Introduction to business plan

In the coming decade we can expect India to be leading the VC funded business economy in the world.

It is important to make the environment reliable and efficient. The means to achieve the same is Communication.

Let’s begin uncovering communication from the milestone where the entrepreneurs decides to reach out to prospective investors.

Elementary requisites:

• Elevator Pitch
• Business Pitch/Pitch Deck
• Business Plan

Lot of times, entrepreneurs believe all the above to be one and the same. But there is a method in the information flow which can be:

• Introduction – Elevator Pitch
• Primary Discussion – Business Pitch/Pitch Deck
• Advanced Discussion – Business Plan

 

Introduction – Elevator Pitch - the first stage of communication.

As the name suggests, Elevator Pitch is typically linked to time spent in an elevator, 30-60 Seconds (The Burj Khalifa elevator time to reach the observation deck on the 124th floor is only one minute.

Elevator pitch is typically communicating what you are doing and how another way to put it is what problem/challenge you are trying to solve and how, nothing beyond that. The relevance of these elevator pitch is to uncover the clarity of thoughts, focus & vision in the mind of entrepreneur. Elevator pitch cannot cover the business opportunity and one should avoid trying to do so.

If the businesses could be understood in 30 sec, the essence of entrepreneurship would not have existed. Business Pitch should be detailed enough for a young child maybe say 12 year old to be able to understand the underlying activity.

If this form of detailed pitch decks are shared, informed investors would come to the table for discussing and not just potential investors.

The deck outline we see in the first conversation includes the following

• Industry
• Gap in the industry
• Business Opportunity Created
• Size of Opportunity
• Approach to capture the opportunity
• Operating Model
• Revenue Model
• Competitive Landscaping (Direct, Indirect & Broad)
• Competitive Advantage & Sustainable competitive advantage

In the coming weeks, we will be sharing in detail the each of the above mentioned business aspect and how to decipher data and present it for optimum understanding.