Must Have:

Your business plan must include as a minimum the following components, identified here as either text topic or table. Most of these were separate assignments throughout the course, and should now combine into a single business plan document.

• Summary (could also be called “Executive Summary.”) Text topic. Should include all of the information detailed in Assignment 1: the Opportunity and you’re welcome to add to that as well.  Business Plan Pro automatically includes the Highlights Chart. Pictures are welcome. You could also use what you did for Assignment 4: Summary Memo and bundle that into the plan. Edit this portion, so it isn’t redundant; you probably used your assignment 1 as a beginning draft for assignment 4.
• Market Analysis. Text topics and at least one table. Should include all of the information detailed in Assignment 2: Market Analysis. Pictures and pie charts and bar charts are welcome.
• Strategy. One of more text topics. Ideally you’ve got something along the lines recommended in the reading, strategy as a combination of identity, market, and strategic focus. There’s an outline example here, and you can click on it to jump to the Heart of the Plan material available online, which you also have in that Heart of the Plan section of The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan book in the readings. In addition, the Heart of the Plan video included in class 11 videos also covers that same material. Pictures welcome.
• Competitive Edge. Also called Secret Sauce. Text topic. Pictures welcome. For more on this, it should come up in class 5 on marketing strategy — ask me about it if it doesn’t — and you should ask our guest speakers as well. Also, read Secret Sauce on the web.
• Startup Plan: Exactly as in Assignment 5: Startup Plan. That’s at least one text topic and two tables, one for startup costs and another for startup funding. The best way to handle the text topic is to make sure that it includes the most important assumptions and explains how you intend to raise the money required (loans, investors, personal savings, etc.)
• Sales Forecast. Exactly as in Assignment 3: Sales Forecast. That’s sales and cost of sales for the first 12 months and then added up into year 1, and then for years 2 and 3 of the plan as well. And it includes a text topic that explains your assumptions, and, ideally, a couple of business charts as well.
• Projected Profit & Loss. Exactly as in Assignment 6: Projected Profit & Loss. At least one text and a table; business charts would also be nice. If it’s obvious how you make money then you don’t need to elaborate, but for some of the more innovative new technology plans, if how you make money isn’t obvious, then please make sure you talk about the business model.

Nice to have:

You’ve got a lot of resources here on this website, including two complete online books, so you can see that there’s potentially a lot to add. Use outlines recommended in the readings, or some other order. Here are some specific suggestions, in more-or-less order of desirability — but not the order they appear in the plan:

• Cash flow. That requires some interaction between the profits, which you already have, and the balance sheet, which you don’t necessarily have. With Business Plan Pro, it’s almost automatic. There’s a lot of detail available in the appropriate sections of  The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan book and Hurdle: The Book on Business Planning ebook found within the software resources.
• Business offering (describing your product or service). This goes well after the summary and before the market analysis.
• Company description: ownership, facilities, and so on. Goes well right after the summary, before the business offering section.
• Business model (as noted in the Projected Profit & Loss point above, only if it isn’t obvious).
• Financial plan: description of funding sources, return on investment for investors, exit strategy.

Remember that business planning requires a lot of flexibility. Every business plan is unique to the business and its specific situation.

A summary memo is a 2-5 page document that you could present to a potential investor — or, in the case of this class, to the selection committee for the Quest for Edventure contest — describing the venture. It should summarize the business opportunity,  the strategy, the market, the business model, startup costs, funding plan, and initial basic numbers.

It should be emailed to me as an attachment to an email, either a BPDX file or a PDF file.

For more on this, read pages 228-233 of the plan as you go book. Or you can click here for the online version of the same thing.

And yes, we do have a time bind on this one. Ideally, it would come as the last assignment before the full plan, after you’ve done the startup costs and profit projection. Unfortunately, we need to get this done sooner because you’ll want it to prepare your submission for the contest.

1. An explanation. Not a lot of words, necessarily, but at least a paragraph or two explaining the main assumptions. Why is it this and not double, or half of this? If you built it based on some assumptions (good idea), like for example chairs and tables and occupancy in a startup restaurant, then please share those assumptions with me.
2. Sales by month for the first 12 months of your plan, summed into a total for the first year, and by year for the second and third year. These should usually (but not always) be broken into units and price (revenue) per unit.
3. Direct costs by month for the first 12 months of your planned, summed into a total for the first year, and then by year for the second and third year.

You can find examples of the table required in these places:

• The chapter on Sales Forecast in the Plan As You Go book. Beginning of page 131, continuing through page 154. Also online, just click here.
• The Forecast Your Sales chapter in Hurdle: the Book on Business Planning. Also online, just click here.

And don’t forget, as well, that there are about 500 examples in the sample business plans free online at www.bplans.com.

1. Startup costs, as explained on pages 161-165 of the plan as you go book. Or you can click here for the online version.
2. Startup funding, as explained in the online example.

The plan outline for this assignment has been customized using Business Plan Pro. The graph shows what portion of your plan outline you will be working on. Before starting the exercise, it is recommended that you create a copy of the Business Plan Pro file first. Follow these steps to get started:

• Download MinimumBusinessPlan.bpdx
• Open in Business Plan Pro
• Use the “Save as” command to save a copy of the file as yourname_businessplan.bpdx
  
• Follow the instructions to complete the exercise to your business plan file

NOTE: Saving under a different file name preserves the original file, in case you decide to create a second business plan using this customized outline.

Each topic should include a paragraph describing the key points for that topic:

Summary: The main chapter level topic should be a summary of its sub-topics. If you finish the sub-topics first, it will be easier to create a summary paragraph of the most important points.

Ideal target: Create a profile of one ideal target customer (or organization). Use your imagination. Describe the ideal target customer including why he or she buys, what his or her problem is, how old, economic status, family status, favorite media, where you find this person to send a message.  A picture is a good idea.

Market segmentation: most markets divide into meaningful groups. For a local restaurant, segments might include families, university students, high school students, older people. Create a table showing how the market divides into segments, as suggested by this illustration:

(Click on the illustration for a larger view)

The table is a simple spreadsheet, with projected years along the top, segment names on the side, and totals along the bottom. This isn’t a course in market research. You’re allowed to make educated guesses, as long as they make sense.

There is a detailed explanation of the table and how it shows segments, including even the Compound Average Growth Rate formula in the last column, in the online version of Hurdle: The Book on Business Planning, in the section called Your Target Market Forecast. I’ve also added specific instructions on this site.

Business Plan Pro includes a pie chart of your market analysis table. Here is an example:
(Click on the illustration for a larger view)

You can probably see how that links directly back to the present year market segmentation, the first annual column in your market forecast table.

Market needs:  For each market segment included in your strategy, explain the market needs that lead this group to buy your product or service:

• Did the need exist before the business was there?
• Are there other products or services or stores that offer different ways to satisfy this same need?
• Do you have market research related to this market need?

It is always a good idea to try to define your retail offering in terms of target market needs, so you focus not on what you have to sell, but rather on the buyer needs you satisfy. As a shoe store, for example, are you selling shoes or are you satisfying the customer needs for covered feet? Are there additional underlying needs, such as style and prestige for fashion footwear, or padding for runners, or jumping for basketball players, that relate to selling shoes? Are kids buying status with their basketball shoes?

Market trends:  Market trends could be changes in demographics, changes in customer needs, a new sense of style or fashion, or something else. It depends on what business you are in.

• What factors seem to be changing the market, or changing the business?
• What developing trends can make a difference?

Here are a few examples:

• A building supply store might note the trend toward remodeling older homes instead of buying new homes, or a trend toward more rooms in larger houses, despite smaller families, because of home offices, dens, and exercise rooms.
• A grocery store might note a trend toward Asian foods or spicier foods, or toward fresher, healthier foods, or development of a new shopping area in a different part of town.
• A credit and investment counselor might note demographic trends, such as baby boomers aging, leading to a greater need for estate planning and retirement planning.

Look to market trends as a way to get ahead of the market, to know where it is going before it gets there.

Market Growth: Ideally you cite experts: a market expert, market research firm, trade association, or credible journalist. But this isn’t a class in market research. You have only three pages total, including the table and chart, so be brief.

Competition: Mention the main competitors, and the strengths and weaknesses of main competitors. You might consider:

• Their products, pricing, reputation, management, financial position, channels of distribution, brand awareness, business development, technology, or other factors that you feel are important.
• What segment of the market do they operate in? What seems to be their strategy?
• How much do they impact your products, and what threats and opportunities do they represent?

Here are a couple of examples: College Prep Information Business and Australian Firefighter Business.

Thought provoking: Business Plans or Prayer Flags … see what you think. You’ve heard about the famous “business plan on a napkin?” Keep that in mind. You may also have heard about the one-page business plan, but you can let that one go. This is not a business plan, it’s a description of an opportunity. And I do want to have it in a single page, I’d expect at least one picture, and I want you to deliver it to me as a PDF document attached to an email.

Your  business opportunity should cover the following three points:

1. Identify and explain a problem or need that your business idea would solve.Remember you don’t have to limit yourself to true needs, because wants and intangibles – prestige, good looks, business success, etc. – are also valid.
2. Explain how your new business fills the need or satisfies the want.
3. Describe the ideal customer, or user, or target market company. Ideally you invent or dream up a specific person, with age, gender, economic stratum, job (or not), media usage, preferences; or a company, with industry type, size, location.

And communication pizazz, sizzle, excitement, diction, wording, choice of pictures, and general look and feel will also count for the grade. It’s only a page.

Important additional details:

1. You can do this in Word, iWork, PowerPoint, Keynote, or any other tool that you like. Draw it by hand if you want.
2. However you do it, your final step is to get it into a PDF file format that takes up a single page maximum.  If you’ve produced it as something physical on actual paper, get it scanned into PDF to submit it.
3. Put your name on the filename, but not on the page as it appears printed.

Explain your business opportunity in a single letter-sized page, in PDF format.  You can draw it yourself and write it yourself and scan it into PDF, or write a text, or use PowerPoint, or some other drawing program. preferably with illustrations, not just text. Leave your name off of the page, but keep it on the file.

Here are a couple of examples: College Prep Information Business and Australian Firefighter Business.

Thought provoking: Business Plans or Prayer Flags … see what you think. You’ve heard about the famous “business plan on a napkin?” Keep that in mind. You may also have heard about the one-page business plan, but you can let that one go. This is not a business plan, it’s a description of an opportunity. And I do want to have it in a single page, I’d expect at least one picture, and I want you to deliver it to me as a PDF document attached to an email.

Your grade will be based on how well you cover the following three points:

1. Identify and explain a problem or need that your business idea would solve.Remember you don’t have to limit yourself to true needs, because wants and intangibles – prestige, good looks, business success, etc. – are also valid.
2. Explain how your hypothetical new business fills the need or satisfies the want.
3. Describe the ideal customer, or user, or target market company. Ideally you invent or dream up a specific person, with age, gender, economic stratum, job (or not), media usage, preferences; or a company, with industry type, size, location.

And communication pizazz, sizzle, excitement, diction, wording, choice of pictures, and general look and feel will also count for the grade. It’s only a page.

Important additional details:

1. You can do this in Word, iWork, PowerPoint, Keynote, or any other tool that you like. Draw it by hand if you want.
2. However you do it, your final step is to get it into a PDF file format that takes up a single page maximum.  If you’ve produced it as something physical on actual paper, get it scanned into PDF to submit it.
3. Put your name on the filename, but not on the page as it appears printed.

Note: this is built into Business Plan Pro, so if you have the software the mechanics are very smooth. If you don’t have the software, and you’re doing it yourself, click here for do-it-yourself instructions.

This is a three-page-maximum PDF file or (preferably) BPDX file. Send it to me by email please, with the file attached. It should include a paragraph or so each for the following topics:

1. Summary: an introductory paragraph. Summarize the most important points. Only one paragraph please.
2. Ideal target: a profile of one ideal target customer (or organization). Use your imagination. Describe the ideal target customer including why he or she buys, what his or her problem is, how old, economic status, family status, favorite media, where you find this person to send a message — but only in a paragraph or so, so write richly.  A picture is a good idea.
3. Market segmentation: most markets divide into meaningful groups. When I was consulting with Apple Computer in the 1980s, for example, we divided the personal computer market into segments including consumer, small business, large business, government, and other. For a local restaurant, segments might include families, university students, high school students, older people. For the college prep business I used as an example for assignment 1, segments were high school students, parents, and counselors/teachers.Create a table showing how the market divides into segments, as suggested by this illustration:

   

   (Click on the illustration for a larger view)

   Please don’t get freaked out by the table. It’s a simple spreadsheet, years from now into the future along the top, segment names on the side, and totals along the bottom. This isn’t a course in market research. You’re allowed to make educated guesses, as long as they make sense. And there is a detailed explanation of the table and how it shows segments, including even the compound average growth formula in the last column, in the Hurdle Book online in the section called Your Target Market Forecast. I’ve also added specific instructions on this site.

   If you can — it’s automatic if you’re using Business Plan Pro — include a pie chart of your market segmentation, something that will look like this:

   

   (You can click on the illustration for a larger view)

   You can probably see how that links directly back to the present year market segmentation, the first annual column in your market forecast table. And remember, if you’re not using Business Plan Pro, you can still do this in Microsoft Excel, or Works, or iWorks. And the chart, while a nice addition, is not essential.

1. Market needs:  All marketing should be based on underlying needs. For each market segment included in your strategy, explain the market needs that lead this group to buy your product or service. Did the need exist before the business was there? Are there other products or services or stores that offer different ways to satisfy this same need? Do you have market research related to this market need?It is always a good idea to try to define your retail offering in terms of target market needs, so you focus not on what you have to sell, but rather on the buyer needs you satisfy. As a shoe store, for example, are you selling shoes or are you satisfying the customer needs for covered feet? Are there additional underlying needs, such as style and prestige for fashion footwear, or padding for runners, or jumping for basketball players, that relate to selling shoes? Are kids buying status with their basketball shoes?
2. Market trends: What factors seem to be changing the market, or changing the business? What developing trends can make a difference? Market trends could be changes in demographics, changes in customer needs, a new sense of style or fashion, or something else. It depends on what business you are in.For example, a building supply store might note the trend toward remodeling older homes instead of buying new homes, or a trend toward more rooms in larger houses, despite smaller families, because of home offices, dens, and exercise rooms.A grocery store might note a trend toward Asian foods or spicier foods, or toward fresher, healthier foods, or development of a new shopping area in a different part of town.A credit and investment counselor might note demographic trends, such as baby boomers aging, leading to a greater need for estate planning and retirement planning. Look to market trends as a way to get ahead of the market, to know where it is going before it gets there.
3. Market Growth: Ideally you cite experts: a market expert, market research firm, trade association, or credible journalist. But this isn’t a class in market research. You have only three pages total, including the table and chart, so be brief.
4. Competition: Mention the main competitors, and the strengths and weaknesses of main competitors. You don’t have a lot of space, but you might consider their products, pricing, reputation, management, financial position, channels of distribution, brand awareness, business development, technology, or other factors that you feel are important. Or maybe what’s important is what segments of the market they operate in? What seems to be their strategy? How much do they impact your products, and what threats and opportunities do they represent?  Be brief.

Important additional details:

1. You can do this in Business Plan Pro, Word and Excel, Microsoft Works,  iWork, or any other tool that you like.
2. If you do it in Business Plan Pro, you can attach the Business Plan Pro BPDX file to an email. Otherwise, however else you do it, your final step is to get it into a PDF file format that takes up a single page maximum.  If you’ve produced it as something physical on actual paper, get it scanned into PDF to submit it.
3. Put your name on the filename, but not on the page as it appears printed.

As with other assignments, please deliver this as either a BPDX or a PDF file, attached to an email, with your name included in the file name. It has to include the following:

1. An explanation. Not a lot of words, necessarily, but at least a paragraph or two explaining the main assumptions. Why is it this and not double, or half of this? If you built it based on some assumptions (good idea), like for example chairs and tables and occupancy in a startup restaurant, then please share those assumptions with me.
2. Sales by month for the first 12 months of your plan, summed into a total for the first year, and by year for the second and third year. These should usually (but not always) be broken into units and price (revenue) per unit.
3. Direct costs by month for the first 12 months of your planned, summed into a total for the first year, and then by year for the second and third year.

You can find examples of the table required in these places:

• The chapter on Sales Forecast in the Plan As You Go book. Beginning of page 131, continuing through page 154. Also online, just click here.
• The Forecast Your Sales chapter in Hurdle: the Book on Business Planning. Also online, just click here.

And don’t forget, as well, that there are about 500 examples in the sample business plans free online at www.bplans.com.

This is either a BPDX file or a PDF file containing a text explanation plus two tables. The tables are:

1. Startup costs, as explained on pages 161-165 of the plan as you go book. Or you can click here for the online version.
2. Startup funding, as explained in the online example.