Discover what it makes to make a great Business Plan to convince investors, partners and customers of your business.

1. GEST-S547
Introduction to Entrepreneurship
Session 7 – Business Plan
Olivier Witmeur
November 2012

2. Desired outcomes of the session
• Understand what a business plan is.
• Agenda
– Room for deserts
– Why a business plan
– The content of a business plan
GEST-S547 - 2012-2013 © Olivier Witmeur
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3. Case #2: Room for desserts
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4. 4

5. THE BUSINESS PLAN
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6. Main targets of a business plan
• Prove the quality of the opportunity
• Explain the business strategy
• Define realistic and measurable targets
• Convince potential partners
• Create a benchmark for the management team in charge of implementing the
plan
• …and prove the quality of the entrepreneur who drew the plan
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7. The big questions
• Who is in the management team?
• What do you sell? Why is it unique? To what needs do you answer?
• Who are the customers?
• What are your goals (the strategy)?
• What are the main risks?
• What are the development stages of the venture? What need to be done (the
action plan)?
• How do you sell?
• How and when go you make profits (the financial plan)?
• What is missing before you start?
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8. Typical business plan structure
Management Team
Vision
Strategy
Business Model
Production &
Supply Chain
Sales &
Marketing
Research &
Development
Organization &
Administration
Financial PlanFinancial Plan
Opportunity Market & Industry
Financing
scheme
Sensibility
analysis
Milestones
Stages
Risk analysis
Plan B
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9. MANAGEMENT
• The people
– The management team
• Bio (CVs as appendixes)
• Individual targets and motivations
– Boards
• Board of Directors
• Advisory Board
• The story
– Where does the project and the people come from?
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10. STRATEGY
1. Long term vision: BE AMBITIOUS
2. Positioning: BE UNIQUE
3. Core business: FOCUS
4. Market niche: FOCUS
+ The Business Model: 9 blocks of the business model generation canvas
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11. SALES AND MARKETING
• Marketing mix
– Product
– Price
– Place
– Promotion
• Sales target
List your first 10 customers
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12. PRODUCTION
• Scheme, cycles, organization and methodologies
• Internal resources & partners
– Owned production facilities versus subcontracting
– Production capacity and bottlenecks
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13. RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
• Project planning
– Deliverables
– Risks & potential solutions
• Intellectual property
• Team and partners involved in the project
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14. ADMINISTRATION
• Governance
• Future organization chart
• Human Resource management
– Corporate culture
– Wage and benefit policy
– Recruitment, appraisal…
• Finances and legal
– Who’s in charge
– The tools
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15. RISK SECTION
• Risk types:
 Management
 Customer
 Competition
 Technology
 Finance
 Environment
 Legal
 …
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16. The perfect business plan?
• A dream team: capable, experienced, committed, adaptable and trustworthy
• A unique offering with a proof of concept
• An in-depth market research section (i.e. incl. demand, industry and competition)
• Focus on one niche market and a strong Sales & Marketing plan
• Focus on the core business
• Ambition and realism
• Clear milestones
• Ready for execution
• Strong governance
• Risks analysis and Plan B included
• Financial plan based on a limited set of benchmarked assumptions
• Keep it simple
VC will add:
• Fast and scalable business model
• Clear exit strategy
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17. Content of a Financial Plan
• Profit & Loss statement
– Sales
– Cost of goods sold or Cost of sales  Gross Margin
– Fixed cost structure : S&M, R&D, G&A
– EBIT
– Net earnings
• Balance sheet: Assets & Liabilities
• Cash-flow statements
+ Benchmarking and sensibility analysis  Help to define the security margins
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18. To be continued
• Entrepreneurial growth strategies
• More on financings
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19. olivier.witmeur@ulb.ac.be
Office: J1-107 (Janson Building)
If urgent & important: Tel +32.2.650.41.61 - Mob. +32.475.68.62.50
NEVER
STOP
ASKING
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