We start with the Business Plan! Does your idea seem like the winning one? Are you looking for funds, but do not know how to move with investors? To find out how to do fund raising, here are the things you absolutely must know.
Here we are, you are ready. You have finally devised your project, the idea that from your point of view could actually solve a problem. You managed to build your team, using valid or at least worthy figures for your startup.
You have talked about it to the people dear to you and to the relatives, who are positive or a little more reticent, and have decided to support you in this intricate and unknown ecosystem. A system that at the same time fascinates, but like all unexplored realities it poses its problems and questions.
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How To Find Funds For Your Startup: Rely On An Advisor And Develop A Qualified Business Plan
Now that the anxiety is more agitated and you have come to have to face reality, you understand that you need lenders for your project. The first friend you’re targeting is definitely Google, and so you start looking for ‘Where can I find investors’, ‘ How to find lenders for a project ‘ or simply ‘How to fund a project without money’.
Do not rush into strenuous and daring research, the solution is one: the business plan. You cannot introduce yourself to a business angel or a venture capitalist without the support of a well-structured business plan with an elevator pitch.
The elevator pitch is a brief presentation of a business idea presented by the start upper to investors. The model we suggest is that of Guy Kawasaki which suggests a path of 10 slides to successfully structure the presentation of your idea.
But let’s go in order. Follow me in this reading that will lead you to understand how to find private or public lenders.
Business Plan Definition
Wipedia tells us that: ‘The business plan is a document that summarizes the contents and characteristics of an entrepreneurial project (business idea). It is used both for business planning and for external communication, in particular towards potential lenders or investors.
In order to understand each other better you will have in your hands a real action plan, where your competitors are analyzed, what their characteristics are, a first marketing plan is defined, the market is analyzed with your relative market share and much even more.
Furthermore, it is the document that the lenders want to see in order to understand what the real business opportunities are in relation to the market you want to attack and how you plan to acquire customers or users.
Business Plan: How to Do?
At this point your first doubt, which was probably ‘what good is the business plan’, I think it finally vanished. Now your next unknown factor is just figuring out how to make a business plan.
It generally consists of 4 parts, anticipated by the summary. Its complexity is evident if you think that companies generally employ more than one resource to make it happen. In general, the marketing specialist will carry out an accurate marketing strategy, together with other possible analyzes on the competitor side. Then there is the specialized figure in the financial plan that will take care of drawing up a document in which they will be shown:
- Financial strategies;
- Sales forecast;
- Staff plan;
- Budget;
- Loans and investments;
- Investment table;
- Income statement;
- Budget;
- Financial report.
He thinks that this is just one of the 4 sections of the business plan. A company that is well structured and specialized will take the time to structure your business idea. In general, from the first day of the meeting with the startup, we present the entire package consisting of business plan, financial plan, cap table, executive summary, elevator pitch and Nda within 45 days.
The complexity of a business plan is obvious. Being also of fundamental importance, because this is the model that will make you open track to lenders I already tell you that you have to make use of a professional.
It is the only thing or better is one of the aspects on which one must invest. How do you plan to present yourself to investors if the document you provide them has already been poorly structured and is not able to best represent your business idea? How do you plan to access events or participate in club deals without your business plan?
In the club deal, entrepreneurs and prominent professionals, after having done a series of startups, decide to invest in one or more projects. But even there to show up there is an elevator pitch and a business plan!
Represents the base, represents the foundation from which to start. Without it you can say goodbye to the realization of your project!
Business Plan Startup
We want to give you an example of a business plan in order to better understand its importance and its dual value: as a business card and as a tool for planning and checking the steps and objectives set in order to understand how your startup is in line with the document produced.
Assuming that it is now clear the idea that without a business plan you cannot approach venture capital, let’s start with this last example designed precisely on its structure.
Here Is An Example Of A Business Plan Structure
- Executive Summary: a summary of the whole document is subdivided into subparagraphs to allow the investor a short and simple reading;
- The Company: which presents all those aspects of fundamental importance that the investor wants to know including obviously the team.
- Products and services of which a sub-paragraph also includes competitors and future products and services;
- Target market of fundamental importance, where it is analyzed the market share in which your project will be inserted and what are the future prospects.
- Swot analysis.
- The financial plan we talked about above.
Well you just have to start creating your scalability with your startup. Now it’s time to request your business plan. This is why you can turn to specialists in the sector who have always dedicated themselves to the world of startups.
