Nursing Entrep-Midterms Flashcards
(111 cards)
is an important precursor to action in new ventures by helping firm founders to make decisions, to balance resource supply and demand, and to turn abstract goals into concrete operational steps
Business Planning
Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.
Peter Drucker
Business plans are developed for both internal and external purposes. Internally, entrepreneurs develop business plans to help put the pieces of their business together. The most common external purpose for a business plan is to raise capital.
Business Planning Purposes
The business plan is the road map for the development of the business because it
* defines the vision for the company
* establishes the company’s strategy
* describes how the strategy will be implemented
* provides a framework for analysis of key issues
* provides a plan for the development of the
business
* is a measurement and control tool
* helps the entrepreneur to be realistic and to put theories to the test
Internal Purposes
The business plan is often the main method of
describing a company to external audiences such as potential sources for financing and key personnel being recruited. It should assist outside parties to understand the current status of the company, its opportunities, and
its needs for resources such as capital and personnel. It also provides the most complete source of information for valuation of the business.
External Purposes
As Hindle and Mainprize (2006) note, business plan writers must strive to communicate their expectations about the nature of an uncertain future. However, the liabilities of newness make communicating the expected future of new ventures difficult (more so than for existing businesses.
Business Plan Communication Principles
Five Communication Principles
- Expectations
- Milestones
- Oppurtunities
- Context
- Business Model
- Translation of your vision of the venture and how it will perform into a format compatible with the expectations of the readers
- Communicate that:
* you have identified and understood the key success factors and risks
* the projected market is large and you expect good market penetration
* you have a strategy for commercialization, profitability, and market domination
* you can establish and protect a proprietary and competitive position
Expectations
- Anchoring key events in the plan with specific financial and quantitative values
- Communicate that:
* your major plan objectives are in the form of financial targets
* you have addressed the dual need for planning and flexibility
* you understand the hazards of neglecting linkages between certain events
* you understand the importance of quantitative values (rather than just chronological dates)
Milestones
- Nothing lasts forever—things can change to
impact the opportunity: tastes, preferences, technological innovation, competitive landscape - Communicate these four aspects to distinguish the business concept, distinctive competencies, and sustainable advantages:
* the new combination upon which venture is built
* magnitude of the opportunity or market size
* market growth trends
* venture’s value from the market (% of market share proposed or market share
value in dollars)
Opportunities
- Four key aspects describing context within
which new venture is intended to function (internal and external environment) - Communicate
* how the context will help or hinder the proposal
* how the context may change & affect the business & the range of flexibility or response that is built into the venture
* what management can or will do in the event the context turns unfavorable
* what management can do to affect the
context in a positive way
Context
- Brief and clear statement of how an idea actually becomes a business that creates value
- Communicate
* Who pays, how much, and how often?
* The activities the company must perform to produce its product, deliver it to its customers and earn revenue
* And be able to defend assertions that the venture is attractive and sustainable and has a competitive edge
Business Model
Hindle and Mainprize (2006) outline five principles to help entrepreneurs project credibility
Business Plan Credibility Principles
Business Plan Credibility Principles
- Team
- Elaboration
- Scenario Integration
- Financial Link
- The Deal
- Without the right team, nothing else matters.
- Communicate
* What do they know?
* Who do they know?
* How well are they known?
Team
- Break down individual tasks into their sub-parts so each step maximizes the upside and
minimizes the downside:
* sub-strategies
* ad-hoc programs
* specific tactical action plans
Elaboration
- Claiming an insuperable lead or a proprietary market position is naïve.
- Venture building is like chess:
* Anticipate several moves in advance
* View the future as a movie vs. snapshot
Scenario Integration
- Key assumptions related to market size, penetration rates, and timing issues of market
context outlined in the business plan should link directly to the financial statements. - Income and cash flow statements must be
preceded by operational statements setting forth the primary planning assumptions about market sizes, sales, productivity, and basis for the revenue estimate.
Financial Link
- If the main purpose is to enact a harvest, then the business plan must create a value-adding deal structure to attract investors.
- Common things: viability, profit potential,
downside risk, likely life-cycle time, potential
areas for dispute or improvement
The Deal
Many businesses must have a business plan to achieve their goals. The following are some basic guidelines for business plan development.
General Business Plan Guidelines
- A standard format helps the reader understand that the entrepreneur has thought everything through, and that the returns justify the risk.
- Binding the document ensures that readers can easily go through it without it falling apart.
- Be 100% certain that:
* everything is completely integrated: the written part must say exactly the same thing as the financial part
* all financial statements are completely linked and valid (make sure all balance sheets validly balance)
* the document is well formatted (layout
makes document easy to read and comprehend—including all diagrams, charts, statements, and other additions)
* everything is correct (there are NO
spelling, grammar, sentence structure,
referencing, or calculation errors)
* the document easy to read andcomprehend because it is organized well with no unnecessary repetition
* all the necessary information is included
to enable readers to understand everything in your document
* the terms you use in your plan are clear
* if you use a percentage figure, you indicate to what it refers, otherwise the figure is completely useless to a reader.
* if your plan includes an international element, which currencies the costs, revenues, prices, or other values are quoted in
* credibility is both established and maintained
General Business Plan Guidelines
The business plan development process described next has been extensively tested with entrepreneurship students and has proven to provide the guidance entrepreneurs need to develop a business plan appropriate for their needs; a high-power business plan
Developing a High-Power Business Plan
There are six stages involved with developing a high-power business plan. These stages can be compared to a process for hosting a dinner for a few friends.
The Stages of Development
The Stages of Development
- Essential Initial Research Stage
- Business Model Stage
- Initial Business Plan Draft Stage
- Making the Business Plan Realistic Stage
- Making a Plan to Appeal to Stakeholders
- Finishing the Business Plan