Business Plans Kit For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Chapter 6. Describing Your Business and Its Capabilities

In This Chapter

• Explaining what your company does

• Planning your elevator speech

• Describing your business capabilities

• Building on what your company does best

Come on, you may be thinking. How hard can it be to describe my business and what it does? Before you tackle that question, ask a few other entrepreneurs to tell you what their companies do — and watch as they grope for answers. Describing a business in simple, understandable terms isn't quite as easy as it sounds, and that's why this chapter is so important.

When a banker or potential investor is reading your business plan, the first thing that person wants to know, in a nutshell, is what your business does. Your job is to give a good description — without getting lost in the details and without lapsing into industry jargon. And you have to keep it short, too. After all, you're writing a business plan, not the great American novel.

Your business description must clearly and concisely convey the most important aspects of your company, the customers you serve, the products and services you offer, and why and how you'll succeed in your competitive environment. This chapter helps you examine your capabilities and put your answer into clearly understood words.

Introducing Your Business

Imagine that you're at your high-school reunion and old classmates ask what you're up to. As you describe your business — or your business concept if you're just getting started — you want to cover ...