Many investors skip straight to the financial section of the business plan. It is critical that the assumptions and projections in this section be realistic. Plans that show penetration, operating margin and revenues per employee figures that are poorly reasoned, internally inconsistent or simply unrealistic greatly damage the credibility of the entire business plan. In contrast, sober Cristian Bonilla Colombia Jersey , well-reasoned financial assumptions and projections communicate operational maturity and credibility.
For instance, if the company is categorized as a networking infrastructure firm, and the business plan projects 80% operating margins, investors will raise a red flag. This is because investors can readily access the operating margins of publicly-traded networking infrastructure firms and find that none have operating margins this high.
As much as possible Carlos Valderrama Colombia Jersey , the financial assumptions should be based on actual results from your firm or other firms. As the example above indicates, it is fairly easy to look at a public company?s operating margins and use these margins to approximate your own. Likewise, the business plan should base revenue growth on other firms. Many firms find this impossible, since they believe they have a break-through product in their market Carlos Sanchez Moreno Colombia Jersey , and no other company compares. In such a case, base revenue growth on companies in other industries that have had break-through products. If you expect to grow even faster than they did (maybe because of new technologies that those firms weren?t able to employ), you can include more aggressive assumptions in your business plan as long as you explain them in the text.
The financials can either enhance or significantly harm your business plan?s chances of assisting you in the capital-raising process. By doing the research to develop realistic assumptions, based on actual results of your company or other companies Carlos Bacca Colombia Jersey , the financials can bolster your firm?s chances of winning investors. As importantly, the more realistic financials will also provide a better roadmap for your company?s success.
Getting Marketing Smarter Marketing Articles | September 17, 2008
Businesses small or large need to continue to increase their return on marketing investments. However, in economic downturns such as the one we are currently experiencing Andres Felipe Roa Colombia Jersey , staying on track is a big challenge. Expenses have to be moderated, which means classical solutions to increasing returns are not available. You can?t add lots of employees, and you can?t launch huge ad campaigns. So how does a company reach its goals? Many point to outbound marketing over the internet. But is that all it really takes?
Outbound marketing has already been revolutionized by the internet. For a relatively minimal cost, these activities can scale endlessly. However Andres Escobar Colombia Jersey , outbound marketing only works if the internal marketing staff, policies, and procedures can produce the right products or services, with the appropriate messaging and positioning that will draw the prospective customer through the outbound activities. What has been lost in the ?gold rush? frenzy to market over the internet is that there is a whole process of marketing a product or service that has not evolved as quickly as the outbound component and as a result cannot support the endless outbound activities growth.
Marketing has to start with a clear plan for developing the product or service Wholesale Colombia Soccer Jerseys , and establish communication and commitment within the entire company on its value. All departments, from finance to engineering, still have to march toward producing the product or service with the right messaging in order for the outbound marketing function to be effective. Without streamlining the processes then, the internal structure limits the outbound activities in number and effectiveness. If you answer yes to any of these questions Wholesale Colombia Jerseys , chances are your experiencing it first hand:
Does the product or service you are about to launch have an identified customer ready to buy? Are you sure you have all the features you need to ensure the customer will buy immediately and do you know exactly what differentiation your product or service offers that will shift the market buying pattern on a sustainable basis? Are all the resources needed for product launch committed, on the same page, and on target to complete their tasks? Do you have any data that tells you what the expected return on investment should be based on the timing of your launch?
The solution is to innovate. By injecting new marketing techniques into the process, internal marketing development can reset with outbound marketing Streamlined collateral development.: The attention span of most customers shortens by the minute as they get bombarded with more material every day.? The first minute of their attention now determines whether they file your piece or invest more time reading on. Long cluttered material no longer gets read. The most critical area is presentation development, where the challenge for marketing professionals is to get all points across quickly and convincingly enough to cause the audience to take a positive action. The product or service presentation then must hit the mark and have a clear call to action. Streamline product or service positioning tracking: The amount of on-line information available about products and services allows customers to do extensive research for relatively little cost. For marketers this means there has to be a laser focus on ensuring all required features for a product or service are available at launch.. Cheap Jerseys ChinaCheap Custom JerseysCheap Jerseys From ChinaCheap NHL Jerseys ChinaCheap NFL Jerseys ChinaCheap Jerseys From ChinaCheap Jerseys WholesaleCheap NHL Jerseys ChinaCheap Baseball Jerseys Free ShippingCheap Football Jerseys