Online Incorporation MaxBlog

In addition to the important details and legalities handled by your business incorporation service, your business plan is crucial, especially if you’re starting a business that requires outside funding.

As you begin to create your business plan, be sure to include the following essential elements.

1.            Executive Summary

This section should include a general overview of the services or products your business will provide, as well as a brief statement of the projected return on investment. It should also include subsections detailing the company’s objectives, mission statement and advantages.

Objectives are best presented as a numbered list. Keep the list short, and make sure items are displayed in priority order.

Your mission statement should be no more than two sentences, and convey your company’s mission accurately, but without flowery speech. Make sure this statement is brief, versatile and timeless.

The advantages subsection works best as a short, bulleted list of three to five points you feel will set you apart or give you an advantage over the competition.

2.            Company Summary

The introductory portion of your company summary should be a short statement of the products and services you will provide, and the method in which you will provide them. Be sure to provide the name of the city and state where your business’s operations will primarily be located.

The subsections of your company summary include some of the most important information in your business plan. In subsection one, you will need to state your company’s ownership, including whether you will be a sole proprietorship, LLC or other type of corporation, as well as the names of all official owners.

Subsection two is where much of the research comes in. It is commonly labeled as the start-up summary, and should include a bulleted list of planned equipment purchases, a budget — commonly in graphic table form — detailing other startup expenses, and another table that details your expected financing sources and total amount of financing you expect to receive. If you are using a business incorporation service, be sure to list all associated costs here.

3.            Products and/or Services

This section of your business plan is generally text-based and outlines the specifics of the products or services you intend to provide. Be very detailed here, describing not only products and services, but also the methods you will use to offer convenience or added value to your customers.

If you have any specific innovations that you feel really set your business apart, be sure to explain in detail. This section is your opportunity to show your investors that you are starting a business with positive long-term prospects.

4.            Market Analysis

Another research-intensive section, the market analysis will be useful for your investors, but also offers you an opportunity to research and outline your business’s potential.

Use the introduction to summarize your market analysis, and provide extended detail in the subsections. Discuss market segments in the first subsection — organized by age group, area or whatever other details are appropriate to the type of small business you are opening. Then, in the second subsection, discuss specific strategies targeted toward each market segment.

Finally, include a third subsection where you analyze your competition and provide information on the behavior patterns of your target market segments. Charts and other graphical representations are very helpful to your market analysis, and also give it a professional look that will appeal to prospective investors.

5.            Strategy Summary

The strategy summary details your approach to sales and marketing. This is where you can establish a marketing budget that will make the process of starting a business much easier once your business incorporation service has completed their work and you have acquired funding.

Be sure to include well-researched forecasts here for how quickly your business will grow and how effective you expect your marketing strategy to be.

6.            Management and Personnel

This section should detail the management structure, number of employees and your projected budget for operations and salaries.

7.            Financial Planning

Profit and loss and cash flow projections should be detailed here. Most importantly to investors, be sure to include a break-even analysis that offers a projected timeline for getting your business in the black. Any other financial information you have not yet included in your business plan will fit well in this section.

Putting it All Together

Put the finishing touches on your business plan by printing it on high-quality paper and binding it in an attractive, professional-looking folder. If you have a logo created, use the image as the centerpiece of an attractive cover page.

Starting a business carries its fair share of challenges, but with a thorough and well-prepared business plan and the assistance of a business incorporation service, the road to owning your own small business may be just a bit easier to travel.

Right now the folks at fitness wristband manufacturer Energy Armor are likely wishing they had hired a business incorporation service, or at least done a trademark and patent search.

Instead, they began selling and promoting their wristbands with a logo that video game fans will find eerily familiar. It bears a striking similarity to the familiar “EA” logo used by Electronic Arts, makers of a number of high-profile video games, many of which are sports-centric.

Electronic Arts has been in the business of making video games since 1982, and has been using the current logo since the 1990’s. EA Sports, one of the company’s largest and most well-known divisions, makes games that run the gamut from football to basketball to golf. It’s the sports connection that most concerns Electronic Arts.

The connection is far from tenuous. Some sources, including video game industry blog Gamasutra, suspect that Energy Armor’s marketing ploy is very much intentional (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/37686/EA_Sues_EA.php). Purposeful or not, Energy Armor is suffering the consequences of their choice. After receiving no response to their requests that the acronym-sharing fitness company stop using such a potentially confusing logo, Electronic Arts decided to pursue the matter in court.

Energy Armor has apparently applied for a trademark for their version of the logo, but that application is still pending. This fact didn’t stop the wristband manufacturer from using the logo in advertising and on products.

Did Energy Armor perform a trademark and patent search? If so, did they simply choose to ignore their own logo’s similarity to the existing trademark? Worse still, are the suspicions of those who believe this was intentional trademark infringement correct? These questions may be answered in the upcoming court battle, but there is no question about the fact that Electronic Arts intends to come out swinging.

Among the demands: that Energy Armor destroy all items bearing the current logo and pay Electronic Arts damages for the high cost of correcting misinterpretations made by customers who believed there was some connection between the wristbands and popular Electronic Arts games.

Intentional or not, Energy Armor’s mistake could end up costing them.

While they may be forced to learn their lesson the hard way, new startups can certainly benefit from this example of what not to do. Skipping a trademark and patent search or ignoring the results can only hurt a company’s future success.

Business incorporation services exist to help fledgling businesses avoid this type of catastrophe. The decision to start a business rather than rely on an employer for income already carries its fair share of risk. Compounding that by failing to tend to every legal detail is both dangerous and unnecessary.

The business world will certainly be watching as the case of Electronic Arts versus Energy Armor unfolds. The importance of securing a business incorporation service to avoid going down Energy Armor’s path is likely to be only one of many lessons learned from this debacle.