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1. Executive summary
Write this section last.
We suggest that you make it no more than two pages long. Include everything that you would cover in a five-minute interview.
Explain the fundamentals of the proposed business: What will your product be? Who will your customers be? Who are the owners? What do you think the future holds for your business and your industry?
Make it enthusiastic, professional, complete and concise.
If proposing for an investment, state clearly how much you want, precisely how you are going to use it, and how the money will make your business more profitable, thereby ensuring repayment. Paragraph headings can be used if they identify the purpose of each paragraph. (example below)
Company and Management(Team) Product/Service Description Market Analysis Company Strategy Risk Analysis Financial Plan
Investment Proposition
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2. Introduction to the Company and its Management
2.1 Company Overview
What business will you be in? What will you do?
Mission Statement: Many companies have a brief mission statement, usually in 30 words or fewer, explaining their reason for being and their guiding principles. If you want to draft a mission statement, this is a good place to put it in the plan.
2.2 Organisational Structure
If you’ll have more than 10 employees, create an organizational chart showing the management hierarchy and who is responsible for key functions.
Include position descriptions for key employees. If you are seeking loans or investors, include resumes of owners and key employees.
2.3 The Management Team
Who will manage the business on a day-to-day basis? What experience does that person bring to the business? What special or distinctive competencies? Is there a plan for continuation of the business if this person is lost or incapacitated?
2.4 Advisory Board
List members of management advisory board and their short resume/CV.
2.5 Proposed Management Compensation
If the management team are willing to reduce their compensation in the first year of business
2.6 Headcount Forecast
Number of employees of each departments and the total in the next 5 years. (tables preferred)
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3. Products and Services Description
3.1 Products and Technologies Introduction
Describe in depth your products or services (technical specifications, drawings, photos, sales brochures and other bulky items belong in the Appendices).
What factors will give you competitive advantages or disadvantages? Examples include level of quality or unique or proprietary features.
What are the cost, feeor commission structures of your products or services? Don’t forget to include the current Patent Status.
3.2 Detailed Development Plan
3.2.1 Product Roadmaps
List and describe product type and service of all categories, what they do, when they are available, and the timeline of design, prototype, sample promotion etc. (tables and figures are encouraged)
3.2.2 Development Stages
Write down the stages used to measure the stepping successes (deliverables, milestones) of the whole company according to the development plan.
3.3 Future Applications
List and describe potential applications.
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4. Marketing Analysis
No matter how good your products and services are, the venture cannot succeed without effective marketing. This begins with careful and systematic research. It is very dangerous to assume that you already know about your intended market. You need to do market research to make sure you are on track. Use the business planning process as your opportunity to uncover data and to question your marketing efforts. Your time will be well spent. There are two kinds of market research: primary and secondary.
Secondary research means using published information such as industry profiles, trade journals, newspapers, magazines, census data, and demographic profiles. This type of information is available in public libraries, industry associations, chambers of commerce, from vendors who sell to your industry, and from government agencies.
Primary research means gathering your own data. For example, you could do your own traffic count at a proposed location, use the yellow pages to identify competitors, and do surveys or focus-group interviews to learn about consumer preferences. Professional market research can be very costly, but there are many books that show small business owners how to do effective research themselves.
In your marketing plan, be as specific as possible; give statistics, numbers, and sources. The marketing plan will be the basis, later on, of the all-important sales projection.
4.1 Market Trend
Describe your industry. Is it a growth industry? What changes do you foresee in the industry, short term and long term? How will your company be poised to take advantage of them? Facts about your industry:
What is the total size of your market?
What percent share of the market will you have? (This is important only if you think you will be a major factor in the market.) Current demand in target market.
Trends in target market—growth trends, trends in consumer preferences, and trends in product development.
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4.2 Market Segmentation
Show the understanding of the market segments (sizes, volume growth, revenue growth)
4.3 Market Gap (Unique Selling Point)
Analyze the current market and identify and explain that there might be a gap, a weak/missing segment of the market for your particular product. And describe growth potential and opportunity for a business of your type and size.
4.4 Competitive Analysis
What products and companies will compete with you?List your major competitors:
Will they compete with you across the board, or just for certain products and customers or in certain locations?Will you have important indirect competitors? (For example, video rental stores compete with cinemas, although they are different types of businesses.) How will your products or services compare with the competition?
You can use the Competitive analysis table below to compare your company with your two most important competitors. The first column lists key competitive factors. Since these vary from one industry to another, you may want to customize the list of factors.
In the column labeled Me, state honestly how you think you will be perceived in customers' minds. Then check whether you think this factor will be a strength or a weakness for you. Sometimes it is hard to analyse our own weaknesses. Try to be very clear here. Better yet, get somebody else to assess you. This can be a real eye-opener. And remember that you cannot be all things to all people. In fact, trying to be causes many business failures because their efforts become scattered and diluted. You want an honest assessment of your firm's strong and weak points.
Now analyse each major competitor. In a few words, state how you think they compare with you.In the final column, estimate the importance of each competitive factor to the customer. 1 = critical; 5 = not very important.
Table 1: Competitive analysis
Business-plan-template 全英商业计划书模板
