hi it's Kathy, thanks for checking out thesecond video in the Working for Wonka how to write a business plan series.
in this video we're going to talk aboutthe executive summary and the business description however as far as the Executive Summary is concerned, all I wanna say is this, it's the firstsection of your business plan but it's the last thing that you shouldwrite.
you may think you know what's going into this document, but honestly, until yougo through the process of researching and writing yourbusiness plan, you really don't know.
Some of your key business assumptions may change before you're done with this document.
so, for right now as far as the executive summary is concerned hold your horses.
figuratively andliterally if you happen to have them.
we'll get to that section later.
We're going to start with the business description.
now, before you write your businessdescription, think about this: your business plan is not a sales document.
it shouldn't soundsalesy.
your claim shouldn't be grandiose.
even if you are writing this documentbecause you're trying to sell the company, quite frankly, or because you'retrying to secure financing, if the language sounds too pie in thesky, the readers of the document are going to think it's too good to be true, they're going to question your assumptions and your data.
so we're going to take a lesson from an Joe Friday and Dragnet, and say as you write this document, keep tellingyourself "just the facts ma'am.
" Or, to be really cliche, I'm going to say keep it real.
and do me a favor, if you don't know who Joe Friday, and Dragnet is, keep that to yourself, cuz you make therest of us feel old.
so, how do you write your businessdescription? Think of it as an expanded elevator pitch.
just likewhen someone steps off of that elevator, they should know about you, who you are,what you do, what makes you unique at what you do, andwhere you think your going.
That's exactly what you want your businessdescription to do.
It's going to be slightly longer than an elevatorpitch, but actually not much longer.
you're gonna do this by answering thequestions Who, What, Where, How and I'm gonna to say With Whom.
We're just not going to answer them in that exact order.
W'er going to start withthe What.
And this is gonna feel a little dry.
but your first paragraph needto say the basic facts.
What's the name of the company? what industry are you playing in with your product or service? what's your legal structure, meaning howare you incorporated or not incorporated? and how long have you been in business?now, you may have been in business for three years and you've never written abusiness plan.
you know what, that's fine.
In fact it would not be uncommon if you work for an entrepreneur.
the fact that you've been in businessfor three years is actually going to be good thing because that means you've got and historicaldata that we can include a look at later in the document.
So if you've been in business be sure you include that.
now as I said, this first paragraph is going to feel a little dry.
But keep in mind you're not writing great prose, you're writing a business plan.
just the facts.
follow the What with the who.
Now in this is youropportunity to kind of stroke your entrepreneur's ego a little bit.
you wannasay who founded this company, and what makes them a rockstar.
what'stheir strength? what are they bringing to the party that makes them the right person to foundthis company? now you may work for anentrepreneur who founded three companies and they've all failed miserably.
that's fine.
and again, wouldn't besurprising for an entrepreneur.
but they're something that the entrepreneur is doing right that allowed them to found three or four companies.
you need to tap into that strength.
Hopefully you know what that strength is.
maybe they're a product development genius.
or they're a sales genius.
whatever it is, you wanna put that in this section.
thisis not the section for a complete in bio.
we don't need to know everything yourentrepreneur has done it since they were born.
we're looking at their top line strengthand how it relates to this company.
an example of that might be successful entrepreneurs Tom and Jerrybring vast experience to how to build a better mousetrap.
well-known for his product development savvy, tom has launched, and ultimately sold,multiple business ventures in the rodent confinement industry.
entrepreneur jerry who's best known forbeing fast on his feet and a skilled salesman, has been at tom side for decades, servingas product tester and read it recruiter.
of course, that's kinda silly.
but all I'mtrying to say is we're highlighting what the main strengths are that relate to this business.
you'realso going to list what the partnership details are.
and if there are any other employees thecompany that haven't equity stake.
Follow the Who with the Where.
Where are you trying to go with this company? if you work for the kind of company that has a mission statement you want to include it here.
I find a bitcorny myself, but this woudl be the place for them if you have one.
you also want to call out what your short- and long-term goals are.
now, one or both, of these should be afinancial goal.
but other goals might be geographic goal, a distribution goal, maybe a product development goal.
your long term goal at a minimum, should probably have afinancial component to it, and it also may be the exit strategy for the company.
Follow the Where, with the How.
how do you plan on getting there? this is where you're going to give abrief description of your product or service and your business model, and explain whatabout one or both and those gives you a strategic advantage in yourindustry.
here's an example and what that mightlook like: the luxury accommodations provided by the how to build a bettermousetrap mousetrap allows us to target anuntapped consumer base- mice.
because this HBBM Inc can forge new distribution avenuespreviously untapped by other rodent confinement manufactures.
now again, this is kinda silly.
but what we're showing here is that ourstrategic advantage is that our products has a uniquebenefit that allows us to sell in channels of trade that haven't been tapped for this product line.
And allows us to sell toa whole new group and consumers that would be unusual for this type ofproduct.
follow the How with the Who.
Who'sjoining you on this road trip? this would be any strategicrelationships, key vendors that you may be working with, if you've been in business for a while, and maybe have an exclusive retailer, or buyer.
that a definitestrategic advantage you want to include that.
if you're working with some Rockstarlegal or financial partners maybe give them a sentence each.
and then you also want to includekey management bios.
and I mean only keep key management, not your whole company.
all you're trying to do is say that youwere smart enough to gather a team a badasses to help youget where you're wanting to go.
again just paragraph on each, full bioscome later.
but what that might look like is: ourhead of procurement Attila the Hun, brings decades ofexperienced robbing and pillaging.
he's best known for his successfulinvasion of and I would complete that sentencebut it would require me to Google Attila the Hun and quite frankly I justdidn't have time.
and that's it.
you want to answer thequestion what who where how and with whom, and you'redone with your business description.
now some people make the business description 10 pages long.
you really don't need to.
if you cananswer these questions succinctly, in a paragraph each, you've done your jobmove on to the next section.
speaking at moving on to the nextsection, our next video is on your product or service description.
thanks for watching the Working for Wonka, how to write a business plan series.
for more information on Working forWonka or how to write a business plan, check out WorkingForWonka.
Com Ilook forward to helping you survive the entrepreneur boss thanks.
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