Building The Business Plan

1. Building The Business Plan

2. Business Plan Essentials

3. What is a Business Plan? • A comprehensive, stand-alone document that: • Describes a viable market need • Describes how your business will meet that need • Highlights required resources

4. What is the Purpose of a Business Plan?

5. The Purpose of A Business Plan • Capture the essence of your business idea • Raise awareness • Raise capital • Identify priorities, risks and opportunities for you and potential investors • Help recruit early customers and employees

6. - Your Initial Blueprint for Gateway- One of Your First Marketing and Sales Tools Your Business Plan is:

7. A Business Plan Outline

8. A Business Plan Outline

9. Mission Statement • A brief description of the project concept. In particular, the following question should be addressed: • Why should this business exist? • What is the value to its users? • Will the users be significantly better off because of the business? • State specific measurable objectives • State revenue/profitability objectives

10. Strategy / Approach & Org Structure • The overall approach towards meeting the goals defined in the mission statement • understanding the market • developing the content on that basis • focussed roll out, revenue and costs, etc. • Appropriate corporate and legal structure of the venture • Mechanisms for coordinating the relationships among the various stakeholders

11. Strategy / Approach & Org Structure • Description of approvals/permits required or potential regulatory hurdlesالموانع • Organization structure • Establishing for profit company • Overall management structure

12. Market • Clear definition of the market, potential customers within each market segment and their key characteristics • geographic concentration, location, language, age, professional background, fragmentation • size of the market • potential users, total volume of business • major growth trends, factors driving this growth, significant barriers to entry, etc.

13. Market • Niche market identification • define needs of each type of audience • Assess يقيّم what value Your business brings to them

14. Product/Service • Various products to meet target market needs • Within each product segment, a detailed description of the type of service/product • Do other vendors/competitors provide this product/service in the specific market? • How does this product/service differentiate itself from that supplied by other competitors/vendors?

15. Product/Service • What will be needed to bring each product to the market? • Define how long will it take to develop these products/services? • What resources will be required? • How much will it cost? • How should the products be priced? • How should these products be rolled out? • Keep in mind the mission of Your business and its profitability

16. Competition • Who are the competitors (direct and indirect)? • What are their strengths and weaknesses? • How does their product or service differ from Your business? • What are their business models? • What can be learnt from their operations? • How do they market themselves? • Does it make sense to partner with them? • What was their service/product roll out strategy? • What are our competitive advantages?

17. Comparables • Companies that have comparable products/service • Compare their • success, type of service, users, costing, pricing, profit/loss, staffing/resources, partnerships, execution/timing, market capture, cash burn rate(the rate of net cash outflow, or the rate (monthly, quarterly, or yearly) at which a company’s cash outflows exceed the company’s cash inflows; in other words, the rate at which a startup business is using up, or “burning through,” its cash. ), etc.

18. Marketing Plan • What marketing mediums will be used to reach the target audience? • What will be the marketing budget? • What are the components for building a credible brand equity?

19. Technology • Open access, reliability and scalability of the technology solution is critical for success • In order to define the technology platform, analyze the various technology solutions and associated costs and benefits of each of these solutions • Examples of comparable companies and their technological solution will be critical in assessing how Your business should proceed in this area

20. Partnerships • a relationship of two or more entities conducting business for mutual benefit. • A type of unincorporated business organization in which multiple individuals, called general partners, manage the business and are equally liable for its debts; other individuals called limited partners may invest but not be directly involved in management and are liable only to the extent of their investments. Unlike a Limited Liability Company or a corporation, in a partnership each partner shares equal responsibility for the company's profits and losses, and its debts and liabilities. The partnership itself does not pay income taxes, but each partner has to report their share of business profits or losses on their individual tax return.

21. The kinds of partnerships that will be required to make Your business a reality • What value would they bring? • Key partners in each area should be identified

22. Partnerships • How should the business be set-up • Partnership • Joint Venture=A contractual agreement joining together two or more parties for the purpose of executing a particular business undertaking. All parties agree to share in the profits and losses of the enterprise. • Private sector only 35 partners, public sector, etc • A strategy for raising funds via the partnership route should be explored. • What value does the funding organization/company sector see in the business? • which companies/organizations should be targeted for funding • what kinds of returns would investors seek?

23. Revenue Model • Revenue=The amount of money that a company actually receives during a specific period, including discounts and deductions for returned merchandise. It is the "top line" or "gross income" figure from which costs are subtracted to determine net income. Revenue is calculated by multiplying the price at which goods or services are sold by the number of units or amount sold. • Assess the potential sources of revenue • franchise/co-branding/referral fees • focussed advertising • specific content sales • fees from e-commerce transactions, etc. • direct sales

24. Revenue Model • Pricing strategy for each source of revenue • What is the pricing strategy of the direct or indirect competitors? • What level of gross margins (revenue less cost of the product/service) would be reasonable? • How should the pricing of the competitors be monitored? • How does the pricing reflect the brand image of the product/service?