Episode #30 Business Plans can be as Entertaining as a Russian Nesting Doll

Are you thinking about starting a new business? Whether you are starting a new business or wanting to expand your current business using investors, you will need a business plan.  But how should you go about it?  Hire a financial consultant?  Or maybe buy the expensive software that churns out business plans? Join Brandon and Rick as they go through the steps of building a business plan and the pitfalls that many stumble into when doing so.

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1. Before you start, do a strategic plan, first. You can find how to do to a strategic plan from other podcasts like Episode #1, Alfano the Great.
2. Don’t use the canned software for business plans because seasoned investors know them well and it doesn’t distinguish you.
3. List your team of experts
4. Build you plan like a Russian nesting doll, from the inside out
5. Now for the parts of a business plan:
   1. Executive Summary
      1. The proposal of your concept which should be no more than one page.
      2. Write a one sentence to one paragraph summary of the other items in your business plan and end with your proposal to investors.
   2. Company Analysis
      1. What is the legal structure?
      2. What is the tax structure?
      3. Will your company have subsidiary companies, divisions or just outsource some of these operations?
      4. What phases will you implement?
      5. Management Team
         1. List all officers and stakeholders with bios
         2. Show anyone that is crucial to executing your strategy.
      6. Industry Analysis
         1. Give examples of similar companies.
         2. You can include your competition. How will your company distinguish itself?
      7. Customer Analysis
         1. Who is your target market?Business, Marketing and Distribution Strategies
            1. These are sub-strategies that should work their way into your business plan.
            2. You should include a timeline for each of these sub-strategies
      8. Operating Plan
         1. Make sure you have a realistic timeline with benchmarks for your company
      9.  Financials
         1. Basic components
         2. The financials should show the payback for investors

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