• How-to

After broadly explaining your business, the plan must move on to the market and how you are best placed to take advantage of it. You must be able to convey, in crisp language, that you understand your market well enough to know what strategies will work best there.

Show off that research
You remember that mantra about research? Yes, the one that says you can never research enough. Follow that mantra and churn out the best market analysis possible. Your reader should be able to clearly see that you have done your homework. The analysis forms the foundation of all the strategies you are going to put forward. Begin your market analysis by defining the market in terms of size, structure, growth prospects, trends and sales potential.

Zoom in on your target
It is time then to dive in further and scope out your target market. You need to zoom in on this so that your company can be positioned accordingly. To do so, you need to take into account several factors such as geography, demography, product orientation and purchasing trends. This helps in narrowing down your total market to your target market.

But what is really your market?
The target market is one thing; the feasible market is entirely another. Once the target market has been detailed, it needs to be further defined to determine what the portion of that market really is. This portion is often defined as that segment of the market that can be captured provided every condition within the environment is perfect and there is little competition. But then, we know that that’s possible only in Utopia. There will always be factors that create gaps in the market.

Your slice of the pie
Your readers will be keen to see if you are able to estimate market share with reasonable accuracy for the period of the plan. While estimating your share is an exercise with no set influencing factors, it is important to note that your distribution, pricing and promotional goals will play their part in determining that share.

Who are you?
You must be able to clearly define how you are going to position yourself in the market. Depending on your target market, your positioning strategy needs to point out exactly how you want your product perceived by both customers and the competition. It should be able to meet your customers’ requirements and counter your competition’s offerings. This strategy should be communicated in a crisp statement and not elaborated in detail.

This is the fourth of a multi-part series.

©Entrepreneur May 2010

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business plan, write