STEP 2
Business Plan
Writing a business plan is your next and most important step, this is how you and others will evaluate your business. When seeking financing the investors or lenders will want to read your plan before they supply you with funding. If you're financing the business yourself, you will still want to have a written plan to develop business strategies and financial projections. A key element within the business plan is the marketing plan, which explains marketing strategies that will be used to advertise and promote the products or services. The goal setting steps of the plan will help you to analyze the success of the business in future years and clearly illustrate the capital needed to operate the company to break-even.
RECOGNIZING USES OF THE PLAN
We prepare a workable business plan to
Determine where the company needs to go
Forewarn of possible roadblocks along the way
Formulate responses to contingencies
Keep the business on track to reach its planned goals
Getting Started
The hardest part of creating a business plan is getting the energy together to get started. At first it seems like a daunting task. But once you get going you'll find that writing the plan is not as tough as it seems. Start with some of the easy steps first. Describe your business and your product or services. Talk about the market you are targeting. And explain what stage of development your company is in. If you get hung up on a particular part of the plan--skip it for now--and come back and fill it in later.
ESTABLISHING GOALS
Companies that lack a definite direction and the ability to stay on course eventually sink. It's the firms with vision and a plan to exploit that vision that become the stars. If you don't set goals and then try to reach them, it's guaranteed that your firm will stay right where it is today. With changing technology, changing customer demands, and increasing sophistication, marching in place is business suicide. During the 1990s and as we approach the next century, no company has the luxury of conducting business as usual. If you stay where you are today, the rest of us will leave you in the dust.
Company Goals
These are the targets for change and transition that your firm must reach over the next twelve months. Company goals cover such major issues as
Products offered • Product description. New business strategies are often closely tied to a particular product or service. If this is your situation, include a clear and substantive description of your principal product or service. Follow this with a focused discussion of what will make your product or service stand out from any similar offerings in the marketplace. Focus, in depth, on just a few of the most competitive attributes of your product or service.
Customers targeted. Throughout the writing of your business plan you want to keep in mind your intended audience and why you are writing the plan. At the same time you need to be especially careful to adequately disclose the risks and uncertainties in your business, because investors often look for someone to blame if their investment disappears.
Company image
Competition. In today's crowded marketplace, you're probably going to have serious competition no matter how creative your business concept is. That is why you need to think competitively throughout your business plan. You need to realistically identify where you will do things in similar manner as your competitors, where you will do things differently, where you have real strengths and where you have real weaknesses. A lot of business plans sound good on paper, but don't work in the real world marketplace. It's difficult to attract people to a new product or service. Just because it's better doesn't mean people are going to switch to it! People or companies have established buying patterns and are currently doing business with someone else. To get them to do business with you, you need to do more than to attract them to your business. You've got to steal them away from someone else's business. It's also quite possible that when you enter the marketplace, that your competitors may react with their own new products or services or by cutting their prices. And it's easy to underestimate costs--especially for a start-up. Include an overview of those firms and their products and/or services that you will be in direct competition with. Identify the market leader and define what makes it successful. Emphasize those characteristics of the firm or offerings that are different than yours.
Levels of service
Product quality
Company's goals established in the business plan move the company into the position where it needs to be.
Strategy is the core of your business plan
Basically the first half of the business plan is geared towards helping develop and support and solid business strategy. You look at the market, the industry, customers and competitors. You look at customer needs and the benefits of current products and services. You evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each competing firm and look for opportunities in the marketplace. All of these steps are largely aimed at helping you create a strategy for your business. The second half of the business plan is largely to execute your selected business strategy. Your products and services, your marketing and your operations should all closely tie in with your strategy. So while it may be easy to select a smart-sounding strategy for your plan, I recommend you give a lot of thought to the strategy that will set the course for your business.
Market Expansion - This strategy looks to grow overall sales in one of two ways:
- Grow Sales with Existing Products - With this approach the marketer seeks to actively increase the overall sales of products the company currently markets. This can be accomplished by: 1) getting existing customers to buy more; 2) getting potential customers to buy (i.e., those who have yet to buy); or 3) selling current products in new markets.
- Grow Sales with New Products - With this approach the marketer seeks to achieve objectives through the introduction of new products. This can be accomplished by: 1) introducing updated versions or refinements to existing products; 2) introducing products that are extensions of current products; or 3) introducing new products not previously marketed.
Market Share Growth - This strategy looks to increase the marketer's overall percentage or share of market. In many cases this can only be accomplished by taking sales away from competitors. Consequently, this strategy often relies on aggressive marketing tactics.
Niche Market - This strategy looks to obtain a commanding position within a certain segment of the overall market. Usually the niche market is much smaller in terms of total customers and sales volume than the overall market. Ideally this strategy looks to have the product viewed as being different from companies targeting the larger market.
Status Quo - This strategy looks to maintain the marketer's current position in the market, such as maintaining the same level of market share.
Market Exit - This strategy looks to remove the product from the organization's product mix. This can be accomplished by: 1) selling the product to another organization, or 2) eliminating the product.
Find Your Unique Strengths!
Here are a few possible strategy variables to consider:
- High quality versus low price
- Narrow versus broad product line
- High-tech versus low-tech products
- Trendy versus conservative products
- Niche market versus mainstream market
Have A Bumper Sticker Strategy!
Don't Copy Your Competitor's Strategy!
Example:
McDonalds’ strategy
В 1999 году компания McDonald's лидировала на мировом рынке общественного питания за счет сильного брэнда и общего объема продаж в 35 млрд. долл. Из более чем 25 тыс. ресторанов McDonald's около 80% находились во франчайзинге у примерно 5000 владельцев во всем мире. За последние 10 лет объемы продаж компании увеличивались ежегодно в среднем на 8%, а коэффициент окупаемости ее акций составил 20%.
Стратегия роста
· Разрабатывать еще не охваченные рынки, открывая ежегодно 1750 ресторанов (в среднем по одному каждые 5 часов), частично собственных, частично — на условиях франчайзинга, причем 90% этих новых ресторанов должны открыться за пределами США.
· Занять лидирующее положение на зарубежных рынках.
· Увеличивать посещаемость ресторанов компании, предлагая новые и недорогие фирменные блюда, увеличивая порции при сохранении прежней цены, организуя детские игровые площадки при ресторанах.
· Исследовать возможности глобальной инфраструктуры поставщиков компании, их опыт в управлении комплексными заведениями общепита, выборе мест расположения ресторанов, маркетинговой деятельности.
Стратегия франчайзинга
· Выдавать лицензию на франчайзинг только инициативным, опытным предпринимателям с хорошей репутацией; специально готовить их к активному продвижению торговой марки McDonald's на местах. (Договоры о франчайзинге не заключаются с корпорациями, партнерами и пассивными инвесторами.)