APMC offers an award winning experience in business planning. A business plan is an important instrument in several cases. For new start-up companies it must be considered a necessary requirement when searching professional investors. On the other hand business planning can be a very cost saving approach to a project because it gives the opportunity to think about weather the project is worth to be followed-up, where potential roadblocks lie and how to remove them.
The main target of a business plan is to gain insights by
creating a complete model of all relevant aspects of a project or
a company. The structure APMC suggests for every business plan is a standard
one (see below) to guarantee investors will understand it.
However, although the approach to businesses planning is well known
many founders struggle with its application or else don’t take
it seriously enough. Many plans are often far too technical, too detailed
in specific sections such as the product idea and too superficial
in others such as marketing and finance. The art of smart business
planning lies in the visionary and pragmatic imagination power of
how the company will look like in detail.
APMC recommends the following structuring of business plans:
1. Executive summary: 1-2 pages including key aspects
of the whole plan. This is the most important part for
investors, as it is likely they will decide after reading the executive
summary if it’s worth to continue reading.
2. Business idea: This section includes the history of the idea, the main customer benefits related to usage and/or financially, overview potential on the market. Ask yourself: How would I explain my idea to an outsider?
3. Team: a detailed listing of curricula of every
key manager, as well as an overview of technical and soft skills of
team-members. Besides the business idea this is probably the most
important part for investors reading the whole plan, because many
of them invest more in people than in ideas.
4. Marketing. This is normally the most intensive
part of the plan as it requires significant research work.
- First of
all a market analysis should be presented including a global vision
of markets, a competitor’s SWOT analysis, a definition of target
markets, customer segmentation and a clear listing of customer needs.
- Second this section should include a more strategic part explaining
the exact product definition, pricing, logistics, promotion and an estimation of quantities sold per year or per month.
5. Business model and organisation: This section includes a description of the entire value creation chain as well as the necessary management structure to cover all relevant know-how.
6. Milestones and activities planning: create a
Gant-Chart highlighting the main milestones, their timing and the
activities necessary to achieve them.
7. Risks: This section includes all risks related to the new business, often distinguishing between internal risks (such as staffing or quality issues) and external risks (market developments, competitors, regulations).
8. Finance. The financial part must basically provide
answers in the following key areas:
-
How much cash do I need every month, quarter or year? When is breakeven
(sales = costs) reached? Write a balance
sheet, an income statement and a cash flow statement for the next 3-5 years
- How are financing costs optimized?
- Who are the main shareholders? What are their rights? What is the
planned stakeholder structure for the future?
- What are the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the project or company in each period of time?
More sophisticated business planning can also include a scenario analysis
as well as a company valuation.
9. Appendix:This section includes all comments, certificates, glossaries and other additional information to fully understand the business plan.
