Business Plan Outline That Works Simple and Effective Part 3

Business Plan Outline That Works Simple and Effective Part 3 - For more on online sales and distribution models see the guide from Yeoman Technologies which I have also included. Marketing Model How do you plan on getting the word out about your product or service?Jessica from Shoestring marketing offers a great 60 page guide about how to market your product or service on a budget, which you can download in exchange for your email.I have included a link where you can get that in the resources link below this Post.Team Who is on your team, why are they rockstars, and who is responsible for what. If you have outside advisors include them here.Financials This is where you try and predict your monthly revenues and expenses and how those will grow over time.

Focus on the next 12 months.Founders almost always underestimate how long it is going to take to reach profitability and how much money they are going to need to fund their business. While its the job of a company founder to be optimistic, it's important for this part of the plan that you are realistic.For a great layment's overview of how to put together your business plan financials seethe 3 Post series by the founder of Palo Alto Software and Tim Berry which I have included in the resources link below this Post.How to Expand Your Business Plan When Needed After going through the above process you should have somewhere between 15 and 20 slides giving you a solid overview of your business and how it will be run. If you are planning to raise money then for some sources (such as friends, family, and certain venture capitalists)this may be enough.

If you plan on trying to get a loan from a bank then what we outline above is a good start but you are likely going to need to have a written plan to go along with it. For this we recommend the business planning software by Live Plan which you can find on in the resources link below this Post.If you prefer to go the free route then I have included some templates from the folks over at SCORE in the resources link, as well as some other great resources for setting up your business plan. That's our Post for today. If you have any comments or questions please leave them in the comments section below. Also be sure to see the next Post in our series on how to start a business which covers how to raise money for your business.

Business Plan Outline That Works Simple and Effective Part 2

Business Plan Outline That Works Simple and Effective Part 2 - Keep in mind that it doesn't have to be a major world issue, if your city doesn't have a good mexican restaurant then that may be a problem as well.Solution:As we also outline in our article on how to come up with a business idea, the best businesses provide good solutions to problems that people have.airbnb example: They provide an online platform which facilitates the connection between people with space to rent and people who want to rent it. They make the process smooth by handling the payments, providing insurance to the rentee, and providing reviews of users to both therentee and the renter.Here you can also provide use cases if you are a service or screen shots if it is a product.Why Now?Describe how the company got to where it is today.

This is where you could include how you came up with the business idea, and what you found when you tested your idea.What recent trends make your idea possible? For Airbnb one such trend was likely people's increasing comfort with relying on online reviews and making purchases online. Who is your target customer?Describe your target customer based on personality type, income level, age, gender etc. How big is that market? For more on how to calculate the size of a market read the article8 Steps to determining market size from insight central which I have included in the resource slink under this Post.

Competition Who are your primary competitors and what are your competitive advantages?List out the primary features of your competitors product or service and how your product orservice is better or different. A table format such as this one generally works well for this.Product What is your product or service and how do you plan on developing it? In the problems and solutions slides we talk about above, you are listing the benefits of your product or service to the end user. In this section you are talking about specific features.Give the timing for each phase of the development process through launch.Business Model This section should answer the following questions.

Revenue Model How do you plan to price your product and what will your profit margins be? For more on how to price your product or service read the pricing guide from Elizabeth which I have included in the resources link below this Post. Distribution Model How do you plan to sell your product? Are you going to sell directly to customers, wholesale or go through distributors?For an in depth overview of sales and distribution strategies see the guide the guide from Shorey Consulting which I have included in the resources link.
Business Plan Outline That Works Simple and Effective Part 3

Business Plan Outline That Works Simple and Effective

Business Plan Outline That Works Simple and Effective - Today's lesson of the day. In our last lesson we continued our series on how to start a successful business with a look at how to know if you need a patent or trademark for your business. In today's Post we are going to continue that series with a look at how to write a business plan outline. Do you need a business plan?Over the last several years there has been a growing debate about whether or not a businessplan is a waste of time. Those on the no business plan side of the argument, which is being lead by UC Berkley's Steve Blank argue that the time spent writing a business plan is better spent out talking to customers about the product or service you plan on developing.

As we talk about in our Post on how to test your business idea, we agree that you need to go out and talk to people about your business to make sure there is demand before you build it. However, we still think a business plan is also a valuable part of the success equation when starting a new business.Let's look at the components of a successful business plan.If you are writing your business plan for yourself and staff, then we do not recommend doing anything super extensive. A better approach is to put together a short and to the point presentation using powerpoint or keynote. This is also the format that many venture capitalists like to be pitched with, so this format will often work for that as well.

If you are going to need a more extensive plan this is still a good place to start, and we discuss how you can expand out on it later in this Post.The format we are using is taken from the writing a business plan page of Sequoia Capital,a well known venture capital firm.Company purposeComing up with a simple explanation of what your company does is essential to selling your business to your future customers and others. This should be one sentence.Here is an example from Airbnb a website where people can rent rooms out in their apartment or homes to travelers on a short term basis."We connect people who have space to spare with people who are looking for a place to stay".

ProblemIf you have watched our Post on how to come up with a business idea, you know that the biggest mistake that new entrepreneurs make is starting a business that solves a problem no one has. In this section list the problem that your company solves along with examples of how people are currently dealing with the issue.AirBNB Example: People have space they want to rent to others for short periods of time but no good way to rent it.How did people deal with this issue before airbnb? They would either not rent out the space at all (missing out on that potential revenue) or they would use fragmented sources like word of mouth or Craigslist.
Business Plan Outline That Works Simple and Effective Part 2