Secrets to a Successful Startup. Trevor Blake

This estimates expenses, revenues, and profits, with particular attention to cash-flow challenges.

      8.Milestone schedule: This describes the planned schedule and any significant deadlines for a three-year growth period.

      9.Appendix: This provides any supporting documents as necessary.

      1. Executive Summary

      When your goal is to attract business partners — such as investors — you need to create two succinct descriptions of your business. One is a single-page executive summary of your business plan, which gets sent to potential investors; the other is the “elevator pitch,” a shorter, verbal version of the written summary that you use when someone says, “I heard you have a great idea for a business. What is it?”

      First, let’s discuss the executive summary. Budding entrepreneurs sometimes make the same mistake of many job seekers when they send me unsolicited résumés that are pages long. I’m busy, and without a compelling reason to consider someone, I’m not going to spend the time to review their entire work history. Further, the more detailed information I read, the more opportunity I have to make unchallenged judgments and find reasons to disqualify the person as a candidate. A good résumé highlights the most relevant qualifications, providing just enough information to intrigue me and make me want to call the candidate to learn more.

      That is what a good executive summary does. In one page, it overviews the key data you discovered by going through the lengthy business-plan process that makes you excited and confident about your winning idea. If you do the process well, the one-page summary will all but write itself. However, there are lots of examples online; just do an internet search for “brilliant executive summaries.” There is no perfect style. What will make or break yours is how well you know your market. In addition, everything you include in the summary should be explained or supported in more detail elsewhere in the plan. Here are the main topics to address and questions to answer:

      •What is the overall size of the market in dollars? (Which you can research using market reports.)

      •What is your niche? What customer need will you satisfy?

      •What is the market potential? (For investors, use only big numbers.)

      •Who are the customers, and why will they be delighted?

      •How is your company different from other similar companies?

      •How much capital will be required, and how will it be used?

      •What phases of growth and milestones do you anticipate?

      •What is the anticipated return on the investment?

      •Why is the venture a good risk?

       The Elevator Pitch

      While your business plan’s executive summary overviews all the key points of the plan, you also want to distill this even further into a one-minute verbal pitch with a catchy tagline intended to “hook” the person you’re talking to. The concept for an elevator pitch is to imagine stepping into an elevator at the same time as a woman with a million dollars in her pocket, but she doesn’t know where to invest it. To sell her your idea, all you get is the time it takes for the elevator to reach her destination. In vivid, passionate terms, you want to encapsulate your winning idea, why it’s sure to succeed, and what the investor will get out of it (or the return on her investment).

      This is no easy thing to do. It requires much practice to distill the essence of your winning idea and business concept in this way. In reality, you do not even get a minute. It’s more like thirty seconds.

      For example, on my website you’ll find the catchy tagline “Where transformation and financial independence meet.” If anyone asks me about my concept for courses and books, that is it in a nutshell. In that mythical elevator, I’d say: “It’s about where transformation and financial independence meet; if you’d like more details, I’d be happy to send you the course summaries. What is your best email address to use?”

      Done. Next floor, please.

      2. Business Description