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Business Information; setting up a business plan

What is Business Information?

Analysis:

When to use Business Information

You want to start a company to market a product or service. First you will need to draw up a business plan, which should include data on potential suppliers, possible partners etc. A business plan gives you greater insight into the feasibility of your idea.

A business plan (1) should contain a variety of components such as:

• Goal and strategy
• Environmental analysis
• Marketing plan
• Manufacturing plan
• Management plan
• Funding

Examples of business plans (Bplans)

Business information is useful in helping you develop your business plan.

You should be able to answer the following questions:

Is your product market-ready?

• Is it a new product? Can you protect it with a patent, trademark, model?
• Is it an existing product?  Is it already subject to any rights? Is it patented or does it have a trademark or model?

What is your market?

You should choose a region (geographically, e.g. the Netherlands) and a target group (potential buyers). Make an ‘estimate’ of the potential customers in your chosen region. You can support your choice of region and target group with data.

Examples:

• The Senz storm umbrella is targeted at a wider market (Western Europe and North America). The product is therefore protected under patents (Esp@cenet) in a large number of countries.
  
  

Picture kindly supplied by Senz° umbrellas bv

• The Plakkies are a high-quality product targeted at the western market. Sales points are limited to a number of shops, such as the Bijenkorf stores, America Today and Dr. Adams.

What is your market context?

Once you have chosen a market, you need to try and determine your product’s rate of success (opportunities and risks). To do this, you will need to look at the current trends (1) in:

• Competition
• Demographics
• The economy
• Technology
• Society, e.g. corporate responsibility (Plakkies) and consumers’ increasing environmental concerns
• Politics, e.g. politically unstable countries

You will also need to take into consideration special legal aspects and the local culture when dealing with international markets.

Where can I find information on market trends?

There is a wide range of sources available. Choose a selection of sources most relevant to your field of study.

• Chambers of Commerce
• Trade unions
• ABC-guides
• Patents (Esp@cenet)
• Statistics Netherlands (CBS)
• CIA World Factbook
• Newspapers
• ABI Inform databases
• Promt
• Dutch agency for international business and cooperation (EVD)
• Ministries of Foreign Affairs
• Embassies
• Europmaat
• Research bureaus

Reference:
(1) Thinktank Centers of Entrepreneurship (1997). Het ondernemingsplan: van idee tot succesvolle onderneming. Schoonhoven: Academic Service, economie en bedrijfskunde