Venture Business Plan
Sections of the business plan should adhere to certain guidelines proven attractive to investors in terms of structure and content.
Business plans have become an essential fact of life for companies at all stages of development. To succeed, plans must clearly and concisely convey the state of the venture and its future objectives. In approaching the planning process, entrepreneurs should seek to understand the investor perspective in evaluating ventures and view themselves as investors of time and money.
In initially assessing business plans, investors are turned on by the following:
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Evidence of customer acceptance of the venture's product or service.
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An appreciation of investor's needs, through recognition of their particular financial return goals.
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Evidence of focus, through concentration on only a limited number of products or services.
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Proprietary position, as expressed in the form of patents, copyrights, and trademarks.
Investors tend to be turned off by the following:
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Infatuation with the product or service rather than familiarity with and awareness of marketplace needs.
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Financial projections at odds with accepted industry ranges.
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Growth projections out of touch with reality.
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Custom or application engineering, which make substantial growth difficult.
1. The Company:
This section should summarize the enterprise's overall objectives, its origins, its expectations, and the management team. Investors should get a clear indication early on of where the company is going and how it plans to get there.
2. The Market:
Within the business plan, the definition of the market to be served by the company is second in importance only to the definition of the company itself. An important part of that market definition is a description of the benefits to the user of the company's product or service and why. That is, entrepreneurs must demonstrate that they focus primarily on the market their company will serve rather than on the technicalities of their product or service. Investors are interested in companies which are market-driven, not product driven.
3. Product (or service):
This section describes the company's products or services, including a summarized theory of operation and a statement about performance and present status. The proprietary, patented, or patentable features of the company's products should be summarized in this section.
4. Sales:
Investors will want to know precisely how the company plans to approach its customer prospects and thus capitalize on its potential.
In this section, the business plan