Macau New Technologies Incubator Centre

Executive Summary
The executive summary is the single most important component of the business plan. It provides the reviewers with concise information of the business and will often determine whether they wish to continue reviewing the company.

The executive summary should encapsulate in a thorough yet concise format all of the major components of the business plan, including descriptions of the company, its product, the market and opportunity, and operational and financial requirements. Ideally, the executive summary should be no more than 2 pages.

The Company
This section should include a brief overview of the company in terms of its origins, current status, mission, strengths and weaknesses, and management. It is important to let the reviewers understand at the outset in which direction and to what ends the company plans to develop. It should contains the following information.

The owners and key operators of the company.

The key services or products the company is offering.

The history of the business.

The company's goals.

The Product and Business Model
It is essential that the explanation of the product be informative and thorough while being general enough so as not to lose the reviewer or disclose sensitive or proprietary information. A common problem of entrepreneurs who have developed their business concept for months (if not years) is to over-explain their product and in doing so turn off their audience. Investors are not only interested in products and technologies but also the business model. A good business model is a key to ensure that a good return on investment can be achieved. The entrepreneur must try explain the business model which includes but not limited to the following elements:

•   Products
•   Services
•   Intermediate products or by-products
•   Environment
•   Operators
•   Customers
•   Competitors
•   External Partners
•   Resource flow
•   Exits

After reading the product and business model section ,the reviewer should have a clear understanding of what the company makes or provides and must fully see the value such a product or service.

Market and Competition
The applicant must perform a good marketing analysis to convince the reviewer that there exists not only a viable market for the product but also that consumers will choose this product over that of the competition. The reviewer will look to see that the applicant clearly understands the real potential for selling the product. A well formulated market and competition section will demonstrate that the business leaders understand the value of being market-driven rather than product-driven.

A common turn-off is an assessment which concludes that there is no competition. No matter how unique or novel the product, there is always competition. For example, although MTR in Hong Kong is monopoly underground train business, it faces competition from bus, taxi and ferry.

When quoting figures to determine the market size and business potential, it is essential to verify the figures and make sure that they can truly reflect the company business potential.

Management
Investing in a new technology company is a risky endeavour and the entrepreneur must always be conscious of presenting his or her business plan in ways that reduce a potential investor's perception of risk. Having customers who have experienced and can attest to the strengths of a product and the company which provides it also serves to reduce risk.

Another key factor for a potential investor in weighing risk is the depth and experience of a new company's management team. While a description of the management and organizational structure within the company is a basic business plan requirement, a successful plan will hopefully also demonstrate that:

The expertise and experience of the management team.

The driver of the management team.

The shortfall of the management team and the ways for improvement.

A board of directors for monitoring the performance of the management team.

Operation
It is essential to describe the path to make the business success. The plan needs to define the major operational activities that have to be performed along the path. A timeline with clear milestones is a good way to describe the company's projected development. The key issue is to make sure that all activities are heading to meet the goals of the company. The following are some activities for reference purposes.

•   R&D
•   Product testing
•   Product benchmarking
•   Manufacturing
•   Marketing
•   Distribution
•   Facility Procurement
•   Recruitment and Training
•   Material Purchasing
•   Capital Needs
•   Quality Control
•   Inventory Control

Financials
Depending on the nature of business, the plan should make financial assumptions for establishing financial forecasts for the next few years (say 4-7 years) It would be useful to include past performance if possible. Try to gauge the projected revenues and profit margins against industry standards. For the justification purpose, the plan must include reasonable explanations for any forecasted numbers.

Appendix
It is not easy to present all useful information in the main body of the business plan. Too much information will make the plan lengthy and boring. Information in the appendices can be used to strengthen the overall plan while reducing the volume of material within the main body of the business plan. The following information can be included in the appendices if necessary.

•   resumes
•   articles about the product
•   articles about the technology
•   product comparison from magazines or public sources
•   market data sources
•   samples of advertising
•   letters of referral or customer satisfaction
•   patents