>> Hello, Dr. Kay here again with you as we are going through Entrepreneurship Theory, Process and Practice together. Some of the insights I like to give you reflect certain aspects of certain chapters. In this particular one I'd like to talk about our chapter Developing the business plan. Because we want to help you as you saw the material develop an effective business plan. And I hope you saw in some of the material that we gave you there are ways to do that and we even provided a template for you to be able to test out some of the different elements. But I want to share with you a little story of Teresa Comb and whether in fact she had a complete plan or the shall we say, incomplete plan. When Teresa Comb drew up her business plan, she was certain it would help to get her venture capital that she needed. Now, Comb is in the thrones of putting together a social media site directed toward executive women in the workplace. The objective of this site is to provide information, post blogs, have member chat sessions and all others to blog as well with topics that are useful to women who are pursuing professional careers. The public site is scheduled to go live in 90 days. Some of the information included in the initial site include titles such as 'Manage your Time for Fun and for Profit.' Or, 'What You Need to Know about Dressing for Success.' Or, 'Money Management, Do it Like the Experts.' Another link, titled 'Women in the News', is devoted to successful women at work. Other features include a question and answer blog section that responds to inquiries from visitors to the sites. The initial questions were submitted by a group of women executives, each of whom had been asked to help get the site started by sending in a question, a stock market section that reviews industries or companies and points out the benefits and risks associated with investing in them. And a post on the state of the economy and the developments or trends that are expected during the next twelve months. So, Teresa's business plan consisted of six parts. A summary, a business description, an operation segment, a management segment, a milestone schedule segment, and finally an appendix. When it was returned to her by a venture capital firm that she had submitted it to, the rejection e-mail stated, quote, without a marketing segment, attention to critical risks and a financial segment, this plan is incomplete and cannot be favorably reviewed by us. If you would provide us with this additional information and re-submit the re-written plan within the next 60 days, we would be happy to review the plan and give you our opinion within the next 10 working days upon receipt. End of quote. So as you hear that story about what Teresa Comb put together for her site and the plan, I would ask you this question. She was directed by the venture capital firm to include a marketing segment. Knowing even the little information I gave you, what would you suggest Teresa puts into a marketing segment. In other words, what types of information would she need? Now again you might want to go back to our chapter on the marketing aspects to bring some of this in as well. What key areas does Teresa have to address on the critical risks, segment venture capitalists talked about. Can you identify some critical risks for her? If you can, point out a couple and more importantly, how would she address those critical risks? Lastly, I would say, something for you to think about, what suggestions would you make to Teresa if you had the opportunity? Regarding the kinds of information to be included in the financial segment, again be specific here. Don't just say we'll provide some numbers. What type of numbers? Go back to our financial chapter. What types of numbers do you think are important? What things and statements should be included? And why? What information would be the most important to a venture capitalist seeking to invest? Or any investor? The venture capital angel investor or other? These are important questions and Teresa's case gives us at least a illustration if you will of how people can sometimes superficially put together plans and expect investors to simply accept them. The fact is they will not. Investors demand detailed and specific information much like this firm came back to request from Teresa. Think about it. In the market, in the financials, in the critical risks, what really needs to be in there? What have you gleaned from our chapters to help you put this together in a far more sophisticated and complete way? How would you with your own entrepreneurial venture avoid the trap of the incomplete plan?

The Incomplete Plan Video After viewing this video, select the things she forgot to include in her business plan. Question 1 options: Marketing Segment Business Description Milestone schedule segment Attention to Critical Risks Financial Segment When it comes to the marketing segment, Teresa should have put information about market niche and market (hint: look at your textbook) Question 2 options: sizel share type demographics