Glossary
Operator terms, in plain language
The vocabulary your plan uses — defined the way you'd explain them to a friend, not a textbook.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
What it costs, on average, to win one paying customer — total sales and marketing spend divided by customers acquired.
LTV (Lifetime Value)
The total revenue one customer brings over their whole relationship with you. A business works when LTV comfortably exceeds CAC.
Payback period
How long it takes for a customer's revenue to cover the cost of acquiring them. Shorter is safer — it's how fast your money comes back to be reused.
Runway
How many months you can operate before the money runs out, at your current spend. The single number that sets the tempo of every early decision.
Burn rate
How much cash the business consumes per month. Together with cash on hand, it determines runway.
Unit economics
The profit and loss of a single unit — one customer, one order, one subscription. If one unit loses money, scale only makes it worse.
Gross margin
Revenue minus the direct cost of delivering the product, as a percentage. It's the money left to pay for everything else.
Validation
Replacing assumptions with evidence — usually by getting real people to pay, pre-order, or commit time before you build the full thing.
MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
The smallest version of the product that lets a real customer get real value — built to learn, not to impress.
Product-market fit
The point where customers pull the product out of you — retention holds, referrals happen, and growth stops feeling like pushing rocks.
Premortem
Imagining the venture has already failed and asking why. Surfacing the most likely causes of death early, while they're still cheap to prevent.
Next best action
The single highest-leverage task to do right now, given your stage and goals — rotneMIA's antidote to the infinite to-do list.
Business stage
Where the venture actually is: Idea → Validation → MVP → Growth → Scaling. Each stage has different priorities, risks, and definitions of progress.
TAM / SAM / SOM
Total, serviceable, and obtainable market — the funnel from everyone who could buy, to those you can reach, to those you realistically will.
Positioning
The specific place you occupy in the customer's head: for whom, against what alternative, and why you win that comparison.
Differentiation
The reason a customer picks you over what they use today — including the spreadsheet, the phone call, or doing nothing.
Churn
The rate at which customers leave. The silent killer of subscription businesses — small monthly percentages compound brutally.
Break-even
The point where revenue covers all costs. Before it, every month costs you money; after it, the business funds itself.
Pivot
A deliberate change of strategy based on evidence — new customer, new problem, or new model — while keeping what you've learned.
Operating cadence
The rhythm of plan → execute → review that turns strategy into consistent weekly progress. The habit MIA is built to enforce.
Question bank
The discovery prompts, opened up
No secrets — these are the questions MIA asks, and why each one earns its place.
The discovery interview (find-an-idea path)
If you don't have an idea yet, these six questions are how MIA finds one that fits you — not a generic "top 10 business ideas" list.
What topics or activities genuinely interest or excite you?
Why it mattersBusinesses survive on stamina. Interest is the renewable fuel — hobbies, work skills, the things friends ask your advice about.
What are you noticeably better at than most people around you?
Why it mattersYour unfair advantage. Teaching, selling, building, organising, analysing — the skill you'd bet on under pressure.
How do you prefer to work?
Why it mattersAlone, small team, leading others, face-to-face, remote — the right business shape depends on it.
What industry have you spent most of your working life in?
Why it mattersIndustry knowledge is the raw material of the best ideas — even in a field you want to leave.
What problem wastes your time or money that nobody has solved well?
Why it mattersFrustration is market research you've already done. The problems you know intimately are the ones you can solve credibly.
How much could you realistically put into starting something?
Why it mattersIdeas must match your starting position, not a dream scenario. €1,000 and €100,000 open different doors — both open doors.
What the plan interview digs into (have-an-idea path)
Already have an idea? These are the themes MIA pushes on — and how to answer them well.
Who exactly is your target customer?
Why it mattersOne real person beats a demographic. "A 42-year-old restaurant owner in Cork who tracks stock in a spreadsheet" produces a far sharper plan than "small businesses".
What do competitors charge?
Why it mattersPricing shapes the whole financial model. Ten minutes of research beats "not sure yet" — which produces off-target projections.
What hours and budget can you really commit?
Why it mattersA plan built on your real constraints is executable. One built on the optimistic version is not.
What do people use today instead of you?
Why it matters"No competition" is never the right answer. Even "Excel and a phone call" is a competitor — and naming it sharpens your differentiation.
How will you reach your first 5 paying customers?
Why it mattersNot your eventual marketing strategy — who you'd contact on Monday. Concrete beats clever.
See what these questions produce
Answer them for real and MIA builds your plan around them — free.