A well-written business plan improves your probability of success by helping you evaluate the feasibility of your business idea in an objective way. The plan is much like a road map for your business and helps you identify opportunities, avoid mistakes, and develop production, administrative and marketing plans, as well as budget guidelines. The plan also serves as the foundation for your funding proposal and provides lenders and investors essential details about your operation, financial strategy and the amount and type of financing your venture requires. To see an example of a business plan, click on reference. For a comprehensive list of local and online business plan classes, click on reference.
A business plan includes sections on operations, marketing, management and finances. For an example business plan outline, click on reference.
References:
www2.gsu.edu/~wwwsbp/Busplan_Outline.pdf
The job of the executive summary is to sell, not to describe. The executive summary is often your initial face to the outside world and potential investors, so it is critically important that you create the right first impression. Below are key components:
You should lead with the most compelling statement of why you have a really big idea. This sentence (or two) sets the tone for the rest of the executive summary. Usually, this is a concise statement of the unique solution you have developed to a big problem. It should be direct and specific, not abstract and conceptual.
You need to make it clear that there is a big, important problem (current or emerging) that you are going to solve, or opportunity you are going to exploit. In this context you are establishing your Value Proposition—there is enormous “pain” and opportunity out there, and you are going to increase revenues, reduce costs, increase speed, expand reach, eliminate inefficiency, increase effectiveness, whatever. Don’t confuse your statement of the problem with the size of the opportunity (see below).
What specifically are you offering to whom? Software, hardware, product, service, or combination? Use commonly used terms to state concretely what you have, or what you do, that solves the problem you’ve identified. Avoid acronyms and don’t try to use these precious few words to create and trademark a bunch of terms that won’t mean anything to most people.
Here you will discuss the overall market for your product or service. What is the estimated size of your market, how fast it growing and what are the key factors driving that growth? You will be better off targeting a meaningful percentage of a smaller, well-defined, growing market than claiming a microscopic percentage of a huge, heterogeneous, mature market.
No matter what you might think, you have competition. At a minimum, you compete with the current way of doing business. Most likely, there is a near competitor, or a direct competitor that is about to emerge. Understand what your real, sustainable competitive advantage is, and state it
clearly. Do not try to convince investors that your key competitive asset is your “first mover advantage.” Here is where you can articulate your unique benefits and advantages. Believe it or not, in most cases, you should be able to make this point in one or two sentences.
How specifically are you going to generate revenues, and from whom? To what extent is your model leverageable and scaleable? What are the critical metrics on which you will be evaluated—customers, licenses, units, revenues, margin? Whatever it is, what impressive levels will you reach within three to five years? If you have customers and revenues, make it clear. If not, tell the investor when you will.
If you are a solo entrepreneur at this point, describe your background and how it has contributed to the development of the venture idea. Indicate how far you as an individual can take the business over the next few years. If you have a management team, explain their unique qualification. Don’t tell us you have 48 combined years of expertise in widget development; tell us your CTO was the lead widget developer for Intel, and she was on the original IEEE standards committee for arc-widgets.
Show your financial projections – revenues and losses/profits for four years. State your objective for making the presentation: i.e., am seeking someone to buy the idea and develop the business; am seeking someone to be part of the team helping me to grow the business; am seeking outside investment capital so I (we) can grow the venture. State the minimum amount of money you need to reach the next major milestone in your venture development. As your venture achieves success, additional funds will be available.
Name of presenter, position or title (inventor, president, etc.), city, email address and phone number.
A feasibility study is a detailed preliminary evaluation of your business idea to see if it is worth pursuing. A feasibility study includes the assessments of the management team, market prospects and potential pitfalls.
No. The SBDC can assist you in developing your own business plan. For a comprehensive list of local and online business plan classes, click on reference.
You should. Writing your own business plan will force you to think through important issues that you may not otherwise consider. Contact your local SBDC for assistance in developing your business plan. For a comprehensive list of local and online business plan classes, click on reference.
The advantage of off-the-shelf business planning software is that it helps you organize your business plan and gives you good examples to help you craft your own document. Most software packages generate charts and graphs from the financial spreadsheets incorporated into the plan. The disadvantage is that these plans often look canned. Loan officers receive hundreds of these plans and can instantly recognize them. If you copy the examples from the business plan software into your plan, loan officers will recognize that it is not your work and will probably discount its credibility. All you need to create your own business plan is a word processing program and a spreadsheet program. Your local SBDC office can provide you with guidelines, examples, individual counseling as well as classes to help you write an effective business plan.
Writing a business plan is a difficult and arduous task and can take anywhere from 20 hours to several months. It depends on the complexity of the business venture or project that you are planning and how much information is needed to thoroughly complete it.
Yes! Classes are offered locally or online. For a comprehensive list, click on the reference.
References:
www.sbdc.uga.edu/index.aspx?page_name=descontedu
A business plan provides a reference for determining the degree of success of your business efforts. It should be periodically updated to reflect your current situation. It can be a helpful tool for developing a marketing plan, expanding your current business or obtaining capital for the future. click on reference for the SBDC publication, “Mastering Loan Proposals.” Additionally, the SBDC offers business plan classes locally or online. For a complete list of these classes, click on reference. For individual assistance, contact your local SBDC.
References:
http://www.sbdc.uga.edu/index.aspx?page_name=listpeople
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