Company creation: building your business plan

The business plan must be saleable, reassuring, that is to say realistic, so built from the ground and your research.

He has to prove that your plan is serious.

It must be both synthetic and very accurate with your numerical forecasts.

The main investors you need to convince with your business plan are:

• Bank
• State
• Local authorities
• Business angels
• Future partners
• Anyone you're looking for funds from

Depending on the investor you are talking to, you put certain information forward.

You have to do it multiple versions according to your interlocutor.

The dossier consists of 5 parts:

1. Introduction or pitch presentation
2. Introducing your product (or service)
3. Introducing your business model (also called business strategy)
4. Your market study (summary)
5. Your financial forecast (summary)

Definition

One pitch is the presentation of your project for convince an interlocutor.

It must be condensed.

You have to convince in a short time.

The purpose of this summary shall be to prove:

• Your ability to do business
• Your suitability for the project
• Your serious preparation of the project
• If you are several partners, your cohesion

It is advisable to write multiple versions of this introduction according to the different types of investors to be convinced.

What content?

In this introduction, you should answer the following questions:

• Who are you and who are the members of your team (employees, partners)?
• What's your plan? It is the name of your company, its legal form, its domicile, the nature of the activity, the history of the project.
• What's your target? It's about showing that you've identified your future customers.
• What's the environment? It's about showing that you've identified your competition, constraints, risks, market trends, etc.
• What are your development ambitions? It's about showing that you have a short, medium and long-term vision of the project.

This information should help you understand what your ideas are. your values, which motivates you, so the meaning of your project.

If several of you are founding a company, we must feel the cohesion of the team and the complementarity of the members.

This presentation must prove your ability to do business on the court and the long-term.

You describe what you will sell.

This description must be precise, concise and clear.

We must avoid using terms that are too technical.

You must be understood by people who know nothing about your field of activity.

You need to determine how you're gonna sell your product or service.

The business model is called in different ways: a marketing strategy, a business strategy, a "mix-marketing" or a business model.

Answer the following questions

• How will you make yourself known, what promotion will be made for your product or service?
• What will be your rates ?
• What will be your suppliers ?
• Who will make your product or service?
• What will be your channels of distribution, where will your product or service be sold (internet, professional networks, shops, etc.)?
• What will be the relationship with your customers, how will the retain ?
• Where will be stored your products?
• What will be the tracks of development your activity (internet, national, international, etc.)?

Target all constraints

It's about anticipating what might be holding you back.

You need to identify what can drive up your costs: storage, production, distribution, communication.

You have to prove that you've thought about

• how to counter these constraints
• and how you plan to cope loss of profits, increased expenses, new competitors, etc.

The aim is to explain:

• Who are your future customers?
• What added value does your product bring to the market?
• In what environment does your future business fit?

The goal is to show that your company will be profitable.

It is also called a financing plan or provisional budget.

The Financial Forecast (or Forecast Budget) is part of your market study. This is the last part of your market study.

You have to build this budget on 3 years to come.

You must put a figure on :

• Your expenses, the necessary expenses
• Your revenue (revenue)
• Your financing needs
• Fluctuations in your business and the market

It takes place in 4 parts :

1. Profit and loss account
2. Balance Sheet
3. Financing plan
4. Budget or cash flow plan

These 4 parts correspond to 4 numerical tables.