What you need to put in your business plan
Today is the final judging and presentations for the Babson Entrepreneur Forum. There are three finalists from the semi-final submissions of 26 plans. What strikes me about all the plans, with one exception, is that they are poorly written for the purpose of raising money and impressing potential investors. Here’s the bare minimum you need to include:
- What’s the customer problem you are solving and how will you make money by solving that problem?
- What part of this market can you realistically serve in the first few years? I do not want to see suggestions that this is a billion dollar market place and you only need to dominate 1.5% to make a fortune.
- Who does what in your team and what experience do you have to suggest you can perform those roles adequately? If you need to add some other team members to make up for gaps in experience please explain that.
- Why do you need outside money and how will you spend it?
- How will you market and sell your idea?
- How many customers or how much revenue do you have? Even one is a good start. If you don’t have any then it’s really just an idea, not a business.
- If it’s a physical or software product can you show me a prototype or evidence that you idea has evolved beyond just being an idea?
