Starting point:
3000 word business plan targeted at the design museum (my audience)
My plan so far is split into these sections:
Introduction
Elevator pitch
Exploration of copyright
Our aims
First phase
Second phase
Third phase
Pricing strategy
Summary
Basic business plan research
Maeva Everywhere – simple starting point:
Business name:
Top 5 values:
Mission statement (my purpose is to…):
Description of Product/Service:
Positioning:
Top competitors (names and websites):
Similarities with them (in services/products, marketing, design, values):
Differences (services, products, marketing, design, values):
Target market (describe the person, income level, age range, pain points, desires, what they spend their time reading/doing):
My prospect clients will:
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My prospect clients wont:
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ThoughtCo – useful financial aspects:
5.1.2 Pricing Strategy
We must charge appropriately for the high-end, high-quality service and support we offer. Our revenue structure has to match our cost structure, so the salaries we pay to assure good service and support must be balanced by the revenue we charge.
We cannot build the service and support revenue into the price of products. The market can’t bear the higher prices, and the buyer feels ill-used when they see the same product priced lower at the chains. Despite the logic behind it, the market doesn’t support this concept.
Therefore, we must make sure that we deliver and charge for service and support. Training, service, installation, networking support—all of this must be readily available and priced to sell and deliver revenue.
5.1.3 Promotion Strategy
We depend on newspaper advertising as our main outlet to reach new buyers. As we change strategies, however, we need to change the way we promote ourselves:
- Advertising
We’ll be developing our core positioning message: “24 Hour On-Site Service—365 Days a Year With No Extra Charges” to differentiate our service from the competition. We will be using local newspaper advertising, radio, and cable TV to launch the initial campaign.
- Sales Brochure
Our collaterals have to sell the store and visiting the store, not the specific book or discount pricing.
- Direct Mail
We must radically improve our direct mail efforts, reaching our established customers with training, support services, upgrades, and seminars.
- Local Media
It’s time to work more closely with the local media. We could offer the local radio station a regular talk show on technology for small business, as one example. We could also reach out to local news outlets to let them know we have experts who are able to address issues relating to technology for small business/home offices should the need arise.
5.2 Sales Strategy
- We need to sell the company, not the product. We sell AMT, not Apple, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, or Compaq, or any of our software brand names.
- We have to sell our service and support. The hardware is like the razor, and the support, service, software services, training, and seminars are the razor blades. We need to serve our customers with what they need.
The Yearly Total Sales chart summarizes our ambitious sales forecast. We expect sales to increase from $5.3 million last year to more than $7 million next year and to more than $10 million in the last year of this plan.
5.2.1 Sales Forecast
The important elements of the sales forecast are shown in the Total Sales by Month in Year 1 table. The non-hardware sales increase to about $2 million total in the third year.
AIGA – detailed summary:
- Executive summary
- Values statement
- Vision statement
- Mission statement
- Goals
- Description of services
- Business environment and market trends
- Client profile
Now you need to answer some questions about how your clients make purchasing decisions. If you’ve been in business for a while, start with your current relationships, then add the new clients that you’re targeting. Chances are that you’ve already gathered information about key executives during your industry research. Look at the organisational structure and pay attention to recent changes. It’s not unusual for a new president or marketing executive to be brought in with a mandate for change. Think about the following:
What are the job titles of your primary contacts?
How are they positioned in the hierarchy?
What decision-making authority do they have?
What do they buy?
Why do they buy it?
What are the key factors that drive their decision-making?
What is their buying process?
(For example, in many large companies, you must first be added to list of approved vendors before you can participate in competitive bidding for individual projects.)
When are purchases made?
(For example, are some projects tied to an annual business cycle? Do major product launches happen on a different schedule?)
- Evaluation of your competition
- Sustainable advantage
- Marketing plan
- Operations plan
- Human resources plan
- Technology and physical facilities plan
- Financial plan for the next three years
Sustainability business plan
Business.com – how I can use sustainability to attract my client:
- Which manufacturing processes are the most wasteful? How can you mitigate the negative effects of these processes?
- For physical materials, is it possible to source locally?
- How are you packaging your products? (Sustainable, biodegradable packaging can reduce the amount of trash stuck in landfills.)
- Which materials on your list are the riskiest or least sustainable? How might you replace them? Could you replace them now?
- What are the end products of these processes? How can you reuse waste material? Does it have to be thrown away?
- Can the produced waste be used as a resource or fed into a different process to be used again? How can you reduce the unusable waste?
- Where can you reduce? How can you stretch your raw materials? Can you lower the amount of resources needed to create a specific product while maintaining its quality?
- What are the labor conditions like? Are your laborers being paid fairly? Is their quality of life improving or worsening because of your business processes? Is their time being respected?
What blockers are there to a sustainable business model?
1. Innovation meetings are held, but ideas are not developed further.
Many good ideas arise when founders or leaders get together at a workshop or meeting, but to be implemented, they must be further developed and a plan of action drafted.
2. Ideas are not implemented.
The second issue founders face is that the plans for change are simply never implemented. This could be because it seems too difficult to change the status quo, or because the members of the company aren’t yet convinced of the need for a greener, kinder business model.
3. The implemented business models fail in the market.
Two of the most common reasons businesses fail to move toward sustainability are the wrong mindset and a reluctance to dedicate resources to change. To address these, find your allies – those who believe sustainability is important for the bottom line and for the larger world – and connect with them. Together, you can remove or alter harmful, outdated systems and encourage innovation.
In the past 10 years, customers have become more vocal about brands they like and brands they don’t. In fact, a third of Americans have used social media to complain about a brand or its customer service. Practicing and following through with your sustainability goals helps consumers feel closer to you, allowing them to place more trust in your brand. This is crucial in a time where customers are expecting more warmth and honesty in the companies they shop from.
If you think about it, the conversation about sustainability is also one about family and relationships, homes and comfort. You don’t need to wax poetic about lofty marketing models or craft textbook-like prose to convince customers or stakeholders why sustainability is worth supporting. Just talk to them like the fellow humans they are.
Green for all – think of how a business impacts on environment and people:
“Think through how your business will contribute to the green economy
Before you begin writing, spend some time brainstorming all of the ways that your business will contribute to the green economy. Consider your product, service, internal operations, and the local economy. Compile a list of the environmental and social impacts of your business. (This list will likely grow as you continue to write your plan.) This brainstorming exercise will help you communicate the green aspects of your business within each section of your plan”
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