Äriplaani mallid

What does your product and/or service do? What benefits make your offer unique, or just different? What will motivate customers to switch to your product and/or service? How would you describe an ideal customer for your product and/or service? How would you describe a group(s) of target customers?

What is the market potential for your product and/or service? Is the market growing, staying the same, or declining? How many competitors are there? How will you compete? (e.g. faster service, more convenient, etc.) What sales can you realistically achieve in the first 6 months? First year?

Which route(s) to access your target customers will you use e.g. website, shop etc. What promotional methods will you use? (e.g. email, social media, advertising, etc.)

What resources do you need to get started - people? money? premises? fixed assets? (e.g. equipment, computer, etc.) What is the key function in your business? ( e.g. scheduling drivers to collect and deliver parcels) How much could you provide in total? (hours available and/or maximum production) Who will be your suppliers and/or subcontractors?

What relevant skills and experience do you have? Who will be responsible for what in your business? What skills and experience do other team members bring? (e.g. bookkeeping) Who will act as your Mentor/Adviser?

Will it break-even? What is your own financial contribution to the business? Is there any additional funding needed? Where will this come from? (e.g. owners, friends, family, bank, business angels, venture capital, etc.) What will these funds be used for? (e.g. buying equipment, a van, etc.)

Äriplaani kokkuvõte peaks lühidalt kajastama kogu äriplaani sisu.
Võta lühidalt kokku oma idee ja ärimudel - mida, kellele, miks, ja kuidas pakutakse. Millised on ettevõtte tähtsamad eesmärgid ning oodatavad tulemused. Kes seisavad kogu ettevõtmise taga.

Ettevõtte nimi, põhikapitali suurus ja registriandmed (kui äriühing on juba registreeritud), tegevuskoha aadress, kontaktandmed, kodulehe aadress. Omanikud ja nende osaluse määr.

Kirjelda ettevõtte poolt pakutavaid tooteid ja teenuseid ning millised on nende kasutamisvõimalused (kes ostab ja miks). Tootmise puhul kirjelda lühidalt tootmisprotsessi, alates varustamisest, tootmisest ja lõpetades kliendini jõudmisega. Too välja toodeta ja teenuste hinnakujunduse põhimõtted.

Müügiplaani peatüki juurde on automaatselt lisatud müügiplaani tabel (vt. allpool). Selle peatüki tekstiosa võib tühjaks jätta, kuid parem idee oleks lisada mõned kommentaarid ettevõtte müügiplaani kohta.

Kirjelda oma kliente, hinnates sihtturgude asukohta, suurust ja olemust (ostjateks võivad olla üksikisikud, edasimüüjad, teised ettevõtted). Millised on tulevikuperspektiivid: kas sihtturgudel on oodata kasvu või kahanemist, kas esineb sesoonseid mustreid. Kirjelda konkurente. Too välja oma ettevõtte ja/või toodete eelised võrreldes võistlejatega. Millised on võimalikud reklaamikanalid. Anaüüsi nende valikut.

Kirjalda oma ettevõtte ülesehitust, meeskonda. Nimeta võtmeisikuid, eestvedajaid. Kirjelda nende tausta (haridus, kogemus, kompetentsid, ambitsioonid). Kui palju, millal ja millist tüüpi töökohti ettevõttes luuakse.

Tegevusplaan on lühiajaline tegevuskava mõnest kuust uhe-kahe aastani - millal ja kelle poolt viiakse ellu võtmetähtsusega otsustused ning milliseid eesmärke seatakse.

Tegevuskulude eelarve peatüki juurde on automaatselt lisatud tabel Mitmesugused tegevuskulud (vt. allpool). Lisa selgitusi ja kommentaare tegevuskulude eelarve kohta.

Investeeringute plaani peatüki juurde on automaatselt lisatud tabel Varade ostmine (vt. allpool). Kui on plaanis osta põhivarasid, tuleks siia lisada selgitusi investeeringute plaani kohta.

Rahastamise peatüki juurde on automaatselt lisatud tabel Kapitali struktuur (vt. allpool). Siia võiks lisada selgitusi ettevõtte rahastamisallikate kohta (panus omanikelt, täiendava finantseerimise vajadus jms).

Kirjelda riske ehk ootamatuid sündmusi, kõrvalekaldeid ning ebamääraseid olukordi, mis võivad Sinu ettevõtmist ebasoodsalt mõjutada. Mida kavatsed teha riskide ennetamiseks ja maandamiseks.

Finantsplaani peatüki juurde on automaatselt lisatud mitmeid finantsprojektsioone, mis on pärit Finantsplaani moodulist (vt. allpool). Võid lisada kommentaare ja selgitusi.

This section should be written last.
Provide an enthusiastic snapshot of your company, explaining who you are, what you do and why. Be less than 2 pages in length.

This section should include: Mission statement (business purpose); Company vision (statement about company growth); Business goals and objectives; Brief history of the business.

Describe your business industry and outlook. Define the critical needs of your perceived or existing market. Identify your target market. Provide a general profile of your targeted clients. Describe what share of the market you currently have and/or anticipate.

Describe all of your products and services. Explain how your products and services are competitive. If applicable, reference a picture or brochure of your products, which would be included in the plan’s appendix.

Provide a description of how your company is organized. Describe the legal structure of your business (proprietorship, partnership, corporation, etc.). Identify necessary or special licenses and/or permits your business operates with. Provide a brief bio description of key managers within the company.

Identify and describe your market – who your customers are and what the demand is for your products & services. Describe your channels of distribution. Explain your sales strategy, specific to pricing, promotion, products and place (4Ps).

In this chapter, a set of financial projections and ratios is included. You may want to add some comments and/or describe your assumptions.

The executive summary is the most important section of your plan. It provides a concise overview of the entire plan, along with a history of your company. This section tells your reader where your company is and where you want to take it. It's the first thing your readers see; therefore, it is the thing that will either grab their interest and make them want to keep reading or make them want to put it down and forget about it. Read more >>

This section should illustrate your knowledge about the particular industry your business is in. It should also present general highlights and conclusions of any marketing research data you have collected; however, the specific details of your marketing research studies should be moved to the appendix section of your business plan. This section should include: an industry description and outlook, target market information, market test results, lead times, and an evaluation of your competition. Read more >>

This section should include: a description of your primary industry, the current size of the industry as well as its historic growth rate, trends and characteristics related to the industry as a whole (i.e., What life cycle stage is the industry in? What is its projected growth rate?), and the major customer groups within the industry (i.e., businesses, governments, consumers, etc). Read more >>

Your target market is simply the market (or group of customers) that you want to target (or focus on and sell to). When you are defining your target market, it is important to narrow it to a manageable size. Many businesses make the mistake of trying to be everything to everybody. Often times, this philosophy leads to failure. Read more >>

When you are including information about the market tests you have completed, be sure to focus only on the results of these tests. Any specific details should be included in the appendix. Market test results might include: the potential customers who were contacted, any information or demonstrations that were given to prospective customers, how important it is to satisfy the target market's needs, and the target market's desire to purchase your business' products or services at varying prices. Read more >>

Lead time is the amount of time between when a customer places an order and when the product or service is actually delivered. When you are researching this information, determine what your lead time will be for the initial order, reorders and volume purchases. Read more >>

You need to identify your competition by product line or service as well as by market segment; assess their strengths and weaknesses, determine how important your target market is to your competitors, and identify any barriers which may hinder you as you are entering the market. Read more >>

This section includes information related to current customer or governmental regulatory requirements as well as any changes that may be upcoming. Specific details that you need to find out include: the methods for meeting any of the requirements which will affect your business, the timing involved (i.e., How long do you have to comply? When do the requirements go into effect?), and the costs involved. Read more >>

This section should include a high level look at how all of the different elements of your business fit together. The company description section should include information about the nature of your business as well as list the primary factors that you believe will make your business a success. Read more >>

This sub-chapter automatically includes the Other Operating Expenses table (see below). You may want to include some comments or assumptions on the projected expenses.

This section should include: your company's organizational structure, details about the ownership of your company, profiles of your management team, and the qualifications of your board of directors. Who does what in your business? What is their background and why are you bringing them into the business? What are they responsible for? Read more >>

Provide a detail description of how your company is organized. This will prove that you're leaving nothing to chance, you've thought out exactly who is doing what, and there is someone in charge of every function of your company. Nothing will fall through the cracks, and nothing will be done three or four times over. To a potential investor or employee, that is very important. Read more >>

This section should also include the legal structure of your business along with the subsequent ownership information it relates to. Have you incorporated your business? If so, is it a C or S corporation? Or perhaps you have formed a partnership with someone. If so, is it a general or limited partnership? Or maybe you are a sole proprietor. Read more >>

One of the strongest factors for success in any growth company is the ability and track record of its owner/management team and the board of directors (if any), so let your reader know about the key people in your company and their backgrounds. Read more >>

In this section, you should define your marketing and sales strategies. An overall marketing strategy should include 4 different strategies: A market penetration strategy, A growth strategy, Channels of distribution strategy, Communication strategy. Your overall sales strategy should include 2 primary elements: A sales force strategy, Your sales activities. Read more >>

What are you selling? In this section, describe your service or product, emphasizing the benefits to potential and current customers. Focus on the areas where you have a distinct advantage. Identify the problem in your target market for which your service or product provides a solution. List your company's services and products. Provide details regarding suppliers, availability of products/services, and service or product costs. Read more >>

Be sure to include the amount you want now and the amount you want in the future, the time period that each request will cover, the type of funding you would like to have (i.e., equity, debt), and the terms that you would like to have applied. Is the funding request for capital expenditures? Working capital? Debt retirement? Acquisitions? Be sure to list it in this section. Read more >>

In this section, a complete set of financial projections is included automatically. Make sure that your projections match your funding requests. If you have made assumptions in your projections, be sure to summarize what you have assumed. In case you own an established business, you may be requested to supply historical data related to your company's performance. Read more >>

Define the company or your business in a single declarative sentence.

Describe the problem of the customer. Or the problem of the customer’s customer. Outline how the customer addresses the issue today.

Describe your company’s value proposition to make the customer’s life better. Provide some use cases.

Why now? Set-up the historical evolution of your category. Define recent trends that make your solution possible.

Identify your customers. Calculate the TAM (Total Available Market) - the absolute maximum that can be reached by the product; SAM (Served Available Market) - the fraction of the total available market that is accessed by the product now; SOM (Share Of Market) - the fraction of the served available market that the product controls.

 List your competitors. Spell out your competitive advantages.

In most cases, customers will only buy a simple product with a singular value proposition. Describe your product line-up (features and functionality, architecture, intellectual property), and development roadmap.

Describe your revenue model and pricing. What is the average account size and/or lifetime value?  Describe your sales and distribution model. List your customers or pipeline.

Make a list of: Founders and Management, Board of Directors and/or Board of Advisors.

A set of financial projections is included with this section automatically. You may leave some comments or assumptions.

The executive summary is where you will list all of your previous restaurant experience, as well as any management and staffing skills you may possess. The executive summary serves a couple of important purposes, including showcasing your strengths as a business owner and detailing how you plan to go about starting a restaurant that will quickly become the premier destination in your town.

In the business overview section you actually get down to the nuts and bolts of how the business will operate. This section will include such vital details as where the restaurant will be located, what hours it will keep and what type of cuisine it will specialize in. It is important for the business overview section to provide a compelling argument for why starting a restaurant of the type you propose will be a successful endeavor.

Opening a restaurant or a bar means providing both products, namely the signature dishes you will create, and services, including the attention of your wait staff and the ambiance and elegance your restaurant creates. The products and services section gives you a chance to detail what your restaurant will offer, and what will set your new restaurant apart from the competition.

Chances are there are already plenty of restaurants in town, and this section of the plan is designed to convince skeptical lenders and would-be investors why your plan to open a restaurant is a good one. In this part, you will detail the marketing strategy you will use to differentiate the new restaurant you open from others in the area. This section can also include details of the market research you have done, including efforts to identify and cater to underserved segments of the market.

The management and staffing section of your plan should lay out in detail your strategy for attracting and retaining talent, both in the kitchen and in the front of the house. This section should also detail the experience and core competencies of the management team, since those individuals are just as critical to the success of the enterprise.

The implementation plan portion of the business plan should include a detailed timeline for starting the restaurant, from renting or buying the space and obtaining the furnishings to stocking the kitchen and hiring the personnel who will run the operation.

Opening a restaurant requires a lot of capital investment, including purchasing the freezers used to store food at the proper temperature, the stainless steel sinks and dishwashers and the tables and chairs needed to make diners feel at home. The investment section of the business plan is where you will lay out the details about the items your new restaurant will need to get off the ground, as well as the ongoing investments that will be needed to keep it up and running.

The funding section of the business plan will include details on the funding it will take to get the new restaurant off the ground. This section is very important, since lenders and equity investors will need to see that you have done a thorough analysis that includes all the equipment and supplies you will need.

All businesses have risks, but restaurants have a number of risks that are specific to their line of business. Some of these risks include a bad report from the health inspector, a negative review from a respected food critic or the sudden loss of a top chef to a competitor. Addressing the possible risks of the restaurant business is a critical part of your plan document.

A set of financial projections is included with this section automatically.
You may want to leave some comments here on the business financial plan.

The goal of the executive summary is to stimulate and motivate the investor to learn more. Keep it simple, be brief. If your business is truly complex, you can dive into the details later on.

The goal of this section is to educate the investor about your company’s history and explain why your team is perfect to execute on the business opportunity. Give some history and provide the background on the company. Show off your track record. Detail prior accomplishments, including funding rounds, product launches, milestones reached and partnerships secured.
Demonstrate your team’s unique competitive advantage or key partnerships.

The goal here is to prove that there is a real market for your product or service. Demonstrate the need for your product. Cite credible and independent sources when describing the size and growth of your market. Determine the relevant market size and focus on the products or services that you will directly compete against. Explain how you would overcome potential negative trends.

Convey the needs of your customers and show how your products or services satisfy those needs. Define your customers precisely. Detail their demographics. How many customers fit the definition and where are these customers located? Use data to demonstrate past actions (X% have purchased a similar product), future projections (X% said they would purchase the product), and/or implications (X% use a product which your product enhances). Explain what drives their decisions. Detail the decision-making process.

Define the competition and demonstrate your competitive advantage. List competitors. Include direct and indirect competitors. Carefully describe their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the key drivers of competitive differentiation in the marketplace. Demonstrate barriers to entry. In describing the competitive landscape, show how your business model creates competitive advantages, and defensible barriers to entry.

Describe how your company will penetrate the market, deliver products/services, and retain customers. Products - Detail all products and services, but focus primarily on the short-to-intermediate time horizon. Promotions - Explain which marketing/advertising strategies will be used and why. Price - Provide a clear rationale for your pricing strategy. Place - Explain how your products/services will be delivered to your customers. Explain how you will retain your customers. Define your partnerships.

Detail the short term processes and systems that provide your customers with your products and services. Business milestones - Lay out the significant long-term business milestones for the company, and prove that the team will execute on the long-term vision.

A set of financial projections is included with this section automatically.
Detail your key assumptions here. Detail the uses of funds. Understandably, investors want to know what, specifically, you plan to do with their money.
Provide a clear exit strategy. The most common exits are IPOs or acquisitions.

Describe who you are.
Keep it short! What would you most want the investor to remember about you.

Describe what you do.
State your value phrased as key results or impact. This should allow the investor to understand how your company would add value.

Why you are unique?
Show the unique benefits that your company brings to business, and what it does that is better or different than others.

Your road map to success. Describe your goals.
Remember, goals should be concrete, defined, and realistic.
Tap in some numbers (go to the Financials).

Write this section last. Include everything that you would cover in a five-minute interview.
Explain the fundamentals of the proposed business: What will your product be? Who will your customers be? Who are the owners? What do you think the future holds for your business and your industry? Make it enthusiastic, professional, complete, and concise. If applying for a loan, state clearly how much you want, how you are going to use it, and how the money will make your business more profitable, thereby ensuring repayment.

What business will you be in? What will you do? Your Mission, Goals and Business Philosophy. To whom will you market your products? Describe your industry. Describe your company strengths and core competencies. Describe your main competitors. What background experience, skills, and strengths do you personally bring to this new venture?
Legal form of ownership: Sole proprietor, Partnership, Corporation, LLC?  Why have you selected this form?

Describe in depth your products or services.
What factors will give you competitive advantages or disadvantages? Examples include level of quality or unique or proprietary features.
What are the pricing, fee, or leasing structures of your products or services?

No matter how good your product and your service, the venture cannot succeed without effective marketing. And this begins with careful, systematic research. It is very dangerous to assume that you already know about your intended market. You need to do market research to make sure you’re on track. You may want to summarize the most important aspects of your marketing plan here.

Facts about your industry: What is the total size of your market? What percent share of the market will you have? Current demand in target market. Trends in target market. Growth potential and opportunity for a business of your size. What barriers to entry do you face in entering this market, and how will you overcome the barriers?
How could the following affect your company: Change in technology; Change in government regulations; Change in the economy; Change in your industry?

Describe your products and services from customers’ point of view.
For each product or service, describe the most important features. What is special about it? Describe the benefits, that is, what will the product do for the customer?
What after-sale services will you give? Some examples are delivery, warranty, service contracts, support, follow-up, and refund policy.

Identify your targeted customers. If you sell a consumer product, but sell it through a channel of distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, you must analyze both the end consumer and the middleman businesses to which you sell. Identify the most important customer groups. For each group, construct a demographic profile: Age, Gender, Location, Income level, Social class and occupation, Education. For business customers, the demographic factors might be: Industry, Location, Size of firm, Quality, technology, and price preferences.

What products and companies will compete with you? List your major competitors. Will they compete with you across the board, or just for certain products, certain customers, or in certain locations? Will you have important indirect competitors? (For example, video rental stores compete with theaters, although they are different types of businesses). How will your products or services compare with the competition?

Now that you have systematically analyzed your industry, your product, your customers, and the competition, you should have a clear picture of where your company fits into the world.
In one short paragraph, define your niche, your unique corner of the market.

In the following subchapters, outline a marketing strategy that is consistent with your niche.

How will you get the word out to customers?
Advertising: What media, why, and how often? Have you identified low-cost methods to get the most out of your promotional budget? Will you use methods other than paid advertising, such as trade shows, catalogs, word of mouth. What plans do you have for graphic image support? (Logo design, cards and letterhead, brochures, etc.).
Promotional Budget: How much will you spend on the items listed above?

Explain your method or methods of setting prices.
Does your pricing strategy fit with what was revealed in your competitive analysis?
Compare your prices with those of the competition. Are they higher, lower, the same? Why?
How important is price as a competitive factor? Do your intended customers make their purchase decisions mostly on price? What will be your customer service and credit policies?

Analyze your location criteria as they will affect your customers.
Is your location important to your customers? If yes, how? If customers come to your place of business: Is it convenient? Parking? Interior spaces? Not out of the way? Is it consistent with your image? Is it what customers want and expect? Where is the competition located? Is it better for you to be near or distant?

How do you sell your products or services? Retail, Direct (mail order, Web, catalog), Wholesale, Your own sales force, Agents or Independent representatives, Bid on contracts?

The Sales Forecast sub-chapter automatically includes some financial tables related to sales (see below). You may want to give some comments on your sales forecast.

In the following chapters you describe the daily operation of the business, its location, equipment, people, processes, and surrounding environment. You may want to write a short summary here.

How and where are your products or services produced? Explain your methods of: Production techniques and costs; Quality control; Customer service; Inventory control; Product development.

Describe the qualities and type of location you’ll have.
Access: Do you need easy walk-in access? What are your requirements for parking and proximity to freeway, airports and railroads? What will be your business hours?
Construction? If you are planning to build, costs and specifications will be a big part of your plan. Cost: You may want to comment your occupation expenses (rent, maintenance, utilities, etc). These numbers shall be part of your financial plan.

Describe the following: Licensing and bonding requirements; Permits; Health, workplace, or environmental regulations; Special regulations covering your industry or profession; Zoning or building code requirements; Insurance coverage; Trademarks, copyrights, or patents (pending, existing, or purchased).

Where and how will you find the right employees?
Describe the following: Number of employees needed; Type of labor (skilled, unskilled, and professional); Quality of existing staff (if any); Pay structure; Training methods and requirements.
Who does which tasks? Do you have schedules and written procedures prepared? Have you drafted job descriptions for employees? For certain functions, will you use contract workers in addition to employees?

Identify your key suppliers: Names and addresses; Type and amount of inventory furnished; Credit and delivery policies; History and reliability. If supply costs are fluctuating, how would you deal with changing costs?
What kind of inventory will you keep? What is your inventory investment? What is the rate of turnover and how this compares to the industry averages? Seasonal buildups? Lead-time for ordering?

Do you plan to sell on credit? If yes, what policies will you have about who gets credit and how much? How will you check the creditworthiness of new applicants? What terms will you offer your customers; that is, how much credit and when is payment due? Will you offer prompt payment discounts? Do you know what it will cost you to extend credit? Have you built the costs into your prices?

This chapter includes your estimates on Other Operating Expenses. You may want to leave some comments here.

Who will manage the business on a day-to-day basis? What experience does that person bring to the business? What special or distinctive competencies? Is there a plan for continuation of the business if this person is lost or incapacitated? Describe your organizational structure, and who is responsible for key functions.

List the following (if relevant): Board of directors; Management advisory board; Attorney; Accountant; Insurance agent; Banker; Consultant or consultants; Mentors and key advisors.

This section consists of a set of financial projections and ratios that constitute a reasonable estimate of your company's financial future. You may want to include some main assumptions and comments on your financial plan here.

This chapter includes a set of tables indicating various transactions in the course of first 6 months of your business project. You may want to leave comments.

The profit and loss projection is the centerpiece of the business plan. This is where you put it all together in numbers and get an idea of what it will take to make a profit and be successful.
Profit projections should be accompanied by a narrative explaining the major assumptions used to estimate company income and expenses.

If the profit projection is the heart of your business plan, cash flow is the blood. You may want to explain major assumptions behind your cash flow projection.

A balance sheet is one of the fundamental financial reports that any business needs for reporting and financial management.  It shows what items of value are held by the company (assets), and what its debts are (liabilities). When liabilities are subtracted from assets, the remainder is owners’ equity. You may want to leave some comments on your balance sheet here.

A break-even analysis predicts the sales revenue, at a given gross margin (%), required to recover total costs (fixed expenses). In other words, it’s the sales level that is the dividing line between operating at a loss and operating at a profit. Expressed as a formula, break-even is:
Fixed Costs / Gross Margin %.
You may want to add assumptions upon which your break-even analysis is based.

A set of financial ratios and performance measures is included with this chapter. You may add your comments.

- Include links (URL) to resources used in your business plan (Industry studies, Blueprints and plans, Maps and photos of location, Magazine or other articles, Market research studies, etc).
- You may need to include personal financial statements for each owner and major stockholder, showing assets and liabilities held outside the business and personal net worth.

Identify your target market. Take time to research the demographics (age, gender, geographic location and household income) as well as the psychographics (buying habits, beliefs, and culture characteristics) of your customer base. Establish numbers of potential customers in your service area based on those criteria.

Establish objectives. What do you hope to accomplish through your marketing? Be specific. “Increase sales” is too general to be helpful, but “Increase sales by 10% by the end of Q2” is both specific and measurable.

Define strategies. These are the methods that you will use to accomplish your objectives. A strategy can be a broad overview, such as “Utilize social media” or “Implement e-mail campaign.” There are dozens of different strategies that can be employed for any given goal, so it may take some time and research to determine those that will help you accomplish your objectives.

List your tactics. Tactics will be the specific methods within your strategy that will help you accomplish your goals. Working from the social media strategy already mentioned, you might list, say, “Offer exclusive coupons via Facebook and Twitter”

Establish metrics. In order to determine if your objective has been met, you will need to establish a benchmark for tracking your success. This can be the number of new Facebook friends, the response rate of your direct mail campaign, or the number or dollar amount of sales from new customers.

Before you implement any strategy or tactic, it is important to calculate the cost of a campaign and the income that is required to break even. When possible, you will want to use figures that relate to the metrics you established above.

What is your company’s value proposition? More importantly, how will you deliver that value to your customer base? Focus on strategies that distinguish your product offering in your market. What do your customers want most and how best can your business deliver that to them?

Segmenting your customer base is an essential part of identifying your venture’s critical sales channels. Focus on key demographics, age groups, ethnicities and genders in order to segregate your customer base. From this exercise you should be able to distinguish between those customers that your enterprise deems to be the most important and essential to growing your market.

Once you’ve segmented your customer base, you’ll now have to decide upon those aforementioned channels to market. This may ultimately force you to use multiple channels. For instance, you may opt to sell direct to end-users for some product lines, while using sales agents and distributors for others.

What do your customers expect from you in terms of servicing and maintaining their business? Can your enterprise bundle special services with your product offering that might help to set it apart from its competition? Move away from seeing sales as a series of singular transactions where you try and maximize gross profit on each additional sale. Instead, see your customers as potential partners and define what it takes to retain their business for the long-term.

Define your company’s revenue streams. Will you only derive revenue on sales of a given product line, or will you charge for essential services such as delivery and special packaging? Approach this step with the mindset of your customer segments. What are your customers willing to spend in order to benefit from your enterprise’s value proposition?

What resources must your company acquire or secure in order to attain its value proposition? Your venture’s resources can be its business knowledge, its core competencies, its management, its employees, or even its physical assets, such as equipment and machinery. What resources does your venture require in order to achieve your value proposition?

What activities or operations are essential to growing your business? Think of those business activities that your enterprise must excel at in order to meet its value proposition. Think of the importance of a well-defined supply chain, one where vendors are properly aligned and can immediately turn around raw materials and parts. Think of the importance of having solid partnerships with creditors and investors.

Who are the venture’s main stakeholders, and of those stakeholders, who are the most valued partners? When looking to define your venture’s stakeholders, look to isolate those strategic partnerships so vital to your venture’s success and ones that are essential in mitigating risk. Focus on key investors, suppliers and creditors. Next, define their relationship to your enterprise and their appropriate roles and responsibilities.

In this step you’ll define your company’s cost structure relative to your value proposition. What costs are essential to manage in order to deliver your value proposition? How best can you manage these costs in order to derive the greatest return? Focus on segregating those resources and activities where you’ll need to have strong cost controls. Lower costs means these activities will bear fruit earlier in the process.