We talked last week about the beginning sections of your business plan. If you haven’t read it yet, click here to catch up. This is part 2 of 3, so make sure to check back with us soon.
7. Company Overview– Give readers the basic information on your business. Describe your company and its organization. Give the legal name, form, current stage of development, etc.
8. Products and Services Strategy– Describe what you will do and how you will do it. Tell readers about your products or services and why you chose to or plan to develop them. How are they made, priced and delivered? Use this section to review your current product or service and set you apart from the rest. Include your future research and product development plans- but don’t go crazy- outline your plans, but save the demo for requests only.
9. Market Analysis– Present research and conclusions about the industry you will serve. Who are your customers? Who are your competitors? Why will your products or services compete and excel? This section will help you to understand your market and see the demographics and psychographics of your target customers. You’ll learn more about your competitor’s products and services, and both business and environmental risks. Who is going to buy from you? Why will they choose you over someone else? Find 10 prospective people or companies and find out what they need and what problems they are having. Can you bridge this gap? How?
10. Marketing Plan and Strategy– Sure, the world will “beat a path to your door”… but only if they know who you are, what you’ve got and how to reach you. How are you going to create awareness, interest and demand? Base your answers on your market analysis and other plan data. Explain how you will actually sell your product to those customers. Include information on selling methods, distribution channels, advertising and promotions, pricing and profitability, public relations and business relationships. How will you use the reader’s money to efficiently market your product to your customers? This is not something that can be put off: this strategy is not only a key component of your plan, it will help define your business from now on.
I‘ve been helping entrepreneurs and business owners like you for more than 40 years — mostly from within our Business Power Tools software apps and templates, and thru my blogs and book, "Business Black Belt."
My “Hero’s Journey” started In the early ’80s, I was the electronics buyer and a copywriter for the Sharper Image catalog. Later, I also sold some really cool word-processors in Silicon Valley. After Macs and PCs became popular, I started my own business creating sales literature for tech companies.
A friend had a deal going to sell his engineering software to Apple. They wanted to see his business plan to be sure his company would stay in business to provide future upgrades and support. At the time, I viewed a business plan as an elaborate brochure that sold his concept to people at all levels, and responsibilities with various perceptions, biases, and interests. (I learned that from selling word-processors.)
We got the deal.
Over the next year, people came to me with some brilliant ideas, but their plans weren’t getting funded. I helped them fill in the missing parts to succeed. Along the way, I saw that business plans have a fundamentally universal structure. Hmmm…
What if I took all the content I’d developed, redacted everything proprietary, but filled in the blanks with a variety of customizable multiple-choice options, and offered it as a software template that many people could use?
This became BizPlanBuilder, the first of its kind, and my new company took off!
Inspired to help others build businesses that would make our world a better place, we became our own Guinea pigs seeking to remove as many common mistakes and as much unnecessary BS as possible, and crafted tools for others building businesses to make our world a better place.
We followed-up with MarketingBuilder, which picked-up where BizPlanBuilder left off, then we went even further with PRBuilder which included sample press release templates… In another direction, we added EmployeeManualBuilder and SafetyPlanBuilder full of actual policies and procedures.
Altogether, we had 10 products in about 3,500 retail stores and built a $12 million company with 30 employees… (All that to say, I've been down the road you're on. I didn't just make this stuff up!)
Today, all of our products have been integrated into a streamlined and unified online toolbox/dashboard. And we’re the leader in business development software templates that help you build your business.
I also like dogs, kick-boxing, flying airplanes, writing, walking on the beach at sunset, candlelight dinners, and red wine... :-)
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