Write a Business Plan

After broadly explaining your business, the plan must move on to the market and how you are best placed to take advantage of it. You must be able to convey, in crisp language, that you understand your market well enough to know what strategies will work best there.

SHOW OFF THAT RESEARCH

You remember that mantra about research? Yes, the one that says you can never research enough. Follow that mantra and churn out the best market analysis possible. Your reader should be able to clearly see that you have done your homework. The analysis forms the foundation of all the strategies you are going to put forward. Begin your market analysis by defining the market in terms of size, Structure, growth prospects, trends and sales potential.

ZOOM ON YOUR TARGET

It is time then to dive in further and scope out your target market. You need to zoom in on this so that your company can be positioned accordingly. To do so, you need to take into account several factors such as geography, demography, product orientation and purchasing trends. This helps in narrowing down your total market to your target market.

BUT WHAT IS REALLY YOUR MARKET?

The target market is one thing; the feasible market is entirely another. Once the target market has been detailed , it needs to be further defined to determine what the portion of that market really is. This portion is often defined as that segment of the market that can be captured provided every condition within the environment is perfect and there is little competition. But then, we know that that s possible only in Utopia. There will always be factors that create gaps in the market.

YOUR SLICE OF THE PIE

Your readers will be keen to see if you are able to estimate market share with reasonable accuracy for the period of the plan. While estimating your share is an exercise with no set influencing factors, it is important to note that your distribution, pricing and promotional goals will play their part in determining that share.

Set up an Interior Design Firm

An interior designer is someone professionally trained to create a functional and quality interior environment. The keywords here are professionally trained. This refers to only those who have met or exceeded a certain level of accredited education. They must be licensed before they can be called interior designers. This field goes way beyond homes- think restuarents, hotels, spas, art galleries, model homes and even corporate offices. You may want select a market that interests you and specialize in that niche. There is a lot to think about when starting your interior designing business. You have to build a portfolio, price your services, set up an office, pick a business name, design a logo, order business cards and other office supplies, locate furnishing suppliers and of course, find clients. If you start your own decorating business, you can enjoy the freedom of being your own boss.

TRAIN YOUR EYE

Interior designers have a good eye for design. You can train yor eye by studying what people consider to be good design. Seek out beautifully decorated interiors to look at. You also need to buy books of samples, which are the lifeblood of the design business.

EDUCATE YOURSELF
Interior designers are expected to know about the various elements involved in decorating, such as space planning, the use of color and light, furniture and decorating styles, floorings, wall coverings, window treatments, and the use of accessories such as pillows and artwork.

Manage Your Inventory

The maximum working capital of an organization is spent on "Inventory includes forecasting and vendor inventories.

negotiations, freight, terms of payment, price Rajeev Karwal, Founder and CEO,

production," says

Milagrow Business. "In fact, it covers almost the entire gamut of a business." According to Karwal, an efficient organization may rotate its working

capital about eight times, while an inefficient one may not rotate it even once. In the balance sheet, inefficient inventory management could lead to

an extra burden of 4-5 percent on financial costs. Here's how you can avoid this and manage your inventory well. Complete your market research before you are purchasing are the

purchase stock; this will ensure that the goods you

ones your target market requires. "Forecast demand and what is required. Efficient inventory is a realization of continuous feedback from the markets. Moving products without gauging their demand can be fatal," says Karwal.

BUY CORRECT QUANTITIES

According to Karwal, the issue of allocating materials to different units within an organization shouldn't take more than one day. In the case of imported goods, negotiate well so that if the quantity cannot be reduced, at least the terms of credit can be negotiated. Local vendors can supply raw material on a daily basis, while imported goods can be supplied on a monthly basis. Finished goods should not be in your factory for more than just a day, and for no longer than a week at your front-end sales warehouses.

Analyze your suppliers to ensure that they are stable, ell-reputed companies that you can rely on. Also examine lead times for the supply and delivery of goods to ensure that you order the goods at the right time; this will also help you accurately tell your customer the lead time for receiving their goods, in case you don't have goods in stock. For example, if you take five days to get bristles for the toothbrush you manufacture, and take another two days to deliver it to the customer, then your lead time is at about seven days. You can, in this case, tell the customer that after he orders the goods, it will take at least seven days to reach him.

MEET YOUR MANAGERS

Spend time doing inventory management have an efficient demand projection and, with this projection, have a forum where you take stock on a monthly basis. Your sales and marketing, production, purchasing and finance teams should be part of this forum.

USETECHNOLOGY
Inventory management, although necessary, can be a very time-consuming task. Minimize the time required to accurately manage your stock by using one of the following: > Point-of-sale terminals automatically updat

ing computerized inventory levels ^ Job costing and inventory systems automatically updating all the computerized inventory levels Barcodes speed stock takes '$ and of barcode inputting readers inventory to and improve the

completing

2 Venture Capital Funding

When I once asked an entrepreneur, who had raised money successfully over three rounds, what was the perfect way to make a pitch to a VC, he gave me a brutally honest answer that said a lot it is the way that gets you the money. In short, what I am trying to say here is that no one pitch works for all and going with a patterned approach is probably not going to work here. What is going to work, however, is adaptability and a few do's and don'ts.

YES, YOU STILL NEED POWERPOINT

Or Keynote for that matter. If a VC shows interest and responds to you, you will be called in to showcase what you have to offer her/him. And there is no tool more accepted for showcasing ideas than the presentation. I hope you've followed the article published in the March issue and have kept it handy.

GUY KAWASAKI'S RULE OF THUMB

The seasoned entrepreneur and mentor came up with a great rule that more or less defines how your presentation should go. Kawasaki talks about how 10 is the optimal number of slides in a presentation, because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than 10 concepts in a meeting. If it takes more than 10 slides to explain and present your business, you probably don't have a business at all.

WATCH THE CLOCK

Your presentation should never be longer than 20 minutes. Why? Ideally, no VC will give you a meeting slot which will last more than an hour. The 10 slides should take you no longer than two minutes each. This should leave you with 40 minutes for the rest of the deliberations on your pitch. You really want to get started talking more about your deal right there and then. The VCs who are sitting in second meetings would likely be less awed by your business than those ones who sat in on the presentation.

THE MEAT IN YOUR SHEET

That your presentation should cover the following bases the problem, the solution, the business model, the product, the marketing and sales strategy etc is well-known and previously documented. How much of what should go in those 10 slides is your call. But what you should always mention in and after your presentation, in detail, is who your customers are. If you already have some, mention them as clearly as possible. That is the juiciest part of your pie.

DONOTDROPNAMES
In the presentations and discussions later, do not name-drop the number of advisors you have or the other VCs you are talking to. Instead, talk more about your co-founders and why you guys make such a great team. It shows selfconfidence in your business and not borrowed confidence from other sources.

BE AWARE. ADAPT. ADVANCE

In your discussions with the VC after your presentation, you must understand that what and how you further your story will vary from person to person. So while a casual demeanor will work with one, a very respectful and serious one might work with the next. yours to that of the VC is important. Think of it as a date. You are courting the VC. Lack of table Understanding body language and modifying

manners can upset the cart and not get you a second date with that VC. When I once asked an entrepreneur, who had raised money successfully over three rounds, what was the perfect way to make a pitch to a VC, he gave me a brutally honest answer that said a lot it is the way that gets you the money. In short, what I am trying to say here is that no one pitch works for all and going with a patterned approach is probably not going to work here. What is going to work, however, is adaptability and a few do's and don'ts.

YES, YOU STILL NEED POWERPOINT

Or Keynote for that matter. If a VC shows interest and responds to you, you will be called in to showcase what you have to offer her/him. And there is no tool more accepted for showcasing ideas than the presentation. I hope you've followed the article published in the March issue and have kept it handy.

GUY KAWASAKI'S RULE OF THUMB

The seasoned entrepreneur and mentor came up with a great rule that more or less defines how your presentation should go. Kawasaki talks about how 10 is the optimal number of slides in a presentation, because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than 10 concepts in a meeting. If it takes more than 10 slides to explain and present your business, you probably don't have a business at all.

WATCH THE CLOCK

Your presentation should never be longer than 20 minutes. Why? Ideally, no VC will give you a meeting slot which will last more than an hour. The 10 slides should take you no longer than two minutes each. This should leave you with 40 minutes for the rest of the deliberations on your pitch. You really want to get started talking more about your deal right there and then. The VCs who are sitting in second meetings would likely be less awed by your business than those ones who sat in on the presentation.

THE MEAT IN YOUR SHEET

That your presentation should cover the following bases the problem, the solution, the business model, the product, the marketing and sales strategy etc is well-known and previously documented. How much of what should go in those 10 slides is your call. But what you should always mention in and after your presentation, in detail, is who your customers are. If you already have some, mention them as clearly as possible. That is the juiciest part of your pie.

DONOTDROPNAMES
In the presentations and discussions later, do not name-drop the number of advisors you have or the other VCs you are talking to. Instead, talk more about your co-founders and why you guys make such a great team. It shows selfconfidence in your business and not borrowed confidence from other sources.

BE AWARE. ADAPT. ADVANCE

In your discussions with the VC after your presentation, you must understand that what and how you further your story will vary from person to person. So while a casual demeanor will work with one, a very respectful and serious one might work with the next. yours to that of the VC is important. Think of it as a date. You are courting the VC. Lack of table Understanding body language and modifying

manners can upset the cart and not get you a second date with that VC. 8

Best pr for your business

Public Relations is about facts, not the whitewash of facts." Having been a practitioner for close to two decades representing established brands and

startups I believe that if PR is integrated well into a startup's foundation, the impact can be far reaching. This would mean abandoning preconceived definitions and dumbing down of what PR is capable of. To get the best out of a PR program, it is important:

TO HAVE A KEEN UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR BUSINESS, your stakeholders, challenges and opportunities. An idea can be nurtured into a business, but the idea cannot ensure success of your business. This was a common mistake made during the dot-corn era when entrepreneurs had ideas, but did not know how to transform them into enduring businesses. TO DEFINE PR AS PUBLIC RELATIONS, AND NOT LIMIT IT TO PRESS RELATIONS. A startup may not have either the bandwidth or the budgets for divisions such as marketing, HR, finance, public affairs, corporate relations, investor relations. What a pity then to dilute the function of public relations, claim you have limited budgets and use it only for publicity!

TO SET EXPECTATIONS AT THE ONSET AND TREAT PR AS AN INVESTMENT. You may be

looking for immediate impact more than a long-term sustained campaign; you may be looking for someone to execute rather than provide direction. Spell it out clearly to the firm you choose to work with and set expectations at the onset. For example, what are the objectives we are trying to achieve; can this be done through media relations alone; what relationships are relevant to the organization etc. Very often clients dismiss introductions to primary or secondary stakeholders as irrelevant, little realizing that the association can reap direct business benefits as against a media interview! Such introductions are priceless-imagine you are

looking for investments; helping you reach out to the investor community directly through a firm's network, ensuring that your message is crisp and effective, establishing a communication channel with the VC should be valued higher than a few media interviews that may or may not reach your target, in this case! It is important to know that the media has changed considerably over the last decade. With the advent of social media, consumer experience becomes mightier than the proverbial pen. Meritocracy pays here too if you find your way through the clutter based on the strength of your business model, your product's unique proposition or differentiated messaging, your visibility will be more than just a flash in the pan. Clearly, the media helps cast the net wide, but it also lends itself to too many other variables. 8 .

BUSSINESS PLAN

Submitted To Submitted By: Prof. Muskan Sharma IMED, BVU Md. Meraj MBA (BA), Roll No-21