Why do you need a

business plan?
The four most important reasons
for having a plan are:
1.The Plan Is Your Roadmap
2.The Plan Is Necessary For
Investors/Lender
3.The Plan Can Help You Track
Progress
4.The Plan Tests The Feasibility Of
Your Business Idea
Here you should try to briefly address the
following questions:
What type of business are you proposing? What is the
business concept?
What business/sector will you be operating in?
Broadly, what will your offering entail?
What are your general aims and goals for the business?
Where is it located? What facilities/amenities will it
include?
Who will the customers be?
Who will your competitors be?
 OPPORTUNITY
SEEKING,
SCREENING, AND
SEIZING
OPPORTUNITY SEEKING
• Entrepreneurs are innovative opportunity
seekers. They have endless curiosity to discover
new or different ideas and see whether these
ideas will work in the marketplace.
 Essential to an entrepreneur’s
opportunity seeking are the
entrepreneurial mind frame, heart flame,
and gut game
The entrepreneurial mind frame allows the
entrepreneur to see things in a very positive and
optimistic light in the midst of crisis or difficult
situations.
 If there is one commonality between an inventor and
an entrepreneur, it is their surging passion or the
entrepreneurial heart flame. Driven by passion, they are
drawn to find fulfilment in the act and process of
discovery.
 The heart flame is also about emotional intelligence or
EQ, which is often manifested in the entrepreneurs
efforts to nurture relationships with customers,
employees, and suppliers.
The final ingredient is the entrepreneurial gut game.
This refers to the ability of the entrepreneur to sense
without using the five senses. This is also known as
institution.
SOURCES OF OPPORTUNITIES

1.Socio- Cultural Environment

2.Political Environment
3.Economic Environment
4.Ecological Environment
5.Technological Environment
What is OPPORTUNITY SCREENING?

• Screening is testing or assessesing something.

• Opportunity Screening is important to come up

with the short list of the promising opportunities
for the entrepreneur.
1.The Personal Screen
2.The 12Rs of Opportunity Screening
3.The Prefeasibility Study
4.Technology Assessment and Operations Viability
5.Investment Requirements and
Production/Servicing Costs
6.Financial Forecasts and Determination of
Financial Feasibility
 1. The Personal Screen
• In screening opportunities, the entrepreneur first has to
consider his or her preferences and capabilities by asking three
basic questions:
1.Do I have the drive to pursue this business opportunity to end?
2.Will I spend all my time, effort and money to make the
business opportunity work?
3.Will I sacrifice my existing lifestyle, endure emotional hardship,
and forego my usual comforts to succeed in this business
opportunity?
 2. The 12Rs of Opportunity Screening
1.Relevance to vision, mission and objectives of the
entrepreneur.
2.Resonance to values, the opportunity must match the values
and desired values that you wish to impart.
3.Reinforcement of Entrepreneurial Interests. How does the
opportunity resonate with the entrepreneur’s personal
interests, talents and skills?
4.Revenues or to determine the sales potential of the products
or the services you want to offer.
5. Responsiveness to the customer’s needs and wants.
6. Reach or the opportunity of expanding through
branches, distributorship, dealership or franchise
outlets.
7. Range or the potential to lead a wide range of possible
products or service offerings.
8. Revolutionary Impacts, if the opportunity will most
likely to be the “next big thing” or even a game changer.
9. Returns on the investments or may also be
intangible (ex. High profile recognition)
10.Relative Ease of Implementation or would it be
easy for the entrepreneur to implement or would
there be a lot obstacles?
11.Resources Required, the more or fewer number of
resources needed to produced the product.
12.Risks or the chance that something might go wrong
or be loss.
 3. The Prefeasibility Study
• Doing a prefeasibility study can help the entrepreneur to
focus on a few key items that could make or break the
business concept.

• Considering the market potential and prospects, availability

and appropriateness of technology, project investment and
detailed cost estimates, financial forecast and determination
of financial feasibility
 4. Market Potential and Prospects
• Market potential is based on the estimated number of possible customers
who might avail of the product or service. (ex. Micro market)
• For entrepreneurs who caters the basic customer needs, such as food,
clothes, beverages, furniture, appliances, housing, schooling there would be
a lot of competitors which gives the customers to make the final choice on
what to buy according to several factors such as:
1. The purchasing power or disposable income
2. The proximity or accessibility to the goods or services
3. The customer’s individual desires and preferences
4. The age or generational grouping
5. The social, cultural or ethnic background
6. Their peer group preferences
7. Their gender
8. The season of the year
9. Their personal identification with trend setters
10. Their educational attainment
11. Their technical proficiency and product expertise
12. Their motivational impetus
13. Their lifestyle preferences
14. Their susceptibility to certain advertising and
promotional appeals
 5. Segmenting the Market
Using a set of demographics will be the most basic
approach in determining the target segment.

6. Assessing Competition
Market potential is also affected by the number of
establishments supplying and serving your target
customers.
 7. Technology Assessment and Operations Viability
• In order to get the enterprise going, the entrepreneur must go through the
complexity of detailing the operations that would be required by the business,
which also includes technology assessments.
• There are at least four target customer expectations affecting the scale and
complexity of an enterprise’s operations:
1. Quantities Demand – to determine the needed capacity of operations
2. Quality specifications demanded – the quality of the raw materials,
assurance of process in transforming input to output
3. Delivery expectations – knowing how much, how frequent and when
to deliver to customers
4. Price expectations – the selling price of the product or service would
be evaluated by customers according to the value they would receive
 Investment Requirements and
Production/Servicing Costs
• The entrepreneur needs to determine how much money is needed to start the
business opportunity with consideration to the technologies and operating levels
required.
1. Pre-Operating Costs
2. Production/Service Facilities Investment
3. Working Capital Investment
a. Employee salaries, wages and benefits
b. Rent and lease expenses
c. Utilities
d. Transportation
e. Fees and licenses
f. Commissions
 Financial Forecasts and
Determination of Financial Feasibility
• Financial forecasts refer to the monetary transactions
that the business is expected to engage in.

• Financial forecasting calls for the creation of (1)

income statement, (2) balance sheet, (3) cash flow
statement and (4) funds flow statement.
OPPORTUNITY SEIZING
The entrepreneur has an idea as to where he or
she will locate the business and how he or she will
market the product or service. At this stage, the
entrepreneur must be able to determine the
critical success factors that enable other players in
the same industry to succeed while, at the same
time, be vigilant about those factors that cause
other businesses to fail.
CRAFTING A POSITIONING STATEMENT

The entrepreneur is advised to look at other

competitors in the marketplace. Details such as
their major buyers, attributes or features that
make the competitors products attractive should
give the entrepreneur an idea.
CONCEPTUALIZING THE PRODUCT
OR SERVICE OFFERING

The entrepreneur must then conceptualize his or

her own products. A concept is an idealized
abstraction of the product or service to be offered
to the preferred market of the entrepreneur.
 DESIGNING, PROTOTYPING AND
TESTING THE PRODUCT
Designing means that the entrepreneur must render the
concept and translate it into its very physical and very real
dimensions. This entails building a prototype of the product
that will be ready for actual testing by the entrepreneur and
then, later on subject to testing by potential customers
through focus group discussions (FGD), surveys, product
demonstrating sessions, and the like.
IMPLEMENTING, ORGANIZING AND
FINANCING

Good planning and good programming are essential to

have good implementation. The entrepreneur must
begin with the end in mind, or his or her desired end
results, for the chosen opportunity.