Creating a Business

Lily Llewellyn
May 26
4 min read

Creating a Business

I struggle to say that a business is created, in the past tense, because creating a business never ends. Creating the business is constantly done. It’s a doing process. There are many ways a creative process can happen, though I argue there is one way in which the process of creating a business occurs.

But first, let me talk about a common misconception about the business of creating a business.

A linear process is a way of starting and finishing one stage of the process before moving onto the next stage. The entire process starts and ends. A house is built in a linear process, because the blueprint must be finalised before the foundations can be built and the foundations must be complete for the walls and roof to be laid. Should an issue with the blueprint be discovered after the structure is built, the entire house is at risk. Each part of the house-building process must be right and ready before the next part of the process can be built. This is a linear process.

In business, however, a linear creating process is flawed. A business is never complete: clients’ pain-points will change, the value created will change and ways to market will change. This means the parts of a business will always be changed and adapted, never complete. As a result, each part of the business must be redeveloped, reworked and retested. Redeveloping one stage of the business may or may not mean other parts of the business must change too (although it’s most likely that other parts will change too).

Business is not created (done and dusted) in a linear process. Instead, the process of creating a business is iterative.

Iterative Creating

An iterative process is one in which a part of the process is reworked based on new information brought to light in the next stages. Let’s say that after a business owner creates something of value, they begin to market the service or product. While marketing, the business owner discovers that the way in which they marketed was very effective – lots of people discovered the business and took an initial interest – however, clients highlighted a fault in the service which means the service or product needs to be redeveloped. This is no problem whatsoever, in fact, it’s great news! The business owner has learnt a lot and is able to create better value. The business owner must improve their value and market it again. The process will start again and be polished to be even better.

The successful business owner must create and test their ideas throughout all parts of a business in order to know what works well and what doesn’t. Based on what they’ve learnt, they will rework other parts of the business in a process that doesn’t end. The business is always changing, always develops and creating never ends.

But people often ask - if the process of creating a business is iterative, where to start?

It’s a good question, because you have to start somewhere. Just remember, you’ll revisit your starting place many times. You’ll return to each part of the business many, many times.

For businesses that are already established, the ways to improve will look very different to other businesses, because each business will have unique strengths, weakness and areas in need of development. Where to start improving an already established business would need a one-to-one conversation.

However, if the business owner who is starting a new business venture, I would recommend starting here…

• Finance

Start with finance. What money is needed and what money is on-hand?

• Mission and Culture

Along with who is involved in the business and what skills and passions these people have; next I would consider the business mission. What does the business want to achieve? What is the main purpose of the business? Along with the mission, the culture of the business must be considered, because without a strong, aligned culture, the mission won’t succeed.

• Value Creation and research (and finance)

Value creation is the process of building a service or product that is valuable to others. The service or product must provide relief to the client’s pain-point. It is the way in which the business mission is completed – the “what” to the mission’s “why”. Value creation must be done hand in hand with research, and money and finance can’t be ignored in this stage either. Is the idea able to provide an income for the business owner and stakeholders?

• Value Delivery (and finance)

After value creation, it’s important to consider how this value will be delivered to clients. Any problems with delivering the idea may require the idea to be reiterated. As always, the cost of delivering the service or product to the client must be calculated too.

• Marketing (and finance)

When a valuable service or product has been created, the business owner must market it. As with other previous stages, any insights learnt in the marketing stage of the business will impact the value delivery, creation and possibly the business mission and culture too. Also, the marketing efforts may also impact on sales and finance must be factored in too.

• Sales (and finance)

The sales process is a part of the business like any other and cannot be neglected. Should the service or product not be selling, all other parts of the business may be called into question and may need redeveloping. Sales is closely tied in the finance, because the business’ finance will inform how much the service or product is sold for and set a targets for how many need to be sold.

• Finance

Lastly, come back to finance. Money is at the heart of business, and finance is closely involved with each part and each stage of creating a business. The business will not be able to operate without money so the cost of running each part of the business is always evaluated. Perhaps, if there is a start and end of business, it’s finance.

A business is not created and finished. The business owner is always creating, and each step is always being redone, redeveloped and reiterative. The “creating” process is iterative.