The Business Plan

Here, Proximitas offers you some useful tips on writing your business plan. The business plan is the central tool for presenting your idea to public institutions, banks or capital providers. What is important here is that every business plan should have an individual look according to the enterprise and who it is being sent to, as apart from anything else it is also an expression of your creativity. But there is a number of core elements which should be included in any case.

If you are interested in working with Proximitas, you can make the assessment easier for our experts and speed up the process by applying these suggestions.

Layout:

Executive Summary
This should give a summary of the whole business plan on one, or no more than 2 pages, including a description of the product, the market conditions, the team, future strategy and expected results.
Your Product
Describe your idea and how it will be implemented. You will need to refer to your target group and the discernible customer benefits.
Team and Human Resources Planning
Introduce the people who started the enterprise, indicate your likely future requirements in human resources and how you want to meet them. You can include detailed résumés in the annex.
Analysis of the Market and Competitors
Indicate the size and growth prospects of the market and explain any special features. Name the most important existing and potential competitors and mention possible developments.
Strategy for Marketing and Sales
How do you want to enter the market and approach customers and what are the characteristics of your target group?
Description of what makes your enterprise unique, how your customers will benefit from your idea and the patent situation
What distinguishes your product from others, how is this perceived by the customers, what direct benefits do they gain from it (value added), how can you maintain and build up a lead over competitors?
Opportunities and Risks
Present your business development in the light of positive as well as negative scenarios which you regard as possible outcomes.
Financial Planning
Present budgeted income and cash flow statements for the next 4 - 5 years including, if possible, budgeted balance sheets. It should be possible to discern the equity capital development and the specific financial requirement