Business Planning
It is essential to have a realistic, working business plan when you're starting up a business or spinning out a new venture from an existing business or University.
A business plan is a written document that describes a business, its objectives, its strategies, the market it is in and its financial forecasts.
When comtemplating starting an new business venture you may begin to collect the supporting information that gives you the confidence to forge ahead. Burgundy Gold can help you assess this information and where necesary fill the gaps that may be required to convince you and others that your business is worthy of investment, whether this is in the form of your own time and money or if you are looking for bank, venture capital or business angel funding.
Burgundy Gold will help to review the Market Opportunity, compile Market Statistics, assess the Intellectual Property position and develop both the Technology Development Plan and the Financial Strategy to make your business a success and present the information in an easy to follow style which is accesible to both you and any other potential investor.
The Busines Plan Structure
A good business plan will contain the following:
Executive Summary
This is an overview of the business you want to start. It is the most important section of the plan. Many banks, VCs and angel investors make judgments about your business based on this section of the plan alone.
Background and Introduction
This part of the plan sets out your vision for your new business and includes who you are, what you do, what you have to offer and the market you want to address. This section will detail an overview of the business and will set the seen as to how you got to where you are today. For example where did the idea come from, have you invented or acquired the rights to the technology or business idea, and clearly set out your vision for the business opportunity and how you are going to make it happen.
In summary the plan must describe what is unique about the business opportunity and what benefits does it deliver to the potential customer, be that a consumer or another business.
The Team
This section describes the people involved, their experience/track record, qualifications and the organisational structure that will help deliver the business plan.
Particularly where the business is looking for external funding the Team can be considered to be as important if not more so than the Technology or Business Idea.
Rationale/Approach
This section describes you technology, products or business idea, and should include a clear explanation of the unique approach in comparison with what has conventionally taken place in your market place.
Intellectual Property
Patents, Trademarks, Copyright, Designs.
Has the idea been patent protected? Are you free to operate in your market sector? Who owns/invented the intellectual property? What license agreements or other contracts cover the exploitation of the intellectual property?
Market Opportunity
In this section the plan must describe the marketplace the business plans to operate in and that the Directors understand any important trends and drivers. Key areas to cover include the market size, historical data about its development and significant current issues. What portion of the market can you reasonably expect to capture?
Competitors
Describe what others have done in the same market place. If they have been successful, how did they achieve success? Why is the business approach different from the competition? Good evidence that others have made money in the sector will encourage investment.
Business strategy
Short Term - next 2 years and Longer Term - 2-5 years.
What is your business model, business to consumer, business to business, product development and sales or technology licensing, all or any are possible as long as the numbers stack up.
Technical Plan
At what stage is your technology today and what if anything do you need to do to get it to market. How long will it take and what investment is required, who will be doing the research, internal or sub-contracted, what other resources are necessary? How will the technical plan be managed?
The technical plan could equally describe the production/manufacturing route or the development of infrastructure that allows you to bring a product or an idea to market.
Financial Plan
A detailed forecast of the financial performance of the business including all projected costs and sales/license revenue. Where appropriate this will include external funding needs and timescales.
Exit
This may not be something you have thought about at this early stage. However if you are looking for investment, investors would like to know how and when they will get a return on their money. Exit can take a number of forms, for example a trade sale to a competitor or another business looking to get into your market sector. Alternatively, you can float the business on the stock market (AIM) or Main Market in order to get liquidity in the share stock.