[MUSIC] Welcome back. In the previous week, you chose a product to a service and wrote a brief networking introduction. Your next milestone is to write an outline of a mini business plan and create a set of slides for your presentation. So first let's talk a little about business plans. Start ups usually need money so that they can build their business. Sometimes the founders invest their own money to begin with. Another option is to ask a bank for a loan. Alternatively, a start up might ask companies or individuals to invest their own money. Companies that do this are called venture capital firms and individuals are sometimes called angel investors. Peach received funding from venture capital firms. For example, another option is to get funding by donations from a lot of people, usually on the internet. This is called crowdfunding. For example, Grayl raised money through the crowdfunding website Kickstarter to fund a new version of their water purifier. But before a venture capital firm or an investor decides to give money. They will want to know what they are investing in. Whether the startup knows what it's going to do. And probably more importantly, whether the startup will be successful. To help an investor make these decisions, a startup will often create a business plan. A business plan answers these questions: what does the company want to do? How will the company do it? And will the company be successful?. So let's look at some basic details of a business plan. First of all, a business plan is usually a written document. If you're writing a plan to persuade investors, it will probably be a formal written document. We talked about proposals in our course on meetings. Well, a business plan is similar in style and vocabulary. It should be clear, easy to read and with more formal language. The business plan may have different purposes. For example, persuading another company to work with you on a joint venture or helping the company develop in a new direction. For this Capstone projects, your purpose will be to persuade someone to invest money in your company. Business plans can be very long and detailed but you're going to write a mini business plan. This will be a basic plan and will support your presentation. By the way, if you are interested in finding out more about business plans, you can see the resource page on business plans. So, here is what you should include in your mini business plan for this project. First an introduction and your mission statement. The problem or need that your product or service addresses. A description of your product or service. Information about you and your company, a market analysis, a marketing plan, and finally, financial information. You're going to answer a set of questions about each section so that you can create an outline for your mini business plan. We will look at sections 1 to 4 now and then the marketing and financial sections later. For the introduction and mission statement, answer these questions. What is your name? What is your company's name? What do you do in the company? What are your company's goals? What are your company's values? You can use the information from your networking introduction that you wrote previously. For the problem or need section, answer these questions. What is the problem or need? Where is this problem or need? How will your product or service solve this problem or fill this need? For the product or service description, answer these questions. What is your product or service? Where are you in the development of the product or service? For example, have you already designed and manufactured the product? Have you already launched your app? Are you selling your service or product already? If not, when do you want to start selling? Next, how will you provide your service or how will you sell your product? For example, Peach asks people to sign up on their website or download their app. If you chose a product, you could also include information about how your product is made or what materials are used? For example the grail cup is made of high quality stainless steel. Stainless steel is imported from China. For the company overview, answer the following questions. When was your company started or founded? Where is your company located? Who is in your company? Do you have a partner? Are there other people involved? What are their positions? How many employees are there? And then about yourself, what is your background or experience? When you're finished answering these questions, share some of your ideas in the discussion forum. [MUSIC]
