Business Simulation Seminar

Business Plans

What is a Business Plan?

A structured document describing the goals, plans, and expected outcomes for the company.

Practically – think about what you would give someone to convince them to loan you money

Business Plan Outline

1. Executive Summary2. Company Overview

1. Mission statement2. Objectives

3. Market Analysis1. Target markets2. Market size and growth

4. Strategy5. Products

1. Product plans by market segment2. Product differentiators

6. Marketing1. Marketing plans (marketing mix)2. Sales forecasts by product

7. Production Plans8. Finance

1. Current financials2. Planned financing3. Expected financials

9. Profiles of Key Executives

Executive Summary

Short summary of the rest of the plan Write this after you have written

everything else Should state:

What you will invest What you plan to do with the money What the outcome will be

This include specifics, including Market share Expected profits

Give numbers, not platitudes

Company Overview

Mission statement Objectives

What are the company’s objectives? What markets? What size market share? What profitability?

Market Analysis

What are the target market segments?

How big is each segment? How much is it growing each year? Who are the competitors?

Product Plans

For each target market segment: What products will you have in that

segment? When will you introduce them? What are the product characteristics?

E.g. size, performance, MTBF What will differentiate your products?

Marketing Plan

For each target segment, address: Product Price Promotion Distribution What is the sales forecast for each

product in the segment?

Production Plan

How much do you plan to produce each year?

What is the targeted plant capacity? Will you add or sell off capacity? How much inventory do you plan to

carry?

Finance

What are your current financials? What do key ratios say? What financing actions will you

take? Sell bonds or equity? Retire bonds or buy-back stock?

What do you expect your financials to look like in the future?

Profiles of Key Executives

Include these if going outside of the company for financing E.g. a start-up going to a bank or

Venture Capitalist Do not include for internal plans

Business Plans – Practical Notes

Remember – the plans should cover three years.

Use tables to present data Do not use “I”, use “we” or the name of

the company Do not use the words such as “a lot” or

similar. Give data.

You are trying to convince someone else that what you are doing is worth investing in.