Section #3: The Marketplace (or Marketing Plan)
This will be a lengthy section in your business plan because it is composed of a number of sub-sections requiring significant detail. Here is where you will mainly talk about the industry your franchise belongs to and why it is in demand, growing, and has a remarkable future. You will be discussing:
- Industry factors and trends such as demographics, the outlook for the future, market size and capitalization, and any barriers or challenges the industry faces.
- Products and Services offered by the franchise, their features and benefits, and what makes them unique in the marketplace.
- Customers and who your target group will be. This is where your
market research study becomes critical and the place where you showcase your findings.
- Competition, both direct and indirect. List the key players, where they are located and how you plan to operate alongside them using a competitive analysis – how you favor versus the competitors based on a set of criteria such as price, quality etc.
- Pricing of your goods and/or services and the strategy to compete in the marketplace.
- Sales and Distribution of your products and/or services to your buyers. List the different outlets and methods of selling such as wholesale, retail etc. and who will assist with the distribution such as representatives or agents.
- Location or proposed place of business you plan to select and describe the reason for your decision.
- Marketing Plan or promotional agenda to advertise your presence in the marketplace. List the various methods or marketing vehicles such as print advertising, radio commercials etc. that you plan to use.
Section #4: Operations
This section will examine how the business operates, including the people who run the show, the equipment and machinery used, and other legal or governmental requirements:
- Production costs, techniques, and how and where the goods are produced.
- Location needs and requirements to operate such as hours of business, zoning, basic overview of construction or leasehold improvements and costs.
- Legal issues such as permits, healthy and safety regulations, insurance, and trademarks, copyrights, or patents pending.
- Personnel anticipated, hiring process, pay structures, training and professional development, and payroll management.
- Inventory to be carried, quantity, costs, and turnover schedules.
- Suppliers to be used and the products they carry.
- Accounts Payable and Receivable and any credit that you plan to extend to customers. Determine how you plan to get funds from slow-paying customers and how you plan to maintain good payment relations with your suppliers.
