Business Plan

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• A Business Plan identifies key areas of your business so you
can maximize the time you spend on generating income.
• Key investors will want to look at your Business Plan before
providing capital.
• A Business Plan helps you start and keep your business on a
successful path.
• You should prepare a Business Plan, although, in reality, many
small business owners do not.

WHAT IS A BUSINESS PLAN?
• A Business Plan is a written document that defines
the goals of your business and describes how you will
attain those goals.
• A Business Plan is worth your considerable
investment of time, effort, and energy.
• A Business Plan sets objectives, defines budgets,
engages partners, and anticipates problems before
they occur.

GOALS OF A BUSINESS PLAN
• Evaluate feasibility of the idea
• Development of strategy
• Entry, early growth, acquisition, harvest, etc.
• Assist in obtaining resources/approval
• Establish credibility

10 REASONS WHY YOU NEED A
STRONG BUSINESS PLAN
1. To attract investors.
2. To see if your business ideas will work.
3. To outline each area of the business.
4. To set up milestones.
5. To learn about the market.
6. To secure additional funding or loans.
7. To determine your financial needs.
8. To attract top-level people.
9. To monitor your business.
10. To devise contingency plans.

10 MUST ANSWER QUESTIONS
• How large is your addressable market?
• How fast is the market growing?
• Who’s make up your management team?
• What’s your “secret sauce?”
• What are the barriers to entry/competitive advantage?
• What do your 5 year financials look like?
• What’s your path to profitability?
• Why is this a company versus a product/service?
• Who’s your competition and how do you beat them?
• Why can’t Microsoft do this? (or name any big,
established company…)

ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL PLAN
• Clear description of the idea
• Overview of industry to suggest need/opportunity
• Evidence that demand exists (or can be created or stolen)
• Clear description of resource requirements:
 marketing, operations, financing
• Background of management team
• Schedule
• Discussion of risks, rewards, and offer

HOW DETAILED SHOULD
YOUR PLAN BE?
• Business plans differ widely in their length, appearance, content,
and the emphasis placed on different aspects of the business.
• Depending on your business and your intended use, you may need
a very different type of Business Plan:
• Mini-plan: Less emphasis on critical details. Used to test your
assumptions, concept, and measure the interest of potential investors.
• Working Plan: Almost total emphasis on details. Used continuously
to review business operations and progress.
• Presentation Plan: Emphasis on marketability of the business
concept. Used to give information about the business to bankers,
venture capitalists, and other external resources.

ASSEMBLING A BUSINESS PLAN
Every Business Plan should include some essential components:
• Overview of the Business: Describes the business,
including its products and services.
• The Marketing Plan: Describes the target market for your
product and explains how you will reach that market.
• The Financial Management Plan: Details the costs
associated with operating your business and explains how
you will pay for those costs, including the amount of
financing you may need.
• The Operations and Management Plan: Describes how
you will manage the core processes of your business,
including use of human resources.

SEVEN COMMON PARTS OF A
GOOD BUSINESS PLAN
• Business plans must help investors understand and
gain confidence on how you will meet your
customers’ needs.
• Seven common parts of a good Business Plan are:
1. Executive Summary
2. Business Concept
3. Market Analysis
4. Management Team
5. Marketing Plan
6. Financial Plan
7. Operations and Management Plan

PART 1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• The Executive Summary of a Business Plan is a 3-5 page
introduction to your Business Plan.
• The Executive Summary is critical, because many individuals
(including venture capitalists) only read the summary.
• The Executive Summary section includes:
• A first paragraph that introduces your business.
• Your business name and location.
• A brief explanation of customer needs and your products or services.
• The ways that the product or service meets or exceeds the customer needs.
• An introduction of the team that will execute the Business Plan.
• Subsequent paragraphs that provide key details about your business,
including projected sales and profits, unit sales, profitability, and keys to
success.
• Visuals that help the reader see important information, including
highlight charts, market share projections, and customer demand charts.

PART 2: BUSINESS CONCEPT
• The business concept shows evidence that a product or service
is viable and capable of fulfilling an organization's particular
needs.
• The Business Concept section:
• Articulates the vision of the company, how you plan to meet the unique
needs of your customer, and how you plan to make money doing that.
• Discusses feasibility studies that you have conducted for your products.
• Discusses diagnostics sessions you had with prospective customers for
your services.
• Captures and highlights the value proposition in your product or service
offerings.

PART 3: MARKET ANALYSIS
• A Market Analysis defines the target market so that
you can position your business to get its share of
sales.
• A Market Analysis section:
• Defines your market.
• Segments your customers.
• Projects your market share.
• Positions your products and services.
• Discusses pricing and promotions.
• Identifies communication, sales, and distribution channels.

PART 4: MANAGEMENT TEAM
The Management Team section outlines:
– Organizational Structure: Highlights the hierarchy and outlines
responsibilities and decision-making powers.
– Management Team: Highlights the track record of the company’s managers.
You may also offer details about key employees including qualifications,
experiences, or outstanding skills, which could add a competitive edge to the
image of the business.
– Working Structure: Highlights how your management team will operate within
your defined organizational structure.
– Expertise: Highlights the business expertise of your management and senior
team. You may also include special knowledge of budget control, personnel
management, public relations, and strategic planning.
– Skills Gap: Highlights plans to improve your company’s overall skills or
expertise. In this section, you should discuss opportunities and plans to acquire
new information and knowledge that will add value.
– Personnel Plan: Highlights current and future staffing requirements and related
costs.

PART 5: MARKETING PLAN
 The Marketing Plan section details what you propose to
accomplish, and is critical in obtaining funding to pursue
new initiatives.
 The Marketing Plan section:
– Explains (from an internal perspective) the impacts and results
of past marketing decisions.
– Explains the external market in which the business is competing.
– Sets goals to direct future marketing efforts.
– Sets clear, realistic, and measurable targets.
– Includes deadlines for meeting those targets.
– Provides a budget for all marketing activities.
– Specifies accountability and measures for all activities.

PART 6: FINANCIAL PLAN
(SLIDE 1 OF 2)
• The Financial Plan translates your company's goals into
specific financial targets.
• The Financial Plan section:
• Clearly defines what a successful outcome entails. The plan isn't
merely a prediction; it implies a commitment to making the targeted
results happen and establishes milestones for gauging progress.
• Provides you with a vital feedback-and-control tool. Variances from
projections provide early warnings of problems. When variances occur,
the plan can provide a framework for determining the financial impact
and the effects of various corrective actions.
• Anticipate problems. If rapid growth creates a cash shortage due to
investment in receivables and inventory, the forecast should show this. If
next year's projections depend on certain milestones this year, the
assumptions should spell this out.

PART 6: FINANCIAL PLAN
(SLIDE 2 OF 2)
• The Financial Plan is the most essential part of your Business
Plan. It shows investors the timeframes you have scheduled to
make profits.
• Some elements of the Financial Plan include:
• Important Assumptions
• Key Financial Indicators
• Break-even Analysis
• Projected Profit and Loss
• Projected Cash Flow
• Projected Balance Sheet
• Business Ratios
• Long-term Plan

DIFFERENT FINANCIAL
PLANNING OPTIONS (SLIDE 1 OF 2)
 Short-term Forecast: Projects either the current year or a
rolling 12-month period by month. This type of forecast should
be updated at least monthly and become the main planning and
monitoring vehicle.
 Budget: Translates goals into detailed actions and interim
targets. A budget should provide details, such as specific
staffing plans and line-item expenditures.
– The size of a company may determine whether the same model used to
prepare the 12-month forecast can be appropriate for budgeting.
– In any case, unlike the 12-month forecast, a budget should generally be
frozen at the time they are approved.

DIFFERENT FINANCIAL
PLANNING OPTIONS (SLIDE 2 OF 2)
 Strategic Forecast: Incorporates the strategic goals of the
company into the projections. For startup companies, the initial
Business Plan should include a month-by-month projection for
the first year, followed by annual projections for a minimum of
three years.
 Cash Forecast: Breaks down the budget and 12-month
forecast into more detail. The focus of these forecasts is on
cash flow, rather than accounting profit, and periods may be as
short as a week in order to capture fluctuations.

PART 7: OPERATIONS AND
MANAGEMENT
• The Operations and Management section outlines how your
company will operate.
• The Operations and Management section includes:
• Organizational structure of the company. Provides a basis for
projected operating expenses and financial statements. Because these
statements are heavily scrutinized by investors, the organizational
structure has to be well-defined and realistic within the parameters of the
business.
• Expense and capital requirements to support the organizational
structure. Provides a basis to identify personnel expenses, overhead
expenses, and costs of products/services sold. These expenses/costs can
then be matched with capital requirements.

WHAT INVESTORS LOOK FOR
• How does the team think?
• How detail oriented is the team?
• How big is this market?
• Is there sustainable competitive advantage?
• What’s the growth plan?
• What does the technology roadmap look like,
short term or long term play

BUSINESS PLANS: INVESTOR
DECISION PROCESS
Market Attractiveness
•Market Need
•Size of Market
•Market Growth
•Access to Market
Product Differentiation
•Uniqueness
•Product Life
•Profit Margin
•Value Added
Managerial Capabilities
•Management Skills
•Marketing Skills
•Financial Skills
•References
Resistance to Threats
•Barriers to Entry
•Obsolescence Risk
•Downside Risk
•Economic Cycle Risk
Expected
Return
Perceived
Risk
Decision
to Invest
+
--

REMEMBER:
A business plan is a specific plan to
open a new business or to expand
an existing one, not the writer’s
wishes and dreams !

REFERENCES
• www.business.govt.nz
• http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/
starting-managing-business/starting-business/
how-write-business-plan
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_plan
• http://www.entrepreneur.com/businessplan/index.h
tml

Business Plan

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Business Plan