How To Write a Business Plan Part 6 – Your Product Slide
Summary
Part 6 of How to Write Your Business Plan where I give you an easy to fill in the black formula to build your Product Slide.
This is where it starts to get exciting because we’re talking about our product and how it solves a problem for the customer.
You’ve given your elevator pitch, set up the problem your product addresses, given a solution, now you show where your product or service is the solution.
I explain exactly how to do it in this episode
A full transcript of the How to Build Your Product Slide episode is below
Hey, everyone, welcome to another episode of Build a Business Success Secrets. I’m your host, Brandon C White. And today we are on part five of our series of how to write a business plan in 13 easy to build slides.
We are on part five heres where we’ve been so far. We went over slide one, which is where you give your elevator pitch and set everything up. We went through your problem slide, where I gave you a formula on how to build that form inside very easy. We’ve set up a problem that we have vetted that a lot of people have.
Then we went into your solution slide, and we talked about how to set that solution slide up in that we don’t talk about our product quite yet, and now we are on to our product slide where we actually talk about our product and we show how that solution is something that our product provides.
Now we’re really also into the meat and potatoes of our business, So there’s a ton of other questions that behind the scenes you need to answer as it relates to your product. Now we’re really getting into the meat and potatoes of our business and our product.
Whether that product is an actual physical project, a digital product, a service, whatever that is because we’re on a podcast and I can’t give you this worksheet. I’m actually going to go through a list of questions that you are going to need to answer about your product, and you’re gonna need to answer these because you need to build your product and you’re gonna have to answer them to actually build your business.
So let me lay a few of these on you so that you can start to think about them. And you may already have answers to these, which is great.
So let me start. If you have a physical product, do you have the manufacturer? If, yes, Do you have a backup manufacturer? Because if something happens to that manufacture, which has happened to me in the past, you don’t want to scramble when you may have orders to fill, and then you wind up in this mess. So do you have a manufacturer? And if you do great, Do you have a backup that you’ve already talked to and that could manufacture your product if you don’t have on get one.
Did your manufacturer give you pricing based on size of order you place so that you can start to understand what the economics of your product or service or, in this case, physical product looks like? What are the discounts available on pricing? Are there any If you’re going to manufacture the product yourself? What are all the materials you need? What is each of the costs?
I used to make fishing flies and have a spreadsheet even to this day, where I know how much the hackle cost a new hot should the hook cost and how much the eyes cost? I knew how much the package costs. I knew how much in that package. What the plastic on the outside cause everything. I knew everything.
And that’s the detail that you want to get. And here’s why. Because all of these types of answers to these types of questions are going to go into your financials. Eventually. It all flows in there.
You can’t miss this stuff, and you don’t want to leave it to chance.
Does your products have a shelf life? If yes, How long is it? What is the shipping cost to get your product from the manufacturer to your warehouse. Do you have a warehouse where those costs look like? How do they charge you? Do they charge you a set fee and then a per unit fee? If you’re going to drop ship them.
Does your warehouse have cooling and heating? What is it look like? Does that cost extra? What did the payment terms with your manufacturer? Can you get Net 60? Is it net 30? How much do you have to put up front? If you’re building it, your product overseas? Do you hold some of that money back so that when you get the shipping and there’s a problem, you have some sort of leverage? Can you make your product on demand?
My brother and I learned that the hard way with T shirts, and we had inventory got stuck with inventory because it made the wrong bet on the wrong size is wrong color’s wrong designs and eventually got to an on demand model. So it can you do it on demand.
Can you outsource the on demand? What are the top three risks with your manufacturer? Do you have those listed? If you don’t, list them out.
These are all the things. Now, all of these answers to these questions Don’t go on your slide. These are all back up things that hopefully you’re listening, you’ve already figured out.
If not that, you need to figure out if you’re building the product yourself. Do you have someone who can help take images of those products? A lot of the times we get these products. And then how are we gonna take pictures?
I realize that early on, when we did a product company and found a photographer who would take thes professional pictures because professional pictures in general are going to sell better. These are all the types of things, and we could go on and on.
I have a whole list here, probably about 30 questions. 40 questions that you need to answer. But hopefully you’ve already going through some of this. And if not, you’re gonna want to get the answers to them.
Now, let’s get to your slide itself because I want to keep these podcasts short for you so that at least you have a jump start and you have a first version of your business plan.
The actual slide is going to have a picture of your product on it and or a video, and you are going to tell a customer story of which here’s cool part. You’ve already set up because in our first three slides we started to tell a story. We gave a summary with the hook.
We then set up a problem that either people can imagine or no. Then we plotted a solution, and now we’re gonna show how our product is the solution that we set up and talk about a story where that product actually came to life and solved for either yourself or someone else.
A lot of the times we as entrepreneurs solve problems for ourselves, and then we figure out by testing these things, if it has a broader reach, that could potentially turn into a big business for us.
So again, this slide is really simple. A few tips when you are giving the presentation to anyone, whether you’re giving it on a sales pitch, an investor pitch to your team, a lot of people will start to give out samples, and I think that’s good.
But you have to realize, if you’re in a time constraint that could take a while. So it’s all about the meeting that you’re in. And what is the goal that you want to get out of that meeting? If it is an investor meeting, you certainly want them to see the product.
If it’s your first meeting, how much time do you really want to take? Because if you have something, you start passing around. Here’s the thing. They can’t listen to you and look at your product at the same time and we’re giving a presentation.
You want to command control of the audience that they’re paying attention to you. This is why you don’t put 50 words on your slide is why you don’t use 12 point font.
People should not be reading your slide. You should have your slide is a reference and a key, but they should be paying attention to you, and you should be talking about what is on that slide.
In this case, it’s your product. So just think about these things about the audience that you’re giving it to and the context. But again, Now we are in the meat and potatoes of our business, and in our next episode we are going to talk about your market opportunity and how to do that slide correctly.
90% of the people that I see to it absolutely incorrect and you will lose credibility. And not only will you lose credibility if you’re giving it that way, but you will also not have a very how should I say this good, comprehensive success potential plan to actually go execute and do your sales and marketing strategy.
So tune in the next episode where we will get you set up your market opportunity.
In the meantime, build your product side. That was pretty good. Right now you have a jump start to get your product slide done. Get to work on that before the next episode so that your teed up for doing your market opportunity.
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