Business plan startups

Business Plan: Experiences

What happens when you write a business plan

Abhishek Jain

[email protected]

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Biz plan experiences2

Overview

Business Plan Basics

Background

Customer / market analysis

Competitor analysis

Our resources

Future outlook

Financial requirement

General

Raychand and Gyanchand

Biz plan experiences

Disclaimer

I am not founder, was involved very late in biz plan making

I cannot tell how to write a successful biz plan

There are N number of ways to screw up a biz, I can cover very few of them

Many of them have to be discovered

I have a habit of PJ but they convey the point

Use of he/his is because I am unfortunately a human male

No matter how many times it is told, entrepreneurs will usually make the same mistakes for the first time; don’t worry

This is strictly personal opinion and not my company’s so any brickbats are on me!

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Purpose of the Business Plan

Is always unclear

For incubation

Be quite honest in projections

For a VC/Angel

Be generous; you will be caught anyways

For internal consumption

Whom are you lying to

In all above cases be honest in the DNA of the company being created; wrong DNA is like a child with bad habits

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Background

Talks about

How the company is forming/was formed

Members

Area of work

Growth for already established companies

Pitfalls

Not everything can be revealed

Prof Abhishek Jain / Dr Abhishek Jain (I am not a Prof)

What will I not do

Too much of projections; poker face doesn’t help


Customer/Market Analysis

Who is my customer

Location of the Customer

His social status

Selling proposition

Emerging trends

Pitfalls

Not considered generally in initial plan; very important

As techies we always forget how our target will behave

Will this be a spoilsport

Love for our technology may blind us

10% syndrome


Competitor Analysis

Who is my Competitor

Where is he

Potential competitor

Gap between us

Strength and weakness

How to fight them

Pitfalls

May not consider all of them

May overlook

Not easily found out

Overestimation


Our Resources

What do I have

Financial

Human resource

Assets

Intellectual Property (IP)

Pitfalls

These are usually limited and unaccounted

Are they really a resource; can we project them

Outdated mostly

Do we own some


Financials

Financials are different for not started and start-ups

Profit and loss

Burn rate and break-up

Future projections

Revenue streams

Pitfalls

P&L is hard data do not play with it

Burn rate is OK, but break-up usually creates tussle

Don’t talk in thousands of crore easily


Future Outlook and Fund Requirement

Both go hand in hand

Blossoming future outlook and small fund requirement ????

Can we diversify

What are the opportunities

ACTION PLAN – always missing


General

Make a plan because it is required by somebody!

Outsource a biz plan?

Data collection

Idea value

Different partners

Action orientation

Marketing focus

Time spent in making

Criticism of biz plan

Motivation


Raychand and Gyanchand

People who have never opened a company

The Mr Know alls

They may motivate or be pessimistic

Both cases they misguide

They are all out there

Call themselves Gurus

How to identify them

Tall claims with not fact backup

Me my and myself

RUN RUN RUN

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Read

Crossing the Chasm – Geoffrey Moore (For start-ups)

Mahanayak – Viswas Patil

Maverick – Ricardo Semler

Why men don’t listen women can’t read maps – Pease

Foods that fight pain – Dr Neal Barnard

I Dare – Kiran Bedi

Wings of fire – HE Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

Straight from the Gut – Jack Welch

In search of excellence – Thomas Peterson

Built to last – Jim Collins

Good to Great – Jim Collins

Scientific American Magazine

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No Pain No Gain

If you cannot write a plan you cant do a business

A bad plan means many years lost

Bad plan strong competitor

Even politics affects us; know your surroundings

Plan B: Can we adapt

1965 war

Happy writing !!!!!!

For an exercise write a life plan or even life partner plan!!!!!

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Thank You