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Maximum Impact
By Don Sussis
October 11, 1999

Other suggestions for this part of your business plan:

  1. estimates of market growth rates;
  2. economic factors driving sales or creating opportunities;
  3. identification and analysis of competitors; and, especially important,
  4. a clear description of your company''s competitive advantage.

Marketing and Personnel
When discussing marketing/operations, be sure to describe your product or service and explain how it will be produced and delivered. Since so many new companies are offering many new solutions, gaining market share and market awareness is especially important. Remember, it is not always the very best solution that is successful but rather the one that can gain market penetration and acceptance. Therefore, be sure to explain how you intend to gain customers and users. Do not underestimate the resources necessary for this task. It will do you no good to develop an excellent service or product if no one knows about it. Investors want to be sure that once they have funded your idea, it will have life outside the hearts and minds of the inventors.

Key personnel are becoming increasingly important to obtaining funds from investors. A few years ago it was possible to get a great idea funded just because it was a great idea, but this is no longer the case. Many investors now want to place their bets on teams rather than individuals. They want experience or a track record that yields confidence in success. In essence, they want to know who is running the company.

The positions they will look at include: the Chief Executive Officer (CEO); the Chief Financial Officer (CFO); the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) ; the V.P. of Marketing ( i.e., the marketing expert) and members of the Board of Directors or Significant Advisors (who add value through their experience and connections).

As a start up, you might not have all of these positions covered. Investors will still want to know that you have filled some of these spots as appropriate to your company''s stage of development. Some of the highlights that you should present include education; experience; critical skills; accomplishments; tasks and responsibilities in making the new company successful.

The financial analysis that is part of your business plan includes past and current financial statements, projected financial statements (as well as assumptions about them), valuation analysis and the use of proceeds. We''ll discuss these in Part II, coming later this week.


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