Page 174 - Business Plans that Work A Guide for Small Business

Conclusion • 163

5. Your entry and growth strategy showing how you get into the indus-
try and then grow
6. Overview of your business model, describing how you make money
and how much it costs to support those sales
7. Team description
8. Current status with timeline
9. Summary including how much you need and how that money will be
used

One mistake that entrepreneurs often make in creating their Power-
Point slides is using too much text. Bullet point slides are easy to create,
but they aren’t as compelling as pictures. A picture is truly worth a thou-
sand words. So your challenge is to substitute visuals for words whenever
possible. The appendix of the book will also illustrate PowerPoint slides
for Lazybones. It should be noted that these 16 slides include “build”
components and therefore appear to be greater than 16 slides.

Beyond the Business Plan

There is much debate about the value of a business plan. We even pro-
claim that the plan will be obsolete as soon as it comes off the press!
Some have suggested that 5 or 10 PowerPoint slides, a dehydrated plan,
or an executive summary is all that is needed. These are important ex-
tracts from the business plan, but the argument about whether you need
a business plan or not is a red herring. Most of the debate is really about
communicating the contents of the plan, not about business planning
itself. This book helps you travel along a very personal entrepreneurial
journey in a manner that will focus your energies. The true value of craft-
ing a business plan is to impose the discipline that allows you to become
an expert about your industry and your idea for making that industry
better. Ultimately, the business planning process helps you shape your
ideas into concrete, executable opportunities that create value. This pro-
cess, the hard work of new venture due diligence and articulation, is a
learnable skill that makes you a better entrepreneur. Remember, the deep
understanding of your opportunity is the competitive advantage you will
need to push the odds of success in your favor. At the same time it will
also help you raise money, recruit key management, secure vendors, and
attract customers.