1.2 Develop Your Business Plan
Before you can decide how much money you require to finance your growing
business, you and your management team should be clear about your company's
future. Where do you want to be in five years?
You'll need to have a business plan, a written document describing
the long-range vision of your company's future. Most business plans
include:
- a mission statement outlining corporate priorities;
- a list of the company's strategic and operational objectives; and
- specific plans for meeting the objectives.
As you work through the process of establishing your financial requirements,
your business objectives and plans are vital for preparing your short
and long-term financial statements and for confirming how financial
results will be achieved.
Entrepreneur
Stories
Planning for Growth
Canadian success story, Bfound.com, found that building
a business plan takes hard work but is essential for preparing
for growth - and attracting investors.
For example, if your plans are to expand into new markets, this will
ultimately affect your projected revenue and cost of goods sold, levels
of inventories and accounts receivable, and even your fixed asset requirements.
Bfound.com, a Canadian company that successfully attracted venture
capital, found that a coherent and compelling business plan was a key
foundation in their pursuit of investors. Building
Bfound.com's new business plan meant thinking strategically about
their future.
Think About Your Team
Preparing to make your case for risk financing will take time, effort
and a variety of skills. Plan to draw on the knowledge and expertise
of your company's management team. Also consider whether you should
look for help from people such as your accountant or lawyer.
Who on your team could take responsibility for gathering information
and describing plans in each of the following aspects of your business?
You may want to print this table and complete it for your notes.
| Responsibility |
Team Member |
Company Structure |
|
Financial Situation |
|
Products and Services |
|
Marketing and Sales |
|
Human Resource Strategies |
|
Future Opportunities and Challenges |
|
Research and Development |
|
Online Resources for Developing Your Business
Plan
Need to prepare or revise your business plan? There are lots of online
resources to help you. Try some of these:
There are more in our Resources section, just choose the link on the left menu bar.
back
Bfound.com Plans for Growth
Bfound.com (then Beacon Hill Systems) started out primarily
as a consulting firm that provided its expertise to other companies.
But the firm decided that to grow it would need a new vision
of the future. The company's president commented that "the
idea is one thing, but the perseverance to get all the pieces
to work together can be the hard part".
The company partners worked hard to develop a business plan
in which Beacon Hill became the developer and marketer of its
own turnkey systems and products. For Bfound.com, determining
its financing needs meant more than using mathematical formulas
to come up with a dollar figure.
The company's partners and advisors had to think strategically
about where the company would need to be in the short, medium
and long-term. Their plan had to show how Bfound.com could succeed
as a small player competing against larger companies and well-financed
start-ups from the United States. They decided to act quickly
and take advantage of their status as an early mover.
Bfound.com had a good product, but being in the high-tech sector
with companies with deep pockets, they had a challenge. They
had to demonstrate that their product was vastly superior to
what was out there and would service a profitable market niche;
or that they had strategic alliances with powerful players in
the market.
Their solution was to focus their product development on the
most marketable applications for their technology, concentrate
their marketing efforts on finding "lighthouse clients"
to demonstrate product superiority, and build strategic alliances
through consulting to other companies. In this way, Bfound.com
was able to demonstrate to investors that they did not just
have a good technology, but a product that would sell - and
a plan to sell it.
Eventually they developed a pitch that included a business
plan, a marketing plan, and information on target markets, competition
and product positioning.
back
<< Previous |
Next >>
|
