Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Business Plan Tip - Every Section is Important

I just looked at a business plan written by scientists.  The plan is for a business that will manufacture and market a product based on technology that the authors invented.  The plan is 35 pages long.  16 pages of that is a (highly esoteric) discussion of the technology.  That's almost half of the plan spent on a section that very few people will finish and even fewer will come close to understanding.  Most of the remainder of the plan is either single-page sections or lists of fairly generic bullet points.

The technology behind a product is important, but it's not so important that nothing else matters.  In business, technology is important if it can be used to make or improve profits.  Therefore, the sections that discuss the market(s) and the marketing are just as important, and must be just as well thought-out, as the technology discussion.

Sometimes our strengths become our weaknesses.  This is one such case.  Remember, the various sections of a business plan are there because they are all important.

No comments:

Post a Comment