Entries Tagged 'IP' ↓

One of the most common requests we get is: How To Write A Business Plan?

In this post, we want to share our learning on business plans with you.

Going by the number of business plans we reviewed or helped in prepare in the last one year, the global economy is doing great.

A lot of individual professionals have opened their own companies, and many companies are looking to grow with global demand for their products/services.

The physical location of people is getting less relevant in many industries. The Internet is playing a role in every business plan, across industries: Online Business ventures, IT/ BPO/ KPO / Outsourcing services, New Media, Pharma/Healthcare services, Food Retail/Cafe, and Retail chains, etc.

While there is no one answer to it, we want to share a good business plan template with you that we have used with success: http://www.alphaneuron.com/BizPlan_Template.pdf

From our business plan reviews, we also see a common mistake many people are making a there is a lot of emphasis on how much money is needed and what kind of sales will happen, etc.

But there is insufficient information and analysis on the market in which you want to play and the differentiators with respect to competition, and therefore, what makes you think that you will win the sales that you show in your plan.

Also, none or very little information is shared on the systems/processes in place for the business to run if you were to go down for some reason. These are important parts of a business plan.

And we hope the template we have shared above will help you. Ideally, 20-25 slides are good for any business plan, including references and supporting data.

Please keep in mind the following:

1. The purpose of the business plan is to convince the investor that your plan is practical and that there is a good chance for success.

2. If you send your plan to every VC and investor around, your effort will be high, and also your rejection rate. Therefore, first connect with propective VCs and check if they are interested at all in what you are proposing. It is often more productive to send customized mails to 20 VCs than the same mail to 200.

3. Be willing to face a lot of NOs. Be ready to start things small with alternate funding arrangements. If you will start only if VC money is available, then your plan is weak.

4. Show options at key decision points, so that different possibilities are visible. For example, what if the demand turns our to be only 50% of what you planned? Or what if it is 200% of what you planned? What if you go down with illness? What if a large company creates similar product? Identify real-life risks and show options for them. This will be received well because many VCs often start from the business risks.

If you have any particular questions or need help with your business plan development or business plan review, please feel free to contact us, and we will be able to guide you – under an NDA of course! Thanks.

Related Links:

1. Business Plan Service

2. Business Plan Sample

This is a recent business plan developed by us, and it is shared as a screenshot so that none of the details are visible. Focus on the Table of Contents – note the breadth of topics covered within the 12 page plan. In our experience, it is possible to cover even the most complex business plans within 25 pages. Most business plans can be covered in good detail in 15-20 pages, including Client/Vendor feedback, and market research findings that can be put in the Appendix.

Page Last Updated on: 31 March 2008

 

Sam Walton, the legendary founder of Wal-Mart, followed these rules for growth. And based on our experience from running both online and physical brick and mortar businesses, we confirm their value even today. So it’s worth taking the time to think about them for your own business.

1. Commit with passion to your business. (this is often missing in many teams that seem to be not growing)

2. Share profits with your employees. (this was a rarity a few decades back, but today it is the expectation)

3. Motivate your partners. Money and ownership are not enough.  Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score. (the feeling of challenge is very important, and your business partners should feel they are working towards something important and worthwhile – relationships can’t build on financial performance alone)

4. Communicate everything to your employees. The more they know, the more they will understand. Information is power and the gain you get from empowering your associates more than offsets any risk of informing your competitors. (all the IT systems including ERP and CRM systems are exactly about this point – given the a full picture, your talented staff can produce more business growth than you have planned. of course, there will be confidential information and IP which you need to share on need-to-know basis, but the essense is to share with all the right people, so that they are aligned)

5. Show appreciation for a job well done. (this is especially important in those cases where you don’t expect repeat business transactions to happen – and by taking this approach, you will see new business leads coming from unknown areas – it has happened to us often!)

6. Celebrate success and in those inevitable failures, find some humor. Don’t take it so seriously.

7. Listen to everyone in your company, especially the ones who actually talk to customers. They really know what is going on out there.

8. Exceed your customers’ expectations and they will always come back.

9. Control your expenses better than your competition. (cost control and cost cutting is among the most difficult things to do in a business, and really stresses the entire company, but it can be constructive if approached well and with sufficient communication about why jobs or perks are being cut, or why salary is not being raised this quarter or year. On of the interesting things we observe is that investment in systems and processes often leads to reduced labour costs in medium-term to long-term, so it is worth evaluating on regular basis for business cost control)

10. Swim upstream. If everyone else is going one way, there is a good chance you can find your business niche by going the opposite way.