Business Planning, Business Plans and Venture Funding

- Business Plans -

The business plan is the end result of a company’s business planning process. The business plan is a document that delineates, in detail, the technology, product, or service offering that is being funded for the next three to five fiscal years and possibly beyond. The business plan is a single document that provides all the details of the technology, product, or service offering, from expected development costs to projected market penetration over the foreseeable period of interest to the expected financial return on investment. The business plan is often developed over a period of time and goes through multiple iterations. The end result is a “complete” document that provides all of the necessary details for a given technology, product, or service offering.

The business plan “sets the bar” in which a corporation measures itself and its overall performance. Based on a business plan or multiple business plans, a corporation then has a way to determine if it is performing up to the its own projected goals and standards, as well as the generally accepted standards that define a successful company in the industry in which they are participating. These can include, but are not limited to:

• Revenue growth objectives,

• Market share gains,

• Gross margins targets,

• Sales and marketing objectives,

• Customer traction goals,

• Operational margin goals,

• Earnings growth objectives, and

• Return on investment targets.

The business plan can also determine if the technology, product, or service offering is maximizing the return on investment for your corporation by comparing projected and actual performance over a given period of time.