Write a Business Concept Paper
A business concept paper briefly summarizes the business or organization you'd like to develop. Not quite as complex as a business plan, a business concept paper is often requested by local chambers of commerce, potential investors, and college professors who assign them to their students. Develop a purpose or mission statement before writing a business concept paper to correctly assess issues or holes in the market that your company will address.
Instructions
Reflect Before Writing
1. Consider the company or organization itself. Think about the nature of the company and whether it will be a typical for-profit company or a private non-profit venture. Decide on geographic location and type of operation, be it manufacturing, wholesale, retail or a service provider. Make short-term (two years) and long-term (ten years) goals.
2. Develop the services and/or products that the business will offer. Think about how they fit within the community, as well as what local, regional or national needs they address. Develop a unique selling position (USP), which is what your business has to offer that no other does, and what makes it different.
3. Analyze the market. Using your USP, think about where your business fits within the current market and develop a marketing strategy to place your business in it. Determine the target market of customers and how you can reach them through advertising.
4. Consider the current and future competition. List your business' strengths and weaknesses and compare them to the competition's.
5. Recognize the need for financing. Solicit investors or gather the capital needed to obtain inventory and secure a business location.
Put the Idea to Paper
6. Begin the paper with an introduction, briefly summarizing the business or organization and what problem it aims to fix, or how it will fit within the current market and/or benefit the economy. Though found at the beginning of the paper, it may be best and easiest to write the introduction once the rest of the paper is complete.
7. Write a survey of the problem or hole in the current market. Quote studies, if applicable, and get to the root of the issue. For instance, don't just say your filter distribution business will provide clean water to homes in the area. Instead, describe how the distribution may affect the city's infrastructure and problems.
8. Introduce your business and how it will solve the issues addressed above. Contrast it with competing businesses in the market. Describe a need for a board of directors, committees and/or volunteers. Specify what sectors of the community they represent.
9. Discuss your company's or organization's goals. State primary and secondary goals and timelines for each, if known.
10. Write a cover page if presenting the paper to a board or chamber of commerce. Include the business name, the entrepreneur or team member names, local affiliations and contact information.
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