Business Plan and Grant Request Format
If you need help, contact Prof Megill, megill@pitt.edu, Swarts 160 or Prof Maguire, Swarts 144, dsm20@pitt.edu
The
Business Plan required for the NEXT STEP Business Grant Competition is more accurately described as a Business Feasibility Plan. It does not have a full "Business Operations" section but focuses more on the potential customers, market niche and competitive forces. Here are the Sections that the Judges would like to see:
1. Company Name and Names of Team members, with their functions.
2. Business Summary - Describe in a short paragraph just what your business is.
3. Customer Problem - Just what problem are you solving? Document through research that this is indeed a serious problem that individuals or businesses would pay to solve.
4. Product/Service - Describe your product or service. How will you produce the product or provide the service?
5. Target Market - Exactly whom are you selling to? Do some research on the demographics, size and trends of this target market. Give specific examples of whom you think will buy your product.
6. Sales/Marketing Strategy - How will you try to reach this target market?
7. Business Model and Breakeven Calculation - Just how will your business make money? Given your proposed business model, pricing and costs, what will it take to breakeven? You should specify your assumptions in your calculations.
8. Competitors - Who are your competitors and substitutes?
9. Competitive Advantage - What sustainable advantage do you have over your competitors? Why will your target customers choose you over the competition?
The next section of the application is the
Grant Request with the following sections:
1. How much money do you need to take the NEXT STEP and learn whether your business plan is a good one?
2. Exactly what will you spend this money on? What vendors will you use?
3. Do you have price quotes from those vendors? Have you checked into cheaper alternatives? Why have you rejected them?
4. What will you learn from these expenditures of money? What will that tell you about the feasibility of your business plan? This is the most important point since the grant is all about what you will learn from the grant.