Executive Summary
It all comes down to a few words. Get it right! How much money do you need and how you will protect the interest of your investors?
Why you need to know your bestbusinesscommunity competitors…and make yourself stand apart from them.
What will your market penetration be?
What is the exit strategy for your business?
The ownership and form of your business: What investors will want to know.
Know your customers: Why you need to know who your customers are for the sake of your business.
How will your business protect the interest of your investors?
How will investors make money with your business?
How much money does your company need? Why you need an exact figure before you approach investors.
How easily can you be copied?
Does your business plan explain how your customers will get to know about your products and services?
Strategic
What are the factors that may hold your business back or make it thrive. How to show investors that your strategy is sound.
Identifying the key milestones for your business.
How will you measure the success of your business?
Your business lifeline: What are the 10% to 20% of activities that could account for 80% to 90% of your business success?
What key relationships do you need to sustain to help your business to survive and thrive?
Outlining the long-term and short-term goals of your business.
Identifying and targeting the factors that may hold your business back and prevent you from achieving your business goals.
How can you leverage key activities for your business to produce greater results?
How are you qualified to run your business?
Explaining the organizational strengths of your company.
Discussing the factors meaningful to your customers – How to show investors that you know your customers.
Business values to guide your company.
Assessing your resources – why you need to know the current status of your company’s resources.
Business Model
What business you are in? How you will make money? What threats and opportunities exist to your survival?
Why you need to establish your track record to impress investors.
Why do you need the money, anyway? – Explaining how investor funding will be used to achieve your company’s goals.
What business you are in? Why you need to know and how you can find out!
Preparing your business the right way: Picking the right business structure for the right reasons.
Making your business venture appealing to investors.
Establishing your long-term objective for setting up and expanding your business.
Products and Services
Why will your customers buy from you? How will you show investors that you stand out among your competitors?
Your Customers: Explaining why your customers will buy from you.
What is it about your products and services? What your business plan needs to explain about the products and services you offer.
Pricing Policies: What investors will want to know about how you’re pricing your products and services.
Keeping your customers.
How are you different? Showing your Investors that you stand out among competitors.
Industry Analysis
What are the barriers to entry into your business?
The Face of the Competition: Knowing your competitors, direct and indirect.
Protecting Your Business: What you need to consider about trademarking, copyrighting, and patenting.
Knowing your market and which factors are important to customers, clients, and partners.
How large is the industry that your business competes, or plans to compete in?
Finding your unique selling point.
Explaining the factors that affect your target industry.
Explaining government regulations that affect your industry – points your business plan should cover.
Business Planning: Barriers to Entry.
Assessing your business competition: How many companies are expected to enter your industry in the future?
Assessing the long-term security of your business – How long will it take an existing competitor or new entrant to overcome your business model’s advantages for stakeholders?
Market Analysis
Knowing your target markets and identifying them for investors.
Your market development timeframe and why it is important.
What investors want to know about your market: Is your market growing?
What are the sales trends in your market for the last 5 yrs?
What are the growth prospects of your market and what are the future sales trends in your market for the next 5 yrs?
Validating your business plan: what investors want to know about the research you have done to develop your business idea.
Specifying your markets: explaining to investors where you are going to be doing business.
Searching for untapped markets: Why you should do business with the customers everyone else ignores.
Purchase Values: What are your estimates?
Planning Your Business: How to assess the annualized market size in 2-4 years.
Knowing your target markets (and identifying them for investors).
Identifying key prospective purchasers.
How much of your target market do you intend to capture with your business?
Distribution, Promotional Methods, and Marketing Expenditure levels.
Describing historical shifts in your industry: key points for investors.
Assessing the seasonal aspect of your market.
Assessing the resilience of your business: Is the industry cyclical with the economy?
Assessing regulatory and structural restrictions on trade.
Competitive Analysis
Knowing whether your market is fragmented and why it matters to investors.
Who are the top three competitors for your business?
What are your competitors’ marketing strategies?
What are your competitors’ channels of distribution and why do they matter?
Knowing whether your market is fragmented and why it matters to investors.
Improving upon your competitors’ product offerings.
How do your competitors promote their business and why investors want to know.
How are your competitors competing? Recognizing the most important factors for your business.
Establishing your ‘market share goals’: how much of the market do you intend to capture and how fast?
Developing your pricing strategy: how to make sure the pricing of your goods or services is competitive.
Assessing the size and strength of your competitors.
Sales and Marketing Plan
Launching your business into your target market: how to prepare an initial market entry and development strategy.
Forecasting your marketing and sales expenses.
Developing a contingency plan for sales.
Creating a pricing model.
Building your sales team.
Building your marketing team.
Budgeting your sales and marketing.
Breaking down your marketing and sales budget.
Applying the 80-20 rule for profitability.
Management and Talent
Identifying your weaknesses and convincing investors you can compensate for them. Highlighting your talent acquisition strategy.
What is it you do? Why and how you should explain your role in your business.
Outlining the strengths and weaknesses of your management team.
Identifying your weaknesses and convincing investors you can compensate for them.
Creating your management team.
Building your business: how many employees do you need?
Risk Management Contingencies
Planning for the worst-case scenario: How will you mitigate any setbacks, delays, or unforeseen delays to your execution strategy?
What is your “plan B” if you cannot execute your business plan?
What are the inherent and perceived risks to your business?
What are the final projections for the first year of your business?
Planning for the worst-case scenario: How will you mitigate any setbacks, delays, or unforeseen delays to your execution strategy?
Exit Strategy
Planning for the best and worst case scenario: what are the possible outcomes for your business?
Show me the money: assessing how much of a return your investors can expect.
Planning for the best and worst case scenario: what are the possible outcomes for your business?
How organized are you with your financial data?