What is the business plan for?

The business plan must be salesman, reassuring, i.e. realistic.

You must build it from the field, of your searches and your analysis.

It must prove that your company creation project is serious.

The business plan must be both synthetic and precise with costed forecasts.

Who is he talking to?

Your business plan is thetool for convince the investors and all those who will support your project.

It is therefore addressed to the investors following:

• Bank
• Status
• Local authorities
• Business angels
• Future associates
• Anyone you're looking for funds from.

What are the steps of the business plan?

The business plan is a document that is built in 5 steps :

1. Introduction or pitch of presentation
2. Presentation of your product (or service)
3. Presentation of your business model (also called business strategy)
4. Summary of your market research
5. Summary of your financial forecast.

What is the purpose of a pitch?

The pitch presentation of the business plan can also be called executive summary.

This is the presentation of your project of company creation.

This presentation must be short, the information condensed.

Your pitch should allow you to convince a contact person in one time restricted.

THEobjective of this synthesis is to prove:

• Your capacity to build and lead a company
• Your suitability for the project
• Serious preparation of your project
• If you are several partners: your team cohesion.

This information should help to understand what your ideas, your values, which you motivated, on meaning of your project.

If you are several to carry the project, we must feel the team cohesion and the complementarity of its members.

This presentation should convince your interlocutor that you are ready to lead company in the short and long term.

What is the pitch content?

This presentation should allow respond to following questions :

• Who are you and who are the members of your team (collaborators, associates)?
• What is your project ? This is the name of your company, its legal form, its domicile, the nature of the activity, the history of the project.
• What is your target ? This is to show that you have identified your future customers.
• What is theenvironment ? This is to show that you have identified competition, constraints, risks, market trends, etc.
• What are your ambitions for development ? It's about showing that you have a vision from project to short, medium and long-term.

The presentation of the business plan is partly a summary of themarket research.

What is a company's business model?

You must present how you will sell your product or service.

The business model is called in different ways: a marketing strategy, a business strategy, a "mix-marketing" or one economic model.

Your company's business model should answer these questions:

• How are you going to make the promotion and the advertising your company, product or service?
• What will be your rates ?
• What will be your suppliers ?
• By whom will your product or service be manufactured?
• What will be your channels of distribution, where will your product or service be sold (internet, professional networks, shops etc.)?
• What will be the relationship with your customers, how retain ?
• Where will be stored your products?
• What will be the development of your activity (internet, national, international, etc.)?

Have you analyzed the constraints?

This is about provide for what can curb your activity.

You need to identify what can do drive up your costs : storage, production, distribution, communication.

You have to prove that you've thought about solutions following:

• How to overcome constraints
• How to deal with lost profits, increased expenses, new competitors, etc.