Business Plan - Target Market, Products And Services Offered, Marketing Tactics, Distribution, Competition, Production, Management - TRADEMARKS AND LICENSES

A business plan is a document written by an individual or group of individuals interested in launching a new business. Along with helping to determine whether or not an idea can be transformed into a functional company, a business plan is also used to secure capital and recruit executives. During the dot-com mania of the late 1990s, several analysts began to criticize the many Internet-based ventures operating without a formal business plan, as well as the business investors pouring funding into these upstarts.

A March 2000 study of 300 e-commerce businesses in California revealed that most had launched operations with no business plan in place. Those who did develop e-business plans tended to produce documents much less exhaustive than their traditional counterparts. This lack of planning began to backfire for a variety of reasons. When the Internet revolution took off, many existing brick and mortar businesses built World Wide Web sites without figuring out who it was they were targeting; as a result, traffic remained minimal and those who did visit such sites complained of poor design and limited customer service. In some cases, companies that began selling directly to consumers via the Web alienated their traditional retailers. For example, Macy's and J.C. Penney threatened to stop selling Levi brand clothing in their stores after Levi Strauss began selling its merchandise via the Web; as a result, Levi Strauss abandoned its e-commerce efforts.

In 2000, the highly publicized bursting of the dot-com bubble prompted venture capitalists to begin scrutinizing business plans, particularly those for Internet-related ventures, more closely. As a result, the business plans developed for Internet-based businesses began to resemble those created for more traditional ventures, in terms of both length and level of detail. Rather than favoring condensed 15-page plans, lenders began paying attention to more thorough documents, which numbered 25 pages or more. Although business plans continue to vary in format and style, they typically include the following information, regardless of industry.