The Business Plan: Creating and Starting the Venture

Hisrich
Peters
Shepherd
Chapter 7
The Business Plan:
Creating and
Starting the Venture
Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill/Irwin

7-2
Using the Internet as a information
resource tool
 The Internet can provide information for
industry analysis, competitor analysis, and
measurement of market potential.
 An entrepreneur can access:
 Popular search engines.
 Competitors’ Web sites.
 Social networks, blogs, and discussion groups.

7-3
Writing the Business Plan
 A business plan should be comprehensive
enough to give any potential investor a
complete picture and understanding of the
new venture.
 A business plan should help the
entrepreneur to clarify his or her thinking
about the business.

7-4
Writing the Business Plan
1. Introductory page
2. Executive summary
3. Environmental and Industry analysis
4. Description of venture
5. Production plan or operational plan
6. Marketing plan
7. Organisational plan
8. Assessment of risk
9. Financial plan
10.Appendix

7-5
1. Introductory Page
 Name and address of the company.
 Name of the entrepreneur(s), telephone
number, fax number, e-mail address, and Web
site address.
 Description of the company and nature of the
business.
 Statement of financing needed.
 Statement of confidentiality of report (non
disclosure agreement).
Writing the Business Plan (cont.)

7-6
2. Executive Summary
 About two to three pages in length summarizing
the complete business plan.

7-7
3. Environmental and Industry Analysis:
assessment of external uncontrollable
variables that may impact the business
plan.
 The Environmental analysis assesses external
uncontrollable variables that may impact the
business plan (PEST – Political/legal,
economic/environment, social, technology).
 The Industry analysis involves reviewing
industry trends and competitive strategies
(Porter’s five forces).
 Examples: Industry demand, competition, etc.

7-8
Table 3.1- Critical Issues for
Environmental and Industry Analysis

7-9
4 - Describing the Venture

7-10
5. Production plan or Operational Plan
 All businesses should include an operational plan
as part of the business plan.
 It goes beyond the manufacturing process
describing the flow of goods and services from
production to the customer.
 The major distinction between services and
manufactured goods is services involve
intangible performances.

7-11
Table 5.1 - Production Plan or
Operational plan

7-12
6. Marketing Plan
 It describes market conditions and strategy
related to how the product/service will be
distributed, priced, and promoted.
 Marketing research evidence to support any of
the marketing decision strategies as well as for
forecasting sales should be described in this
section.
 Potential investors regard the marketing plan as
critical to the success of the new venture.

7-13
7. Organizational Plan
 It describes the form of ownership and lines of
authority and responsibility of members of new
venture.
 In case of a partnership, the terms of the
partnership should be included.
 In case of a corporation, the following should be
included:
 Shares of stock authorized and share options.
 Names, addresses, and resumes of directors and
officers.
 Organization chart or map.

7-14
8. Assessment of Risk
 Identifies potential hazards and alternative
strategies to meet goals and objectives.
 The entrepreneur should indicate:
 Potential risks to the new venture.
 Impact of the risks.
 Strategy to prevent, minimize, or respond to the risk.
 Major risks could result from:
 Competitor’s reaction.
 Weaknesses in marketing/ production/ management
team.
 New advances in technology.

7-15
9. Financial Plan
 It contains projections of key financial data that
determine economic feasibility and necessary
financial investment commitment.
 It should contain:
 Summarized forecasted sales and appropriate
expenses for at least the first three years.
 Cash flow figures for three years.
 Projected balance sheet.

7-16
10. Appendix
 It contains any backup material that is not
necessary in the text of the document.
 It may include:
 Letters from customers, distributors, or
subcontractors.
 Secondary data or primary research data used to
support plan decisions.
 Leases, contracts, or other types of agreements.
 Price lists from suppliers and competitors.

7-17
Using and Implementing the
Business Plan
 The business plan is designed to guide the
entrepreneur through the first year of
operations.
 The strategy should contain control points
to ascertain progress and to initiate
contingency plans if necessary.
 Without good planning employees will not
understand the company’s goals.
 Businesses fail due to entrepreneur’s
inability to plan effectively.

7-18
Why Some Business Plans Fail
 Goals are unreasonable.
 Objectives are not measurable.
 Entrepreneur has not made a total
commitment to the business or to the
family.
 Lack of experience in the planned business.
 No sense of potential threats or weaknesses
to the business.
 No customer need was established for the
proposed product or service.

The Business Plan: Creating and Starting the Venture

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