The Customer Analysis section of the business plan assesses the customer segments that the company serves. In it, the company must 1) identify its target customers, 2) convey the needs of these customers, and 3) show how its products and services satisfy these needs. The first step of the Customer Analysis is to define exactly which customers the company is serving. This requires specificity. It is not adequate to say the company is targeting small businesses, for example, because there are several million of these types of customers. Rather, the plan must identify precisely the customers it is serving, such as small businesses with 10 to 50 employees based in large metropolitan cities on the West Coast. Once the plan has clearly identified and defined the company’s target customers, it is necessary to explain the demographics of these customers. Questions to be answered include: 1) how many potential customers fit the given definition? is this customer base growing or...

Many investors skip straight to the financial section of the business plan. It is critical that the assumptions and projections in this section be realistic. Plans that show penetration, operating margin and revenues per employee figures that are poorly reasoned, internally inconsistent or simply unrealistic greatly damage the credibility of the entire business plan. In contrast, sober, well-reasoned financial assumptions and projections communicate operational maturity and credibility. For instance, if the company is categorized as a networking infrastructure firm, and the business plan projects 80% operating margins, investors will raise a red flag. This is because investors can readily access the operating margins of publicly-traded networking infrastructure firms and find that none have operating margins this high. As much as possible, the financial assumptions should be based on actual results from your firm or other firms. As the example above indicates, it is fairly easy to...

Even the best new concept or existing plan will fail if executed poorly. The Management Team section of the business plan must prove to the investor why the key company personnel are "eminently qualified" to execute on the business model. The Management Team section should include biographies of key team members and detail their responsibilities. It is important that these biographies are not merely resumes that include the educational backgrounds and previous job titles and responsibilities of the team members. Rather, biographies should highlight the most relevant past positions that the individuals have held and specific successes in each. These successes could include launching and growing new businesses or managing divisions of established companies. Team member biographies should be tailored to the company's growth stage. For instance, a start-up company should emphasize its management's success launching and growing companies. A more mature company should emphasize how team...

All investors greatly desire and are motivated by a clear picture of a company’s exit strategy, or the timing and method through which they can “cash in” on their investment. This picture best comes into focus when the key valuation and liquidity drivers of the company are clearly delineated. An excellent method to accomplish this is through descriptions of comparable firms that have had successful liquidity events, either through acquisition, merger, of initial public offerings (IPOs). It is helpful to show other companies in your market, or similar companies in other markets, who have successfully exited, and how and why these companies were successful. For instance, were they successful since they acquired a large customer base? Or were they successful since they accomplished fast growth or high profit margins? It is also important to tie their success to their exit price. Was the exit price based on earnings or the number of customers the firm had at the time? The business...

How long should a business plan be? A business plan needs to be whatever length is required to excite the investor, prove that management truly understands the market, and detail the execution strategy. From surveys of investor needs, Growthink has found that 15 to 25 pages of text is the optimum length in which to accomplish this. Any more and the time-constrained investor will be forced to skim certain sections of the plan, even if they are generally interested, which could lead them to miss essential elements. Any less and the investor will think that the business has not been fully thought through, or will simply not have enough information to make an investment decision. Many management teams feel that their company is too complex to describe in 15 to 25 pages. While this is sometimes true, the business plan is not meant to tell the whole story. Rather, the company must be “boiled down” into its essential elements. If the investor is interested, there will be plenty of...

When developing the competition section of your business plan, companies must define competition correctly, select the appropriate competitors to analyze, and explain its competitive advantages. To start, companies must align their definition of competition with investors. Investors define competition as any service or product that a customer can use to fulfill the same need(s) as the company fulfills. This includes firms that offer similar products, substitute products and other customer options (such as performing the service or building the product themselves). Under this broad definition, any business plan that claims there are no competitors greatly undermines the credibility of the management team. In identifying competitors, companies often find themselves in a difficult position. On one hand, they want to show that they are unique (even under the investors’ broad definition) and list no or few competitors. However, this has a negative connotation. If no or few companies...

Forging partnerships to improve market penetration has become commonplace, particularly for “new economy” businesses. And, most companies proudly mention their many partnerships in their business plans. The fact is that, regardless of whom the partnership is with, partnerships by themselves are meaningless. What are meaningful are the terms of the partnership. For instance, while it sounds great to have a partnership with a Fortune 500 company, the details of the partnership are what investors find important. For instance, investors will look poorly upon a partnership in which the Fortune 500 company earns 90% commissions on customers it refers. On the other hand, investors would look favorably upon a more equitable partnership. As such, be sure to detail the specifics of the partnerships. This includes factors such as how the partnership will work, payment terms, contract length, minimum and/or maximum guarantees, the type of customer leads expected from each partner, timing of...

Don't Tell People You Have Little or No Competition in Your Business Plan This is a Fatal Flaw seen in many business plans. Everyone likes to think that their product or service is so unique that no one else can successfully compete against it. In rare instances, a new technology may come on stream that truly is a new and better solution to a problem, but even then the advantage may be only temporary before other people offering similar technology enter the market. In reality, every type of product or service faces competition of some kind, because you still have to convince someone to purchase from you rather than spend the money on something else. And if you really believe you have no competition, how do you know there's a market for your product? Perhaps no one is offering it because no one wants to buy it. Perhaps others have tried and failed. Investors reading a Business Plan in which the company states it has no competition, usually conclude the management group has not...

Having a great idea in theory, and being able to pull it off in practice are two wildly different things. It's very easy to start a business that you think will work, but to avoid making big mistakes one of the best things you can do is to write a business plan. If you are able to write a plan of action about your idea or business, then it is probably worth your time. Below are some key steps to follow when writing your business plan: 1. Concentrate On ClarityYour business plan is not the place to insert massive amounts of technical jargon, the best way forward is to concentrate on presenting your ideas clearly so that almost anybody could pick up your business plan and understand it. 2. Understand Your Audience How you write your business plan depends a lot on who you think will be reading it. If you are looking for investment, you have to ensure that you are to the point and at the same time you need to include as much relevant information as possible. 3. Ask For AdviceThere are...

It is hard to get a funding from a business plan, even a very good business plan. You can give yourself a much better chance of raising capital if you avoid eight common business plan mistakes. Your business plan may be the first thing investors see, and it is important that your business plan be written professionally and excellently. Investors see thousands of business plans each year, and the ones that get funded are less than 1%. You will greatly improve your chance of getting funded if you avoid these mistakes. 1. Mistakes in Overall Content A well written business plan finds the solutions to problems that customers are looking for and will pay money to solve. The plan dos not need superlatives to say that it is great. If it is great, the readers will come to that conclusion. Also, be sure your plan presents a focused strategy to solve only one problem in the target market. 2. Stating “There is no competition” Every business has competition, either direct or...

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