Business Planning Part 1

Komard's Klass

BUSINESS PLANNING

PART 1

Lesson Plan for New Businesses and Brands

Prepared by Komards NFTS

OVERVIEW & PURPOSE

The purpose of this lesson is to help you in the development of a business plan. If you are in the web 3 space with an NFT collection, investing in Crypto currencies, or even the metaverse you are a business. As such you need to make sure you are operating with your best foot forward. To do that you need to make sure you have a thorough and completed business plan. We are here to help with that!

WHAT IS A BUSINESS PLAN?

1. A business plan is the foundation of your business according to the Small Business Administration in the United States.
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3. According to Investopedia a business plan is a document that defines every possible detail of your business, your goals, and how you plan to achieve them.

For those of us that are in the web 3 space we know and often execute roadmaps for our collections and projects. The business plan is the same thing however, it's directed at your overall business. Additionally a business plan will also show you any potential obstacles that you may run into in the future.

WHAT IS IN A BUSINESS PLAN?

There are 6 types of Business Plans according to the Small Business Chron. The 6 types are as follows:

• A Start-up
• This type of business plan will document and show sections that describe the company, the products and or services you will provide, the market and evaluations of the target market and the team and projected team members. If you're looking for investors they will also require a financial analysis describing all financial aspects of the business including potential incomes, expenditures, profit and loss statements and more.
• An Internal
• The internal business plan is designed to target the company internally to allow you to know how the company will operate on an internal level. It will describe the company's current status, the profitability, operating costs, and if the company has or will take on any capital investments, how those will be repaid. This plan often includes a market analysis as well as the target or ideal consumer, and the market's impact on company profit or income.
• Strategic
• This plan is all about showing off the strategies the company will be using to achieve company or business goals. It quite literally would be much like a roadmap as most of you know for NFT projects in web 3. Most of the time this type of plan includes several key elements of business such as; the company's mission statement, the company vision, critical success factors, brand and company objectives, and the strategies the company will use to achieve the objectives of the company.
• Feasibility
• The purpose behind a feasibility plan is to help you to determine if the proposed business is feasible. It will help you in answering questions like can the business survive or what kind of growth can be expected and even will the company be able to generate a profit. With regards to what is included in this type of plan it will generally include sections for describing the need, the ideal consumer and target with the demographics of it, and any required capital to get started.
• Operations
• Operations business plans are generally held for internal use. These business plans show the details of how you plan to operate the business from within. It will show brand and company deadlines, upper management expectations and roles, as well as team member or employee expectations and compensation details.
• Growth
• A growth business plan is to show how the business and brand will grow as well as all associated costs of growth and projected revenue streams from the growth plans. It will also include detailed strategies of how you plan to grow. If you are seeking additional funding and capital for the expansion and growth of your business those investing or potential investors will want market analysis as well as the projections of the profits and loss potential and a detailed description of your business.

It is important to note that each plan has a specific purpose and place. However, we are of the belief that a complete business plan includes all of these areas and details. We will show you throughout the Business Planning series of lessons what some of that looks like for Komards NFTS. To be clear there are proprietary ingredients of the Komards NFTS business plan and for that reason those details will not be shared.

Generally speaking most people are not being as thorough as what Komards NFTS was in the development of our business plan. However most businesses use a plan with a standard 9 part plan. It contains the highest value information and metrics to attract potential investors. Those parts include the following;

1. The Executive Summary
2. Your Businesses Description
3. A Market Analysis
4. Your businesses Structure
5. Your Businesses products & services
6. Marketing and Sales
7. Funding Requests
8. Financial Projections
9. Appendix

A complete and thorough business plan can take as much as 6 to 12 months according to Harvard Business Review.

As we stated earlier we are of the belief that it needs to go beyond that for your personal use. Going the extra mile in your business plan can and will make a difference in what you do, how you do it, and keep you at the ready for anything including making adjustments in your business goals, activities, products, services and more. So do not skimp out doing so can cause the business to fail.

The Komards NFTS business plan consists of the following sections and details:

1. Executive Summary
2. Businesses Description
3. Business Mission Statement
4. Market Analysis (Not Revealed)
5. Businesses structure - Current and Projected internally
6. Businesses Products & Services
7. Pain Relievers
8. Unique Position & Advantages (Partial Reveal)
9. Key Metrics in Web 3 & NFTS (Partial Reveal)
10. Channel Utilization
11. Ideal Consumer Target
12. Operating Plan
13. Operating Costs
14. Ideal and Current Revenue Streams (Partial Reveal)
15. Marketing & Sales plan (Partial Reveal)
16. Financial Projections (Not Revealed)
17. Appendices (Not revealed)

For Komards NFTS we initially spent more than 200 hours building out our business plan. Even as we speak the Komards NFTS business plan remains fluid and is adjusted as needed.

MATERIALS NEEDED

I have seen business plans written on napkins, lol. No joke! But seriously it dont take a lot too much in the way of the materials to create a business plan. You can even start with as little as a notebook and pen to begin jotting down ideas and thoughts surrounding your business. At some point you may want to consider investing into a business plan software or even putting it in a digital format for future uses and needs as they arise. Generally business plans that are digital in nature are not stored online due to containing proprietary information. Additionally when using them to raise capital such as from angel investors they are delivered in the format of a PDF/Physical.

If you are going to use a business planning software, be thorough in your investigation of each to allow you to make an informed decision of which is the right one for your needs, don't FOMO over any given one. Now we have taken a look at several providers and softwares. To help you in looking at a few we have included a list of the softwares as well as the developers of them, and what we believe are the primary pros and cons. We want to be clear we are not recommending one over another simply because it's important you do not let our thoughts and opinions impact your decision. Our Business plan however was written solely in a notebook then created as a digital document.

1. Live Plan

Created and owned by Palo Alto Software. For those of you familiar with Palo Alto you know they are a reputable company and have been around for more than a decade.

This software is considered to be an overall business planning software. It includes a multitude of templates with an easy to use, user interface. The interface has a sleek and slick appearance all while offering intuitive and easy to use features.

Pro’s

• The plans are affordable for most new and small businesses. Palo Alto has even gone the extra step and set it up to pay as you go so there is no one time huge fee for it.
• There are no long term contracts
• No cancellation fees
• Can be used on both PC and mac as well as cloud based
• They have also included a library of resources that include video guides to help you every step of the way.

Con’s

• Difficult to learn how to use
• Complex and challenging to enter your financial projections
• The Software does not allow for much in the way of integrations

1. Plan Guru

Plan Guru has way more financial features then nearly all other business plan softwares. Other business owners will sometimes use this service in conjunction with other business plan softwares simply for the financial side of it, because this one puts more emphasis on the financials where other softwares focuses more on the plan itself.

Pro’s

• Extensive financial tools for detailed forecasting, budgeting and reporting.
• Both desktop and cloud usability
• A significant library tools and resources
• And a free trial

Con’s

• Very Pricey (Remember you get what you pay for)
• Focus is on the financial side of the business plan
• Without financial knowledge the software proves difficult to use

1. Enloop

This software is the closest thing to free business planning software that you can find. They offer a 7 day free trial without a credit card. Enloop is also among the most direct and simplest of ways to write a business plan.

Pro’s

• Simple and easy to use
• Affordable for most users
• Auto generated text to ease writing process
• 7 Day free trial

Con’s

• 1 Template
• No integrations
• Little educational resources

1. Master Plan Lean

This company is 3 decades in the making, with more than 10K users, in more than 20+ countries. This is probably one the most thorough and complete services available on the market. With that in mind you need to understand it's also among the most expensive.

Pro’s

• Lots of tools to aid you in the success of your business plan and business
• Reporting
• Accurate Forecasting
• Strong customer support to help you get the most out of the service and software.

Con’s

• Strong Learning Curve
• Expensive
• If you have only one person using the service and software you will still have to pay for no less than 5 team members.

Remember its always an option to create your business plan the old fashion way like Komards NFTS did.

CONCLUSION

Do your homework on the above softwares and services. Do not be afraid to look at additional softwares. Investigate the Small Business Administration for additional help with getting started on your business plan.

In the next Komards Klass we will be diving into the nuts and bolts of business planning and each section of a complete business plan, starting with the Executive Summary.