1. Creating a Simple Business Plan
Jon Kolko Professor, Austin Center for Design

2. Business Plan
A business plan is an organizing document that describes your company’s value in a short, concise manner.
A business plan acts as a grounding summary of your work:
It describes what your company is and what it does
It articulates the value of your products or services
It defines the potential market for your ideas
It grounds your ideas in reality 2

3. What is it?
A business plan is an organizing document that creates an overview of your product or service, and the value you provide.
It’s often a single document or a single presentation
It follows a somewhat predictable format
The goal of the document is alignment and evangelization
It evolves as your company evolves – it is a living document 3

4. What is it for?
A business plan has two primary audiences, and serves several purposes:
Your team
Help you consider your idea from a variety of perspectives
Align your team members around a set of goals and assumptions
Provide clarity around direction
Investors or Partners
Convince them that there is a reason to invest
Explain the value of your idea in a simple and concise way
Help them understand the context of your idea 4

5. What’s in it? Top-line value proposition How it works
What pain do people have that this addresses
Key features
Evidence of market demand
Basic financials
Marketing plan
Team 5

6. For example… 6

7. Austin Center for Design teaches autonomy through making.7

8. How it works 1 2 3
Students take classes in design strategy, social entrepreneurship and innovation from leading practitioners
Students gain confidence in creativity in order to represent complex ideas and solve complex problems
Students learn that they can design their own career course, rather than settling for existing jobs 8

9. 2/ Lack of real-world applicability
Pain points addressed
1/ High cost of tuition
2/ Lack of real-world applicability 3/
Outdated
curriculum 4/
High student to
faculty ratio 5/
No personalized
career advice 6/
Disconnected
alumni 9

10. Creative
Studio Environment 10

11. Supportive Alumni Network11

12. $15,000
Low Cost 12

13. Small Class Size 13

14. Market Demand 24M students $42.5M funding
Intent to monetize content, mentoring, recruiting
$119.3M funding
Massive growth; guaranteed job placement 14

15. Revenue and Growth $15,000 tuition fee 10 student class sizes
$140,000 approximate profit per class, after class 1
$15,000 tuition fee
10 student class sizes
$80,000 fixed expenses
$10,000 incremental instructor cost per class 15

16. Specialty audience = Specialty approach
Marketing
Specialty audience = Specialty approach
Thought Leadership
Alumni Network
Faculty Network 16

17. Team 17

18. In detail… 18

19. Austin Center for Design teaches autonomy through making.
Simple and concise
Makes an implicit (or explicit) promise (“If you buy our product, we promise we will teach autonomy through making”)
Acts as a mission statement
Acts as a prompt for further discussion
Austin Center for Design teaches autonomy through making. 19

20. How it works Supports the top-line value promise Step by step
Still framed as value promise (implied “We promise that you will…”)
Active (“take, gain, learn”)
How it works 1 2 3
Students take classes in design strategy, social entrepreneurship and innovation from leading practitioners
Students gain confidence in creativity in order to represent complex ideas and solve complex problems
Students learn that they can design their own career course, rather than settling for existing jobs 20

21. 2/ Lack of real-world applicability
Describes the problems with the current leading products and services
Sets up the problems, so they can’t be resolved by the Key Features (subsequent slides)
Pain points addressed
1/ High cost of tuition
2/ Lack of real-world applicability 3/
Outdated
curriculum 4/
High student to
faculty ratio 5/
No personalized
career advice 6/
Disconnected
alumni 21

22. Key Features Describes the key capabilities of your offering
Visual, when possible
Select items that differentiate your product or service
Be concise, but be prepared to talk at length about each feature
Key Features 22

23. Shows that there is critical mass of interest around the particular topic
It’s rare that you will ever be the only person in the space; shows that you are aware of the competitive landscape
Market Demand
24M students
$42.5M funding
Intent to monetize content, mentoring, recruiting
$119.3M funding
Massive growth; guaranteed job placement 23

24. Basic financials that illustrate how you will make money
You are not a finance person; don’t try to be. Stick to the basics: expenses, revenue upside, and growth
Be realistic: there’s no way you are going to make a billion dollar company in 5 years, so don’t paint that picture.
Revenue and Growth
$140,000 approximate profit per class, after class 1
$15,000 tuition fee
10 student class sizes
$80,000 fixed expenses
$10,000 incremental instructor cost per class 24

25. Specialty audience = Specialty approach
Describe how you will get your message out
Be realistic in your reach
Avoid things like “We will use google ads and facebook”
Marketing
Specialty audience = Specialty approach
Thought Leadership
Alumni Network
Faculty Network 25

26. Who are you, and why are you qualified to run this company and sell this product?
Team 26

27. Business Plan
A business plan is an organizing document that describes your company’s value in a short, concise manner.
A business plan acts as a grounding summary of your work:
It describes what your company is and what it does
It articulates the value of your products or services
It defines the potential market for your ideas
It grounds your ideas in reality
A business plan contains:
A top-line value proposition
How it works
Paint points
Key features
Evidence of a market for your product
Basic financials
Marketing
Team 27