Venture Business Plan Appearance
Business plans must convey in their appearance a sense of professionalism, clarity, and completeness. Toward that end, they should incorporate the following features:
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Proper binding and appearance (avoid extravagance)
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A length not to exceed forty pages
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A cover and title page with company name, address, and copy number
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A two-page executive summary which captures the company's current status and future direction
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A table of content and numbered pages
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Content that is at once original and that also follows guidelines professional financiers are known to prefer
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Professional editing to assess such presentation issues as grammar, clarity and organization
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Appropriate legal disclaimers and financial forecasts, based on review by experienced lawyers and accountants.
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