On Writing a Winning Business Plan: 1. Introduction

1.0 Introduction
Perhaps the shortest and most definitive piece of a business plan is the introduction. That's because in this section you identify what sort of company you will be and why you are in the business. Below is the outline of the introduction and what I personally reccomend when writing each section.

• Company Name and Details
  
• Members
• Company Background
  
• Mission Statement
• Vision Statement
• Objectives
  
• Corporate Governance

Company Name and Details
This section defines the basic details of the company including the name, adress, contact details and basic industry it is looking to compete within. For the 'Company Name', if you don't happen to have one already, choose something you like but keep the following points in mind when selecting it:

• Keep it Short
• Simple
• Memorable
• Relevant and;
  
• Distinctive
  

Take 'Coca-Cola' for example (Said to be the world's most valuable brandname), it's Short, Simple, Memorable, Relevant and Distinctive. No one else can use Coke but many brands try to make it similar to Coke. Do you see a problem with this? Well, when other brands mimic Coke's brand image, they aim to instill attributes about Coke onto their brand of cola. This effectively erodes the customer's distinction between the two brands, making them forget the one that is imitating coke altogether. Whereas, if you make the product attributes too different, and it's not relevant at all, people will not be able to find your brand, so it is always good to keep them somewhat relevant.

Finally, a good name will be short, simple and memorable, these three points go hand in hand with each other. A good example of this is 'Google' - Its Incredibly short, its brain-dead simple and it is memorable as it is derived from the word meaning "A number with one hundred zeros after it."

Members
This section should clearly define who is part of the comapny and what their role is. Although I won't go into detail in this part, I will tell you one thing. Make sure you clearly define who will be taking what roles, becuase the last thing you want in your business is job ambiguities tearing your business apart.

Company Background
This section is also quite important, in that you describe your business's mission, vision, objectives and responsibilities.

Mission Statement
This is a statement of the organisation's purpose for existing. It should outline the position you want the company to take and what it strives to do. Here is an example of how to write a good business Mission Statement. Another good website which shows examples of mission statement by the leading world organisations can be found here at Man on a Mission. Make sure you keep it realistic and true to your organisation's and employee's core values, as they will be the people who your customers communicate with (both directly and indirectly).

Vision Statement
This statement is different from the organisation's Mission, in that it details the goals of the organisation and as Jay Ebben writes, "... the vision should state what the founder ultimately envisions the business to be, in terms of growth, values, employees, contributions to society, and the like..." This is a powerful section because it allows the company to pursue goals instead of flying aimlessly throughout the corporate world. Once again, you will find excellent examples of these on Man on a Mission.

Objectives
Depending on the type of plan you want to create, you can add different objectives in. For a marketing plan, you might like to use what are called S.M.A.R.T. Objectives. For those of you who don't know it stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic and;
  
• Timely

So a good example of an Objective would be, "To achieve a 20% increase in sales in X business for y product for the financial year of 06/07." It is Specific - in that it describes the exact figures and areas of the objective. It is Measurable - Due to the fact you can collect data to measure the performanc of the company against the objective. It is Achievable - Because any business could easily achieve a 20% increase in sales. It is Realistic - Through the plan of action, it is a realistic objective for the company to have. Lastly, it is also Timely - As it specifies the time period and date by which the objective should be achieved by.

By writing objectives, it gives your company a focus in which you can direct your resources to achieving the desired result. Furthermore, by writing S.M.A.R.T. Objectives, you are driving your company towards following objectives which are possible to be met and are strategically important in growing your business.

Corporate Governance
I have left this until last because it isn't exactly required by a company but it certainly helps their community image. This is basically a statement of what the company or business believes are it's responsibilities in society. An example of this is how MacDonald's has the Ronald MacDonald Children's Charity. This reduces customer's perceptions that MacDonald's is a big corporate brand and can even give them a better image within the community it is helping. Once more... Man on a Mission has great examples of this, and while I don't particularly like to use the same source over and over in the same article, I believe this is a fantastic resource when you are looking to write the Introduction to your business plan.

That's all I have for you guys this week, I hope you all find this information as useful as I have in the past.

Robert.