Leonardo Project CZ/99/2/07082/PI/II.1.1c Partner: CREUFOP – UMII (France)
BUSINESS PLANNING DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
Introduction
Part I - GENERAL PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT
Executive Summary
Company Profile
Part II – THE COMPANY as of --/--/----
- Background
- The management
- The product
Part III – THE MARKET
Introduction: market study (optional, doesn’t appear in the plan)
- The environment
1.1 – The state of technological art
1.2 – The context
2.Demand
2.1 - Figures: potential and trends
2.2 – Qualitative analysis and Segmentation
2.3 – Real life results
3.Competition
3.1 – Market penetration
3.2 – Comparative analysis products
3.3 – Commercial strategy and its implementation
4.Opportunity and development / Competitive advantages
Part IV – STRATEGIES OF DEVELOPMENT AND PLANS OF ACTION
1.The Business model
2.Product strategy
2.1 – Product Appropriateness / market
2.2 – Positioning and price
2.3 – R&D Program
(R&D program by steps)
2.4 – Industrial Protection
2.5 – Summary in figures
Anvar table tool
3.Production strategy
3.1 - Organization
3.2 – Purchasing policy
3.3 – Production budget and Unit cost price
summary in figures
4.Commercial strategy
4.1 – Commercial Objectives
4.2 – Organizing the market launch
4.3 - Commercial action plan
tool
Part V –STRATEGIC STEPS OF THE PROJECT
Part VI - ORGANIZING THE IMPLEMENTATION
- Organization and Human means
- Technical means
- Legal structure
Part VII – SUMMARY OF RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Part VIII - CONCLUSION
Part IX – FINANCIAL FILE
Annexes
Introduction
Caution, this is not a synthetic presentation of your project, but an actual introduction to the entire document: 15 to 25 lines maximum
Objective:
To introduce and create the decor, to spark the reader’s interest.
To help you:
In order to better describe the project’s interest in only a few words, you can use:
-An attention grabbing example
-A newspaper article excerpt,
-A legal excerpt,
-A scenario with the product
- …
Example:
Take a newspaper article about Calytherm
TO KNOW MORE (2 points)
While writing up your Business Plan, keep in mind the two roles that it must play:
-TO PLEASE: tell the beautiful story of your project in advance.
In this way, it is a “marketing” window, it should make the reader want to see and live the rest.
-TO CONVINCE: present the objectives and the implemented means, highlighting the coherence and the seriousness of the whole.
In this way, it is therefore both an objective and rigorous presentation of the project.
While writing your business plan, think about your reader:
A venture capitalist receives several dozen business plans a month. Imagine how many a banker receives...
A few criteria allow them to put aside certain files right away:
- the business plan isn’t recommended by a subscriber
- it exceeds 20 pages
- the definition of the activity is vague or too technical,
- the market is poorly identified or has too little potential,
- the management team’s value is uncertain
Too many figures, too much product technology, too many uncertainties, too much jargon, not enough ambition, not enough market, not enough strategy are all reasons for rejection. The business plan should make the reader want to study your file and… more if affinities. The details, that is to say the annexes that you hold at their disposition, will be communicated as the study is taken on.
Test your business plan with informed readers before communicating it to those it is intended for.
Part I – GENERAL PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT
This section appears at the top of your business plan, however it should be written at the end, when all the data is known.
You will use these two documents as a synthetic presentation of your project, independent of the rest of the file. This is the only document requested by most financial specialists as a first contact.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Objective:
To present the general content of your business project in a one-page synthetic manner.
This page alone must convince your contacts to read your file further… and not to file it vertically: it’s about getting the reader’s attention in 20 seconds, through striking details.
This does not mean answering all the questions, but rather only the most discriminating ones in order to enhance your project!
(Title accentuated) Your company’s profession: in a few words
- You can, as a subtitle, specify through generic terms: telecom, wireless, B to B, B to C, Mass Distribution, e-business, Market Place, etc.
- Give an example of the application: this could be an example of how to use it, an example of a customer reference, etc.
1.The Opportunity to undertake
Describe the opportunity given to you to undertake, generally:
An environment: evolving state of advanced technological art, evolving needs, changing regulations, etc.
An answer: technological rupture, commercial innovation…
2. The Market and competition
Size and trends of the market
What are your competitive advantages? What are the obstacles (technological et commercial) from the beginning? Strengths and weaknesses compared to competitive model(s) (products, distribution, price, discounts…)?
3.The business Model
- What are our sources of revenue? What are the strategic partnerships? How is the supply organized? What market segment does it address in priority? How does it reach the customer? How does it contribute to others making money? (customers, partnerships, etc.)
4. Profile of the management team:
- Founders and main skills grouped together
5.Development strategy and implementation means:
- What are your ambitions in the short term and at middle course? (number of customers, geographical area covered, turnover...)
What are the implementation means; what is done, what needs to be done (producing the product, industrial protection, market approach, human and technical means...)
6.Forecasts:
(link or send back to the tool)
In order to present your forecasts, use the tool.
N / N+1 / N+2Turnover (before tax)
Net earnings
Employees
Financial needs
- Do not hesitate to develop it over 5 years if your project either permits or justifies it.
- Comment on the financial need so that your contact knows how much you are requesting from him/her...
Identification sheet of the business on -- / -- / ----
Corporate Name
Activity title
C:\Dokumenty\kip\USME\knihy\BP_e.doc1/38
Legal structure:
Creation date (projected if creation):
Employees:
Turnover before tax (on --/--/--):
Headquarters (Address if not a project):
Sector Code:
Registration #:
Tel.:
Fax:
E-Mail:
C:\Dokumenty\kip\USME\knihy\BP_e.doc1/38
Name of director: (last name, first name, date and place of birth)
Capital division (projected)
Shareholders / Shares / %-
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Total
Obtained financing: (ANVAR aid, ARCE, DRIRE …)
-(Year obtained, nature and amount)
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Labelling, expertise, awards:
(date and nature)
Registered Patents:
(nature, date)
Consultants and partners: (bank, auditors, legal counsel, Charter Accountant, technology experts…)
- (name: mission, telephone)
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References which can be consulted (commercial, industrial, scientific…)
(Contact, company, nature of the relationship, telephone number)
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Part II – THE COMPANY AS OF --/--/----
- Background
Objective:
Everything that has already been done and which enables you to present and enhance the course you have chosen.
Invaluable for existing companies, this section also enables creators of future companies to identify the significant steps taken before the creation.
Questions:
-What were the significant achievements leading up to your project?
-Commercial achievements (significant orders, participating in well-known fairs,),
-Technical achievements (prototype finalization, setting up a pilot unit, partnership,)
-Economic achievements, …
-Structuring human resources (recruitment undertaken so far and validating the organization)
- The management
Objective:
To present the creator(s) of the wider company to the key functioning positions and to outside partners.
The four large components, which your business project partners will evaluate, are as follows:
-The people (the entrepreneur and his/her team),
-The project,
-The appropriateness of the people and the project,
-The method chosen to go from project to actual company.
Questions:
The creative team
-Who is the company's creator?
-Who did he seek help from to prepare the project?
-In the event that several creators exist, which one is the "leader”?
-What is the CV of each creator (a mini CV from 5 to 10 lines is enough in this section, but you will include your complete CV as an annex)
-How is the team constituted? What are its strong points and weak points?
The wider team (in order to complete the skills of the original team)
-Were people hired to key positions (e.g.: a manager, a Finance Director, a Head of Production,) If yes, also include the CVs of these people.
-Do certain partnerships bring complementary skills? With whom? What kind of skills? How long is the partnership expected to last?
TO KNOW MORE (2 points)
While writing up your Business Plan, keep in mind the two roles that it must play:
-TO PLEASE: tell the beautiful story of your project in advance.
In this way, it is a “marketing” window, it should make the reader want to see and live the rest.
-TO CONVINCE: present the objectives and the implemented means, highlighting the coherence and the seriousness of the whole.
In this way, it is therefore both an objective and rigorous presentation of the project.
While writing your business plan, think about your reader:
A venture capitalist receives several dozen business plans a month. Imagine how many a banker receives...
A few criteria allow them to put aside certain files right away:
- the business plan isn’t recommended by a subscriber
- it exceeds 20 pages
- the definition of the activity is vague or too technical,
- the market is poorly identified or has too little potential,
- the management team’s value is uncertain
Too many figures, too much product technology, too many uncertainties, too much jargon, not enough ambition, not enough market, not enough strategy are all reasons for rejection. The business plan should make the reader want to study your file and… more if affinities. The details, that is to say the annexes that you hold at their disposition, will be communicated as the study is taken on.
Test your business plan with informed readers before communicating it to those it is intended for.
- The Product
Objective
To allow the reader to immediately understand what we are talking about.
To illustrate what your product is in detail, and to quickly situate its current development stage as of today (where is it in its: achievement, protection)
Questions:
-What products or services do you sell? (illustrate with a photograph or diagram)
-Can you give an example of an application?
-What technology does it use? (Is there a technological shortage)
-At this stage, is it protected?
-Does your company produce a single or several products?
-Is your supply ready or not? How long has it been / When will it be ready?
-Is it already on the market? If yes, who are your customers?
Part III – THE MARKET
Introduction:Market Study
(5 / 10 lines)
Objective:
The results of your market study will appear in all of the following section.
In the introductory paragraph you can briefly explain the way the market study was conducted in order to justify the accuracy of later statements.
As a next step, systematically indicate the sources of the data you are going to use.
A market study first of all allows you to verify the existence of a need and its conversion into a solvent market demand. If no need is expressed or the market demand not solvent, it is rather utopian to think that the market launch of the imagined product could succeed.
Questions:
What methodology was used to complete the market study?
Who conducted this study? When? What are its limits?
To know more (3 points)
Market study Documentary studyInvestigation methods
Market study
It holds a key place in your project’s development. It is illusory to insist on developing the idea of the product (or the service) without having measured the conditions of its commercial conclusion. A company only exists if it makes a profit from sales. It is therefore necessary to check that your idea can be sold (where? To whom?), that the customers will be sufficiently numerous to assure the development of the activities (how many?) in the long run.
And that profit will be generated (under what conditions?) The answer to these questions is found through the analysis of the environment within which the company will develop (generic market) as well as those of the different accessible clientele fields (specific markets).
Positioning, organization of production mode, etc... all your choices will be guided by
(1) the functioning modes of your environment and of its targeted market(s),
(2) the expectations of the clientele,
(3) the role of direct and indirect competition,
(4) the market prices or acceptable prices...
Documentary study:
It comes into play during the generic market study (discovery of the global environment in which the company will develop). The documentary study is based on the collection and analysis of all accessible information (official, syndicated, professional, private, technical, commercial or economic-financial).
A good documentary study can only be taken on after having taken an inventory of, sorted and selected all the sources of existing information in hierarchical order by priorities. Professional magazines, information from organizations tied to your activity, catalogues from competitors are all important. The objective of the documentary study is to determine the economic context which will have an influence on your development:
(1)The market sector: location, organization, functioning
(2)Your potential customer sector: evolution trends, structure, composition, organization, and behaviour...
(3) Your direct and indirect competition: location, organization, degree of influence, behaviour on the market..
(4) The supply and distribution circuits
(5) The technological environment: evolution, trends..
The documentary study makes it possible to have a preliminary approach to the influential factors on the market(s) in which you plan to intervene.
It allows you to gather extensive quantitative data.
To remember! It is possible that the documentary study reveals the existence of complete and accessible market studies.
Investigation methods:
In the context of the market study (generic or specific), the investigation is of the utmost importance since it focuses as a priority on the recognition of the qualitative aspects of the market. There are several types of investigations:
(1) The investigation through questionnaires (directive investigation): it requires a well-prepared questionnaire as well as the set-up of a network of investigators. It is based on a series of closed questions (yes/no). This type of investigation rarely interests a project to create.
(2) The discovery investigation (non-directive): it’s an interview (face to face or by phone) built around a specific framework (terms and conditions). The effectiveness of such an investigation is based on the freedom of expression left to the person being interviewed…making sure all the while that the person does not stray from the context fixed by the investigator. It is essential that the founders participate actively in this type of investigation.
(3) The semi-directive investigation: a combination of the two methods discussed earlier.
(4) The group meeting: it is about making a group of individuals identified as belonging to one or several segments of the market react. This method is interesting prior to launching products on the general consumer market: taste tests of the product, colour, shape, name searches.
(5) The omnibus investigation: this makes it possible to reach a high number of consumers-users in order to know their motivations, their buying intentions, etc. It concerns a systematic investigation which should be given to a specialized organization.
(6) Field tests: It concerns the first results obtained from final customers of the company (Be careful to distinguish between curiosity and interest, that is to say between attitude (what is said during the interview) and behaviour (what is actually bought)).
1.The environment
1.1.The state of technological art
Objective:
To explain to non-specialists (financial, administrative...) the state of technological art, which the innovative character of the project stems from.
Questions:
-What are the main technical vocabulary terms?
-What is “stateof the art” in this field?
-What are the most recent developments and their influence on the market?
-What are the current practices within companies? within laboratories?
-What are the perspectives of technological advancement, and by what dates?
-Do any known projects or technological developments exist which could have a strong impact on the future technological context?
-Can you place your technologies and the competitor’s technologies on a lifecycle curve?
TO KNOW MORE (1 point)
Technological sources of information:
Do not stay isolated in your research. Among the public, para public, private, regional, national, European providers, the investigation field is wide. Solicit partners, consulate organizations, supporting entrepreneurial structures. Keep in mind the indications discovered throughout your reading. Keep your ears open to your surroundings.
1.2.The context
Objective:
To describe the context (regulatory, political, sociological …) in which your company is evolving or will evolve, as well as the main trends and factors which could have an influence (positive or negative).
Questions:
-What is the environment (i.e. the constraints which you cannot control) in terms of demography, lifestyles, lobbies, laws, exchange rates?
-Is the sector regulated? Are these regulations international?
-Do any norms exist? Are they compulsory? Numerous?
-Is your activity sector affected by fashion trends (e.g.: organic product trends)?
-Is it subject to lobby pressure?
To Know More (1 point)
Factors of influence:
The market is regularly dependent on the variations and fluctuations which can rise from factors which are not directly linked to the targeted consumer user. This is what we call factors of influence:
(1) Political factors (laws and regulations concerning the world of supply and demand),
(2) Economic factors (recession crisis, liberalizing credit...)
(3) Technical factors (the effect of technological innovations, development of new materials...)
(4) Sociological and psycho-sociological factors (effects of fashion and trends, changing habits and behaviour).