This chapter describes how to design a flexible business plan and the importance of implementing pilots in real environments. The lack of a business plan is the main reason for the failure of several start-ups. The business plan will provide a mean to design the business strategy and also how to implement it. This is a dynamic process. When the final functional prototype is done, it needs to be tested in a scalable and semi-real environment. For that, the implementation of a real pilot is mandatory. It is advised to perform the pilot in collaboration with the right business partner.
TopIntroduction
[The Business Plan is] a written document describing the nature of the business, the sales and marketing strategy, and the financial background, and containing a projected profit and loss statement. (Rampton, n.d.)
The lack of a business plan is the main reason for the failure of several start-ups. The business plan will provide a mean to design the business strategy but also how to implement it. The business plan must be updated during the implementation in order to keep it up-to-date according to the changes happened in the go-to-market (Step 10).
This way, the definition of a flexible business plan is the Step 8 of the innovation process.
TopStep 8: Define A Flexible Business Plan
Generally, business plans consist of:
Chapter 1: Title Page and Contents
Chapter 2: Executive Summary
Chapter 3: Description of the Business
Chapter 4: Description of the product or service
Chapter 5: Market Analysis
Chapter 6: Competitive analysis
Chapter 7: Marketing Plan
Chapter 8: Operations and Management
Chapter 9: Financial Components of Business Plan
There are many templates for making a business plan; however, before starting with this document, some critical steps must be performed in order to support and help with the document:
- 1.
Update market analysis (step 2 – market research);
- 2.
Based on 1), define the markets (countries) to commercialise;
- 3.
Study of the chosen markets;
- 4.
Describe the benefits of the new solution for those markets (update step 1 – features and its benefits);
- 5.
Define a price based on market feedback (step 4);
- 6.
Calculate the shared quote to achieve;
- 7.
Define the channels used for putting the solution on the market;
- 8.
Define the channels for communicating;
- 9.
Fill the business plan canvas;
- 10.
Find a business partner (step 6);
- 11.
Do the business plan document.
During this phase, there are some tools and methods can help in filling each point listed before.
Following, some points will be briefly discussed.