Do Business Well

2. Current status. This section provides a snapshot of the company today. What are its strengths and weaknesses?

Most business owners are quick to extol their company’s strengths—the high quality of its product and/or service, its acceptance in the marketplace, the loyalty of the employees, and so forth. Not surprisingly, weaknesses rarely get much attention. And why should they? Most entrepreneurs don’t see many weaknesses in their businesses and, if they do, they’d prefer not to put them in writing. Especially if bankers, prospective executives, and others will be reading the plan. Continue Reading »

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As I’ve noted, a company’s strategy is a statement of its overall approach to doing business, its goals, and how it plans to achieve those goals. In the context of the business plan, the strategy can usually be summarized in a few sentences that articulate the company’s expectations for growth in coming years and the steps that will be required to make it happen.

Software Publishing Corp. stated its strategy this way: “Software Publishing Corp. is positioning itself as the leading independent software supplier for personal computers by producing products aimed at the fastest-growing segment of the personal computer market: Business/Professional applications. SPC’s unique strength in this segment is its ability to produce software that turns the personal computer into a versatile problem-solving tool that individuals can use to describe and solve a problem in their own unique way without programming.” Continue Reading »

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The quality of the people running the company is a critical link in making the strategy believable. Clearly, if there’s a history of company accomplishment and growth, that speaks for itself. For a company seeking to convince outsiders of its ability to succeed in the future, the quality of the management team becomes extremely important. Many investors and other outsiders are known to turn first to the descriptions of the management team when reading a business plan. They know that the people are key to determining success, and they are looking for clues to tell them that the people have what it takes to guide the company through growth stages.

The two most common management team problems are best described as follows: Continue Reading »

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It’s great to identify the benefits you can offer a growing andreceptive market, but you have to keep in mind that you won’tbe operating in a vacuum There’s almost certainly competition for the market you’ve targeted. If there isn’t, don’t necessarily take that as a good sign. It may mean that the market isn’t as receptive to your product or service as you think.

Entrepreneurs often take the competition too lightly. They assume that their own product or service is so much better than the competition’s that there’s no way customers won’t make the obvious choice. The truth is that there are reasons that the competition is there and doing well, and you may not understand all those reasons. Continue Reading »

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