ΤΕΧΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ, ΚΑΙΝΟΤΟΜΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΕΠΙΧΕΙΡΗΜΑΤΙΚΟΤΗΤΑ 9 Ο εξάμηνο Χημικών Μηχανικών Γιάννης Καλογήρου, Καθηγητής ΕΜΠ, επιστημονικός υπεύθυνος ΜοΚΕ ΕΜΠ, Y.Caloghirou@ntua.gr DRAFTING A BUSINESS PLAN: KEY QUESTIONS AND ISSUES
Άδεια Χρήσης Το παρόν εκπαιδευτικό υλικό υπόκειται σε άδειες χρήσης Creative Commons. Για εκπαιδευτικό υλικό, όπως εικόνες, που υπόκειται σε άδεια χρήσης άλλου τύπου, αυτή πρέπει να αναφέρεται ρητώς.
Why a business plan? 3 A BP= a strategic document par excellence which enables the would be entrepreneur/ entrepreneurial team to think about all the aspects and the related issues of his/her business venture. What is different and unique in your business concept, business offering and effort compared to what others do in the same field and to what your potential customers want and willing to pay for that?
Some key questions 4 What is the nature of the business that you are thinking to enter and the basic user requirements? What is about yourself and your founding team that makes you a competent business team in terms of trust among its members, perception, decision-making and implementation? What makes your offering (product, service, combined) special?
Key questions related to the aspects of business that the BP addresses 5 The product (good/ service): What precisely is it? How do you define it in terms of benefits offered to the users? How clear is your description to your potential users/ customers? The market: Evidence that a demand for your offering exists or is latent? Define your competitors, would be competitors and the nature and the intensity of competition? What kind of market are you entering in (niche, )? Can you see any possible fluctuations? What are the determining factors of the creation, functioning and the evolution of your market? Can you deal with them? What is your Total Addressable Market (TAM)? Which part of this TAM can you acquire?
Key Questions (continued...) 6 What is your unique selling point? What is that makes your offering better and/ or different compared to those of your competitors (existing or would be)? Price, Quality, What else? Are there and how many (willing to pay) customers? Make a calculated estimate. Sources of knowledge and IP management issues: How much open and how much protected in terms of your knowledge assets? What type of protection (patents, copyrights, trademarks,..)?
Key Questions (continued...) 7 What it takes to be successful in this line of business? In this respect what are yours and your co- founders relevant knowledge, capabilities, skills and competences? What relevant experience/ training you and your partners have? Are there necessary complementarities? How do you propose to cover any shortcomings, weaknesses? Division of labour among the members of the founding team. Who is going to be the coordinator/leader? Business development: Time horizon, stages of development, milestones, business objectives, Growth vs. Diversification. Capital Funding: What level of funding is required and when? How much money of your own you afford to put into it? What other sources and methods of funding do you consider?
Key Questions (continued...) 8 Management and Personnel: Would you employ other people? If yes, what will do and what will be their roles? How will they relate to the founding team? Legal and cost implications of employing these people. Legal requirements: Any kind of legislation you need to comply with. Location and premises: Does location matter? What size of premises do you need and what do they cost? Is it feasible and desirable to work from home?
Key Questions (continued...) 9 Budgeting Cash flow forecasting: At what points in the year will you face big bills? When you expect an upturn in sales? What levels of overdraft you need to service the business?
What is a start-up? (Steve Blank) 10 Start-ups are not defined in terms of a distinction between Start ups=small vs. Large Business i.e. Both they write business plans. Both they have long-term plans. Both have managers (functional). But, Large existing corporation at its core executes known business models, while start ups search for a business model. Search vs. Execution (in terms of a business model)
What is a start-up? (Steve Blank) (continued...) 11 A start up is a temporary organisation designed to search for a scalable and reputable business model. A plan= a series of untested hypothesis or a series of untested guesses. A start up is a faith-based enterprise in Day 1 and you have to turn that faith plus passion to facts as quickly as you can. The organizing document is the business model. Any company can be described in 9 elements (Business Model Canvas).
Business Model Generation [Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010] 12 A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value BM: starting point, shared language that facilitates description and further discussion, simplify but not oversimplify. A BM can be described through nine basic building blocks: Customer Segments, Value Propositions, Channels (communication, distribution, sales), Customer Relationships within each customer segment, Revenue Streams resulting from value propositions offered to different segments, Key resources, key activities, key partnerships (outsourced activities, resources acquired outside the enterprise), cost structure. Different types of customer segments: mass market, niche market, segmented, diversified (unrelated), multisided platforms.
Customer Development 13 The process to turn your hypotheses to facts. What is the problem or need your potential customer has? Does your solution solves his problem or need? There are no facts inside your building. Go out, meet your potential customers, listen and ask questions (instead pushing for selling) to understand what are other people needs and problems are. Search Build Execute Order Battles (many smiles but no orders?).
Χρηματοδότηση Το παρόν εκπαιδευτικό υλικό έχει αναπτυχθεί στα πλαίσια του εκπαιδευτικού έργου του διδάσκοντα. Το έργο «Ανοικτά Ακαδημαϊκά Μαθήματα Ε.Μ.Π.» έχει χρηματοδοτήσει μόνο τη αναδιαμόρφωση του εκπαιδευτικού υλικού. Το έργο υλοποιείται στο πλαίσιο του Επιχειρησιακού Προγράμματος «Εκπαίδευση και Δια Βίου Μάθηση» και συγχρηματοδοτείται από την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση (Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινωνικό Ταμείο) και από εθνικούς πόρους.