Tyler Jensen

About the Author

TYLER JENSENIn 2008, Tyler founded The Startup Garage to help entrepreneurs and business owners achieve success in their business ventures, as well as their lives. Tyler is a serial entrepreneur, having launched or help launch over 100 companies, including non-profits and social enterprises. He has developed an extensive network of business relationships to help founders achieve the milestones investors care about.

The Startup Garage Team has helped raise over $200 million for startup businesses.

I. Goal of Business PlanII. Executive Summary III. Mission & Vision IV. Product DescriptionV. Market AnalysisVI. Industry Analysis VII. Competitive Analysis

VII. Marketing Plan VIII. Operations PlanIX. Management TeamX. Financial ProjectionsXI. Startup Resources & InformationXII. Free Business Plan eBook

Table of Contents

Goal of Business PlanThe goal of a business plan is to clearly and effectively communicate what a company does and how it will operate. Its purpose will be to present the company’s strategy to investors as a roadmap for how you intend on returning a profit. Being clear on who the audience is and how much money you are looking for will help focus your writing. However you choose to execute the writing and research, it is important to understand all the moving parts of your business and how they work together.

The 10 major sections:

• Executive Summary• Mission Statement, Core Purpose & Values• Product Description• Market Analysis• Industry Analysis• Competitive Analysis• Marketing Plan• Operations Plan• Management Team• Financial Projections

• Concise description of the whole business

• Should be the last thing written

• 3 pages max

• Functions as sales “pitch”

Executive Summary

• Mission: Convey company’s fundamental purpose and reason for existing

• Vision: State the overarching perspective on how the world will benefit from your business in the ideal future

Mission & Vision

• Comprehensive description of the product using specifics and detailed language.

• Compare your product to other similar products on the market

• Clearly define what advantages your product has over the competition, as well as to address any weaknesses that you may need to improve upon.

Product Description

• Define and determine the attractiveness of several potential markets

• Understand these markets’ evolving opportunities and threats as they relate to the strengths and weaknesses of a particular business

• Focus on target market and strategy of how to approach

Market Analysis

• Behavior and relations between competitors, suppliers, and customers

• Consider political, economic and environmental factors

• Define type of industry and then sector

• Research potential factors that will impact business

Industry Analysis

• Overview of direct and indirect competitors

• Shows potential investors how business differs from competition

• Leads to better understanding of potential barriers to entering marketplace

Competitive Analysis

• Set marketing goals and positioning

• Detail company’s brand, pricing strategy, and customer service plan

• Explain marketing strategies and choose the channels that will generate customers and sales

Marketing Plan

• One of the most essential components of the business plan

• Explains how product/service will go from production stage to customer

• For internal purposes, the Operations Plan should be detailed and in-depth

• For investors, it should highlight the important facts

Operations Plan

• Describes the team that will help company succeed in building the business

• Takes considerable amount of time and energy to research prospects and build relationships

• How are employees selected, trained, and rewarded?

• Identify key management, Board of advisors, Board of directors, and professional service providers

Management Team

• Key metrics such as:

- Startup expenses - Marketing goals - Unit sales and costs - Personnel expenses - Profit and loss statement - Cash flows - Balance sheets

• First year’s projections are prepared month by month, then annually for the following two to four years

Financial Projections

Founder Resources & Information

Download The Free Business Plan Basics eBook

Business Plan Basics covers each of the 10 business plan sections with:

The time it should take Key questions to ask Information you will need Insights on putting it together to achieve your goal