business plans
As we have mentioned before, the founders of Early Stage Legal have significant experience in venture capital. As such we hold some strong opinions based on years of experience. One of these opinions is that traditional business plans are rapidly becoming extinct. We may be outside of the norm in saying this but it is our view. We still see business plans from time to time but increasingly we see savvy entrepreneurs who have an overview PowerPoint deck that highlights the key aspects of the company and then a set of supporting documents that deep-dive into key areas.
Traditional business plans
If you are going to put together a traditional business plan here are the key elements you should cover:
- Executive Summary. This should provide an overview of your company, what your product or service is, why it is a good idea, the management team, high-level financials, and funding requirements.
- Description of the Business.
- Summary description of the business.
- Information about products or services.
- Intellectual property.
- Legal structure
- Accounting systems
- Legal representation
- Insurance
- Security
- Management
- Bios
- Management references
- Market
- Target market
- Market size and growth
- Market trends and dynamics
- Market research
- Competition
- Comparison of product or service to competitors
- Customer information where possible
- Case studies
- Examples
- Market research
- Press and PR about the company
- Go-to-Market Strategy
- Method of sales and distribution
- Packaging
- Pricing
- Branding
- Sales strategies
- Advertising strategies
- Public relations
- Operations
- Description of operational systems, processes and technologies
- Fulfillment
- Customer service
- Customer references
- Financials
- Historical financials (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow)
- Projected financials (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow)
- Capitalization table
- Other financial analyses specifc to your company--usually potential investors will make these requests but you may want to think in advance what to prepare
- Customer acquisition costs
- Lifetime value of a customer
- Churn rate analysis
- Profitability by business line
- Others
- Funding
- Funding history--rounds, prices per share, investors, shares purchased by investor, key terms
- Projected breakeven analysis
- Requested amount of funding
- Uses of funding
- Supporting materials
- Management team resumes
- Copies of leases, mortgages, etc.
- Contracts
- Option agreements
- Term sheets
- Funding documents
- Patents