The Startup Checklist: 25 Steps to a Scalable, High-Growth Business

Number of potential purchasers × Percentage of capturable market share × Absolute dollar amount of each sale × Percentage margin of net profit = Total potential profit

There are three characteristics that together make a startup business model truly scalable: You have to be able to start small. Unless you happen to be the long-lost daughter of Emperor Palpatine, the odds are that you do not have enough capital to build your first Death Star, nor will you be able to raise the funds to do so.† The ideal startup is

One of the best “agreements to agree” for cofounders that I've seen is the Founder Accord from McCormick & O'Brien, which is included, with their permission, in Appendix F. It is intended to provide entrepreneurs with the comfort they need to take risks, while sparing them the effort and expense required to complete a customary corporate format

Channels. How the business reaches its customers and delivers value to them—for example, through direct online sales, retail distribution channels, value-added resellers, company-owned storefronts, or affiliate programs.

Key partnerships. Outside organizations, such as suppliers and partners, that help the business model work.

Key resources. The assets required to create and deliver the value propositions to customers—for example, physical assets such as buildings and machinery, and human assets such as employees with particular skill sets.

You can submit your site's URL manually,* but you may find it easier to make use of one of the multisearch engine submission sites, such as selfpromotion.com. This platform gives you the opportunity to create the exact descriptions, keywords, and metadata by which you would like your site to be searchable.

One unusual offering comes from eDataSource.com, which specializes in tracking competitors' e-mail marketing campaigns. The company regularly tracks 24 million daily e-mail campaigns from 50,000 brands and can provide fascinating intelligence about things your competitors are doing in your customers' e-mail inboxes.

Customer segments. The specific, different groups of customers the business serves—that is, the identified customers for whom it will create value.