Bangalore: Kanara Entrepreneurs hosts talk on how to prepare business plan

Media Release

Bangalore, Jul 31: Sachidananda B S, manager-operations, N S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL), Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, gave an enlightening talk on Preparing a Business Plan at the 34th lead members' meet of Kanara Entrepreneurs, Bangalore, at the Hotel Grand Magrath recently.

The talk covered areas like Components of a Business Plan and Sources of Funding and many interesting aspects with the examples of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson and Jameel Shah of Shah Shoes.

He shared some facts like:

65% of Businessmen are First Generation Entrepreneurs

75% learnt Entrepreneurial skills after the age of 21

65% developed business ideas while talking or working with customers and

70% did not start with a vision to grow the business to a large scalable model.

Sachidanada said that studies on successful Entrepreneurs have shown some specific thought patterns and actions being displayed like the Bird in the Hand Principle, Pilot in the Plane, Risking an affordable loss, Creating an expanding network of self selected partners and the ability to transform challenges into opportunities.

He said it is important for entrepreneurs to know Who am I, What do I know and Whom do I know. This would enable entrepreneurs to Interactions, Commitments, New Means and New Goals.

He further explained the concept of Effectuation and difference between the thinking of a Manager and an Entrepreneur, difference between Uncertainty and Risk with specific examples. He explained that a Business Plan is like a map. Hence the qualitative, quantitative goals, the strength of competitors, the other dangers faced by the business and the members of the team were some factors that needed to be carefully studied.

Sachidananda highlighted that planning a Business is more important than writing a Business Plan. He further explained the Business Model Canvas, Customer Segments, Relationships, Revenue Streams, Key Resources, Activities and Partners.

He advised that while preparing a Business Plan it has to be borne in mind that it could be for the use of Investors, Advisors, for Hiring, Initial Key customers and Partners. It is ideal that the CEO prepares the Business Plan. Sachidananda explained how to define a Business Plan, the ideal length, the importance of visuals and the Cost Structure. He advised Entrepreneurs to be clear about Hopes and Assertions. He further cautioned that no miracles happen and to expect the worst.

Sachidananda covered some vital elements of a Business Plan like Cover slide, Positioning, the need the business fulfills or the solution that it provides to a problem, core benefits of the product, marketing, sales support, strategy, Financial projections, Funding aspects, management team and Exit strategy if required for some businesses.

He concluded his talk stressing the importance of having milestones and the activities required to review achievements versus projections. The session ended with an interesting question and answer session.

Earlier, Rufus Monteiro, director Events KE, introduced Sachidanada B S.

Sachidananda B S in this role at NSRCEL, doesn’t just coordinate the operations and finances of the center but also interacts with numerous entrepreneurs. Through his interactions with hundreds of entrepreneurs at NSRCEL he has gained a very good understanding of the entrepreneurial psyche and the process of entrepreneurship.

Prior to joining NSRCEL, he was has founded a consulting company that works with numerous SMEs and helps refine their business processes. He has also taught full credit course at numerous B-Schools as a visiting faculty.

He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Bangalore with a specialization in Entrepreneurship and has done his Engineering with a specialization in Computer Science from National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal.

The meeting started with a prayer.

During the meeting, Peter Anil Rego, initiated the new KE feature - Breaking news – KE Blog which gave an overview of recent government regulations affecting Entrepreneurs. This useful presentation was highly appreciated by the Members.

Charles Gomes the founder president of Kanara Entrepreneurs, Bangalore gave an inspiring presentation on his life story. He covered many interesting and motivating events in his life story.

Mark D’Souza, president of KE Bangalore welcomed the gathering and gave an update on various events. Victor Quadros, lead member KE, proposed the vote of thanks.