LinkedIn Biz Plan Q & A

Meet Shawn Brazo This time, I was looking for wisdom on business plans:

What is the most important aspect of the business plan for a manufacturing startup with $100K to bootstrap? Requirements suggest startup biz will need to raise $2 million (or more) to "go live" with manufacturing in 12 to 18 months. Prototype(s) need built. Facility acquired, key employees hired, marketing materials created, etc. What is the key component of the biz plan that MUST be exceptional and without flaw?

I have probably written five or six business plans. Some more formal than others, but wanted to see the current mood among my colleagues on this query. There are some good responses, but the one that makes the most sense given the few details that I did provide (and few details that I did not provide), was from Shawn:

Sales! If you don't have a pipeline of sales and revenue generation, all of the planning discussed is academic. Sell it, then build the infrastructure to deliver what you have sold.

Shows experience. That, "Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt!" kind of confidence that is rare. Honorable mention for most thorough response (paraphrased here) goes to Brian Vinson:

"Right now it is very important also to show how you will stay on the positive side of cash flows - with credit more difficult to obtain you will need to show a good cash flow that allows you to cover all expenses until you're able to cover expenses..."

To see all the answers, and the complete response from Brian, view the LinkedIn query. -ski ---- Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey, Jonah www.throughput.us ski@throughput.us ©2008 Throughput.us LLC. All rights reserved.