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Small Start-up Business Project Management

Eric Tse
Abstract
This article introduces how business starters can use project management to start up
their small businesses. First we identify the minimal set of tools that is good enough
for small business starters to use. Then we map project management tools to our
business start-up process to identify opportunities we can exploit project management.
Finally we can create or borrow tools that adhere to the process mapping. There are
lots of work can be done in the future for this program, including educating the public
basic project management concepts, introducing or creating project management tools
to the user and ensure they develop habit of using them.

Introduction
Entrepreneurs and small businesses are important to economy. This article is to
determine what project management skills and tools suitable are optimal for small
business starters to ramp up business, manage operations, deliver tailored or bespoke
products to customers, and manage innovation and growth. We assume readers have
basic knowledge of project management although we will ultimately hope broader
audience can benefit from using lite project management skills. This may also be a
starting point for a program introducing project management to small and micro
businesses, or even to the wider public.

The ultimate goals for the program may be:

- Introduce project management to the wider public, start with small business
owners
- Start-up business users can simplify and manage their life and tasks using
tools or knowledge provided
- Enable small business owners to be more organized and systematic so as to
reduce stress and anxiety
-
This article refers to two literature sources, one is a paper from Turner (Turner, 2011)
in PMI Journal, and another is the small start-up business program from a College in
Ontario, Canada.

The problem statement and scope of this article would be:

- To what extent do small micro business use project management both in their
mainline business and to manage innovation and growth?
- What elements of the project management are important for small micro
business?
- A Business Start-up Process

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- How project management fit, map, or morph into Business Start-up Process

The following would not be in scope:

- Details of innovation project management.
- Lower Level Description of tools and content generated from the morph of
project management and business start-up process.
- Project Management ABCs
- Operation Management and Project Management Morphing

Strategy

To develop the skillsets, knowledge, and tools, first we will define Project
Management Light (PML), derived from PMBOK referencing Turner`s literature.
Then we will define a Small Business Start-up Process, for this paper we use the
process used by Ontario Self Employment Benefit Program. Afterwards, we will start
morphing some of them (demonstrated by the orange area). There are many different
ways of morphing the activities and process. We will use table mapping methods
commonly used in business and system analysis to start to complete the scope of this
article.

Project Management Lite (PML) (Turner, 2011)

Characteristics
- We would expect simplified project planning and control systems, with
simplified reporting mechanisms.
- We would not expect to see them adopting some of the standard
methodologies.
- We also expect to see people fulfilling several roles on projects, especially in
smaller companies.

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- Microsized companies do not employ specialist project managers, and so

projects are managed by people with other primary roles, and small and
micro-sized companies do not tend to use the recognized tools and
techniques of project management.
- uses laissez-faire management and egoless team structures
- Use of project management
• Operations management (This is very important but details about
project and operation management morphing will be out of scope)
• Innovation and growth: (Innovation Process is too complicated to be in
scope in this article. Also not every start-up business innovates. We
will talk about Innovation Process Project Management in another
article. However for the growth, we will talk about Business Start-
up Process.)
• Lite project management

PMLite Content (Turner, 2011)

PMBOK practices PMLite Remarks

Client requirements
The need to define client requirements as an essential first

step. Communication Management

Road map or milestones
High level schematic plan. to provide an overall vision of how
the project would be completed

Work breakdown or activity lists
Define the activities required to do the work

Agile or scrum Uses laissez-faire management and egoless team structures;

also requires all the team members to be able to do all the
work, so it requires homogeneous work and homogeneous
teams.

Responsibility assignment matrix × they don't need that formality

Scope and resource schedule
Simple form of scope or resource schedule. Some have a
simple resource schedule, with dates against their activity list.
Others also have a resource schedule with dates against the
involvement of named resources.

Team building × No Formal Team building is needed.

Risk and issue management
Need risk management. The most important project
management functionality they applied.

Commercial project management
Simple appraise the value of projects, Buy or hire, Buy-or-do it
yourself, contract management.

Domain knowledge
Basic domain knowledge in their work.

Microsoft project × Too complicated. Perhaps Excel is good enough

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Project Office × No Need

Cost management
Very Simple Financial Cost, Sales and Tax Tracking. No Earned
Value Analysis

Quality management × Use Manage Client Requirement

Integration management × No Need

Life-cycle and stage gates × No need

Program and portfolio management × No need except for innovation. Will talk about Innovation in
other paper

The above table shows what elements of the project management are important for
small micro business.

Company Profile
After the elements of PM Lite are identified, we develop a company profile. This
company profile includes the elements they will be using in the business start-up
process that is specific to the company.

Company: TSE and TSE business and Technology Consulting

■ requirements analysis
■ milestone planning
■ work breakdown and activity lists
■ responsibility assignment matrix
■ work schedules (and checklist and Gantt charts)
■ PM software for work scheduling and control (micro-soft project)
■ PM software for resource scheduling (but not resource schedules per se)
■ Kick off meetings
■ Risk management (but not issue management)
■ Scope management
■ Cost management
■ Commercial management

Project Management and Business Start-up Process

SO how we can tie Business Start-up Process and Project Management Together?
How we are going to use project management techniques to manage our business
start-up process?
There are at least two dimensions I can think of in terms of mixing them two together.
One is Business Start-Up as a project; another is Business Start-Up Process Items and
PMLite mapping. For the first one, it is to put the whole business startup process into

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a master project management schedule. The second one is the for each item inside the
process, identify PM concepts or items that would be useful to help executing the
tasks. Some of the items can me a project itself.

Business Start-Up as a Project

For this example, we choose the Microsoft project start up template as an example to
illustrate how we can put business start-up process into a Gannt Chart, Schedule or
work breakdown structure. This process has a lot of action item executable to start up
the business. Each item has duration, start date, end date, resource, dependencies etc.

1 Phase 1 - Strategic Plan 23 days 01/01 02/02

2 Self-Assessment 3 days 01/01 05/01

3 Define business vision 1 day 01/01 01/01 Manager

4 Identify available skills, information and support 1 day 02/01 02/01 3 Advisor, Manager

5 Decide whether to proceed 1 day 05/01 05/01 4 Manager

6 Define the Opportunity 10 days 06/01 19/01

7 Research the market and competition 1 day 06/01 06/01 5 Advisor

8 Interview owners of similar businesses 5 days 07/01 13/01 7 Owners

9 Identify needed resources 2 days 14/01 15/01 8 Advisor, Peers

10 Identify operating cost elements 2 days 16/01 19/01 9 Accountant

11 Evaluate Business Approach 4 days 20/01 23/01

12 Define new entity requirements 1 day 20/01 20/01 10 Manager

13 Identify on-going business purchase opportunities 1 day 21/01 21/01 12 Manager

14 Research franchise possibilities 1 day 22/01 22/01 13 Manager

15 Summarize business approach 1 day 23/01 23/01 14 Manager

16 Evaluate Potential Risks and Rewards 7 days 21/01 29/01

17 Assess market size and stability 2 days 21/01 22/01 12 Advisor

18 Estimate the competition 1 day 23/01 23/01 17 Advisor

19 Assess needed resource availability 2 days 26/01 27/01 18 Advisor

20 Evaluate realistic initial market share 1 day 28/01 28/01 19 Advisor

21 Determine financial requirements 2 days 26/01 27/01 15 Advisor

22 Review personal suitability 1 day 28/01 28/01 21 Manager

23 Evaluate initial profitability 1 day 29/01 29/01 22 Manager

24 Review and modify the strategic plan 2 days 30/01 02/02 23

25 Confirm decision to proceed 0 days 02/02 02/02 24

26 Phase 2 - Define the Business Opportunity 27 days 03/02 10/03

27 Define the Market 13 days 03/02 19/02

28 Access available information 1 day 03/02 03/02 25 Advisor

29 Create market analysis plan 2 days 04/02 05/02 28 Advisor

30 Implement market analysis plan 5 days 06/02 12/02 29 Advisor

31 Identify competition 2 days 13/02 16/02 30 Advisor

32 Summarize the market 2 days 17/02 18/02 31 Advisor

33 Identify target market niche 1 day 19/02 19/02 32 Advisor

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34 Identify Needed Materials and Supplies 7 days 20/02 01/03

Select a business approach (from "Evaluate 2 days 20/02 23/02 28SS, Manager
35 Business Approach" above) 33
36 Identify management staff resources 1 day 24/02 24/02 35 Manager

37 Identify staffing requirements 1 day 25/02 25/02 36 Manager

38 Identify needed raw materials 1 day 26/02 26/02 37 Manager

39 Identify needed utilities 1 day 27/02 27/02 38 Manager

Summarize operating expenses and financial 1 day 01/03 01/03 39 Manager
40 projections
41 Evaluate Potential Risks and Rewards 6 days 02/03 09/03

42 Assess market size and stability 2 days 02/03 03/03 40 Manager

43 Assess needed resources availability 2 days 04/03 05/03 42 Manager

44 Forecast financial returns 2 days 08/03 09/03 43 Accountant

45 Review and modify the business opportunity 1 day 10/03 10/03 44

Confirm decision to proceed 0 days 10/03 10/03 45 Advisor, Peers, Lawyer,
46 Accountant
47 Phase 3 - Plan for Action 21 days 11/03 08/04

48 Develop Detailed 5-Year Business Plan 21 days 11/03 08/04

49 Describe the vision and opportunity 1 day 11/03 11/03 46 Advisor

50 List assumptions 1 day 12/03 12/03 49 Advisor

51 Describe the market 1 day 15/03 15/03 50 Advisor

52 Describe the new business 1 day 16/03 16/03 51 Advisor

53 Describe strengths, weaknesses, assets and threats 1 day 17/03 17/03 52 Advisor

54 Estimate sales volume during startup period 1 day 18/03 18/03 53 Advisor, Accountant

55 Forecast operating costs 1 day 19/03 19/03 54 Advisor, Accountant

56 Establish pricing strategy 1 day 22/03 22/03 55 Advisor

57 Forecast revenue 1 day 23/03 23/03 56 Advisor

58 Summarize pro-forma financial statement 2 days 24/03 25/03 57 Advisor

59 Develop break-even analysis 1 day 26/03 26/03 58 Advisor

60 Develop cash-flow projection 1 day 29/03 29/03 59 Advisor

61 Identify licensing and permitting requirements 1 day 30/03 30/03 60 Advisor

62 Develop startup plan 2 days 31/03 01/04 61 Advisor

63 Develop sales and marketing strategy 1 day 02/04 02/04 62 Advisor

64 Develop distribution structure 1 day 05/04 05/04 63 Advisor

65 Describe risks and opportunities 2 days 06/04 07/04 64 Advisor

66 Publish the business plan 1 day 08/04 08/04 65 Advisor

67 Confirm decision to proceed 0 days 08/04 08/04 66 Advisor

68 Phase 4 - Proceed With Startup Plan 53 days 09/04 22/06

69 Choose a location 1 day 09/04 09/04 67

70 Establish Business Structure 24 days 12/04 13/05

71 Choose a Name 2 days 12/04 13/04

72 Identify implications 1 day 12/04 12/04 69 Lawyer

73 Research name availability 1 day 13/04 13/04 72 Lawyer

74 Choose a Bank 5 days 14/04 20/04

75 Establish accounts 4 days 14/04 19/04 73 Banker

76 Establish line of credit 1 day 20/04 20/04 75 Banker

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Choose legal representation 1 day 21/04 21/04 75SS, Lawyer

77 76
78 Select business tax-basis category 2 days 22/04 23/04 77 Lawyer, Accountant

79 Choose capital funding source 2 days 26/04 27/04 78 Manager

80 Commit capital funding 0 days 27/04 27/04 79 Manager

81 Establish the Operating Control Base 12 days 28/04 13/05

82 Choose and set up the accounting system 2 days 28/04 29/04 79, 80 Accountant
Obtain required licenses and permits 4 days 30/04 05/05 82 Lawyer, Government
83 agency
84 Obtain needed insurance 4 days 06/05 11/05 83 Accountant

85 Establish security plan 2 days 12/05 13/05 84 Advisor, Lawyer

86 Develop Marketing Program 4 days 13/04 16/04

87 Establish an advertising program 2 days 13/04 14/04 73SS Advisor

88 Develop a logo 1 day 15/04 15/04 87 Advisor, Lawyer

89 Order promotional materials 1 day 16/04 16/04 88 Advisor

90 Provide Physical Facilities 15 days 14/05 03/06

91 Secure operation space 5 days 14/05 20/05 85, 89 Lawyer

92 Select computer network hardware 1 day 21/05 21/05 91 Information services

93 Select computer software 1 day 24/05 24/05 92 Information services

94 Establish utilities 3 days 25/05 27/05 93 Manager

95 Provide furniture and equipment 4 days 28/05 02/06 94 Manager

96 Move in 1 day 03/06 03/06 95 Manager

97 Provide Staffing 40 days 28/04 22/06

98 Interview and test candidates 14 days 28/04 17/05 79 Manager

99 Hire staff 10 days 18/05 31/05 98 Manager

100 Train staff 16 days 01/06 22/06 99 Manager

Start up the business 0 days 22/06 22/06 96, Manager
101 100

Business Start-Up Process Items and PMLite mapping

In this section, we choose the Ontario Self Employment Program Business Start-Up
Process. This process focuses on the business planning. However in this plan, there
are operation plan and implementation plan that implies activities in execution phase
and operation management phase.
After the business plan is approved, starters will start-up their businesses based on
implementation plan the ultimate goal is to implement an operation that align with the
operation plan. You may assume there is a process for business execution and a
processes for operation management. Our scope will only do the mapping for the
business Planning Process.
For each item inside the process, we identify PM concepts or items that would be
useful to help executing the tasks. Some of the items can me a project itself.

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Business Plan

Business Start Up Process PML Tools and Concepts

1. Executive Summary requirements analysis, scope
2. Company Description requirements analysis, scope
2.1 Business Concept requirements analysis, scope
2.2 Products and Services Description (Overview) requirements analysis, scope
2.3 Key Management Description and Advisors
3. Vision and Mission milestone planning, scope
3.1 Vision milestone planning
3.2 Mission milestone planning
4. Goals and Objectives milestone planning
4.1 Year One
4.2 Year Two
5. Industry Research and Analysis requirements analysis
5.1 Industry (Size, Growth, Trends and Outlook)
5.2 Influences (Social, Cultural, Political, Economic)
5.3 Regulatory Issues (Federal, Provincial, Municipal and Industry)
5.4 Opportunity requirements analysis
6. Target Market Research and Analysis requirements analysis, scope
6.1 Target Market Profile and Analysis requirements analysis
6.1.1 Market Segment(s) (Size, Growth, Trends, Outlook and Potential) Inherit from 6.1
6.1.2 Geographic Inherit from 6.1
6.1.3 Customer Profile Inherit from 6.1
6.1.3.1 Demographic Inherit from 6.1
6.1.3.2 Psychographic Inherit from 6.1
6.1.4 Consumer Profile (if applicable) Inherit from 6.1
6.1.4.1 Demographic Inherit from 6.1
6.1.4.2 Psychographic Inherit from 6.1
6.2 Competitive Profile and Analysis requirements analysis
6.2.1 Competitors Inherit from 6.2
6.2.1.1 Direct Inherit from 6.2
6.2.1.2 Indirect Inherit from 6.2
6.2.2 Competitive S.W.O.T. Analysis Chart Inherit from 6.2
6.2.3 Competitive Advantage Inherit from 6.2

requirements analysis, milestone planning,

work breakdown and activity lists,
responsibility assignment matrix, work
schedules (and checklist and Gantt charts),
PM software, Kick off meetings, commercial
7. Sales and Marketing Plan PM
7.1 Positioning Plan Inherit from 7
7.2 Products and Services Plan Inherit from 7
7.3 Placement/Distribution Plan Inherit from 7
7.4 Packaging (Products) and/or Bundling (Services) Plan Inherit from 7
7.5 Pricing Plan Cost management
7.6 Promotion Plan Inherit from 7
7.6.1 Advertising Inherit from 7
7.6.2 Promotion Inherit from 7
7.6.2.1 Customer Promotion Inherit from 7
7.6.2.2 Consumer Promotion Inherit from 7
7.6.3 Publicity Plan Communication management
7.6.3.1 Media Relations Communication management
7.6.3.2 Trade Relations Communication management
7.6.3.3 Public Relations Communication management
7.7 Networking Plan Communication management
7.8 Sales Plan and Forecast Cost management

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7.8.1 Sales Plan Cost management

7.8.2 Year One Sales Forecast Cost management
7.8.2.1 Notes and Assumptions (Incl. Seasonality) Cost management
7.8.3 Year Two Sales Forecast Cost management
7.8.3.1 Notes and Assumptions (Incl. Seasonality) Cost management
7.8.4 Year One Sales Forecast and Promotion Plan Chart Cost management
7.8.5 Year Two Sales Forecast and Promotion Plan Chart Cost management

milestone planning, work breakdown and

activity lists, responsibility assignment
matrix, work schedules (and checklist and
Gantt charts), PM software, Kick off
8. Operations Plan meetings, commercial PM
8.1 Legal Name and Trade Name (if different from legal name) of Business Inherit from 8
8.2 Legal Structure of Business Inherit from 8
8.3 Business Coordinates Inherit from 8
8.3.1 Business Address Inherit from 8
8.3.2 Telephone Number(s) Inherit from 8
8.3.3 Fax Number(s) Inherit from 8
8.3.4 E-Mail Address Inherit from 8
8.3.5 Website Address Inherit from 8
8.4 Business Processes Inherit from 8
8.5 Equipment Inherit from 8
8.6 Suppliers Inherit from 8
8.7 Management Plan, Policies and Procedures Inherit from 8
8.7.1 Administrative Plan, Policies and Procedures Inherit from 8
8.7.2 Personnel Plan, Policies and Procedures Inherit from 8
8.7.3 Quality Control Plan, Policies and Procedures Inherit from 8
8.7.4 Customer Service Plan, Policies and Procedures Inherit from 8
8.7.5 Payment Plan, Policies and Procedures Inherit from 8
8.7.5.1 Suppliers Inherit from 8
8.7.5.2 Customers Inherit from 8
8.7.6 Other Management (e.g. Sales, Financial) Plans, Policies and Inherit from 8
Procedures

Risk management, work breakdown and

activity lists, responsibility assignment
matrix, work schedules (and checklist and
Gantt charts), PM software, Kick off
9. Risk Plan meetings, commercial PM
9.1 Risk Assessment and Plan Chart Inherit from 9

milestone planning, work breakdown and

activity lists, responsibility assignment
matrix, work schedules (and checklist and
Gantt charts), PM software, Kick off
10. Implementation Plan meetings, commercial PM
10.1 Implementation Plan (first three months) Chart Inherit from 10

11. Financial Plan cost management

11.1 Start-Up Costs cost management
11.2 Sources of Funding cost management
11.3 Year One Projected Profit/Loss Statement cost management
11.3.1 Notes and Assumptions cost management
11.4 Year Two Projected Profit/Loss Statement cost management
11.4.1 Notes and Assumptions cost management
11.5 Year One Projected Cash Flow Statement cost management
11.5.1 Notes and Assumptions cost management
11.6 Year Two Projected Cash Flow Statement cost management
11.6.1 Notes and Assumptions cost management
11.7 Breakeven Analysis cost management

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From the above table, we have mapped project management Lite items into business
start-up process. There are lots we can use about project management into our
business start-up. For example communication management and client requirement
are needed when we talk about networking, sales, or even marketing.
For operation management and implementation, we need to use work schedule, work
breakdown structure, Gantt chart, tracking, monitoring, activity lists, PM software to
help delivering our jobs.
For sales, pricing, financial plan, we can use cost management tools to forecast, plan,
track, report, monitor our financial and sales activities.
For risk management plan, we will leverage PM risk management techniques and
tools such as risk register, impact and probability tool, risk identification, risk
response planning, risk monitoring etc.
For the business description, identifying the business idea, we can focus on using
milestones, visions defining techniques.

PM Tools Generation Examples

Of course the mapping is not enough. We need to use it. SO how can we use project
management? We can develop tools and practices for ourselves and can stick using
them.
There are many tools you can develop and you can use, and many tools have been
developed. Tools can be spread sheets, checklist, application, document etc. You can
be as creative as you need. The whole point here is to use them. For this article, I will
use one of my self-created tools to track my activities.

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Above is a snapshot of one of the tools. This is to identify, schedule, track, prioritize
and report my business start-up activities during my project execution phase. This is
rather simple, simpler than project office work breakdown structure and Gantt chart. It
does not have duration and dependencies. From the left there are activity lists or work
breakdown. Then it has priority for execution. On the next following column, it
identifies the tasks should be executed in which during the month. After the tasks
have finished you fill the box green. Yellow for in progress and red for not finished.
On the far right column you put comments and status update of the item. This can be
served as an issue log. Also you can extract this column and the first work item
column for monthly reporting. I found this tool handy and it is very easy to make and
use. The most important thing is to create a habit of using it and stick to your plan.

Conclusion and Future Work

This article introduces how business starters can use project management to start up
their small businesses. First we identify the minimal set of tools that is good enough
for small business starters to use. Then we map the project management tools to our
business start-up process to identify opportunities we can exploit project management.
Finally we can create or borrow tools that adhere to the process mapping. There are
lots of work can be done in the future for this program, including educating the public
basic project management concepts, introducing or creating project management tools
to the user and ensure they develop habit of using them.

The Author
Eric Tse is an international recognized expert/consultant in Enterprise Access and
Identity Management Architecture Design and Implementation. He has been working
with international renowned experts in information technology in many prestigious
companies. He also pursues research interests in project management, financial
models, application/enterprise/solution architectures, compilation technology and
philosophy of science.

About Project Perfect

Project Perfect is a project management software consulting and training organisation
based in Sydney Australia. Their focus is to provide organisations with the project
infrastructure they need to successfully manage projects.
Project Perfect sell “Project Administrator” software, which is a tool to assist
organisations better manage project risks, issues, budgets, scope, documentation
planning and scheduling. They also created a technique for gathering requirements
called “Method H”, and sell software to support the technique. For more
information on Project tools or Project Management visit www.projectperfect.com.au

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