Steps and tips to write A Concept Note for your Startup & Business in 2023

A concept note is a short but helpful document that proves you have put time into thinking about your idea. You will define the problem that you are addressing & explain how your product will solve it.

If you have thought about the Mission of your idea, have a deep understanding of that and make sure you keep it in mind as you frame the concept note.

An idea is a solution that you propose to an identified problem.

Note:
– Here’s a simple example of an online restaurant discovery platform to help you understand easily, the info provided is not accurate.
– This guide will help you write the concept by yourself at the idea stage, going deeper involves in-depth research & analysis that shall be done at a later stage with some external help

Contents Of A Business Concept

a) Product brief: Define what is your product/service?
An online discovery platform for restaurants & dine out places

b) Problem statement: What is the problem statement that you had identified, which led you to think about a solution for it.
Majority of people find it difficult to find the best restaurants or lack a reliable source of information to find one in a new city or neighborhood

c) Target audience: Who will buy your product/service & What are their needs that you are addressing with your product.
Students, professionals & people who choose to travel/dine out frequently, who wants to try out new places to eat

d) Needs: What the customer needs, Why will they buy or subscribe to your product. List the needs that will be solved by addressing the problem.
Reliable source to discover restaurants based on reviews, range of options to choose from, reviews to validate the choice, check the menu virtually to choose preferences

e) Solution: What is the solution that you are offering and how the product addresses or solves the customer problem.
We help the customer to discover, review & choose restaurants via an online platform (web/app)

f) Monetization: How you will charge customers or make money.
We charge a membership fee to customers for discounts with the restaurant partners, and restaurants to list as favorites in the platform

g) Value proposition: Why will the customers pay or buy your product.
Exclusive offers to paid members & We will drive visibility to the paid restaurant partners

h) Road map: How you are going to get started, what the first few steps that you need to take.
1. List all top restaurants in the popular neighborhoods in the city along with their food menu.
2. Encourage visitors to rate & review hotels
3. Attain 10k visits per day, then focus on covering more regions

i) Reach: What’s the plan to attain your initial set of customers (Pilot)
Facebook campaigns & SEO, Food bloggers partnership to drive user traffic to the listing website

j) Competition: How does the competitive landscape look like, anybody doing it already. Broadly analyze closest comparables & current alternatives as well.
A couple of websites who list the names and address. Users are majorly using google search, personal references for recommendations on the restaurants

k) Core team: Core team required at the initial stage who can help you get the idea into a shape
A lead developer who can convert my idea into a tech product & An experienced B2C digital marketing expert, I can manage the business and B2B partnerships front

Keep Improving Your Concept Paper

Writing this concept is the first step towards actioning your startup idea. You can always start small, maybe with just answering 1 or 2 of these data points and add things later on.

Initiating action with this concept note will encourage you to keep progressing and go to the next steps. You can also further improvise your idea & add/modify relevant elements to all the data points over a period of time, based on your thought process, feedback, or suggestions received or research. Both during pre-launch & post-launch as well.

For instance, improvement features on the restaurant discovery app can include adding table booking, gift coupons, food ordering, order management, etc. at a later stage.

Parting Thoughts

You need to be careful in handling the responses when you share your idea with others. Those inputs can either break or make your idea. It’s very important to handle it with care. It’s always good to test and validate rather than going with your thoughts or other’s words.

Never ask for feedback, always ask for suggestions to improve & be mindful about with whom you are asking that.

A startup or business idea in isolation is worth less than the paper it is printed on. Execution is everything!

Once you finish writing this concept note, you can then start validating your idea for reliability.