Organisation of the business plan • First page – Group photo – with name of members and their id numbers and the title of the business venture. Illustrated by any logo or picture or slogan • Second page – A one page Executive summary: (2 marks) a. What is your Product/Service, b. What market gap is it satisfying? c. Where do you intend to sell? At what price? d. Financial projections (3 years) – Initial sunk costs, revenue & cost flow over first 3 years. e. How are you raising the funds required for starting-up? f. Is your product/service original or innovative in any way? • Third page – The table of contents Details – 1-2 paragraphs on each of the following will be sufficient, but you are welcome to write more if you wish. 1. Company Description 1.1. Aim and Objectives of company 1.2. Location, size 1.3. Mission statement 1.4. Overview of company capabilities (For example: Production, Marketing, Service Production, Retail, R&D etc.) 1.5. Personnel (e.g. Number, Gender, Qualifications) 1.6. Hierarchy (e.g. President, VP Finance, VP Sales, VP Marketing, VP Manufacturing; Board of Advisors) 2. Product/Services Description 2.1. What is it? 2.2. What is it for? What function does it perform? What need does it meet? 2.3. How is the need currently being met? 2.4. What are the alternatives available (to your product) to meet this need? 2.5. What is your product’s USP: Unique Selling Proposition? 2.6. What is the technology involved (optional if it needs to be described) 3. Industry Overview 3.1. - Which are the top 3 firms in the market? (if possible) 3.2. What are the factors that give rise to their competitive advantage (scale, technology, marketing, innovation, any other?) 3.3. Is this an industry which experiences a lot of innovation? What kind of innovations have marked this industry? 3.4. What kind of regulation has to be followed in the country where the firm will be located? 4. Competition Analysis: Your direct competitors 4.1. Who are they? 4.2. What are their market shares? 4.3. Can you describe the details of their products? 4.4. How similar are they to yours? 4.5. What are their strengths and weaknesses? 5. Demand Analysis: 5.1. What is your Primary Market or primary set of targeted consumers? 5.2. Why do they buy? 5.3. What need is your product satisfying? 5.4. How is the need currently being met? 5.5. What are the alternatives? 5.6. Are your potential customers marked by any demographic specificity? (age, gender, ethnicity, geographical location etc.) 5.7. How frequently will they purchase per month? 5.8. What is the size of your potential primary market? (in terms of the number of units of your product or service that you can sell). What is your Secondary Market or primary set of targeted consumers? 6. Operations to manufacture your product or service 6.1. What are the facilities required? 6.2. What are the staffing requirements for production? 6.3. Will you use subcontractors? 6.4. What are the protocols for quality control? 7. Marketing & Sales Strategy/Plans 7.1. What is the SWOT Analysis of your products 7.2. What will be the pricing scheme? Why? 7.3. What is your distribution strategy? 7.4. What is your advertising and promotion strategy? 7.5. What is your sales forecast? 7.6. What is sales force structure? (direct sales people or reps? How many?) 7.7. What margins will you give to intermediaries? 7.8. What are your service and warranty details? 7.9. Will you be entering into any strategic alliances? 8. Financial Summary****(very important) 8.1. What are the personnel costs – including all costs? 8.2. What are the costs of maintaining an advisory board? 8.3. What are the costs of maintaining strategic alliances? 8.4. What are the initial fixed sunk costs of starting your business? (infrastructure, equipment, rent, utility, registration with the authorities etc.) 8.5. What are the costs of production once the infrastructure is in place? (overheads, labour, materials etc.) 8.6. What are the costs of marketing? 8.7. How are you raise the funds for starting a business? 9. Projected Financials (for a minimum of 5 years – try to break even by the third year at least) 9.1. What are your cash flow projections? 9.2. What are your profit and loss projections? 10. Appendices – any public information or any supporting evidence for 5-9. Note that you can get information on your industry, demand, costs either from the internet or by talking to people. When you talk to people as long you go with your hypotheses and ask them simply for validation and thereafter you do not name them in your business plan – there is no need for an ethics form. This has been confirmed with the ethics expert in BBS. 11. Epilogue Guidelines for writing the Epilogue:
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 16:57:43 +0000
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