Toolkit for business plan formulation

The model Business Plan presented here reflects a highly structured and
comprehensive approach. Our intent is to present important planning
considerations for all major topics. However, even if you choose to create an
entirely different document structure, we hope you will find the following checklist
helpful as you choose among the topics you want to address in your plan, and
how to organize them. Some of the headings, tables and diagrams mentioned
are just suggestive and can be ignored (if not relevant) for your business plan.

1. Executive Summary
2. Situational Assessment and Strategic Response
3. Project History, Status, and Outlook
4. The Product and Business Model
5. The Product: Database or Journal
6. Technology and Technical Considerations
7. Productions, Distribution, and User Access
8. Prices (or Fees or Funding)
9. Markets, Marketing, and Sales
10. Organization and Staffing
11. Financial Plan: Budget and Forecast
12. First Year Operating Plan
13. Business Risks, Contingencies, and Mid-Course Corrections
14. Conclusion (or End Notes)
15. Exhibits

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Overview of:

¾ Product model
¾ Organization model
¾ Rationale and justification for product, organization and business
¾ Mission statement
¾ Status
¾ Market assessment, targeted universe
¾ Top goals
¾ Core strategies
¾ Key plans
¾ Outlook
¾ Plans for financial self-sufficiency and mitigating risk
¾ TABLE: FINANCIAL SUMMARY

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2. SITUATIONAL ASSESSMENT AND STRATEGIC RESPONSE
About the Situation

¾ Research and/or communications

¾ Major findings and conclusions
¾ Support for business and product
¾ Potential risks
¾ Lessons learned

About Strategies

¾ Market or community needs analysis

¾ Core solutions
¾ Core strategies

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3. PROJECT HISTORY, STATUS AND OUTLOOK

¾ How the project came about

¾ Present status
¾ Key actions scheduled
¾ TABLE: KEY ACTIONS AND EVENTS

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4. THE PRODUCT AND BUSINESS MODEL

About the Model

¾ Field of science
¾ Markets or communities to be served
¾ Content to be delivered
¾ Product or service and why needed
¾ Media, distribution channels
¾ Distinguishing and unique characteristics
¾ Pertinent organization or entity
¾ Financing, initially and over the long term
¾ Funding for open access
¾ Revenue from ancillary products
¾ Innovations of the model
¾ Correlation to core strategies

Formulation of Concept and Model

¾ Precedents and successes

 ¾ Alternative models considered and rejected
¾ Advisors and concerned parties
¾ Evidence to support the model chosen

Interrelationships

¾ Interrelationships with other initiatives and programs

¾ Rationale, advantages, benefits

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5. THE PRODUCT: DATABASE OR JOURNAL

About the Content

¾ Type, scope and sources of content

¾ Special considerations
¾ Attaining and maintaining critical mass
¾ TABLE: ESTIMATED CUMULATIVE VOLUME

Editorial Strengths, Practices and Policies

¾ Quality of content
¾ Special concerns underlying content decisions
¾ Superior solution to market needs
¾ Innovations

Editorial Systems

¾ Automation and/or communication tools (e.g., editorial toolkit)

¾ Advantages

Intellectual Property Considerations

¾ Policies and practices, correlation to organization's mission

¾ Policy regarding intellectual property ownership (copyrights) and authors'
rights
¾ Requirements for licenses or other forms of agreement with authors
and/or other owners/copyright holders
¾ Innovations
¾ Privacy of subscriber and user information
¾ Information sharing
¾ Intellectual properties owned or to be owned by the organization
¾ Intellectual properties for which grants of use permissions must be
obtained
Visibility for the Product: A&I and Links

¾ Abstracting and indexing (A&I)

¾ Links from and to other Web sites
¾ Advantages
¾ Special issues or problems

Archiving and Perpetual Access

¾ Perpetual access policy

¾ Archiving and access plan
¾ Consultation with appropriate community
¾ Deposit programs
¾ Recurrent budget for archiving

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6. TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS

¾ Principal types of technology and solutions for the operation, production

and distribution
¾ Dependency upon off-the-shelf software and/or custom and proprietary
programming (special concerns; scope of work)
¾ Cost/timing tradeoffs
¾ Technological expertise required
¾ Consultation with project principals and/or advisors
¾ Technological infrastructure, location(s), responsibilities, acquiring and
maintaining
¾ Out-sourcing
¾ Host, alternative hosts and/or mirror sites
¾ Related matters: database back-up, disaster recovery, archiving
¾ Communications standards and systems, network capacity
¾ Electronic formats and standards for content / information for Internet
publishing
¾ Policies and/or plans to keep pace with technological changes
¾ Innovations
¾ Monitoring system performance
¾ Ensuring user privacy
¾ Sharing proprietary technology
¾ Technology risk management
¾ Technology plan budget
¾ Key objectives or mission of technology plan - distinguishing
characteristics
¾ TABLE: TECHNOLOGY PLAN OVERVIEW

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7. PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION AND USER ACCESS
Production and Distribution

¾ Noteworthy technological or infrastructure resources related to production

¾ Product distribution and delivery
¾ Outsourcing to other entities

User Access

¾ Access controls
¾ Subscriber and/or user agreements governing access and use
¾ Minimum user platform requirements
¾ Reinforcement of intellectual property policies and practices
¾ Special considerations
¾ Innovations
¾ Consultation with appropriate communities

New User Training and On-going User Support

¾ Needs for user training

¾ Plans for user support
¾ Tools, activities
¾ Objectives for user support
¾ Resources and procedures
¾ Help desk

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8. PRICES (OR FEES OR FUNDING)

In General

¾ Core objective of the pricing or fee structure

¾ Balance between the different desires or requirements of invested parties
¾ Consultation with appropriate communities
¾ Research
¾ Special factors or influences

Prices or Fees

¾ Product availability for purchase (alternatively, fees)

¾ Determining prices and terms of access and use
¾ The prices or fees
¾ Precedents and competitive comparisons
¾ Reactions from the public, price testing
¾ Policy or plan regarding future adjustments to the price or fee structure
Transition to Free Access

¾ Policy or plan regarding free access to content

¾ Significant unresolved issues
¾ Advantages and benefits, risks

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9. MARKETS, MARKETING AND SALES

Market Analysis

¾ Market universe
¾ DIAGRAM: MARKET UNIVERSE
¾ Market segments
¾ Important characteristics of market universe in relation to model
¾ Outlook for expansion or contraction of the market

Competitive Landscape

¾ Competitive landscape
¾ Noteworthy competitors, material differences
¾ Mature or emerging market
¾ Most formidable barriers to market entry

Market Capture

¾ Objectives or projections for capturing a share of the market

¾ TABLE: PROJECTED MARKET PENETRATION
¾ Minimum levels of market capture required
¾ Network benefits

Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations ("Outbound Marketing")

¾ How the product or service will be marketed, promoted, publicized

¾ Marketing and related activities, responsibilities
¾ Noteworthy differences for various product components, types of
customers and users, geographic areas
¾ Key schedule for promotion and publicity, responsibilities
¾ TABLE: YEAR ONE PROMOTION AND PUBLICITY SCHEDULE
¾ Existing materials created and distributed
¾ Significant problems or challenges

Sales

¾ Selling activities, responsibilities

¾ How the product or service will be sold
 ¾ Noteworthy differences for various product components, types of
customers and users, geographic areas
¾ Top prospect list

Sales Administration, Order Processing, Customer Support

¾ Sales administration, responsibilities

¾ Principal concerns of the sales administration activities
¾ Order processing, invoicing, receivables and collections
¾ Customer support (not the same as user support), responsibilities

Chapter Conclusion

¾ Initial research and situational assessment in support of estimates,

strategies, plans
¾ Advice of experts
¾ Marketing and sales budget

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10. ORGANIZATION AND STAFFING

Organization

¾ Origins
¾ Founders or equivalent
¾ Organizational mission and purpose
¾ Location
¾ Type of organization or corporation
¾ Jurisdiction of incorporation
¾ Basic corporate documents
¾ Governance structure
¾ Officers and accountability
¾ Avoidance of conflict of interest
¾ Committees and groups
¾ Volunteers, advisors, others integral to the project or enterprise
¾ Organization chart

Human Resources

¾ Staffing strategy
¾ Position descriptions
¾ Compensation
¾ Volunteers, advisors, other non-compensated persons
¾ Recruitment
¾ Employee benefits
¾ Payroll and benefits administration
 ¾ Employment policies and procedures
¾ Special issues or considerations

Professional Services

¾ Legal
¾ Financial and accounting
¾ Tax matters
¾ Consultants (business, technical, marketing)

Intellectual Property Filings and Registrations

¾ Trade name, trademark or service mark

¾ Copyrights
¾ Patents

Insurance

¾ Policies and practices to protect the organization from risks

¾ Protective legal clauses
¾ Insurance

Corporate Filings

¾ Articles of Incorporation
¾ Application for Tax Exempt Status, and related
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11. FINANCIAL PLAN: BUDGET AND FORECAST

Preliminary Steps

¾ Establishing the FY
¾ Software for budgeting, accounting and financial reporting
¾ Chart of accounts

Presentation

¾ Noteworthy elements: revenue, expenses, net operating results, cash flow

¾ Review periods: historical or prior year actual, budget for current year),
forecast for future years
¾ TABLE: BUDGET AND FORECAST BY YEAR

Budget for First Year Operating Plan

¾ Budget spreadsheet
¾ TABLE: BUDGET BY MONTH
 ¾ Participants in budget process
¾ Financial management and controls
¾ Accounting basis, systems and policies
¾ Cash management
¾ Financial management and controls
¾ Financial reporting and auditing

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12. FIRST YEAR OPERATING PLAN

Plan Review

¾ TABLE: LOGISTICAL SCHEDULE

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13. BUSINESS RISKS, CONTINGENCIES AND MID-COURSE

CORRECTIONS
Potential Business Risks

¾ Over- and under-estimations and their likelihood (risk analysis)

¾ Most critical inputs (sensitivity analysis)
¾ Plan for coping with failures
¾ Impact of evolving economic and technological situations

Preventives and Contingency Allowance

Contingency Plans and Mid-course Corrections

¾ Action plans if critical requirements or outcomes unmet

¾ Periodic monitoring and evaluation
¾ Mid-course corrections
¾ TABLE: CONTINGENCY PLANS

Mid-course Corrections
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14. CONCLUSION (OR END NOTES)

15. EXHIBITS
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