“Business plan isn’t a document, but it’s the clarity between your two ears. You cannot use a template to write a business plan. If you are writing it alone, it’s not a business plan!”
Entrepreneurs always hear that they need to have a business plan for their startup, however usually torn away between dividing their time between building the startup or writing the business plan. In this episode of eLagaan Whiteboard Friday, the eLagaan team talks to serial entrepreneur, Naeem Zafar* to understand the right balance while creating the business plan.
The video talks about:
- What is a business plan
- How business plan is for the founders first before giving it out
- What stage do you start to write a business plan
- What is executive summary in the business plan
- How big does your business plan needs to be (slides or document?)
- What happens when a gatekeeper of a Venture Capitalist (VC) asks you for a business plan before you can pitch them?
- Does a business plan have to be write once or a living document
- It talks about few of the major components of a business plan including:
- Is there a unmet need
- Why is this unmet
- Who has the need
- What is the market
- Is the market big enough
- What alternative does market have
- What is your unique solution
- Why is it unique
- How is your go to market strategy
- What is your financial model
- How much money do you need
- What is your business model : how much will you make in each transaction, how will you reach people?
- Team & Timeline
And for the uninitiated, Naeem Zafar has done 6 startups so far (is now the founder of BitzerMobile), teaches at HAAS School of Business and he has extensive experience in mentoring and coaching founders and CEOs.
