Business Plans

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Business Plans

• Derek Bond

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Introduction

• Focus your thinking
• Establish realistic strategy
• Financing and other support
• Reaction by others

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Definition

• Document that can convince the reader that the
  business can produce enough revenue to make a
  satisfactory profit and therefore attractive as
  an investment opportunity

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Many reasons to build one

• BP should sell the writer/reader on the business
  
• Writer so that you can go out and do it,
• Reader to invest in it
• Confidence of knowing the issues
• Improve chances of success

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Many Purposes in real life

• Bank Financing
• Strategic alliances
• Large contracts
• Key employees
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Mgt team motivation
• Ours here Investment by VC or Angels

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Principles of BP

• No right way plans can differ
• Be creative but set a limit
• Concise and focused
• Captures energy and personality of business
  leader
• Include negatives and issues
• Spend some time on it

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Sections of Business Plan

• Cover Page contact name and info
• Table of contents
• Executive summary
• The company past, present and future
• The market
• The Product/service

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Sections of Business Plan - continued

• Sales and Promotion
• Financial projections
• Profit and loss
• Balance sheet
• Cash flow

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Other sections technology based

• Management team people who fund other people
  value management skills above ideas
• Risk factors shows that you know what could go
  wrong and plan to avert it
• Marketing plan if this is innovative how are
  you going to get people to use it

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Packaging the Plan

• It is a living document
• No right/wrong way the need of reader is
  essential
• What are the challenges/ questions that can be
  raised by reader answer these.

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Packaging the Plan

• Include supporting materials
• Dont make unsupported statements
• Designate an outside reviewer/ reader that can
  critique plan

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Sites with sample plans

• www.businessplans.org/businessplans.html
• www.bplans.com/sp/businessplans.cfm
• www.businessplanarchive.org/