Feasibility analyses
What is this?
It is great to develop new ideas, to discover customer needs, to think of ways to make money. However, there comes a time it all needs to be implemented. The goal of the feasibility analysis is to write down how you will implement the business model and to check whether it is realistic to implement the business model you have come up with. Here you need to think about a whole range of operational questions: can you really make it? Do you have the people, the resources, the place and so on? How will you organize marketing and sales? Do the financials of the business model work out? These questions are the typical questions that are covered in a business plan. When you stumble on major problems you might have to reconsider your business model!
How?
The marketing and sales plan
The marketing plan answers the following questions: how will we communicate to our customers, partners, stakeholders. What will this cost? When will these costs occur and what do we want out of it as a result? The sales plan answers questions such as how will you sell, who will sell, what sales support do you need, how much will selling cost, etc.? Check out the following detailed questions you need to answer!
Operations and manufacturing plan
The operations and manufacturing plan should answer the following questions: what does the actual supply chain look like, what is the time schedule, what facilities and investments do we need, etc.? Check out the following detailed questions you need to answer!
Design and development plan
The technology roadmap will indicate how research and development will support your growth path, what you need for that, when the most important deadlines/milestone are, how investments are spread , and much more. Check out the following detailed questions you need to answer!
HR plan
The HR-plan summarises: which human resources you need when, how you will find people, what will it cost to reward and support personnel. Check out the following detailed questions you need to answer!
Financial plan
Does it all add up? How much investments will you need? What are your break-even points? How much do you need to sell to be profitable? It is important to quantify your revenues and costs. You should try to map them out as realistically as possible (and, to play safe, as pessimistically as possible). Check out the following detailed questions you need to answer! Fishbone diagrams are a great help in articulating the underlying assumptions behind your financials. Figure out where revenues and costs come from, make the diagrams, and check whether your business model works financially. In this note on business model analyses posted on slideshare you can find detailed explanations on fishbones.
- Check out these fishbone diagrams: one for the costs and one for the revenues of a rockband.
- Use this financial plan template to develop your financial plan.
Want to know more?
REFERENCES
- Timmons, J.A., Spinelli, S., 2007, New Venture Creation