Oliveblue Business Plan Template All Rights Reserved

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{Insert Company} Business Plan

Contents

1Executive Summary

2Management

3Purpose of Business (New business) or Background (existing business)

4Business Objectives

4.1Short Term (Year 1)

4.2Medium Term (Year 2)

4.3Long Term (Year 3)

5Product/Service

5.1Service/Product Name

6Market

6.1Market Background (SWOT)

6.2Market Segmentation & targeting

7Competitors

7.1Comparison Table

8Marketing Plan

8.1Product

8.2Place (Distribution)

8.3Price

8.4Promotion

9Operational Plan

10Financial Analysis

11Cashflow Forecast

12Operating Budget

1Executive Summary

The Executive Summary should summarise the key points of your proposal, including:

Name
Mission statement
The market
Management ’s mission/goals, management team, their experience and how they will realize the opportunity
The problem and the business opportunity
The product or service offering, and unique selling points, intellectual property rights etc
Business operations e.g. location
Strategic alliances
Sales and marketing strategy
Critical milestones
Financial projections and risks (including quick financial overview with key figures linking to the milestones)
Funding requirements

This section should be written last, it should briefly the business and highlight its purpose. It should explain how it would be achieved.

The Executive Summary must attract the investors ’ or reader’s interest by highlighting the potential idea and the ability of management to realize that potential.

Depending on its use the business plan should be written in a manner that appeals to the reader. For instance, if the business plan is to raise finance, then a clear simple outline will catch the attention of the prospective funders and make them more interested to read on.

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2Management

You should identify your key members of the management team, explaining why they are key and demonstrating the relevance of their skills, previous achievements and experience to their responsibilities, by including a brief biography of each member as an appendix.

Past employment and business record

How you plan to fill any gap in skills or experience?

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3Purpose of Business (New business) or Background (existing business)

Some things to consider including:

Describe the purpose of your business
When did/is the business to start?
Business legal structure – limited liability company, sole trader, partnership, limited liability
Is Profit making?
Non-profit making?
What services and products will you provide?

Background

This should provide a brief summary of the business and the development of the business idea, company to date, previous funding, etc.

When did/is the business to start?
Brief summary of performance, customer, market etc (if in existence)

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4Business Objectives

What is your mission statement/vision?

What are your Short Term (Year 1), Medium Term (Year 2) and Long Term (Year 3) objectives? They should be SMART, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-framed

4.1Short Term (Year 1)

4.2Medium Term (Year 2)

4.3Long Term (Year 3)

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5Product/Service

Description of product
Advantages of product
What need does it satisfy?
Why the product is unique or distinct?
Brief survey of competition
Any patents applied for?

What is the USP - Your business can only be differentiated from your competitors, when you create a USP (Unique Selling Proposition). This is the unique, distinctive or distinguishing and attractive element that sets your business or venture apart from other competitors?

•How is the product/service to be developed (in-house & externally)?

•How are you going to sell the product/service?

•What is your revenue model?

•How long will it take to develop your product/service to market?

This section should explain, without technical jargon, your principal product OR service, its application, and distinguishing features (also include patents, IPR, etc). The main purpose of explaining the product is so the reader can understand the market, any unique selling points and, consequently, the business opportunity.

5.1Service/Product Name

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6Market

6.1Market Segmentation & targeting

Likely customers: who they are, type (that is, industrial or consumer), size, how they buy, customer demographics (age, life cycle, sensitivity to price)

6.1.1Direct Customers

Favourable market conditions

6.1.2Indirect Customers

6.2Market Background (SWOT)

Is there a Market? What is the short and Long term demand?
Profitability
Its size, its past and future growth
SWOT Analysis
Analysis of market sectors; identification of sector your business is aimed at

Market Strengths

Market Weaknesses

Trend for the marketi.e.

Year / Growth %
2001 / 15.5
2002 / 13.4
2003 / 13.2
2004 / 19.8
2005 / 20.4
2006 / 20.2

Source:

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7Competitors

Who are your competitors (including future entrants to the market)?
What are their prices, services/products and how will you compete in each product or service line?
How do you compare with other competitive companies?
What is the market share of each existing competitor?
Are there opportunities to collaborate with competitors rather than compete head-on?
Which companies sell complementary products and services?
Are there opportunities to integrate products and services so you can benefit from offering customers a one-stop shop solution and/or a lower cost-route to market?

7.1Comparison Table

Competitor / Target Market / Price / Type of Service / Competitive advantage

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8Marketing Plan

8.1Product

How do plan to package the product or service?

What are future plans for the development of product or service?

8.2Place (Distribution)

Distribution plan (direct, indirect, web-based or retail)?

What resources are required to effectively support your route to market, e.g. number of direct sales personnel/number of personnel supporting indirect channels?

Product/Service delivery
order processing fulfilment
physical stockholding – dispatch
Outsourced or in-house

8.3Price

What is your pricing policy (demand, value added or cost-based pricing, volume discounts, show how pricing will change over time)?

How have you reached your decision on price?

The following are approaches to determining your pricing policy

Mark-up: This is a simple method of adding a standard mark-up to the total fixed and variable costs of the product.
Target Return on Investment: The price is set in order to achieve a certain level of return on investment. Unit cost + (Target % return * Capital invested/Unit Sales)
Demand: This is determined by what customers are willing to pay for a product
Discounting: This includes bulk discount, off-peak, trade, cash payment and clearance
Service-Based/Hourly rate: This takes into account the annual business overheads divided by annual amount of time you are available to work to get an hourly rate.

8.4Promotion

Marketing and promotion

Key issues include:

Making the product/service known
Creating interest in the product/service
Various forms of promotion (online/offline)– direct mail, advertising, trade fairs, media coverage.

Selling

Choices of sales methods (online/offline,
In-house/outsourced)
Use of distributors, wholesalers or retailers.

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9Operational Plan

Where will you be based – location, premises

Manufacturing facilities

Equipment needed

Information technology strategy

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10Financial Analysis

Summary of forecasts

Monthly profit and loss forecast for two years

Cash flow forecast

Assumptions behind your forecast

Principal risks that could affect figures

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11Cashflow Forecast

12Operating Budget

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