Audience Focused Business Plans
I’ve worked with several
people needing to write business plans. Since their needs differ, and on-line
business plans tend to be canned, there is sometimes confusion as to what to
write, how much detail to go into, etc.
When teaching the
Business Planning Seminar to MBA students I learned that when people create a
new business they are enamored with their product or service – and thus want to
emphasis the features and benefits of the product/service rather than focus on
their actual target audience.
So, let me start by
saying that there are multiple purposes
for writing a business plan and each of these requires a somewhat different
approach – although much of the same information.
1.
You need to start with a road map for yourself
and your team. This is a basic
business plan you develop to help you move forward. It doesn’t have to be
pretty and it doesn’t need all the fancy marketing words. It’s an internal
document – and of course it changes as your business grows. It can be as short
or as detailed as you need it to be – but it is the guide for you and your
internal founding team.
2.
You are asking family and friends to support
your idea by investing with you. Here you are making a combination business and emotional appeal.
It is probably more the emotional appeal – about you and how hard you will work
to make this dream come true – that that they care about and respond to – but
they also want to see some sensible financial projections.
3.
You need a more formal business plan with
financial projects for the bank when applying for a loan. The bank is primarily interested in two
things: Your ability to repay the loan and your equity, which might be
your business assets – or even your home.
4.
You are starting a non-profit because your goals
are to help your fellow man in some particular way. You are not planning to make a profit, to go
public, etc. So, you cannot make any re-payment promises, or profit-sharing.
Instead, you are promising to do something that others can donate to (donations,
fund-raisers, grants) that will help humanity and appeal to their emotional
interests as well. Thus what you focus on is the manner in which your services
will “do good.”
5.
You are seeking early stage investors – or
angels. These savvy people care
less about your product/service than they do about your ability to execute on
the promises you make. They want to know Who is your team – what are their
prior successes and how well can they work together? They also want to know
what’s in it for them if they invest with you. Do not spend most of your time
excitedly sharing the wonderfulness of the new product/service you are
developing. You need to “sell” that aspect, but quickly. Your primary focus
needs to be answering the question: “What’s in it for me (the potential
investor?)”
6.
You are attempting to sell your company. Now it is important to share the value the
brain power of your group offers. Why not just steal your product? Why buy the
company itself? Because, of course, your team and staff are smarter, cleverer
and more creative together than if they would be split up. That’s your primary
selling point. Yes, it is true that having some proprietary secret sauce helps
too.
7.
The ultimate goal of too many people in my
opinion: going public.
Here scalability becomes the key to exciting venture capitalists. Can you scale
up so you are selling millions and billions of people – and make money doing
it?
As you can see, the focus changes when your target audience
shifts. Your executive summary
should be geared primarily to your targeted audience. Yes, you need the
competitive analysis, the operations, the team, the marketing, the finances,
etc…. but the emphasis is where you shift depending on your audience.
Labels: business planning, focused communication, target audience
posted by ArLyne Diamond, Ph.D. @ 2:36 PM
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