financial targets (sales forecast).

Measures

Decide which measures you want to employ for which market partners and target groups, as well as marketing, sales, infrastructure and personnel resources, and plan how much to spend on this (expenditure forecast).

Financial forecasts

Focus on the company’s future earnings and capital requirements. Financial forecasts cover balance sheet, income statement, cashflow, liquidity planning, key figures and company valuation.

Your support:

Your choice of appropriate legal form for incorporating your company must be well thought out.

Founders usually choose a limited liability company (LLC), sole proprietorship, public limited company (Ltd.) or a general partnership (general). When deciding which legal form best suits the planned business activity, you need to factor in various criteria, such as seed capital, tax, risks, independence and social security.

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Many people dream of owning their own company, being their own boss, and being independent and free to make their own money. While a few find the courage to turn this dream into reality, it remains a flight of fancy for many. Incorporation is an important milestone in developing a startup.

Switzerland, as a leading innovation location, provides the perfect breeding ground for creating successful independent businesses. Every year, over 40,000 startups are entered in the Swiss commercial register. Interestingly, almost everyone who dared to become self-employed would do it again, although there are a number of hurdles to overcome when starting a company. Going into business is often a form of self-realization – from dream to reality. It’s crucial that you are sure you want to take this step. And that you have enough energy, staying power and passion.

Make sure you get the right advice and support when setting up your new company. That’s exactly what the experienced team of IFJ provides, in collaboration with lawyers and notaries. We’ll help you choose a company name that is available and best suits your business, define an appropriate purpose and set the rules governing the relationship between the founders, and we’ll ensure that all the incorporation data is correct. We’ll also sort out capital contributions for founders of Limited liability companies (LLC) and Limited (Ltd.). IFJ will personally help you with advice and support throughout the incorporation process.

Your support:

You’ll now need a functioning team, the right location and the best infrastructure.

This includes marketing, communication, accounting and insurance. After you’ve formed your company with the help of the IFJ incorporation service and we’ve entered your startup in the commercial register, your registration for value added tax (VAT) and social insurance needs to be checked and filed. We’ll help you do that, too. It’s also important to monitor the finances strictly and have a good growth plan, especially with regard to hiring.

If need be, sort out finance and protection of intellectual property (brands, patents, design, copyright) or arrange the necessary licenses.

Your support:

When does the startup phase end? When are self-employed people on safe ground? No company will ever think itself absolutely safe. All founders must commit to shaping the future of their company with vision, entrepreneurial skill, sales flair and above-average commitment. The first three to five years are difficult. Founders who want to carve out and establish a good position in the market have to turn their customers into fans.

Customers must become fans

A strategic principle of success is ‘stick to what you know’. Specialist knowledge is an absolute must. You can acquire business knowledge. A business plan can be a real help here. Many startup founders grow into their duties. As a startup founder, you need to be passionate about your idea. Only then will you be strong enough to see it through the startup phase, pick yourself up again after setbacks and keep going. Apart from staying power and passion, you also need openness and clear communication. And if you also have a strong customer orientation and focus on the specific needs of your customers, there’s not much else that can go wrong. Founders who keep evolving their business on the basis of a clearly focused strategy, and who maintain a grip on finances, are guaranteed success.

IFJ Institut für Jungunternehmen trains 3,500 founders every year, and welcomes 6,500 people to its lectures throughout Switzerland.

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