Sign New Jersey Banking Business Plan Template Free

How to write a bussiness plan

actually i would like to connect you to our director here the regional director at the small business development center let me just wait a minute there we go at the small business development center right there on campus is your regional director who's on here with us today um i'd like to introduce you to lillian morrow thank you thank you and welcome everyone and thank you nicole and and um and the whole faculty of the school of business for inviting inviters to participate again again and collaborate again in the business may you're playing major business plan competition and as i mentioned i am the new regional director for the small business development center at the college of new year's and we are here to provide assistance for existing businesses and startups and if you if you have any idea we are here to help all our services are at no cost to you and are presented by highly qualified uh professional consultants um that they have experience in the public private sectors and also throughout the year we offer different events and trainings and locals and all for the students and we're here here to support you all our services are funded by the small business administration by the state of new jersey um but also by mercer county office of economic development and also we have the support of our host institution which is the college of new years we are um organizations that uh there are more than a thousand centers nationwide and 12 of them are in the state of new year's we are happily um located here at the college of new year she provided the services for businesses in the restaurant and um with that let me um get back to luring allen lorraine who is our former director for the small business development center for more than 28 years i'm very happy that we are uh we have her back as a consultant and she has extensive experience working with the students and also helping with the major competition thank you lorraine and happy to tell you back with us thank you and they couldn't have a better director there than you lillian awesome so thank you so much so these students should make sure you all take active participation with the center because it's right there on campus virtually or physically that you can source it and as she mentioned here are all the partners um and this is um this is she just mentioned yes i was with the center for almost 20 years but i've also been for 10 years i guess it's now been with the uh the mayo business plan competition as well so i love actually the students and the fire and the spark and the insights and uh the ideas that the business students bring to um new ideas new perspectives on how to bring new services and products to the world we need you so um the first thing before i do that i'm going to switch because i want to see just by a show of hands if you would please real fast could you put a show of hands how many people are going for the competition can you do that little down there at the bottom okay good good good okay all right so not all but most okay good so um although this is a generic this is giving you a general idea of a business plan what to expect certainly from my perspective um and our center's perspective but but also um you know you'll see how you're going to implement it for you and i will make some mentions of that as you go along but for right now a business plan typically is and to try and get everything in your head out organized on paper to communicate not only to others but also yourselves okay as to give you a guideline um it could be used for planning when you're starting a business or whether you're trying to an expansion it could be used for financing many lenders require to have a business plan or they want information they want evidence to back up what you're why you're borrowing money it could be when you're making proposals for partnerships and you're trying to you know promote or persuade your ideas to others to participate with you in some way and for some of you it might be for a business plan competition so in each way we may be presenting a business plan a little bit differently i call it parts and pieces because you may be framing it one way for it depends on your audience that is that you're using it for because for yourself it's going to be simple and for others it will be very targeted um or you may be just extracting from it like financials or maybe a loan or so forth so it's got parts and pieces and it's got a lot of parts as well so we're going to look at that real fast well not too fast so let's come come on let's go okay so the business plan outline um you're going to see you're everywhere you go any model that you see is going to have a whole list of you know specific areas that you need to address i from my experience these are not everyone adhere doesn't require pages and pages of information but they need they should be addressed because they're kind of looking at the business from a holistic perspective i call it turning the diamond it's like every corner you turn how is this business operating similar to the gears in a clock that go as one moves it affects another and it affects another so they all interact in some way so they we should be addressing them and taking appear at them especially at the beginning stages we should be looking at these from the statement of purpose which gives you an idea why you're doing it and that typically is for others when you're using this plan to give to others the summary is a one-pager that kind of summarizes we're going to talk about that i'm going to go through each one of these individually so i'm not going to list them now but just to give you an idea these are pretty much the contents you're going to be considering okay now in your executive summary um you'll want to keep it short all right this should be done last a lot of times businesses tend to go and do this first but wrong it's a summary it's a summary of the parts so therefore you want to do it after you've completed your plan then you can you will then describe in a one-page interpretation of what you have in the rest of the plan you want to keep it short you don't want a lot of marketing language in there and fluff and how you're the greatest or the best we're going to make that assumption right from the beginning that you are you'll have a statement of purpose what you're using it for perhaps um you're going for a loan and this is why you've constructed this plan you'll include a brief description of the problem that you solve as well as describing what is it that you do what product you have to sell what services do you offer with that or independent who it's what do i have to offer who do i have to offer it to who's going to pay us for this okay where are they at where are they located where do i find them okay and then how do i reach them so then we're going to be looking at specifically where will you be located in order to satisfy them whether you're online or on-site site we want to just identify where is this business going to be based and then the money factor i mean after all the business is not a business without people buying or paying for services and so there's costs and then there's revenues so we've got to look at the financial aspects of it and we're going to look at what kind of funds if we're looking for money what kind of dollars are we asking for and what do we have to offer back what assets do we have to invest ourselves and then your key team structure in this summary who's at the head of the ship who's steering it who's the owners the principals and what kind of legal structure that you're going to just summary just overview kind of solid what is the structure okay and then the details of the plan will begin so first space again every one of these this is very important every one of these does not require pages of writing okay we are in in this particular area we're in a academic setting and so yes there is more writing and description to provide but make sure that we stay to the point that carries way more weight than to have lots and lots of description that maybe perhaps would belong in marketing materials address the problem that you solve how you arrived here how do you know it's a problem and how do you know that this is a solution what is the solution your product or your service and where are you where are you located and why okay all you want to do is give an overview of what you do what makes your business unique and it should really be very easy for anybody when they look at this to understand the scope of what your business is if they can't confuse minds don't buy they don't understand it we're not doing a good enough job in making it easy for them to do so okay so then the next section is the products and services after all we're in a business right so what are we doing in business what do we have to offer product or service or both okay you want to provide you really want to prioritize what your top three if it's not a single product or a single service and it does have multiple aspects and there's some businesses that can provide maybe retail and provide a long list longer laundry list of you know items you really want to focus on your top three okay because anything further than that will only dilute your impact and also it will distract your focus very important you want to stay very very focused not only on your plan but in your business as well so you want to just keep it to the top one or the top three depending on what you have to offer okay um what about is special about your business or your product or service is what your business is what's special about it in others what improvements are you bringing to maybe what already exists or how is yours different you know we often hear about the unique selling proposition well let's keep it more basic and more simple why don't we just talk about without comparing with competitors we'll get to that but just how how do you feel that yours is an enhancement just describe your features and we'll get to the others later okay and what kind of impact maybe yours has a social economic impact at the same time um it could be or how will yours affect maybe if it's in a medical um field how will your product or services contribute or complement an impact maybe something else in the medical field okay look at not just your own little sphere but the universe that you're working within as well now okay so what do we have to offer right now who are we going to offer it to um there's a variety of markets that we can attract one thing is you don't want to say you sell to everybody because you don't even for those with a general broad market reach you want to start with just the priorities who is your real prime the buyer the one you know is going to be the buyer the one who needs it the one who really wants it okay you have a primary and you have a secondary the primary is the one who is a direct purchaser who buys direct from you now this could be an individual or it could be a distributor you know you could be the manufacturer and then you have distributors um it could be wholesalers but they could be your prime buyers okay or they could be a combination of both depending on what you have to offer okay now the secondary markets that we don't often consider but they are just as important that we should be marketing two are the referral partners okay simple example a contractor house may should be including realtors as an example because realtors are in contact with people who need commercial or residential who have um construction or renovation needs so therefore contractors should be marketing to also realtors who realtors may not be the payer but they are a prime source so never forget and this is often overlooked who is your secondary market too that you will be drawing from also um limited to the top three you know anything beyond three is kind of distraction and dilution as i said so i always encourage that we stick to only the top two sources that we feel revenues at this time as you grow you may be able to develop and enhance and include more or shift to new ones but for now you just want to stop to up two three any more than that is confusing okay and you want to answer these are two really important things how do you know they're your target market don't make an assumption in any plan in any proposal you always want to show evidence think like a lawyer provide evidence as to how do you know that they are don't make a guess have you tested it have you tried it and what has been the response or do you have numbers to show one two three that you've been having sales how do you know and also this is really really important please use statistics sparingly whereas in an academic setting that we when we're doing research and so forth they're very important when you come to a business plan a business plan if you have lots and loads lots and loads loads and lots of statistics in there but you can't if i closed your plan and said okay well tell me how do you know what percentage of the demographics here and you can't recite it unless you have to say wait a minute let me look at my plan if you have to do that then they're irrelevant okay if they're not just because there's a lot of them out there and you say if i can get a 0.1 percentage you want to be able to narrow that down to very very more focused specific use of the statistics okay just don't put them in arbitrarily because most people will just read over any use even you you won't even want to go back and do it again when you go to revise your plan you won't so why not keep it simple okay now what do we have to offer to who do we have to offer to now how are we going to reach them okay first we want to know where they're located where are they where i call them arteries where do we find them it's congregating it's physically um where do they con degree or are they in associations or on or if it's community if it's parents you know are they at the libraries wherever you want to know where are can you find arteries so that any of your marketing or sales efforts reach more than one is the most optimum so you want to start there it could be where are they located demographically geographically where are they located that's very important because if you're going to shoot an arrow you want to know which direction you're shooting right so where are they located and then how are you going to reach them okay we know that they're over there but here what are the options that we have you you know is it going to be direct calls is it going to be conferences is it going to be webinars is it going to be online social media advertising there's you'll want to make a long list and then prioritize to what are the most probably likely effective means to reach the most people with the most amount of returns or interactions or response or sales so you want to once you do that you want to list your top three paths no more than three of outreach so how are you going to do that specifically again evidence rules let's not make an assumption let's test it try it and then use the top three what kind of promotions will you do um what kind of partnerships okay maybe this is not just uh your direct sale maybe you're going to be remember we talked about the primary and the secondary markets maybe you'll be doing um a partner a marketing through uh with uh a partner okay or you will be tagging on maybe somebody else's event there's a a buddhist philosophy saying that the blue fly travels further and faster on the tail of a thoroughbred okay so who's the thoroughbred in your area and how can you align with them so that you can also get there maybe faster to a broader scope at the beginning competition now competition is we don't often address really well in a plan when they first come to us anyway and these are important because there's a realist competition is actually very healthy because that means it's creating or identifying and mirroring a demand in the market so when we we want to identify a competition so that we can see realistically where do we stand here you know some of them have been around i have a product that's been serving the market longer than you have so therefore they have a little history where are their strengths they have some just based on that because they maybe have a marketplace already that you're looking to acquire for yourself so instead we want to look at three top competitors or are well not that's just three here as you can see i have an example of what we call or we use is a gap analysis this is a very healthy way to kind of get an idea of looking at who is your key competitors there are that you'll be uh marketing and trying to infiltrate either a their con their customers or be create your own in that space and what you want to do is identify your advantages and their advantages and then you'll probably align them all along the top okay and then what you'll do is take your competitors and put them down on the left hand side and then do just a simple illustration like this to see where do you fit in your competitive market okay in a plan you'll take this information you may even want to do these these are highly effective in a plan by the way and of course your columns should have more green checks than x's however in your plan what you'll do is take your top three and then you'll just give a brief description of why they are your competition uh what their advantages are and where you feel your advantages are and please be objective don't be subjective insane they don't know you know they have horrible service well give evidence if their services you know or they have if you can use evidence like um you know for a amount of reviews you know eighty percent of their reviews have been challenging you know be kind to us at the same time um but i highly recommend that you start off with the gap analysis and then um and then you do brief description in your plan regarding these and addressing them and this sends a message now i don't even remind you of your position that you're not the only one even if you're just starting out and you do have a brand new idea you are improving on another one so it keeps you positioned in the market but it also shows whoever else is using this plan that you're using it for it gives them an idea that you're realistic as to that you're not the only you know game in town and that you understand just where you are and where you're going now we wanted to uh often again overlooked is operations everybody wants to just show this is what we do and is who we're going to sell it to and we're going to make this much money and leave it at that but you know this is really part of the nuts and bolts as well as the foundation that's holding your business up and often overlooked and including in the plan because a lot of times too when we're doing it even planning for no other purpose but our own we tend to forget that these are prime considerations so one would be location where are you going to be located is it a physical location is it going to be online even so if you're online where are you headquartered if you have a partners and your different locations where are they going to be even if your business is online do you have a central office why is it there if it's a physical location why is it there where is it where it is what attributes does it have if you're in mechanics you know then you want a facility that is also epa environmentally you know um endorsed but also you know maybe you need bays and whatever are the factors that are particularly important to running and operating your company should be noted okay this could also give indications of your assets and equipment and things that you may have or need okay um if you're a manufacturer or you're dependent on manufacturers who are they where are you sourcing either your um your glitch from for your manufacturing for the items that you're creating or b are the ones um the manufacturers that you're going to be sending to okay who are your partners in that regard who are your suppliers give them an indication again really no more than three just the key ones and the biggest ones are always optimum but still indicate the suppliers that you're going to be using not that just we're going to buy these we're basing our information on the fact that we have contacted these suppliers this is going to be our cost as of now these are going to be our cost for this kind of quantity and if we buy it this great amount this amount is going to be so much if we buy lesser amount it's going to be less profit so suppliers are important insurances what kind of insurances licenses permits what things do you need that are critical to your particular industry if you don't know you can check with your sbdc center you can check with your state licensing as well as for depending on the industry depends on the licenses as a required or the permits or certifications next are there specific certifications that come with your service or business and technologies whether it's mechanical uh whether it's um digital whether whatever it is that you need as far as technologies that you may need to or or actually the product or service what technologies do you have to incorporate and who is supplying them these are really super factors in a plan because it looks like it shows them the network the current the um the conduits the integration all the different parts that are constructing the actual delivery of what you offer okay it could be simple if you're online it could be simple who is the online you know the website you know provider for you um or host or so there could be that as well it could be associations as well that may be part of the operations for you whatever helps is part of the foundation of what to help you deliver what you're doing what you're selling what you're providing it should be included here okay who's running the show who's steering the boat management now it's management and personnel i like to keep them separate because um too often they merge them but there's really key significant differences between both and they should be separated and often at a startup it's usually just the key principles to the owners in the beginning okay so the management is actually including of not only key principles and the owners who are invested in this but also the if there's any other maybe not invested owner but a key principle to help the delivery and execution of the product or service or business or management of the business so the partners should be the owners who have either invested dollars expertise or skill sets which is really you can go both together right so the partners are the owners and what are they bringing to the table now when you put this in your plan please do not put a resume keep it short because you're not applying for a job you're applying you're just trying to establish you know the credibility of why you belong there and why you belong why you're the right seed to begin this business okay um and also for the individuals the skill set maybe a line or two of what you know their history of and what are their key responsibilities for both of you your roles as to what you're going to be doing here again give the evidence and the credibility so they all because also they're going to be looking if it's for somebody else looking they're going to look to see how much are you doing and how far spread out are you that it helps build their confidence in your competence as well and this is the area to do it but again you're not presenting a resume okay you are presenting a profile in order to cut for yourself to establish and reaffirm what you have and why you're placed here and why you're the right one and two for anybody else that you're providing it for it's for the same reason and to give them an idea of credibility and competence personnel as i said i separate them out and this really has to be simple you're not doing a whole hr directory for a business plan not at this stage you'll do that more intimately more more constructively more detailed in a separate document but not in your plan the plan is just simply to acknowledge the personnel will be needed we will need some support some help and you'll just list the positions a one-liner if at all as to what they're doing what that position requires them to do what kind of salary or range that they may be paid um brief responsibilities again it really is all in one position as you know receptionist or um uh you know social media you know poster they post regular um entries research and post and this is what they're paid whether it's a salary or subcontract basis or per hour whatever and also if you're going to include temps or you're going to include volunteers i would list them you don't have to have a long paragraph on them it's just listing that these are the people who are going to be part of the teamwork that's going to make your dream work so personnel separate but also in the beginning be conservative just stay within where you are don't be given the vision of five years out stay where where you are because they need a picture of where you are now because that's what you're using the business plan for yourself to remind you to be focused and for them to persuade them so we don't want to confuse them we want to see what a snapshot is of where you are now or in the very short near future opportunities for growth again another overlooked area and why i separate it is because a lot of times when we do our business plans we're looking at the the five year image and all the long but you know we have a journey to get there right so instead let's look at where we were in the plan like i just said previously snapshot of where we are and then a little window i call it fog vision you know you can only we know where we're going we're going to the airport but right now there's a fog so we can only see so far and so this could should be the plan is where you are there and then the opportunities for growth is where okay where could we be where in small incremental growth levels um phases where could we be in um three years i wouldn't do more than three years because things anything as look look at this you know the situation in a pandemic historic look at how it's changed everything so we never know but a three-year vision is is enough it's enough so con you want to include a conservative view for expansion in other words okay say we get we're at this point can we scale up the next year if we get to this art we meet our goals and how can we scale up conservatively okay conservatively the more conservative you are the less risk you'll be engaging in and the more likelihood you'll have an opportunity to layer on success okay what will your demographics look like then or the geographics will your business move you know geographically will expand from this region to now include statewide region you get the picture or anything else that you can add on this shouldn't be a real long um because we're focused in the present however it does give an indication of this is where you're headed without being over enthusiastic it's just like this is a perspective with controlled growth our opportunities could be this then we get to the money because let's face it it's all about the money we're in business because we want to serve a purpose or resolve um a problem and serve a need yes ultimately though you cannot survive we cannot survive our companies without money so there's multiple parts to this too it's how do we start the business the money coming in how do we bring that first and then how are we going to use it and then how's what's that going to look like so in the first section of your plan and i pretty much outline this by the way in the order that i you'll see in many examples whether they're online or printed there's outlines there's so many but i have printed from my experience excuse me from my experience i have permitted provided you i have listed all of these in an order that helps tell a story that helps give your picture that builds one on the other okay and ultimately you tell your story and then this is what it looks financially because the bankers for a lender will go through that and they'll scan through the rest the early part and then they're gonna this is where they're gonna land and ultimately this is the most important part okay so in this section you want to start your financials especially if you're going for funding or awards um you want to start for um what kind of money are you looking for how much okay what how much are you looking for specifically what are you going to be using it for okay how much are your going to startup costs going to be and how is this going to be used so you want to provide evidence don't say well we want to buy a computer show them where you've priced the computer and how you arrived at that figure you know i'm just for the sake of argument i'm just going to say best buys computer dollar amount really keep it simple it's easy to understand that way okay create the shopping list of everything that you're going to need to start your business and i don't mean just buy but you know it's you know like you secure insurances um whether it's equipment whatever it is that you need to spend money on okay how will you use the borrowed funds and also be sure to include in the startup costs and use of funds is how much are you putting in to the business how much are you spending in investing i'm talking not a skill set i'm talking in dollars and how what part of that will be invested in the startup very important okay i am not going to go into every single one of these in detail um but these are the factors and the these the kind of financial profile that you are going to need and be required for a plan for any plan and these are the ones that you're going to use on an ongoing basis plan or not in monitoring your business it's about revenue and expenses revenue expenses but bottom line is profit and how do you get there and this is what profiles constantly what how you are how are you faring this is your model this is the mirror the finances are the mirror of the health of your company okay what's your revenue mile model or models how are you getting the money in is it online do you have it on the street you know do you have it from um events do you have it from product sales do you have it from online is it from on-site are they pop-up shops where are the sources of your money coming from okay that's number one number two is the profit the revenue model as far as how the cost what is your what are you going to be selling it for what are your margins that comes under revenue model and that's where assumptions come in when you make assumptions on projections you're going to make assumptions based on what you feel are realistic realistic conservative by the way conservative but realistic expectations of what you could sell just because there's like a million people out there who could do that and you want point one percent what is the realistic that may be what you want but what's the realistic that you can see in any given year or any given month or any given season right depending on what you're offering using these this information then you will prepare a cash flow projection which is simple what is it going to cost me every month in a list what are these are going to be my costs and then how much do we expect to generate in revenue basic okay there are formulas there are basic there are templates we have them there are for use um and all over whether you're using a accounting software whether you're using an excel spreadsheet or the templates that you can be provided even through us or sba income statement break even analysis when is it going to be that all your costs are going to come to the break-even point that line that crossing over line where you're going to start actually making a profit okay and a balance sheet what's your assets which are liabilities um assets can include by the way um not just real estate to collateralize alone but assets could be equipment vehicles um inventory they can be also used um as your assets and the liabilities are who do you owe and how much okay and then the balance is the difference between both good on time yeah so good perfect um now these are my little don't things reminders to anybody doing their plan don't portray to be something that you're not you were not you know our parents did not give birth to adults you give birth to babies and we grow and we mature so does a business so please don't pret nd that you're you know there is a big we when it's just a you or two you know be who you are authentically where you are you will get further otherwise it's harder to keep up that image when you're not okay be authentically exactly who you are and show that it goes um it goes miles uh and it's easy to spot when you're not okay again reminder use statistics sparingly if you cannot recite it if anybody said why are you using that okay so you put it out there that you know so many percentage is male in the population what does that have to do with you how much of those of people are you going to have and where and what community and if you can't answer that i wouldn't use it okay so use them i should say change that word sparingly use them effectively and sparingly um don't project you sell to everybody i mentioned that earlier don't pretend really focus say yeah okay if i do and then we'll take them and yes but our focus our laser focus is on these markets here and uh and if you all want to come in by all means but we're not investing our time or our money in pursuing them okay focus focus focus very very much important i say don't overestimate your earnings okay be more conservative but don't underestimate your costs okay plan on the worst and hope for the best you get you'll get more profit that way okay and most importantly don't present without test driving the business if you're starting a company and you're just starting to kind of get it organized but it still should be based on you've tried this it's not just based on a theory or an idea put it to the test put it to the test don't be afraid of it you know that's then it's only a concept but it's not really even something viable until you've actually proven it so put it to the test and that way you'll have more evidence to persuade and promote what you have to offer and key dues um i encourage writing and boolean points in some academic areas where the business plans are used it's not necessarily as advised but certainly when you're going for funding for your own business or um then you should keep it to the points and one of the use why i suggest that you use bullet points is because it keeps it really laser focused it eliminates a lot of the fluff that goes in there and it shows the nuts and bolts because a lender or a partner or a proposal let me tell you they're not reading word for word i from experience decades of experience i'm telling you but they're looking and besides you're not going to want to have to rewrite all that anyway okay you want to write you want to get to the point because you're busy and you're about work and to do and and then the lenders too they're looking to they don't need to know your business they need to know that you know it they need to see that you know it so this the really kind of rule of thumb with the bullet points is the simpler the better okay do your homework and prevent uh present usable evidence not theory okay show prove it prove whatever you say show how do you know show how do you know okay um keep to the bare facts leave off the marketing club in a business plan you know to say we're the most wonderful and um you know everybody's customer service you know sucks and we we do it the best leave all that out be specific as to what you do because all that you can use in your marketing materials but not in your plan the plan is not the marketing material you're going to extract remember parts and pieces you'll extract from that for proposals but you'll want to leave out the fluff okay and and not too conversational that you know it is our life's dreams and mission not in this plan put that in your marketing things really keep it to the foundation and the laser focus of what you're doing after all you're going to be investing and hoping for a return and making money okay we have to stay focused um package it's simple but compelling keep it simple confuse minds don't buy all right when you're doing your plan include a little visual here and there just to break up all the type okay because there are also different kind of people who impact a different way they're more visually attached or for summer kinesthetic which is where your feelings that's where your marketing material goes but in here just break up all your presentation with a picture here or there but make it relevant okay um also do's you'll get to your weaknesses first and address them don't just look at all the things and wonderful about what you can do remind yourself these are what we have to work on and do them and address them but don't forget and always yes of course identify your strengths but capitalize on them all right just don't talk about them use them we we often don't do so if you have any i'm going to open for questions but also euro i'm going to leave the screen here but you're also welcome at any time if you have any questions to reach out to your center on campus with land uh it's in the forsena building but it's there make sure you write down this information here so that you can connect with your center always there to serve you so i think we made it good on time yes um there's a question for you um in the chat so if you see um down at the bottom of your screen the chat feature but we had christopher asked um are the assets like equipment um projected or do they have to be actual okay um good idea so question so are the assets projected well it all depends on what you're doing so if you don't have them but you want to buy them yes so if you're going to need to buy equipment and say you're trying to get funding so you can use that asset i i mean you can use that piece of equipment as an asset when you get it to help collateralize the loan because the loan will be buying it so then you'll be using it back for collateral the banks the lenders don't want to take it but it will be something they prefer things that they can pick up and move so yes you can use it projected but remember provide the evidence provide the evidence as to what kind of equipment what kind of cost what kind of value it will have and by the way once it's new you have to value it not when it was new but after that because the the um the value diminishes once it's been purchased so you would use that kind of value okay and if anyone has questions like i said you can use the chat or go ahead and you can unmute yourself or turn your cameras on if you'd like um but feel free okay um anybody else have well then this is uh let me see is it i would like to could you put in the chat what you felt was most helpful here for you today if you if you don't want to come on camera on um but just to give us an idea or uh what you feel what you feel you're a little concerned about or not necessarily your weaknesses but just what you know what are what do you feel that are the strengths um of today's presentation or the concerns or weaknesses that you might have that you want to address more i think it was really nice having a really systematic outline of everything and i think that really breaks down all the different nuances that you want to touch on because sometimes there's a lot that needs to be covered and sometimes things can be missed if you don't get too systematic about it you need to get systematic and clear about it um i liked your word laser focused about it with the bullet points because that really highlights how you have to cut out a lot of the fluff and just make sure that you know you're running through the important things and being systematic about it is i find one of the best ways to go about that okay good thank you alex very good um yes remember depending on your audience whether bullet point is great for you for or for the origin of the plan and depending on your audience is where you're going to use it because the bullet points also transfer into a presentation by the way easier right a lot easier when you're doing a presentation that way but if you need to do a little explanation do that but remember all of those titles for all of you that doesn't mean you need a whole page or pages dedicated to it it's just a title it's a section it's a section okay it could be a paragraph okay good do's or don'ts we're helpful good i'm glad um well when you're competing that's that's a whole nother area to to discuss beyond the plan when you're competing there are other factors you want to consider on how you use your plan and how you use it to present as well um yes keep it in order thank you very much lara and michael for your comments um talking about what is essential and how to move forward right these are again keep it simple and in an order because you want them to flow with you very important your idea when you present your business plan this is uh okay and whether you know proposal or presentation your besides the first primary use of any plan is for you first as a business owner to get it all out of your head on the paper and you know your game plan okay your strategy plan and your eye and get everything the details out okay but when you're using for everybody else what you really want to do is you want your the whole objective for that plan is to keep them or your presentation is to get them curious and write that down you want to get them curious to want to know more so how you present it is not marketing fluff it's just it's it's a combination of the evidence that you provide the clarity you provided with okay and the viability that you can present of how this is really possible okay so your objective with the plan other than for your own for anybody else for any other situation is to get them to be what curious to want to know more okay any other questions we have a few minutes i hope you're this should make it easy um i hope to relieve you of some of the burden and pressure again if you use any of the any other kind of outlines out there they have i don't highly recommend by the way i'm frankly we've not in the center um really recommended that you use the there's online models that you're kind of like at arms length and filling and stuff and i know it's very convenient especially in today's digital world but i really think there's something about getting your hands into just like in your business getting your hands into it and sitting there around and having a conversation so where that's helpful they steer you in one way but it's always we're always presenting what we think we're supposed to be saying okay i'm trying to relieve that burden of you which has worked very successfully for us with businesses is to come back and keep it simple that you understand it because after all that's the purpose of it for a business plan is for you first and helping you guide your company and guiding you and just at least it'll change but especially if you're going to try to persuade everybody we don't want to be out to something we think we're supposed to do let's deal with who we know we are and what we have and what we're doing and so if you use those just keep these basic guidelines that i've presented in using them otherwise you have a list you can use that so anything else catherine you have a question i mean just to say something um so hello everybody i am the dean of the business school in lorraine it's very nice to meet you i thought you did an outstanding job i wanted to mention to everybody you know we had a linkedin module about financials in the business plan there's also an additional one that you can watch if you're not a business student i know some of you are not about financial statements and things because i think maybe sometimes that's maybe the more confusing part of this am i right lorraine um and then the other thing i'm offering is i'm an accounting professor and so i was a cpa before i was in um in academics but i've been teaching accounting for a very long time now and so i'm offering two sessions for you all an hour each on zoom one in december one in january look at the schedule because the dates are escaping me at this moment but if you want to get on and ask questions or i will you know do mini lecture kind of format that you can then chime in and ask questions very happy to help you um out with that so just want to mention that again and remind you thank you so much and what a real privilege to meet you um this way nice to meet you too thank you yes and and and please take advantage of those because no matter what you do whether it's now or it's later this is the language not the business plan as much but remember if this is going to be the mirror of your business so to understand and especially somebody who knows us so well and who cares so much about you all and sharing this information is a wonderful way to get that so that you can get that try that on wear it and understand it that it's usable usable so it would be great so make sure that you check out your um the calendars that she offered and put them on your schedule just do it anyway just do it because it's great language for you to understand whether it's now or you won't forget you may forget details but the use of it will be impressed on your mind and it's useful for you later so definitely register for those it's december 10th i believe is the first one stephanie can correct me if i'm incorrect um but yeah terrific thank you lorraine it was really really excellent oh thank you thank you uh it's a thrill for me a privilege really okay well i don't know i think i'm going to pass it off but i will say thank you to all of you christopher isabella trevor shrey axel um i'm not missing any of you i see all of you here okay i'm not missing any of you but i really wish you a lot of success and you have the all the all it's you always have the information it's just about the order away you put it and the simpler you keep it so i wish you a lot of success i know you're facing a lot of challenges right now but you're doing it and then this is going to be one more success that you're going to be building on thank you so much for inviting me everyone thank you so much lorraine and lily and thank you so much for joining us and thanks to all of you who participated today i will be sending out the slides to all of the attendees so you can review and of course i'm sure both lillian and laureen would make themselves available should you have any follow-up questions after the presentation and we are also here in the school of business office if anyone has questions um if you need information on the mail business plan timeline that's on the website for you to review but you can always reach out to us as well so again thank you everyone and have a great day hey nicole uh can i just go for a quick minute oh sure go ahead um hey everybody i'm from the entrepreneurship club uh and i just wanted to let you guys know that we are here as a resource for you we have speakers that come in from that that are entrepreneurs themselves we have some resources that can be helpful uh in in helping you build a business plan for the competition we have a startup attorney coming up in a couple of weeks that can help you with the legal legal documentation and considerations that you have to make for creating a business and things like that uh our i don't have a link at the moment but uh you guys can check out our instagram page we we have everything on there uh it's called tcnj entrepreneur um so yep that's about it thank you great thanks so much and we will see everyone soon thank you thank you thank you