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

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.

A product or service can be cool, or innovative, or beautiful, or even useful, but it only becomes a viable business if the aggregate economics of the value being created are significantly more than the aggregate economics of the costs of operating the business.

Among the leading online competitive analysis tools are kompyte.com, similarweb.com, SEMrush.com, and the free Alerts service from Google.

There are many ways to think about a business model. One of the most effective is described and illustrated by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur in their best-selling book Business Model Generation.* In their structure, a business model includes nine basic elements:

Cost structure. The costs that the business incurs in operating its business model.

the number one differentiator between an aspirant and a real founder is that the former is in love with his product, but the latter is in love with her business model.

Value propositions. How the business solves problems and meets the needs of its customers, creating value for them in the process.

The single most important component of any business plan—lean, traditional, or any other kind—is a review schedule.

Revenue streams. Where the money comes from: how the business generates income from the value propositions it offers to customers.