entrep

• Business Plan


  A written document that describes all the steps necessary for opening and operating a successful business
• A business plan

  • Describes your ideas to investors
  • Serves as a guide for you as you start your business
• Purposes of a business plan

  • Explains the idea behind your business
  • How your product or service will be produced and sold
  • Sets specific objectives and how you will achieve them
  • Describes the experience of the people who will run the business
• Importance of a business plan

  • Makes you think about all aspects of your business
  • May help you secure financing
  • Helps you communicate your ideas to others
  • Can serve as a tool for managing your business
• Basic elements of a business plan

  • Introductory materials
  • The main body
  • The appendix
• Main body of a business plan

  • Introduction
  • Marketing
  • Financial Management
  • Operations
  • Concluding Statement
• Introduction

  • Detailed description of business goals
  • Short, medium, and long-term goals
  • Legal structure of the business, including ownership
  • Applicable skills and experience
  • Competitive advantages of your business
• Marketing

  • Products and/or services
  • Market
  • Industry
  • Location
• Financial Management

  • Identification of Risks
  • Financial Statements
  • Funding Request and Return on Investment
• Operations

  • Daily business management
  • Staffing
  • Facilities
  • Equipment
• Concluding Statements

  • Summarize goals and objectives
  • Emphasize commitment to success
• Introductory elements

  • Cover letter
  • Title page
  • Table of Contents
  • Statement of Purpose
  • Executive Summary
• The business plan should be neat, attractive, well organized, and inviting to read
• Purposes of a business plan

  • Explains the idea behind your business and spells out how your product or service will be produced and sold
  • Sets specific objectives and describes how your business expects to achieve them
  • Describes the background and experience of the people who will be running the business
• Seven basic elements of a business plan

  • History and background
  • Goals and objectives
  • Products or services
  • Form of ownership
  • Management and staffing
  • Marketing
  • Current and projected financial statements
• History and background


  • Describing how you came up with your idea can help lenders, investors, and others understand how your business will operate
• Goals and objectives


  • Your business plan should outline your goals—short-term, medium-term, and long-term
• Products or services


  • Explain how your products or services differ from those already on the market
  • Describe the industry you will operate in
  • Describe the location of your business
• Form of ownership


  • Identify your form of ownership
  • Provide information relevant to your form of ownership
• Management and staffing


  • Demonstrate that you and the people working for you have the experience, maturity, and common sense to manage your business
• Marketing


  • Identify your prospective customers
  • Describe the size of the market for your product or service
  • Explain how you plan to enter the market
  • Explain how you plan to deal with competition
• Current and projected financial statements


  • Identification of risks
  • Financial statements
  • Funding request and return on investment
• Additional elements of the business plan


  • Licensing
  • Legal restrictions
  • Regulations
• Research the business plan


  • Print resources
  • Online resources
  • People resources
  • Additional resources
• Put your business plan together

  • Introductory elements
  • Main body of your plan
  • Appendix
• Traditional marketing


  • For large businesses tends to focus on managing and growing existing programs and brands
  • For small- and medium-sized businesses is different because financial resources are limited, and it is often the entrepreneur alone who is in charge of marketing efforts
• Entrepreneurial marketing


  • A set of unconventional practices that can help start-ups and younger firms emerge and have an edge in competitive markets
  • Tends to focus on satisfying the customer and building trust by providing innovative products and services that disrupt or appeal to a specific market
• The 7 Ps of the marketing mix

  • Product
  • Promotion
  • Price
  • Place
  • People
  • Physical environment
  • Process
• Product


  Refers to a good or service that creates value by fulfilling a customer need or desire
• Promotion


  The process of communicating value to customers in a way that encourages them to purchase the good or service
• Typical forms of promotion

  • Advertising
  • Social media
  • Public relations
  • Direct mail
  • Sales promotions
  • Personal selling
• Price


  The value that must be exchanged for a customer to receive a product or service
• Cost-led pricing


  • Involves taking the cost of making the product and creating a profit margin
  • Helpful when start-ups do not have much information about their target market and need more time to define their value proposition and business identity
• Premium pricing


  • You need a clear reason why customers would want to spend more on your product
• Penetration pricing


  • Pricing below competitors can give you a competitive advantage, but may also lead to "price wars"
• Customer-led pricing


  • Pricing led by the customer, based on what they are willing to pay
• Loss leader pricing


  • Uses a below-standard price to attract business in the hope that customers will stay and shop for other, more profitable products
• Introductory offers


  • Use lower initial prices to attract new customers and build a customer base before prices return to "normal"
• Skimming


  • A pricing strategy that leverages the newness of a product to justify the highest price possible in order to "skim" the most profits off the top
• Bundling


  • A discount price is set for a bundle of products to encourage customers to buy in bulk