We describe the idea of \u200b\u200bthe project. How to present data on legal issues of business organization. Calculation of project indicators

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe Gurulook project, a social service for searching for goods by pictures with game elements, where the user posts a photo of the thing he liked, and other users publish the answer in the form of a link to the desired product, was suggested to us by the clients themselves. In the Kitmall and Kupinatao groups (our online stores of goods from China) in social networks requests began to appear frequently asking for help in finding a product. Users came across a beautiful thing on the Internet, but they did not know where to find it. At some point, they started posting requests asking them to find a "similar dress" or something else and attached a picture. I had to create a separate topic for discussion "help me find". And here the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a service came up.

Stage 2: Team

Stage 3: Market

Try to estimate the size of the market. If the market for the services you offer has not yet been formed, try to analyze the data from similar and related segments. To determine the return on investment in your project, you need to understand how many potential customers there are. Study your competitors, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and based on this formulate your unique advantages.

Stage 4: Concept

At this stage, you will create a short description of the initial hypotheses about your business. It's worth starting with the formation of a goal: what, why and, most importantly, for whom you want to create. It is advisable to support this information with numbers. It is important to investigate in detail target audience and based on the information received, draw for yourself a portrait of the prospective client. This will help to more clearly define his needs and correctly form an offer. The conversion rate of a user to a regular consumer directly depends on the correct choice of the target audience.

In order to accurately predict the behavior of a potential consumer, try to describe in detail one day in your life, breaking it down into intervals of 15-30 minutes. Pay special attention to your time on the Internet.

You need to understand that in addition to the main audience - the one to which you will primarily target the project, there may also be a secondary audience - persons potentially interested in your product. Describe how you see the client from each group. An important point is to estimate the number of audience willing to pay for your product. Typically, this group of people is much smaller than the total number of potential users. Close attention should be paid to the analysis of the strategic prospects of the project (SWOT analysis), as well as possible ways of its monetization. Describe how the company's income will change over the course of three years? How much traffic should you achieve during this time in order to achieve the indicators you need? After the income clarity has appeared, start forecasting expenses for the same period. Based on this, estimate the possible profit. If you plan to attract investments, then determine in advance their share in the project.

Stage 5: Terms of reference

There is little point in detailed startup design at this stage. The project develops and grows in real time, taking into account the wishes of users and the new vision of the author, until his entire concept is fully implemented within the framework of the original idea. Start development technical specifications reasonable from dividing the entire project into separate, holistic stages.

Be sure to set deadlines! And it's better to allocate twice as much time for each stage as you initially think.

Stage 6: Prototype

Don't start attracting investment in a startup without building a prototype. Create a product project with a set of basic characteristics. The prototype should be easy to understand and use. These can be page diagrams that show what information and controls should be located in sections of the site. This way you can see how the startup will work before programming it.

Stage 7: Testing

Once the prototype is ready, ask someone you know to start using it. Your job is to determine if you have correctly identified the problem and whether your proposed solution meets the needs of the potential user. Prototype testing allowed us to improve some elements of the service.

The key idea of \u200b\u200bGurulook is the ability to search for a product using images. It turned out to be important for users the most simple and convenient photo uploading. After analyzing the comments of users, we simplified the process of publishing a photo and added additional options for changing its size.

Stage 8: Alpha version

This is the stage at which the project is ready, but not yet tested. In the course of internal tests, some minor adjustments are made to the interface that were not taken into account when developing and creating a technical task. Negotiations with the first clients begin.

Stage 9: Closed beta

The project has a small number of followers attracted to test the product. After testing, work is done on the errors. During the closed beta testing, we analyzed the color preferences of the audience and realized the need for a website redesign.

Stage 10: Public beta

There is a moderately active attraction of users interested in the services that you offer, or users who are constantly in search of something new. Challenge number one at this stage: Turn the founders' original hypotheses about the market and consumers into facts. In parallel, work is underway on errors.

Beta testing of the service showed that the planned gamification options were not actively accepted by the target audience. We assumed that the female audience would certainly have a competitive interest. For their activity on the Web, we gave them a rating, but we did not publish it anywhere. This did not generate interest. In this regard, it was decided to slightly modify the project. We began to visualize the ratings on the main page, added leaderboards for the week. We also slightly revised the scoring mechanism itself: initially, the participant accrued points for the links published in the responses, now the points are awarded if the user, following the link, makes a purchase. These points can then be used to pay for your purchases in partner online stores.

Stage 11: Launch

The beginning of the project, its promotion and registration of a package of legal documents. Even after fully implementing the original idea successful startup continues to evolve: the technical and ideological components are being improved, and pop-up errors are being corrected. This also raises the question of registering a trademark. It makes sense to file an application for registration of a trademark in the case when you have invested some funds in your name, realized that it works, but it has not yet become popular. A trademark has a territorial limitation: if it is registered in Russia, then it is protected only in Russia. It is possible to register a trademark in the United States if you have used it for two years.

Stage 12: Finding investors (can often follow the prototyping stage)

It is important to understand what part of the business you are willing to give to the investor. For the project to have a chance of life, some experts recommend giving no more than 15-25%. Arrange meetings with a large number of investors, find several potentially interested partners, and move on to negotiating the structure of the deal and its closure. Do not be afraid to challenge investors' proposals and offer your terms. Clearly define the boundaries of investor control and options for exiting the business. Be sure to write down these questions.

Oleg Zhuk, a leading developer in the company


How to write a business plan

1. What should be a short summary of a business project

The first two sections of the business plan - "Brief summary" and "Main idea of \u200b\u200bthe project" are introductory and, if taken separately, can act as a brief investment proposal that can be sent to your partners and investors at the preliminary stage of negotiations.

The section "Brief summary" is compiled last and contains succinct summary essence of the project and characteristics critical indicators.

Indicative list questions to be reflected in the Executive Summary:

  1. What kind of product (what services) will your company be engaged in manufacturing and selling?
  2. Who will be your buyer?
  3. What will be the sales volume (proceeds from sales) for the first year of operation?
  4. What is the sum of all project implementation costs?
  5. What is the organizational and legal form of the enterprise?
  6. How many employees will be hired?
  7. How much funding will be required to implement the project?
  8. What are the sources of funding for the project?
  9. The main indicators of the project: total profit (income) for the period, the amount of funds at the end of the first year of operation, profitability
This is perhaps the most important part of a business plan, as potential investors and partners read it first. It is the Brief Resume, if it is written correctly, that makes it possible to quickly understand the essence of the enterprise being created, and if you are interested, proceed to a more detailed study of other sections of your business plan.

Already in the text of the summary, it is important to try, at least briefly, to give extremely brief answers to the list of questions that is mandatory, namely: composition, content, financial and economic parameters (including a comparable assessment of costs and benefits, efficiency of use, return on investment for the project ), technologies, methods, terms and features of the project to create your own business.

The volume of a resume for any project should not exceed 1 page.

2. How to describe the business idea of \u200b\u200bthe project

The section "Main idea of \u200b\u200bthe project" should explain in an accessible and concise form what the real possibility of creating a new enterprise is based on. Here you need to describe the business idea of \u200b\u200bthe project.

A sample list of questions to be reflected in the section "Main idea of \u200b\u200bthe project":

  1. What is the main goal of the project (business idea)?
  2. What specific tasks need to be solved to achieve this goal?
  3. What problems will hinder the successful solution of problems at your enterprise? How can these problems be overcome?
  4. What specific actions and in what time frame do you intend to take to achieve the goal of the project?
  5. 5. What arguments can you confirm your confidence in the success of the project?
Often, based on the results of studying the strengths and weaknesses of the project, it is customary to conduct it SWOT analysis.

SWOT - an abbreviation of the initial letters of English words: Strengths - strength; Weaknesses - weaknesses; Opportunities - opportunities; Threats are threats.

Thus, SWOT analysis is the definition of the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise, as well as the opportunities and threats emanating from its immediate environment (external environment). External characteristics are often referred to as something that the company cannot change, but can create a set of measures to eliminate this problem.

In the business plan, when conducting a SWOT analysis, such parameters as product quality, after-sales service, additional service, product versatility, the level of company management, personnel qualifications, etc. can be used as internal factors.

The degree of market growth, changes in customer solvency, the level of direct and indirect competition, changes in legislation, political changes, etc. can be used as external factors.

The section "Main idea of \u200b\u200bthe project" usually does not exceed 1-2 pages.

IN this section you can limit yourself to the most general statement of the goals and objectives of the enterprise (questions 1-2), without using a SWOT analysis. The recommended volume is no more than 1 page.

3.1 Types of goods and services

This part of the business plan describes the goods and services that you want to offer to future customers. It is necessary to determine for yourself and present in the business plan those advantages of your products that meet the desires and needs of buyers, but are not satisfied with a similar product of competitors.

That is, the main purpose of this section is to prove that your goods (services) are of value to buyers and will be in demand.

The following list of questions can be taken as a basis:

  1. What kind of product (or service) will you offer your customers?
  2. What needs will this product or service meet?
  3. How carefully designed are your products? Do you have a patent for this product? Do you already have experience in the production and sale of these products?
  4. In what areas can it be used?
  5. What is the advantage of your product (service) from the point of view of a potential buyer?
  6. Why will buyers give preference to your product (service)?
  7. What disadvantages can your product (service) have, and how will you try to overcome them?
  8. What characteristics make your product unique?
  9. How will your products or services reach the consumer?

3.2. Sales market

The purpose of this section is to show that you can sell your product. To do this, you need to study the sales market and identify your potential customers, as well as predict their demand for your goods at your prices.

You must demonstrate that there is a market for your product (services) and that you can take advantage of the opportunities it provides.

First you need to do general description of the market, which includes the following main characteristics:

  • Estimated size and composition of the market, including distribution by geographic area and description of the main types of customers
  • Market position at the moment and its expected development: will grow, will remain unchanged, or some other scenario
  • Market mechanisms and main types of competition: price, quality, service, reputation
Then you need to analyze your market segment in which you will sell your product. The market can be segmented by geographic location, by the type of buyers, by the type of goods and services.

As an aspiring entrepreneur with no previous sales experience, it will be difficult to conduct market analysis and will have to act on the basis of sound assumptions, personal observation and experience of similar businesses.

What sources can be used to study the market? This can be information of a reference nature in industry and professional journals, reports in periodicals and mass media, information sourcespresented on the Internet. It is also recommended to use personal observations, survey of future customers and competitors.

To find out the approximate number of your buyers and the expected demand for your product, you need to determine for yourself and give answers to the following questions:

  1. Where (in what area?) Do your future customers live?
  2. Who is the future buyer of your products? (age, gender, social status, occupation, income level, etc.)
  3. What considerations were you guided by when choosing one or another group of buyers (market segment) who would be interested in your product?
  4. At what price is a similar product now being bought?
  5. How volatile is the demand for these goods (services)?
3.3. Competition

In this section, you need to describe your potential competitors and show what their strengths and weaknesses are:

  1. Which competing firms operate in your market segments?
  2. Which of them produces goods or services similar to yours?
  3. What is their product - its distinctive features, design, etc.?
  4. What is the price level for the goods (services) of your competitors?
  5. How do competitors find their customers - advertising, distribution channels, other forms of promotion?
  6. Which of the competing firms is located in the neighborhood?
  7. How is your competitors' business developing? What are the reasons for the changes taking place: increasing or decreasing volumes, expanding or narrowing the range, growth or reduction of staff?
  8. Which of your products (services) will have a competitive advantage over other manufacturers of similar goods (services)?
It should be borne in mind that a thorough analysis of your competitors will help you avoid their mistakes and use their successful experience in your work.

In conclusion, it is useful to perform a comparative analysis of your main competitors by completing the following table:

3.4. Sales forecast

After studying the sales market, try to make a forecast of the sales volume of your product in the first year of operation. The forecast should be made on a monthly basis. In doing so, it is necessary to take into account the seasonality factor (if any), your market share, taking into account the competition, your production capabilities and other factors that may be of significant importance.

The sales forecast should be prepared for three scenarios (pessimistic, optimistic and realistic), placing it in the table:

Sales forecast information form

3.5. Marketing plan

A marketing plan, or a plan for promoting goods (services), should describe the program of your actions to bring goods (services) to buyers and calculate how much money will be required for this.

In this section, you must define:

  1. How do customers know about your products?
  2. How much money do you propose to allocate for advertising?
  3. How will you sell your product?
Setting the price level

The price of a product can be determined based on the following conditions:

  • Competitor prices for a similar product or substitute products
  • Demand-driven prices for a given product
  • Cost of production + target profit
  • Unique product qualities

The "cost + target profit" pricing method is based on determining all business costs and, accordingly, the lowest price level to cover them, taking into account the rate of return that the entrepreneur wants to get for the money invested.

Based on the analysis of competitor's prices, the average price level for the product is determined. The maximum possible price is set for a product that differs high quality and unique advantages. Demand-driven prices can fluctuate in the entire range - from minimum to maximum values. In any case, you need to set such prices for your goods and so change them depending on the situation in the market in order to take possession of a certain market share and get a target profit.

Sales plan

In this section, you need to describe how you intend to sell goods and services (what methods of their implementation you will use): independently or through intermediaries, wholesale or retail, by pre-orders by phone or in any other way.

Your task is to make it easier for the client to make a purchase from you, to make your product available to him.

In this section it is necessary to describe how you are going to bring information about your goods (services) to customers.

You should decide on the following questions:

  • Will you advertise your product or service?
  • What information should you provide about your products and services?
  • Where are you going to place your ad?
  • How much money are you going to spend on advertising?
For a more convenient presentation of the marketing program in your business plan, you can fill in the following tables:



The total volume of the marketing section depends very much on the characteristics of the project (variety of activities, breadth of range of goods (services), number of competitors, the need for more detailed description marketing actions, etc.), but usually does not exceed 5-10 pages. In order not to overload the text of the explanatory note with the details and details of the marketing plan, it is customary to translate them into a separate annex to the business plan.

In the marketing section of a business project, it is recommended, at a minimum, to present tables with a sales forecast and marketing budget, providing the given data with links to information sources. In this case, it is imperative to use the breakdown into periods (unit of measurement - month), which will then be used in the sections devoted to costs. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to draw up a financial budget for the project and calculate its indicators.

  1. How to justify the required resources
4.1. Description of production facilities


4.2. Capital expenditures

The main task of this subsection is to prove that your company will be able to produce the required amount of goods (provide services) at the right time and with the required quality.

For trade enterprises this section deals with retail space and equipment (counters, racks, cash registers, etc.), and for the service sector - about office premises, service area and other fixed assets, depending on the chosen type of activity.

In this case, you will need to answer the following questions:

  1. How correct is the location of the enterprise, based on proximity to customers, suppliers of raw materials, availability of labor, transport?
  2. What production facilities will be required: premises, equipment, raw materials, energy carriers? Where, from whom and on what conditions will the raw materials be purchased? What is the reputation of these suppliers and do you already have experience working with them?
  3. Is production cooperation envisaged, with whom, in what area?
  4. What will be the working hours of your enterprise?
It is recommended to present the listed information in tabular form:


The paragraph "Premises" provides information on industrial premises, their location and characteristics, as well as provide preliminary information on the terms of the lease.

In the "Equipment" column, it is necessary to show your needs for equipment in monetary terms, tell about plans for its receipt. The rest of the lines are filled in the same way.

4.3. Depreciation of fixed assets
The equipment used in the production of your goods or the provision of services loses its value due to physical wear and tear and obsolescence.

Depreciation (or amortization) is one of the components of the cost of production, but is not the reason for the outflow of real money. The most widespread mechanism is linear depreciation, when the annual depreciation rate is set based on the service life of the equipment.

The original cost of the equipment is the cost at which the equipment was purchased. Book value or residual value \u003d Initial value - depreciation charge.

Depreciation is charged only on own fixed assets, and the lessor (or leasing company) depreciates depreciation on the leased or leased assets. In the latter case, depreciation is not required in the financial part of the business plan.

If your business plan intends to use your own equipment, then we recommend using the following form to prepare initial information:

5 How to present data on legal issues of business organization
5.1 Choosing the organizational and legal form of the enterprise
In this section you should collect information related to legal support economic activity enterprises, and justify the choice of its organizational and legal form.

In this regard, in legal terms, you need to answer the following questions:

  1. What is the most suitable legal status for your type of business? Justify your choice.
  2. Are you considering the possibility of changing the form of the enterprise in the future?
  3. What permissions do you need to obtain to carry out your activities: a license, a trade permit, a certificate of conformity, a hygienic conclusion, approval of inspections - describe the procedure for obtaining them and justify the approximate amount of costs?
  4. What are the initial costs required to register a business?
  5. How will the transactions with suppliers and consumers be drawn up, and labor Relations (if hired personnel are involved)?
5.2 Organizational plan
In preparing this section of the business plan, the following issues need to be addressed:
  • Information about the management staff of the enterprise, distribution of duties and responsibilities
  • Experience in this area of \u200b\u200bbusiness
  • Sources of professional support
Distribution of duties and responsibilities It happens that at the initial stage, the head of the company concentrates in his hands all management functions: accounting and financial management, supply and marketing management, price control and advertising.

But as the company grows, it is difficult for one person to keep track of everything and you will need help in managing the company, then you need to determine what kind of specialists you will need to successfully conduct the business.

For convenience, you can draw a diagram where it is clearly spelled out who does what, who reports to whom, who makes the final decision.

Experience in a chosen area of \u200b\u200bbusiness

In this part of the business plan, it is necessary to describe your work experience in the area in which you intend to apply it. Moreover, we are talking about both the experience of economic activity and the experience of working as a leader. Don't forget the experience you've gained as a leader or organizer of social events.

Sources of professional support

Any enterprise, regardless of what it does and what its size, must use the services of an accountant, lawyer, bank, insurance company, etc.

It is best to make inquiries in advance, choose the best within your means, establish contacts and include yourself among the potential clients of these organizations. Describe how you will act in this direction?

The usual length of the organizational and legal section is 2 pages.

In this section of the business project, you can limit yourself to indicating the organizational and legal form of the enterprise and the details of the certificate of state registration Your company (which must be confirmed by a copy of this document).

In the organizational plan, information about the heads of the enterprise, confirmed by separately submitted questionnaires, should also be offered. In addition, it will be useful to supplement the questionnaires with information about basic and additional educationas well as work experience in the chosen field of business and sources of professional support. The recommended section size is 1 page.

6. How to draw up a financial budget

In this section, you will need to bring together the financial information that you prepared in the previous sections. The financial plan of the project will help you determine when and how much money you will need to create and develop a profitable enterprise.

6.1. Identifying funding sources

In this section, you need to give detailed explanations about the sources of financing for the project of creating your enterprise - government subsidies, attracting personal funds (investments), bank loans, leasing or something else. The conditions for attracting funding sources are determined by you independently.

The general parameters of the chosen financing option should be reflected in the following table:

6.2. Cost estimate before receipt of funds from the sale

The information provided in this subsection of the business plan is necessary to justify the attraction of additional funds.
It is advisable to confirm the information about the main expected costs with copies of letters of intent, lease, purchase of equipment, etc. It is advisable to include copies of these documents in the annexes. The calculation of the cost estimate before receiving the first proceeds from the sale should be summarized in a separate table:






Explanations: When filling out clause 1 of the estimate, it is necessary to inquire about the approximate amount of costs for individual items. When calculating clause 1.6, it should be borne in mind that the formation of the authorized capital can be carried out both in the form of cash contributions and in the form of fixed assets and intangible assets of the founders, if they are used for business purposes.

Intangible assets are understood as properly formalized rights to certain types of assets (real estate, machinery and equipment), rights to technology, patents, licenses, software products.

6.3. Work schedule for the first stage of the project

The purpose of drawing up a work schedule is to agree on the timing, funding and costs at the stage of creating a business.



Comments on filling out the table:

1. Predict the total duration of the organizational period of your business. If, according to your estimates, it will take more than 4 weeks, then complete the table with the missing columns
2. Specify the terms and amounts of funding from various sources, put their amount in the appropriate interval
3. Find out from the registration authorities the time frame for obtaining the registration certificate

6.4. Calculation of loans

This subsection of the business plan requires elaboration if you intend to borrow money from friends or a bank loan. In any case, you will have to pay interest and repay debts. At the same time, prepare the data for entering into subsequent forms financial budget The following table will help you:


6.5 Choosing a taxation option and calculating taxes

In this section of the business plan, you must choose a taxation system and correctly calculate the amount of taxes that your company will pay. Their list depends on the organizational and legal form of the enterprise and the taxation system you have chosen.

In the Russian Federation, three tax systems operate in parallel
:

  • general regime taxation (traditional taxation system)
  • simplified taxation system
  • single tax on imputed income for certain types activities
the main differences between the existing taxation systems are given, as well as recommendations for calculating taxes separately for legal entities and for entrepreneurs without education legal entity.

6.6. Draft plan of financial performance

The financial performance plan (or, as it is also called, the profit and loss plan) for the first year of the enterprise is usually drawn up on a monthly basis. This document will show your expected expenses and income for a certain period of time, as well as the profit (or loss) that you will have in the corresponding period. The form of the profit and loss plan depends both on the organizational and legal form and on the taxation system, and for the most complex of the taxation systems (traditional) in an enlarged form it looks like this:


As an explanation to the table, the following should be noted:

  • Revenues from the sale of goods and services are the main source of income and are determined by the forecast sales volume
  • Variable costs - costs that change in direct proportion to the change in production; as a rule, these are the costs of raw materials and wages of workers
  • Fixed costs are costs that do not change depending on changes in production. These include, as a rule, the costs of salaries of administrative personnel, rent, depreciation, etc.
  • Net profit shows what directly remains in the hands of the entrepreneur
Revenues to the enterprise budget and deductions from the budget that are not directly involved in the calculation of profits (obtaining and repaying loans, capital expenditures for the purchase of equipment, etc.) are not shown in this table. You will need to enter them in the following table. financial plan - Cash flow plan /

6.7. Cash flow plan

In terms of cash flow, you, on the one hand, determine when, how much and from what sources money will be received at the cash desk or on the current account. On the other hand, this table also determines when and how much money you will pay to suppliers of raw materials, staff salaries, interest to creditors, taxes to the budget, etc.

This forecast is compiled for the year with a breakdown by months, starting from the zero period - the period preceding the moment of state registration of the enterprise.

The cash flow plan should include only real receipts and expenditures (also called cash inflows and outflows), planned for each specific period of time.

6.8. Essential Principles of Economic Management

For normal operation in market conditions, any commercial enterprise must adhere to at least three principles:

  • Financial sustainability, meaning the ability to make the necessary payments at any time
  • Profitability, that is, getting a positive difference between income and expenses
  • Profitability - to achieve business goals at an optimal cost level
Without observing these three conditions, the enterprise, even with successful marketing activities, cannot compete successfully and casts doubt on its immediate future. This is also why, without knowledge of the economic foundations of doing business, the chances of a novice entrepreneur to take place in this role are low.

By running your business, even being competent in your professional fieldThere are four economic issues that cannot be avoided:

  1. First question - about planning.How to properly plan the work of your enterprise? Planning is about answering three questions: What is your business today? How do you want to see him tomorrow? What should be done and in what sequence in order to move from the present state to the state of tomorrow? The answers cannot be evasive. They cannot be reduced to general reasoning, since we are talking about specific and vital important points - prices, the number of clients, the number and composition of personnel, revenue and expenses, one-time costs for the creation of the so-called tangible and intangible assets of your company. He who foresees plans success. Whoever avoids this is planning failure.
  2. Second question - about the organization. How to breathe life into the plan you just made by distributing assignments for its implementation among individual employees? In other words, how to make each of your assistants (and first of all you yourself) clearly understand what and how he should do today and tomorrow. Moreover, you need to take into account the abilities and skills of a particular person, and most importantly, to work on the end result that you put a step earlier in the "plan" column. It is about assigning his powers to each employee. In fact, it is necessary to draw up and bring to the attention of each employee his job description, adding the column of the plan “What and when to do” with the column “Responsible for implementation”.
  3. The third question is about motivation. Commanding, even very skillfully, is not enough for effective management. You also need a conscious and motivated desire of the one who is being controlled to do the work entrusted to him as required by the interests of the business. That is, you need an interest in the results of labor. If we connect this with the second and first questions, then we need to talk not only about the size of the salary (although about it too). Each employee must clearly know what exactly awaits him for the fulfillment (or non-fulfillment) of the duties assigned to him - bonuses (depreciation), participation in the additional earned profit, a bonus for new order, sanctions for marriage at work, promotion (demotion) in the service. At first glance, this seems like an exaggeration when applied to small businesses. But only at first glance. After all, punishing the innocent and rewarding the innocent is not a method for you.
  4. Question four - about control... Planning without comparing the actual result of work with the plan is almost the same as racing along a winding night road with the headlights off. The three tasks of control are to measure, compare and understand. Simply put, you have to supplement the table of the planned budget of your institution with two more columns - "fact" and "deviation of the fact from the plan." And after that, another column begs and waits to be filled in, in which you have to write down an honest answer to the question: "why did this deviation occur?"
The answers may vary. Your decisions will be different when receiving certain answers:

Was the original plan wrong? - Then, during the next planning, try not to repeat this mistake.

Has this or that performer not fully completed what he was supposed to do? - Then talk with the performer: did he clearly understand the task entrusted to him, is he motivated correctly, is this work suitable for him or is he for this job

Miscalculations were made in more "fundamental" questions: location, target customer, range of services? - Then do not look for the guilty around, but admit your own miscalculation. In this case, it is best to go back to the beginning and make significant adjustments to the original business plan.

Note that all four of these questions (planning - organization - motivation - control) are repeated over and over again in each management cycle. And if you again and again shy away from their decision, counting on the success of your business is at least naive.

The above considerations are very useful not only to take into account when developing a business plan for the creation and development of your enterprise, but also to use it already during the implementation of the project itself.

6.9. Calculation of project indicators

The main sign of the financial solvency of your company when drawing up its business plan is the non-negativity of the final cash flow in the form of "Cash flow plan" at the end of each planning period. Without this prerequisite, the calculation of all other indicators of the project loses all meaning, since it is impossible to work with a "negative current account".

Analysis of project efficiency can be limited to the calculation of such indicators:

1. The total amount of net profit for 1 year of the enterprise

2. Return on investment of personal funds, which is determined by
following formula: RLS \u003d PE / HP x 100%

Where RLS is the return on investment of personal funds,%

PE - the amount of net profit for 1 year of activity, rubles.

PM - the amount of personal funds invested, rubles.

3. Payback period of personal funds investment, which is defined as the period of time (in months) during which the accumulated amount of net profit will fully cover the total amount of the initially invested personal funds.

In addition to the listed indicators, you can calculate how much you must produce or sell goods in order for your production to be break-even or profitable. The break-even point is the quantity of goods or the minimum volume of sales per year that must be achieved in order for the company to cover all its costs, but not yet make a profit.

Usually the break-even point is determined graphically or using the formula:

The quantity of goods at the break-even point (in pieces) \u003d Fixed costs: (Price of 1 piece - Variable costs for 1 piece

7 How to assess risks

This section should describe possible risksthat the future enterprise may face.

The most frequently analyzed risks:

Property damage resulting from damage (fire, natural disaster, accident, etc.)

Unlawful actions of third parties

Falling sales associated with a sharp drop in demand

Non-fulfillment of obligations by suppliers of raw materials

Inflation

Actions of the administration of the district or city, as well as inspection bodies

Rise in price of equipment, etc.

You are required to at least roughly assess what risks are most likely for you, what they can cost you, as well as think over measures to prevent them or your actions aimed at reducing losses caused by these risks.

Another method of risk analysis can be the calculation of the most important financial indicators of your project under the pessimistic scenario.

For those who decide that risk analysis for their project is nevertheless necessary, it will be enough to calculate the indicators of their project for a pessimistic scenario and provide them with brief comments on how and how an entrepreneur will act in the event of a particular risk factor (“ insurance event "). This is best done as a table with two columns: Risk Factor and Risk Mitigation Measures.

8 Business plan preparation and presentation

The business plan is in the form of a bound report. Below are some guidelines for its design:

  1. Title page (its approximate form is given in Appendix 1).
  2. We advise you to arrange it as follows:
    • a brief description of activities
    • Organizational and legal form of the enterprise, its name
    • Supposed legal address the future enterprise (or the current legal address of an already registered enterprise)
    • Full name of the person who prepared the business plan, his passport data,
    • registration number, name of the regional employment center
    • Phone number
    • Date of preparation of the business plan
  3. Follow the sequence of the section descriptions recommended in the guidelines. Pay special attention to the correct and complete filling of financial tables, which is one of the prerequisites for accepting a business plan for consideration
  4. Try to avoid descriptiveness and emotional judgment. In order for your statements to be reasoned and realistic, rely on figures and facts from reliable sources of information
  5. The language should be simple and understandable, without an excess of technical and special terms. However, only standard terminology should be used in the financial part of the business plan.
  6. The text must be printed. Use more subheadings and subheadings (they can be underlined or bold in the text). It is advisable to start each chapter on a new page.
Use a text editor MS Word and the following guidelines for formatting the text of a business plan:

Page format: A4
Font type: Times New Roman
Font size: 12
Spacing between paragraphs of text: before - 6 pt, after - 6 pt
Binding: a business plan needs to be carefully bound

7. Illustrate the business plan with diagrams, graphs, diagrams and pictures

8. Avoid verbosity. The business plan should be concise. Do not go beyond the recommended size of the sections of the business plan proposed in these Methodical recommendations, and transfer all the details and supporting documents into separate attachments.

Having entered some time ago on a slippery path called "I want to write my own game", I came to the conclusion that this process, despite a long history and a large number of successful examples, for novice developers is very mysterious and slightly shamanic. I am by no means claiming that there is no information on this topic on the net, but it is all divided into two broad categories:

  1. Global general philosophical reasoning from the category of "10 reasons why you shouldn't become an indie game developer";
  2. Highly specialized tutorials that solve a specific problem: "Rotate the image in% framework_name% by an arbitrary angle using% tool_name%"
The connecting link between these two categories is very vague, but, meanwhile, these are infinitely important stages in the choice of an idea, formalization, its translation into a plan. It is on this component that I want to dwell today.
It should be remembered that a formal description of the project is necessary for negotiations with investors of any type: whether it is an acquaintance from whom you ask for a loan, or Kickstarter, in any case, you will be required to have a clear presentation.
So, if a decision has already been made that game development is yours, there is an approximate understanding of how a future masterpiece should look like, but you cannot tell all this coherently even to your friend, not to mention a potential team, then welcome under the cut , there is a lot of text. I hope this article will be useful for both young developers and venerable developers who create great code, but are not friendly with marketing.

Denial of responsibility

Based on the results of the article, it may turn out that your idea is "not very" or not at all. I'm just suggesting a packaging form, and if your super_game_future_killer_% game_name% doesn't fit into this form, then you have two options:

  1. Find the description format that suits you. The main thing is to formalize your thoughts in an understandable form.
  2. Accept that in the current state your idea is weak and not suitable for anything other than coursework or personal practice, and start thinking about it.
I am not responsible for emotional experiences, disappointments and sleepless nights.

0.0. General principles

First of all, I propose to agree on the tasks and principles of formalization.
Key task: Create a document that can fully reflect and convey the essence of the idea without additional comments.
In other words, anyone who reads the final description must unambiguously understand what is at stake, and in the future dialogue with the bearer of the idea, possess the full amount of knowledge.
It should be noted here that we restrict ourselves to the top-level business logic, without diving into the tools and implementation subtleties - this is the next stage.

As we work, we will follow these principles to help us structure the flow of thoughts and make it smoother:

  1. The reader of the forthcoming document is not an expert in programming or game development.
  2. At the same time, the reader is not an idiot and he has access to Google.
  3. The document should be as unambiguous and concise as possible. In order to transfer it to the format powerPoint presentations, just copy the text onto the slides and add pictures to your liking.
  4. The final document is the basic version of the complete description, which can be freely supplemented and expanded without the need to rewrite individual parts or change the structure. In other words, we make a blank, which in the future will be overgrown with technical details and specifications. It is very likely that you will not want to show all of them to the general public before release.
  5. The author of the document is already familiar with the articles below, and the reader can read it at any time.
From Wikipedia: Computer game
From Wikipedia: Classification of computer games

0.1. Document structure

Further in the text we will go through the main components of the formal description of the idea. In each block I will give a short description of it, links to additional materials and an example based on my personal project. The general structure will look like this:

If the community offers to add something, I will gladly consider it in the comments.

1. Concept

The first section is like the first page commercial proposallike the first three slides of a presentation, like a Facebook profile picture. The importance of this section cannot be overemphasized. If you could not interest a person here, then he will not read further. If you have the thought “Now I’ll fill it in quickly, so that it will be, and I’ll tell you all the most interesting in the middle!”, Then immediately drive her away, or do nothing at all: a bad start \u003d\u003d meaningless work in the future.
1.1. Name
As my experience shows, only 1 person out of 10 thinks about this before development. In principle, this is understandable, since at the initial stage the only use of the name is the name of the project in the development environment. But if we are serious about our idea, then the name will play a very important role. The most obvious: presentation of a project to an investor or a team.
A very useful article on choosing a name can be read and. The following is fundamentally important for us:
0. The name should reflect one of the components of the game: setting, gameplay or other features.
Here you can give examples that completely realize this idea: "SpacePuzzle", "DragonRace", "Farm Frenzy", etc. From one name, the future player can guess what he will have to deal with.

1. What is displayed on Google for this name? Next to what we will coexist in the future and what are the chances for us to take the first line in the search results with such a name?
Simple names like "Ants", "WarLand", etc. - a guarantee of huge costs for promotion in search and advertising of other projects.

2. Is the domain that matches the name free? If not, how appropriate is it to use the -game suffix?
Using the unsuccessful examples from the previous paragraph, we have the following logic: ants.ru -\u003e ants-game.ru, warland.ru -\u003e warland-game.ru
If with ants it still did not go where, then with warland the situation is sadder.

3. How easy is the name to pronounce? What will users call the game in shorthand?
The logic here is simple: if the name is simple, then it will be used easily and with pleasure, but if it is too complex, then users will come up with a replacement: CounterStrike -\u003e Contra, WorldOfWarcraft -\u003e WoW, etc.

Example:
I chose the name for my project " The AndLand". Google does not give out anything unambiguous, domains are free, for short it can be called TAL or" Anda ".
1.2 Genre
The most common problem here is trying to mix genres and promote it as a key difference. Several times I heard "Now let's stir up a mixture of StarCraft, MineCraft, some other * Craft and take over the world!" Do not scoff at the player, forcing him to waste energy trying to understand what it is in front of him. Be that as it may, the genre of the game should be ONE. Of course, you can mix gameplay elements from neighboring genres, but the key motive should be monotonous. If we return to the idea of \u200b\u200bthe presentation, then on this slide there should be one word (RTS, RPG, FPS, etc.) and one sentence that can clarify or clarify this word. In the links to Wikipedia, which I gave at the very beginning, you can find a description of all genres and a lot of information for clarification.
Example:
In my case, the genre is RTS.
Clarification: multiplayer economic strategy in real time.
1.3. Key difference
As a rule, at this point, many give up. To articulate clearly why your idea is better than everyone else is not an easy test. Moreover, even if at the moment you have managed to form something intelligible, there is still a block “Analogs” ahead, which will subject your idea to another wave of criticism.
Basically, everything is simple here: "How will your game stand out from everyone else in the genre?" In marketing, this is called "Positioning - a simple, clear, unambiguous, advantageous difference from competitors." The materiel on the issue can be viewed either in the books of J. Trout. Here are some examples:
MineCraft is a large open world completely changeable;
StarCraft - classic RTS with perfect balance;
Catch-up is a simple mobile gameplay that does not require additional equipment.
Example:
The tech tree in the game is created by the community.
The game lacks the classic tree "Build building A to gain access to technologies X, Y, Z and building B", the gaming community itself constructs technologies and the direction of their development.
1.4. Platform
This section is purely formal at the moment, but in the future it will be fundamental for the team and investors. This is important for potential team members, because it is necessary to assess their skills and development vector: do I want to participate in a project for the web, when I have been writing code for mobile devices? And for investors, this point is important, because you can quickly assess trends in the development of the platform, see simple risks.
It is now popular to create projects for almost all platforms at once. If yours is just that, then in any case, you should remember that there is one, maximum - two starting platforms from which everything starts, and for the rest it is later ported.
The list of platforms now ranges from classic PC / Mac to game consoles and mobile phones, and do not forget about browser games that can run anywhere in general, and only on certain systems. Several important points fundamentally depend on the choice of the platform:
1. The general range of implementation technologies;
2. Method of distribution;
3. Speed \u200b\u200bof game obsolescence;
4. The number of potential players.
Example:
The initial launch of the game is planned for PC Win / Linux / Mac with registration and player profile management via a web platform. In the future, it is possible to release a mobile application with full or limited gameplay.
1.5. The target audience
Another section that confuses the vast majority of future game developers. And the question here is very simple: “Who is your game for? Who will be the core of the community? " The most common answer is “for everyone!”, And it is also the most incorrect. Marketers know that advertising aimed at everyone does not hit anyone, the same story with products. Of course, there are "goods popular consumption", But their list is very small and in total minor. Everything else that does not fall into this list is created for a specific group. Mercedes - for the successful, Rollex - for the show-off, StarCraft - for the advanced, Farm Frenzy - for housewives, MineCraft - for schoolchildren.

Again, we do not need to take the formalized audience literally, we do not limit our players ONLY to this portrait, but the main emphasis in promotion and gameplay will be on them. I think you will not argue that a game for a housewife and an excellent student in mathematics is generally different games? Although, the student sometimes wants to play something casual. Quite capaciously for this reason, the person unsubscribed here.

Good example in this sense - MineCraft. The developer never clearly singled out his players anywhere, but it is obvious that the core of the target audience is an advanced student. This fact does not change the cases of the creation of MineCraft in MineCraft, imitation of Manhattan, and other serious things. But ask yourself: would a serious scientist get involved in creating a city in a game if by this point most school-age PC gamers had not played it?

Example:
Target audience of the project: office workers, senior pupils and students with an understanding of the basics of economic theory, regardless of gender.

Results of the first section

As I promised, despite the abundance of text, the final result is very modest and easily fits into 3-4 slides of the presentation. The basic concepts that I have touched upon here may seem obvious and unnecessary to many, but this means only one thing: you have not tried to apply them. Those who already have everything ready, look, maybe I forgot what or lied where. And to test the form of describing an idea, I propose to answer in a survey.

P.S.

I would like to thank user tac for bringing this post up. The need to answer his question forced me to put all my thoughts in order.
In the comments S_A gave a link to a book on the topic: "Game Marketing" - a book by Sergei Galyonkin. I will already read it for the next part, I will give feedback.

Only registered users can participate in the survey. , you are welcome.

concept, first of all, you need to decide on a business idea. To do this, think about what you are best at, highlight your strengths, write down a few ideas and that, in your opinion, you would be able to bring to life.

For several days, consider all the advantages of each idea you come up with, figure out how profitable it can be, select the target audience, look for information about competitors, their experience, etc. Select one business idea based on this data.

Create personal or corporate portal - an important part of the overall marketing strategy companies. In order for the site to perform its functions as efficiently as possible, you must first write it concept.

Instructions

Find a development brief template site... As a rule, such documents are in the public domain on most major portals dealing with web services. Modify and complete this brief as you see fit so that it is as informative as possible and provides developers with details on the site concept.

Fill in general information about your company, the specifics of its work, clients, projects. Determine for what purpose you need a site. Even a standard site can either contain only the most necessary information, or serve as a powerful image tool. Since the visuals only depend on your goals and budget, clearly list the requirements for the interface.

Conduct an analysis of competitors' sites, and also select the portals that you like the most. Highlight all the disadvantages and advantages, mark the most interesting stylistic solutions. List these links in the appropriate sections of your brief, indicating at least 3 pros and cons of the selected sites. This will help the performers get an idea of \u200b\u200byour preferences.

Think over the structure of the site. State your wishes for the organization of the main page, main menu items, how to organize tabs and reveal photos. Together with the site developer, develop clear and accessible navigation for any user. Before launching the site, it is advisable to conduct a usability audit: analysis of the main pages and navigation by experts and representatives of the target audience.