Content and Organization of the Business Plan Project
Title Page
The title page is not numbered.
Table of Contents
This table is also numbered with lower case Roman numerals.
Executive Summary
The purpose of an Executive Summary is to write a brief description of your plan that allows the reader to gain the essence of the entire plan in less than two pages. It is intended to give a busy executive the key information and lead the reader to the sections that will answer the executive’s primary questions. It is not an introduction to the plan, as you may have written in typical papers. This Executive Summary, although positioned first in the project, should actually be written last. In this way you know what you are summarizing. Writing it earlier will cause it to tend towards a traditional introduction.
This section begins the Arabic numbering of pages, beginning with “1.”
The Business Plan Project
The Business Plan must include the following topics. Various Business Plans organize this information in different orders but this content must be included. Chose an outline that most effectively builds the argument that this project is viable and has an acceptable risk.
Introduction
Purpose of the plan (attract investors, diversification, etc.)
Introduction to market opportunity
The Company
Market
Industry Overview
The history of the industry
Size of the Industry
Industry Evolution
The trend-Where the industry is expected to be in 5 or 10 years
The key players in the industry
Barriers to entering the market
Competition strengths and weaknesses
Product and Industry Life Cycles
How does the position in the Product Life Cycle affect this business plan?
How does the position in the Industry Life Cycle affect this business plan?
Target market
What is the unsatisfied need that creates the business opportunity?
Major characteristics of the target market (what does the customer look like?)
What is the demand of this target market?
What are total sales to this market in geographic area?
What are total sales expected in 5 years? In 10 years?
What percentage of this demand does this business expect to capture?
Product or Service Research and Development
Environmental scan
Significant factors in the macro environment
Nature of the competition
Clear statement of the opportunities and threats
Company Description (proposed new organization)
Type of Business and Legal Structure, e.g., LLC, sole proprietorship
Mission and Objectives
Distinctive Core Competencies
Management and Ownership
Board of directors and Rationale for Members
Management staff structure
Key managers
Future Additions to the Current Management Team
Marketing Activities
Overall Marketing Strategy
Specific marketing mix
Strengths and weaknesses in ability to satisfy target market needs
Products and Services
Detailed Product/Service Description
Product Life Cycle
Copyrights, Patents, and Intellectual Property Rights
Research and Development Activities
Risk Management
Loss Control
Retention of Personnel
Insurance
Operations
Production and Service Delivery Procedures
Supply Chain
Financial Analysis
Funds required and their uses
Current funding requirements
Funding requirements over the next three years
Use of funds
Financial statements for first 3 years (monthly first year and annually for years 2 &3) (may use template)
Income statements
Balance sheets
Cash flow statements
Determine capital requirements
Conclusions and Recommendations
Conclude whether or not it is a viable business venture ( or a viable business/strategic path for the client company
Explain why the student should or should not pursue the business venture at this time (or why or why not the client business should pursue the path under investigation)
References
This section continues with the Arabic numbering of pages. Only sources of information that have actually been cited in the project are included here.
