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Sunday, September 13, 2009

10 things that make a good business plan

Business plan



Vision is the art of seeing the invisible. If you have the vision and intention to start a new business, here are ten things that make a good business plan.









1. Vision statement



What problem are you solving? Who are you solving it for? What's your big vision?


















2. Key people


Who are the 3-4 key people in the founding team? Their past successes and domain expertise.












3. Market


How large is the market you are addressing? How fast is it growing?

How large a market share can your product hope to capture?









4. USP


What is the product or service that you are offering? How does it solve the problem?

What's unique about it? Describe the technology in brief.







5. Competitive landscape



Who are the current or future players in this market?

How are you different (IP, customer segment)? What are the barriers to entry?









6. Business model



What is your business model? Who all will be affected by your solution and what benefits do they derive?

Can you quantify the benefits? How much can you charge for the product/service?










7. Roadmap



What is the current stage of the product/service and what is the roadmap?















8. Go-To-Market strategy



What channels do you plan to use? What partnerships will you need to establish?

What if you are not able to get these partnerships?













9. Financial projections



Financial projections: Yearly financial projections up to 4-5 years out which should be optimistic but realistic.

It should be a large enough opportunity to interest the investors.










10. Money



And finally, how much money are you looking to raise? How long will it last?

What will it be used for? How much do you expect to raise in the future?