Business Plan Resources
Presentation
Resources for
Building Business Plans
course handout 
Contents:
Why Perform Research?
- establish credibility
- help alleviate risk
- often needed to procure financing
- build knowledgebase about industry, market, and product
icon for WPI restricted items, available off campus for members of the community with a valid network account via proxy.
Business Start Up - General Sources
- Business.gov
- Small Business Planning - books at the library
- SBA - Small Business Planner
Idea Validation and Opportunity Assessment
Is your idea a good one? Are there hurdles, risks or barriers to entry? Is the idea innovative? Can the current market trends support this opportunity? Many questions, some of which can be answered by doing thorough research on the industry and market. Research your competitors, if you think you don't have any, think again.
Know Your Industry
Where does your business idea fit into the grand scope of industry? What are trends, shipments (units or sales or production), growth rates? Who are the major players? What terminology is used by industry players?
Resources to consult:
Glean information from articles on the industry with a search like this one:
(mp3 players OR digital audio players) and (industry OR market OR forecasts OR trends OR sales OR units)
- find trade associations, for contacts and industry trends/statistics, using Associations on the Net or Gale Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Associations (REF HD2425 .G34) or web search on keyword and "association"
- Search for specialized trade magazines, journals - articles on your industry in publications such as TWICE: This Week in Consumer Electronics
- Industry databases - search for articles in trade magazines, academic journals, or track down industry profiles (EBSCOhost Business Source Premier & Hoovers are good places to start for industry overviews; Encyclopedia of American Industries for broad industry overview by SIC code)
- Government data: Economic Census for industry size, revenues by NAICS code (2007 coming out 2009-2011, see 2002 for more detail).
Know Your Market & Product
What are your product's strengths and differentiating factors?
Sample Search
(marketing or advertising or promotion or product innovation* or product introduction* or NPD or new product development) and (ipod* or mp3 or apple computer or digital audio players)
What's out there already? Search for competitors, similar products/services. Have you created a competitive matrix chart?
- Search trade magazines & journal in Industry databases - articles on your product and competing products
- Company - search for profiles, directories for competition, and articles on similar companies and/or products
- Data - use to find trends, numbers, statistics
- Use government sources such as County, Metro and Zip Code Business Patterns (how many bike shops are there in Worcester, is it wise to start another?) or the Economic Census.
Strategies to research biotechnology companies and their products:
- track down industry and/or location specific directories of companies: online such as MA Biotech Directory, Sigma-Aldrich or reference books in the library such as Biotechnology Guide USA, or the Biotechnology Directory
- track down vertical market web sites or portals: Such as Biocompare or Bioresearch Online
- locate trade journals that have buyers guides: Bioscience Technology
- locate research firms/publishing companies or trade shows
- IDC's Bio IT World Sourcebook
- MarketResearch.com (We do not subscribe to this, but it will give you a sense of the type of research available and the cost of it.)
- find trade associations for member directories or buyers guides: American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists
- track down market research firms, for instance Gartner tracks IT trends. This information is not often free, but sometimes press releases or secondary sources may reference their findings.
- search patents for competitors and product innovations: USPTO Patent database search
Know Your Customers
Glean information from articles on the industry with a search like this one:
(mp3 players OR digital audio players) AND ("CONSUMERS' preferences" OR "consumer behavior" OR "CONSUMERS Attitudes" OR Surveys OR polls)
Who is your target market? Can you estimate how many potential customers you could have? What are the dynamics of adoption of similar products?
Sometimes, you'll have to collect your own data: Collect, compare, conduct evaluations or surveys.
- Search Trade Magazines & Journal databases - articles on customer or consumer preferences & profiles
- Data - use to find numbers, statistics
- trade associations often report statistics and also survey customers, use Associations on the Net or Gale Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Associations (REF HD2425 .G34) or web search on keyword and "association"
Check in with the experts:
- Is your product a new toy for swimming pools? The National Pool & Spa Institute may have this information, sometimes you may have to purchase their reports or be a member to access their data
- Invent a product for car wash dealers? International Car Wash Association represents 3,000 car wash and detail shop operators.
Know Your Numbers
How much do similar products sell for? Have you benchmarked to determine industry standards (average manufacturing costs or profit margins)? Access costs and pricing options.
- Find a similar public company and benchmark their financials: use Thomson ONE Banker. LexisNexis Academic, or SEC Edgar for 10-K filings
- Use industry ratios to benchmark against industry averages:
- Almanac of business and industrial financial ratios. Reference Collection HF5681 R25 T68
- RMA annual statement studies. Reference Collection HF5681 B2 R6
- Hoovers - search for company and choose "competitive landscape" OR under Financials choose "Comparison Data"
- BizStats - Free business statistics and financial ratios
- Economic Census - drill down to find Revenue per paid employee, per establishment, per capita, etc
- IRS: Business Tax Statistics - statistics on income, deductions, taxes, credits, and more reported by businesses.
Know Your Supply Chain & Distribution Options
Who are your suppliers? What venues would you use to sell your product (vending machines, direct to businesses, retail stores, etc.)? Use sources mentioned above to analyze competition.
- Check a similar public company's 10-K: LexisNexis Academic, or SEC Edgar for 10-K filings - Use CTRL-F to find suppl (which will lead you to supplies, suppliers, etc)
- Search for articles: LexisNexis Academic or Wall Street Journal, try suppl* and the company name, or "distribution" and your company or product
Divide your movements...
into easy-to-do sections.
If you fail, divide again.
-- Peter Nivio Zarlenga
Founder of Blockbuster Videos
Business Plan - Guides
Check these guides for general structure of a business plan.
- About.com - Writing a Business Plan
- American Express - Creating an Effective Business Plan
- Business Plan Preparation - Tools for Writing Business Plans - excellent financial template in Excel format
- Business Plans That Work: A Guide for Small Business by Jeffrey Timmons, et al. [e-book]
- Entrepreneur.com - How to Build a Business Plan
- Inc. Magazine - Writing a Business Plan
- United States Small Business Administration - Business Plan Basics
Sample Business Plans
- Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Business Plans & Profiles Index (See also Gale Virtual Reference Library, we have access to a few of the volumes of Business Plans Handbook)
- Small Business Development Center - Write a Business Plan
Executive Biographies
Learn how to write a brief biography by searching the following. These sources list executive's background, education, past work experience, and product invention. In addition to the following sources, try a patent search by the inventor's name.
- Hoovers - click on "People"
- Biography Resource Center
- Thomson ONE - for information on executives search for a company then choose Overview, Thomson Overview Report, in the bottom left click "Key Executives." Then click name for his/her Company Affiliations and Executive Connections. Another way is to look under SEC Full Reports, choose Officers & Directors Section. Under Filings, a company's S-1 registration filing(s) and the Proxy is also useful to look at for executive ages and salaries.
- More biography databases
Venture Capital - What is it?
Start with these overviews to understand how companies financing their start ups.
- Zider, Bob. How Venture Capital Works. Harvard Business Review Nov/Dec98, 76(6): 131+.
- VC Industry Explained - Harvard's Venture Capital & Private Equity Club
- What is Venture Capital? National Venture Capital Association
Venture Capital - Statistics
Companies obtaining financing, and national trends.
- PriceWaterhouseCoopers/Thomson Financial MoneyTree Survey
- National Venture Capital Association - Industry Stats & News
- Venture Capital Journal for more information
Start Up Intellectual Property Issues & Patents
Consider intellectual property, existing patents and trademarks, as well as state/federal business filings permits and requirements. How will your idea be protected?
- Intellectual Property and Patent Resources
- Mass.Gov - Official Site of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts => Business => Getting Started
- BitLaw - Resource on Technology Law
Marketing Plan
Beyond the initial marketing of your business plan, a comprehensive strategy should be created for marketing your business. See The 30-Second Business Plan for tips on giving elevator pitches.
Give Credit: Cite Your Sources!
Visit Citation Resources for guidance.
WPI Contacts
- Contact a librarian for research help
- Collaborative for Entrepreneurship and Innovation | WPI Venture Forum
Last modified: Feb 11, 2009, 11:44 EST
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