This manual is aimed at helping you through the first stage of starting up an innovative, high-growth company: writing a professional business plan. Read it if you have a new business idea with high-growth potential which you want to develop and realize. Your goal might for example be to set up a business that, in five years’ time, has sales of around Dfl. 50 million, employs at least 100 people and operates nationally, if not internationally.

Basically, everything you need is available in the Netherlands. There is no lack of promising innovative ideas, our research and technology have an international reputation and financing is available in the form of venture capital or investment funds. In short, conditions here are almost ideal. The trick is to take advantage of these conditions to achieve a breakthrough.

Think big

Do not hesitate to do things on a large scale. Setting up a company is by far the largest step you’ll take: it involves a tremendous effort. Comparatively, the extra effort required to generate Dfl. 50 million sales as opposed to, say, Dfl. 5 million, is small. Thinking big can even make the task easier, as many potential partners are more interested in large-scale proposals than less ambitious ones.

This manual is aimed at anyone who wants to set up a business — particularly a high-growth business. It takes account of the fact that people who start up successful companies are not necessarily management or marketing experts.

• To those with no management training this manual offers:
• A step-by-step introduction to the concepts needed to prepare a business plan and arrange the financing of a business idea.
• The basic knowledge needed to participate effectively in discussions and negotiations, and ask the right questions.
• The necessary business language: all the jargon and technical expressions you need to know are explained and used in the text.
  There is also an extensive glossary in the appendix of the book.
• References for further reading.

For those who have had management training, the manual offers a systematic approach to writing a business plan.

MANUAL DESIGN

This manual has been conceived both as a practical working tool and as a reference guide. This is reflected in its design, which basically matches the stages in the preparation and writing of a professional business plan that could successfully attract venture capital.

Part 1, Starting up a company — how companies grow, describes the consecutive stages that a typical start-up company will go through on its way to realization and success.

Part 2, The business concept and its presentation, describes how business ideas arise, what to look out for when describing a business idea, and how to recognize whether a business idea is likely to attract financing. This part also includes an example of what a business idea might look like.

Part 3, Preparing the business plan, is the core of the manual. It contains eight chapters: one for each of the sections a business plan should include. The stages in the preparation of each section are set out in detail. People without prior business experience will also find some basic business knowledge in this part.

Business plan Cityscape. An example of a professional business plan in both form and content.

The appendix contains a detailed table of contents, a glossary of important terms, and references for future reading.

Download Starting Up: Achieving success with professional business planning

PDF format, 549KB, 120Pages. Provided by Newventure.nl.

Authors: Thomas Kubr, Heinz Marchesi, Daniel Ilar
McKinsey & Company, Inc. The Netherlands
Amstel 344, 1017 AS Amsterdam
© 1998 by McKinsey & Company, Inc. Switzerland
Design and realization: Mifflin-Schmid, Zurich
ISBN 90-9011748-2

Contents:

The New Venture Business Plan Competition 4
Preface 7
Acknowledgements 8
About this manual 9
Part 1: Starting up a company – how companies grow 15
Part 2: The business idea concept and presentation 29
Example: CityScape 47
Part 3: Developing the business plan 51
Introduction 53
1. Executive Summary 57
2. Product idea 59
3. Management team 65
4. Marketing 73
5. Business system and organization 95
6. Realization schedule 111
7. Risks 117
8. Financing 123
CityScape business plan 151
Part 4: Valuing a start-up and raising equity 183
Appendix 215
Extended table of contents 217
Glossary 223
References for further reading 230

Starting Up: Achieving success with professional business planning Download Web Page

The importance of a business plan

Professional investors will only back projects that have a well-prepared business plan. They consider business plans very important for reasons that are relevant to anyone setting up a business.

The business plan:

• Forces the people setting up the company to think their business idea through systematically, thus making sure that it will have sufficient impact
• Reveals gaps in knowledge, and helps to fill them in in an efficient and structured manner
• Ensures that decisions are taken, so that a focused approach will be adopted
• Serves as a central communication tool for the various partners Lists the resources that will be needed, and thus reveals which resources will have to be acquired
• Is a dry run for the real thing. No damage is done if the likeliness of a crash landing is revealed in the business planning phase. Later on, however, the effects on the business, the investors and the employees of the company might well be disastrous.

A sound business plan, therefore, is the basis on which a business idea can be realized, and serves to obtain the capital required for setting up and successfully developing a business.

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