Business Plan
Business Plan Links
Executive Summary
- This section appears first in the business plan ALTHOUGH it is written last
- * Business Description
- * Ownership
- * Competitive Advantages
- * Marketing Strategy
- * Summary of Financial Projections
Business History
- One paragraph that describes why you want to start and business and how you arrived at your business idea.
Objectives
- 4 or 5 bullet points that highlight the business' first year's objectives
Products and Services
- Describe what you sell and how you differentiate your products / services mix from other competitive offerings (advantages and benefits). It provides detail on what your business does and begins to describe how it will generate revenue.
Market Analysis
- Market Analysis is a category heading for 4 sub-categoires that include Market Research, Industry Analysis, Competitor Analysis and Customer Analysis
Marketing Research
- The Market Research section provides a summary of all the information - primary and secondary - you gathered for your Industry Analysis, Competitor Analysis and Customer Analysis
- Primary Research - Information you collect firsthand, including personal interviews with prospective customers, suppliers and competitors and discussions, surveys, etc.
- Customer Survey - guide to creating surveys and questionnaires
- Survey Tutorial
- Secondary Research - Information from second-hand sources, including books, magazines, government sources, statistics, reports, Internet, etc.
Industry Analysis
Competitor Analysis
Customer Analysis
- The Customer Analysis section identifies the primary target market for the product or service, including geographic location, demographics, target market's needs and how these needs are currently being met. In this section you will:
* Identify and define your typical customer segments
* Characterize each segment by location, age, gender, income, lifestyle and any other relevant characteristics of the target group
* Discuss what motivates this group to make its purchase decisions (i.e., price, quality, location, etc.)
* Describe what market niche your business will serve
* Identify the size of the market, and your anticipated market share
* Provide relevant market trends and outlook
- Sunshine Coast Retail Gap Analysis
- Sunshine Coast Census Profile 2006
- Wikipedia - demographics - generational demographics (boomers, gen X, echo boomers, etc.)
- Canadian Stats - by subject
- Social Values Survey
- Cultural Creatives
- What Canadians Spend their Money On
- BC Stats Population
- BC Work Futures - link to occupation descriptions, duties, working conditions, and prospects
- BC Check-Up - Live Work Invest in BC - a report by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of BC
- Affordable Housing Report (lots of good stats on the Sunshine Coast)
- Local Labour Market Information
- SCORE Comprehensive Statistics for the Sunshine Coast
- District of Sechelt Community Profile (an 85 page PDF document that includes geographic, demographic. Housing, income and economic information)
- Town of Gibsons - Community Profile information for Gibsons
- Community Profiles - stats from 2006 census
Marketing Plan
Positioning
Pricing
Sales Strategy
Promotion
Distribution
Management Plan
Ownership Structure
Management
Human Resources Needs
Operating Plan
General
Business Licence Info
Physical Location
Assets and Equipment
Production Process
Inventory
Risk and Contingency Plan
Financial Plan
Implementation Plan
Appendices