More on the value of a business plan as a marketing tool. There’re many textbook approaches to writing a business plan, almost all of them with considerable merit and wisdom. If you had to distill a lot of these ideas into a list, a ‘classic’ business plan would contain the following:
- A description of the market in which your venture operates
- The customer problem your company/service will solve
- What makes *your* company uniquely qualified to offer this solution
- Financial gains and risks
- The management team
- How much $ is needed to make this happen
There’s a easy way to cover this ground – in a way that’s easy to remember. Four words beginning with the letter “M”.
4 – M-s : Magic, Market, Money and Management
MAGIC: Tell a story about how lives will be different with your company or product or service. The narrative is important — potential buyers will remember a story far longer than they’ll hold onto a bullet-pointed list. Remain truthful but leave your modesty at the door…
MARKET: It’s all about people and numbers. People — how many, who are they, (demographics), trends. And its also about other players in your market. Creativity in locating competitors and allies will go a long way in convincing potential buyers you’ve thought long and hard about your business.
Example: A local golf course was for sale and while the clubhouse offered the obligatory list of pro instructors, the owner thought about bringing even more business in by way of … electronic games. No-one claimed WII-golf was a replacement for thwacking real-world golf balls, the owner installed a few wide screens and WII equipment for the golfers’ family to play with. That course owner also initiated a “student golfer days” program with the Physical Education program at the nearby Junior College. Newbie golfers could sign up for golf partners who were, themselves, learning the game.
MONEY: If you’re not comfortable creating spreadsheets that show ‘what-if’ money projections (and we’re talking a page or two of these, at most), find a local B-school student who’ll crank out a couple of spreadsheets.
MANAGEMENT: Here’s where a standard business plan varies from what you’ll be showing potential buyers. For the most part, plans tell what’s going to happen and why a particular management team is suited to the task. Plans as a selling tools tell stories of how existing management (you) has been successful in meeting challenges and finding opportunities. A stylistic tactic? You need to keep a healthy ego in check as you write this: potential buyers don’t want to think that its been so much rocket science to keep the company running – so … downplay the difficulty of the challenges and emphasise the cornucopia of opportunities that exists.
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