Typically the first question most new business owners face when looking for funding or seeking advice is: “Do you have a Business Plan?” So what is a business plan, what should be included in it, why is it important and how much time should be spent on it?

A business plan is a necessary document that will turn your entrepreneurial dream into a commercial success. Additionally, a good plan should be used as an important management tool which will provide a blueprint and “step by step” instructions leading to commercialization and hopefully a profitable business.

When deciding what information should be included in a business plan there are many web sites, libraries and economic development organizations that can provide examples, formats and outlines. However, whether your business is technology based, lifestyle or traditional, there are five essential building blocks that all plans should address:

1. Product/Service - include information regarding uniqueness, life cycle, quality, competition, benefits and solutions.
2. Money - How much money is needed to start-up and what kind of working capital will be needed going forward? Where will the money come from, what will it be used for and will you be personally investing?
3. Management - What is your teams’ personal experience? Do you have good operating, management and human resource skills? Most importantly are you a great salesperson and fundraiser?
4. Marketing - Do you understand your market niche? Have you done your research on the competition and can you integrate the 4 P’s of marketing (promotion, product, place and price) into a successful launch?
5. Planning - your business modeling should answer the basic questions of “Who, What, Where, When, Why and How,” and make sure to include your personal goals!

The value of a business plan is that it identifies the essential events that must occur and actions that must be taken in a specific time frame to achieve a specific result. It should also provide a foundation for tracking the progress of your business and allows you to make adjustments or changes to specific operations which will help you maximize your chance of success.

As for how much time should be spent on planning, I will paraphrase what a noted economist, professor and business author once said; “The beauty of not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise with little or no grief or remorse” In other words there is little or no chance that you will be successful in business without planning.

Dan Slifko
Business Development Manager, Rocket Ventures
slifko@rgp.org

Most technology start-ups are focused on technology; this is natural. However, successful technology start-ups also focus on finding and keeping customers – the lifeblood of any business. To find and keep customers, companies must design and develop a sound marketing strategy and a sales execution plan.

At Rocket Ventures we see hundreds of entrepreneurs and start-up companies each year. Most of these entrepreneurs possess the required passion, persistence and conviction to launch a new business. However, the successful entrepreneurs have these essential traits and they know how to market and sell their products or services.

The first and perhaps the most important predictor of success start with the marketing strategy. Performing a rigorous market assessment is a critical first step in understanding the potential for business success. Having the knowledge of the industry and the specific market demographics, dynamics, trends, competition and customers provides a realistic view of the opportunity. Then, developing a segmentation plan further refines your focus by identifying those un-served or under-served market opportunities. Next, successful entrepreneurs target the ideal customer groups within that segment – and become so intimately knowledgeable of the targeted customer that they know more about their problems than their customers do, and can provide the right solutions to solve their problems. Finally, once targeted, success comes from positioning your product or service with the most competitive set of deliverables that both provide value and differentiate your company and its products from all other competitive offerings.

Now that you have developed a well-defined and effective market strategy, the next important element to success is designing and developing an effective and consistent sales execution plan. There is no company success without the sale - generating top line revenue. We see many start-ups fail because they don’t pay attention to sales! Most new technology start-ups bring exciting new products and services to complex customer organizations. These new products and services typically represent change to the status-quo. And this change may often be viewed as a real threat. So, the need for a well developed and consistent sales plan and process is essential to selling successfully and achieving company scalability.

In complex organizations, many buying influences are involved in the purchase of new technologies – particularly for those new products or services representing significant change from the current offerings. These buying influences have roles to play in the buying decision process. So, the need to first identify who these buying influences are, and then understand their role or motivation in the process is critical. In effect, every complex sale has 4 buying influences. First and most importantly is the economic buying influence. This is the key person who controls the budget and expenditures. This person requires a return on investment for the organization. It is essential to reach this person – who usually is at a higher level within the organization. Next, every complex sale must include the user buying influence - the person or persons who have to use or supervise the use of your new products. Making sure your product or service is understood and satisfies the user buying influence is also critical. Additionally, in every complex sale, there is also the technical buying influence – the person (s) whose role is to screen out products or services that don’t meet specific requirements, pricing guidelines or standards (including such functions as purchasing, quality control, legal). These are the “gatekeepers” and they must be satisfied as well. Finally, in every complex sale, the successful companies identify a coach – that person within the organization who has influence with other buying influencers, and wants you to win. They help you navigate through the complex organization by guiding you with your strategy, pricing, and networking with the right buying influences. Again, in a complex sale, all 4 buying influences must be reached and then convinced of the value of your product or service.

In summary, having great products or services, and possessing the passion, persistence and conviction are all important elements of success. Real, sustained and scalable success, however, comes from leveraging these great products and personal strengths with a well designed market strategy and effective sales execution plan.

Greg Knudson
Director, Rocket Ventures
knudson@rgp.org

In 2005, the Regional Growth Partnership (RGP) implemented an editorial marketing program designed to attract national media attention to the successes and assets of our region. This new initiative broke from a previous national marketing program focused on print advertising.

Research and surveys found that corporate level decision makers and national site consultants ranked editorial news as one of the top two primary mediums for gathering information on specific communities. Print advertising ranked low as a source for information. The primary reason is credibility – a company or community does not pay for the content a reporter writes in a news story.

Those results convinced the RGP to move dollars away from national print advertising to editorial marketing. The strategy behind editorial marketing is to directly target national reporters, communicating intriguing news a reporter might consider for a story.

Over the last two years, this program has generated astounding results for the RGP – and the region. Primarily focused on our regional strength in the solar industry, Northwest Ohio has been prominently featured in such national media outlets as Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fox Business News and ABC World News. In total, the program has produced more than 50 national placements in print and broadcast media, with an advertising equivalency exceeding $2.3 million.

The immediate benefit of this program is outstanding publicity for northwest Ohio, which is now recognized nationally as a leader in solar research and development. Ultimately, the expectation of this program is to attain greater investment, jobs and wealth to our community, and venture capital to our Rocket Ventures clients.

John Gibney
Director, Communications/Marketing, Regional Growth Partnership
gibney@rgp.org