Business Plan for Your Company

Business plan for [Your Company]

Business plan

for

[ Company name ]

[Tagline – a short compelling description of project]

Executive summary

A business plan starts with an executive summary. This is a brief summary of the key information in the business plan. The summary is an appetizer that should make fx an investor interested in reading the plan in detail. If it doesn’t sound like an attractive business, he might only read the summary. This is similar to the text on the cover of a book. If it sounds interesting you might read it. If not, you will look for something else. Don’t forget a few key figures.

Idea and background

The first thing you want to tell about in your business plan is the basic business idea: What is the problem? How do you solve it? Who is expected to buy your solution? How do they pay you? And why are you the right team to make it a business? Simply show that you have a great solution to an clear problem!

Problem

Describe the problem or need you have spotted and make us believe that it is actually a problem. Fx with numbers, a case story or an example we all understand.

Solution

Explain how you intend to solve the problem. Speak in very general terms about the solution and don’t go into technical details. Explain why your solution is new and unique.

Customer

Tell us who you expect to be your primary customers. Be very specific about who you expect to be your first and most enthusiastic customers. I know you want everyone, but you have to start somewhere.

Revenue

Explain how you are going to earn money. What are people paying for and how?

People

Briefly describe the team behind this idea. Who are you and what is your background.

Passion

Convince us that you are really, really passionate about this project and give us a reason to believe that you will do whatever it takes to make it succeed.

Product and concept

When you have presented the basic idea, you go on to present what you are actually selling: What is your product or service? Don’t go too deep into the product description. Just give a basic understanding of the core features. What does your product or service do to the customer? Remember to focus on the value proposition and the uniqueness. Show the reader something that he wish he had – or wish he had invented.

Core product

Describe the core product or service you are selling in plain language. List the key features of your product, but don’t go into technical details.

Add on products

If you have additional products or services that will be sold in relation to your core product, list them as well, but describe them less detailed.

Customer value

Explain why the product is valuable to your customer. What does you product do for the customer, and why is that valuable? Your Feature-Benefit-Value scheme will make this part very easy.

Pricing

Describe how your product is priced. Not just the specific price of the product but also how you use the pricing structure to attract specific customers or generate revenue. In other words: Why do you price it the way you do?

IPR

If your product can be protected by any kinds of intellectual property rights (IPR) like patent, design protection etc., describe how.

Development potential

Tell us your vision for further development of the product(s). Outlining a future product portfolio with intro products, new versions of the core product, add on products, packages and premium products could be a way to do it. We want to see that you can create new revenue streams before your first product is fading out.

Production

Tell us how you are going to manufacture your product – or provide your service. Are you going to make it all yourselves from the bottom or is it going to be produced somewhere else? Or anything in between.

Customer and market

In the segment about customers and market you must convince the reader, that there will be customers for your product – and a lot of them.

Customer

Outline in more detail who you expect your early customers to be – and who will be customers later on. Tell us everything you learned about who the customers are, what their pains are and why the really long for your solution. Your Reality Check is the key defining a clear target customer.

Market

Estimate the size of the market and the geographic scope of your market. How much are customers spending on your specific type of products or better: on solving the problem you solve. And how many customers are there in the target group in your geographic market? This is where your research in the Reality Check should give you an answer.

Trends

What are the trends, you have spotted in the market. Where are customers going? How are customer preferences changing? Experts in the market and industry will probably have an answer to this – but your desk research is also valuable here.

Industry

The industry analysis is a description of the competitive environment you are entering. Not only the competitors, their strong and weak sides, but also the rules of the game in general.

Industry structure and environment

Tell us what you learned from research and meetings with industry experts about how the industry works. What is the competitive climate like? How are companies connected? How is the industry changing? What are the most common business models? etc. This part may also include laws and regulations imposed on the industry and technological development affecting the products or the business model.

Entry barriers

Summarize the things that can make it difficult to enter the industry. Remember what you learned from industry experts about this – and also what you learned about the customer’s willingness to accept a new solution.

Competitors

List your main competitors. Not who you see as your competitors, but who your customers see as the best alternative to your solution. Focus on the competitors that you will have to position your company and solution against. List the strong and weak sides of your main competitors.

Competitive advantage and strategy

Based on the industry analysis above – and what you learned in your Reality Check - summarize what you see as your competitive advantage and how you think you can be competitive in this industry.

Sales and marketing

So you have a great product and a lot of potential customers, but are you able to reach them in an efficient way. Your go-to-market strategy describes your overall approach to launching your product, and the sales and marketing plan describes the specific activities.

Sales and distributions channels

Tell us how you expect to sell your products or services. Through which channels will you reach your customers? Your Reality Check – especially customer meetings – should have given you an idea about where your early customers would like to find you.

Sales activities

List the specific sales activities in the early phases of your business. Focus on the short term since you will probably have to change plans as you learn along the way. Sales activities are where you go out and meet your customers in person (or contact them directly by phone or mail). Remember the costs in your budgets.

Marketing activities

List the marketing activities in the early phase. Marketing activities (including PR) are the different activities that create awareness about your product and company. Remember to count the costs in your budgets.

Core message and positioning

Define what should be the core message in your sales and marketing activities and show us how you are going to position your product and company – how are you going to communicate that you are special and different.

Management and organization

It is often said that a strong team with an ordinary idea is better than a fantastic idea with a weak team. Do you have the people and the resources to make it happen?In this part you describe the people behind the idea, the legal structure of the company, the partners involved etc.

Legal structure and ownership

Define the legal structure and ownership of your business. What type of company? Who are the owners and how much do they own?

Management

List the people in the management of the company, their roles in the company and their relevant background (education, experience, achievements etc.).

Board and advisors

List the people you have (or want) in you board – or advisory board. Also mention other important advisors who will be involved in the project.

Partnerships

List the companies that will (or that you will convice to) engage in partnerships with your company. Explain what their obligations are – and what your obligations are in the partnership. And explain what each party expect to get out of it.

Key activities

List the key activities – or key functions – in your business in the early startup phase. What are the main things that have to be taken care of.

Key resources

What are the key assets in your company? What do you already have and what has to be acquired.

Action and development plan

The difference between successful entrepreneurs and failures is not the idea, it is the execution. The ability to make progress and take action. A plan is not action, but a well made action plan can help you prioritize your actions and make a chaotic process more focused. Furthermore it clarifies to fx investors what you need the money for and when.

Vision

What is your long term vision for your business? What do you want it to be in the long run? Remember that the vision will communicate whether you are ambitious or not.

Goals

Set some more specific and achievable goals for the near future. Remember, goals always involve numbers and time span.

Milestones

Show us that you know the road to your vision step by step. Define fx 3-5 milestones for the next year or two. What will you have achieved in step 1, 2, 3 etc. – and approximately when. Focus on milestones that you can control.

Actions

Reaching the milestones will require actions. List the most important actions you will take to reach each milestone.

Risk analysis

Entrepreneurs often think in best case scenarios and make their business plans accordingly. But best case is almost never the case. Surprises will occur, so what are you going to do about them.Take the most serious and the most likely risks into consideration and think about what you could do to avoid them and how you could react if they become real. A SWOT-analysis can be the basis of your risk analysis.

Budgets

Klik her for at angive tekst.

Establishing budget

Show us what it will cost to set up your business and get ready for launch. Add up all the costs prior to launch. If you are developing a technological product this includes all the development costs, so you may also call it a Development Budget.

Operating budget

Show us when you expect your business to be profitable. The operating budget is your assumptions and goals about annual revenue and costs. Also often called and income statement. List your expected or wanted income and costs on a monthly basis for year one. For businesses that will take longer than a year to become profitable, make rough assumptions for the following years (annual budgets).

Cashflow budget

The cashflow budget shows how much cash you expect to have or need on a monthly basis in the period covered by the establishing and operating budgets.

Funding

Based on the budgets above you will be able to calculate how much money you will need to fund your startup. Show us how much you need and how you expect to fund it (including your own funding).

Appendices

In the appendix you can attach additional documentation like technical documentation, further research results, illustrations etc.

9