FREE online courses on Venture Capital Funding - Major Sections of a Business Proposal - Business and its future

 

This section covers a number of key topics that will help the Venture Capitalist understand your business. Throughout this section there must be a general, if not specific, attempt to show how your business is unique. 

 

While reading this section, the Venture Capitalist will try to determine the “keys to success” in your area of work.

 

General

Begin with a paragraph that starts with the sentence, "The Company's principal offices are located..." and put in the address, the telephone number, and the individual who should be contacted.

 

Nature of the business

Give a general synopsis of the business you are in. For example, your might say, “The company designs, manufactures, markets and services minicomputer base software controlled medical diagnostic equipment used in outpatient monitoring.”

 

Describe the product or service in general terms. You want to make sure the Venture Capitalist understands your product or service in as few words as possible. 

 

Business history

State when the company was incorporated, specify when it introduced its first product or service, and list the most important milestones (with dates) through which the company has passed. The business history section of the report must be brief and to the point. If it is more than a page, or at the most, two pages, you have included too many historical asides.

 

There may be a special reason for including a long historical section if the company has had a colorful past, but by all means be brief. The Venture Capitalist will talk to you about the business history section in order to understand your business. At that time, you can go into many details.

 

Business of the future

Spell out in chronological sequence the plan for the company and indicate critical milestones. In essence, the Venture Capitalist wants to know how you plan to move from where you are today to where you intend to be in five years. The form of this section of the proposal is open to a great deal of freedom even though it must be brief.

 

You may simply state that you intend to continue producing your two basic products for the next five years and that in year three you will introduce another similar product. In that case, your business of the future would be brief and to the point. On the other hand, if you expect to go through innumerable changes before you reach your final point of stability, you should indicate what changes would take place. The Venture Capitalist wants to know precisely what the company will have to do to be a success.