Home assignment 2
11.01.2007
The business plan
According to ”Fra idé til ny virksomhet” the
business plan should consist of:
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Summary
The business idea
The management
The market plan
The business model and organization
The carrying through plan
Profitability and financing
Risks
The assignments will pretty much follow and
address these different parts.
The business idea
The assignment consists of specifing:
• the business idea
• how you are to protect the idea
• the competences of you and the team
behind the idea.
The assignment is to be presented Tuesday
the 23rd.
Presentations should be ~ 5 minutes and on
transparency films
Specifying the business idea
In specifying the business idea you need to describe the
business story:
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Background – current situation and problem
Challenge – challenges and conflicts to solve the problem
Resolution – Portray a solution to the problem
And provide the answers the followings questions
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Who is the customer / what is the market?
– For example, is it companies and if so what kind of companies (e.g. what size), in
what industries are they situated. Or is it persons and if so what persons (e.g.
aged 30-55, sporty).
– Remember that the customer does not need to be the user!
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What is the customer value / what problem do you solve?
What are the unique benefits?
Why the customer will pay for the solution.
Will you sell a product, a service or both?
Specifying the business idea cont.
These questions could be summarized in the value proposition which
states who the customer is and the value offered to this customer?
Often, the key values can be summarized as:
– Product: performance, quality, features, brand, selection, easy to use,
safe.
– Price: Fair, visible, consistent, reasonable.
– Access: Convenient, location, nearby, at-hand, easy to find, in a
reasonable time.
– Service: Ordering, delivery, return, check-out.
– Experience: Emotional, respect, ambiance, fun, intimacy, relationships,
community.
Example: The value proposition for Amazon.com could be described
as: An easily accessible Internet site that is convenient all of the time
to provide a wide selection of books, CDs, and videos at a fair price
to the busy, computer-literate customer
Specifying the business idea cont.
• You also need to say something about how you are to
make money on the idea / how you are to take a share in
value created?
– For example, are you to license or sell products.
– For example, are you to use cost-, market-, or valuebased pricing?
You do not need to be very elaborate here, but you need to
have an idea about it.
Protection and competencies
You also need to describe:
• How you will protect the idea?
– For example, will you patent, do you have copyrights and so on.
• How important are patents / protection in your area?
as well as describe
• The current phase of development of the product/service
and
• The competencies of the team
– You and potential people behind the idea if external
Specifying the business idea
You do not need to:
• Calculate the market size
• Make a complete competitor analysis
• Describe the organization, management
etc.
This comes later on
Specifying the business idea
Remember that the description of the business
idea is to be directed towards the investor.