Formatting the White-Paper Business Plan

In order to be in line with current business practice, please use Times New Roman throughout your business plan. Here are the guidelines:

• Text: 12pt
• Headings: 14pt bold
• Title page: 16pt bold

This will give your business plan a good, clean look. Also, don't hesitate to use bullets and special indents to focus the reader on key points. Special indents are available on the formatting bar and has an arrow symbol next to text to show the direction of the indent.

A reminder: Have a separate title page. Next comes the table of contents. Next comes the executive summary, which distills the keypoints of your entire presentation, both to offer a quick read to the busy investor and to pique the interest to read further. 

Your Business Plan PowerPoint Presentation

Once you’ve finished your white-paper version of the business plan, the next step is to create a PowerPoint presentation that relies on the information and format of your business plan but only contains the key points, headings and headline-style information.

One way to look at it is this: Use the presentation for the headings and any graphics that might help you win investor confidence, and use your business plan for the script or narrative.

With these two documents, you’re prepared to pass out the white-paper version at an investor conference while using your PP presentation as the main event. You want to sell yourself and your plan to investors, to convince them that you’re ready to run your own business or franchise.

Researching and creating your business plan, step by step

I've asked all of you to complete Roman-numeral I and II and all sub-sections of figure 35-1 on p. 640 as an organizing research tool. Then we're using the data there to build, piece by piece, our business plans, starting with Vision and Mission statements, then Company Description, and then Products and Services, and so forth. These are all from the BizPlanit suggested business-plan format that we're following and are listed in the previous posting below.

Use the Napa Chamber of Commerce link and the City-data.com link to research your demographics, geographics and psychographics in order to really understand your target market, customer behavior and potential competition. I also urge you to call similar businesses in our area to ask them about competition and target market.

Elements to include in the business plan

BizPlanit suggests:

Executive Summary

Mission and Vision

Company Description

Product & Services

Industry Analysis

Target Market

Marketing/Sales Plan

Competitive Analysis

Management Team

Operational Plan

Financial Projections

Exit Strategy

Table of Contents

Appendices

It's a good plan to follow. Please start with Company Description, Products & Services, and Mission & Vision, in any order that works for you. Once you've got that done, we'll move on. A word of reassurance: The Financial Projections is a bit over your head, so I'm not going to push for that unless I can find a way to simplify it. Also, the appendices is probably not necessary, since you won't have time to build supporting docs.

Read the advice for each section at BizPlanit and compare the approach for each section at the other websites – SBA, Bplans, PlanWare, etc. – and then start to sketch out your sections. Ask me for advice as you go. Keep it simple, but be prepared to do research on Industry, Competition and Target Market. I'll tell you more.

The shape of the business plan

After you've taken the previous post into account, you will be creating a:

Well-formatted, professional Microsoft Word document that constitutes the printed handout of your business plan, based on your chosen business or franchise to open and operate.

A PowerPoint presentation to sell investors on the business opportunity, based on the business plan you've created in Word.

We'll work together to create a business plan based on the models presented in the Useful Links.