A Good Business Plan

Essentials of a good business plan

A business plan must go through these four aspects in order to make it complete.

Business Description
Market strategies and
competitive analysis
Operations and
Management Plan
Financial Analysis

1. Business Description

The business description usually begins with a short description of the industry. When describing the industry, discuss the present outlook as well as future possibilities. You should also provide information on all the various markets within the industry, including any new products or developments that will benefit or adversely affect your business.

We may also start the plan with executive summary followed by business description. This may depend on plan to plan basis.

Executive Summary

Within the overall outline of the business plan, the executive summary will follow the title page. The summary should tell the reader what you want. This is very important. All too often, what the business owner desires is buried on page eight. Clearly state what you're asking for in the summary.

2. Market Strategies

Market strategies are the result of a meticulous market analysis. A market analysis forces the entrepreneur to become familiar with all aspects of the market so that the target market can be defined and the company can be positioned in order to garner its share of sales.

Competitive Analysis

The purpose of the competitive analysis is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors within your market, strategies that will provide you with a distinct advantage, the barriers that can be developed in order to prevent competition from entering your market, and any weaknesses that can be exploited within the product development cycle.

3. Operations & Management Plan

The operations and management plan is designed to describe just how the business functions on a continuing basis. The operations plan will highlight the logistics of the organisation such as the various responsibilities of the management team, the tasks assigned to each division within the company, and capital and expense requirements related to the operations of the business.

4. Financial Factors

Financial data is always at the back of the business plan, but that doesn't mean it's any less important than up-front material such as the business concept and the management team.

 Here are some top recommended slides that every investor wants to see in a pitch deck

  •   Title Slide with Elevator pitch - Your Brand name and your elevator pitch. The elevator pitch should explain your idea in 2 sentences or less.
  •   Problem slide - Explain your customer problems.
  •   Solution slide - Your solution for the problem which is your Startup idea. Your solution should be scalable.
  •  Market Validation - Your customer stories and some numbers you did. In early stage focus more on these. Tell your customer stories and numbers. Be thorough with all the numbers.
  •  Market Size - How big this opportunity can be ? This should be in billions of dollars for it to be a venture capital feasible business model.
  •  Product slide - How does your product work. How easy is it for customer to solve his problem with your product. Screen shot of your workflow should do.
  •  Business Model - How you would make revenue / profit ?
  •  Competition - Who is your competition - Don't shy away list them all. The more you know about your competition the better.
  •  Competitive Advantage - How do you do better than competition, What do you know that they do not know ? Intellectual property advantage, technical advantage, Economies of scale, network effects etc.,
  •  Go to Market Strategy - How do you intend to win the market. Is it by partnerships. How much does it cost to acquire your customer. What is the life time value of your customer.