This is a case study of the process employed by the Schweiger & Associates team to create an investor business plan for one of their clients.

1. Case Study:
Making an Investor Business Plan
Challenges facing the client We brainstormed with the
entrepreneur and his team to answer
some basic business related
Our client, an entrepreneur and questions. Some of them are
venture capitalist, was passionate mentioned below.
about a new business concept, had
done some secondary research and
 What is the most compelling
had prepared a draft business plan.
value proposition of this
He envisioned that China and US
business concept?
It is important for S&A to
could largely benefit from his understand the vision and
business service and hence several  What value (tangible and
intangible) will this service bring
passion of the entrepreneur
investors will back it up once they
are presented with a solid business to customers and promoters and be convinced about the
plan. He believed that his research alike? concept to write a
was thorough and that he needed a  What are the sources of his compelling business plan
professional company to translate his research and how current is the for the investor.
thoughts, ideas, and research into an information?
executable business plan that could
be presented to investors for funding.  Why target China first? Why not
Thus, he was referred to the any other country?
Schweiger & Associates (S&A) team  Have they discussed with any
to help him overcome his challenge. prospective customer if they
would be interested in this
Our Initial Assessment service and how much will they
be willing to pay for it?
In a situation like this where  What are some of the personal
entrepreneurs are involved, it is and professional reasons that
important for the Schweiger & the entrepreneur is passionate
Associates (S&A) team to about the business?
understand the vision and passion of
 What in his opinion should be
the entrepreneur on venturing into
the market entry strategy and
this business. Other than having a
why?
good business idea, it is important
that the entrepreneur believes in his  Are there any investors that he
own idea and is committed to it. Also, has in mind that he wants to
it was important for the S&A team to approach first and why?
be convinced about the concept to
write a convincing plan for investors.
©2010 Schweiger & Associates  www.SCAAS.com 17 Sweetspire Dr. Elgin, SC 29045  803.622.2659
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2. After spending several hours Project Scope:
together over two sessions, the client  Validate draft business plan
and the S&A team concluded that: through secondary and primary
research
 The business concept was
innovative enough that it’s worth  Prepare a concise and
everybody’s time to pursue this actionable business plan and 5
further. It was important for the year financial plan
S&A team to believe in the  Advise on appropriate market
business concept to deliver a entry strategies
good quality product. Our intent
was not to just make a business  Present a financial package
plan; we wanted to make this proposal for investors
business happen!  Research and profile key
investment firms to target
 The existing research material
was dated. We needed to get
current information. Hence, it Market Validation
was important to conduct
secondary and primary research Since the S&A team believed in the
and get direct customer viability of the business concept, we
feedback. There is nothing more dived into understanding the market Our intent was not
convincing than the customer further to validate the below to just make a
saying that they would like to information:
have this service and that they business plan; we
will pay for it.  Market size, revenue,
wanted to make this
 It was required to research on profitability, key players, growth business happen!
investment firms that will be drivers, key success factors, and
interested in supporting a more
business venture like this one  Market pain areas and
and get their relevant contacts. challenges that could justify the
need for this business service
Deliverables Finalized
 Estimate the tangible and
intangible benefits that the value
One of our key tasks at chain will gain by the business
service
Schweiger & Associates is to
help businesses understand Since the initial target market was
what they need to make their China, there were several challenges
business grow profitably. that we had to overcome.
What are the kinds of information,
 Information about the current
tools, and processes that they need
dynamics of the Chinese market
to be armed with to succeed?
was not openly written about or
Finalizing the deliverables is the
readily available. Also, a lot of
most critical aspect of any project so
information was in Chinese
that the expectations between each
which made the task even more
team are set appropriately to ensure
difficult.
complete satisfaction of our
customer.
©2010 Schweiger & Associates  www.SCAAS.com 17 Sweetspire Dr. Elgin, SC 29045  803.622.2659
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3.  Being a new concept, there was Even though the interview process
no market precedent of anybody increased our estimated timeline for
trying this concept and hence this project, the client understood the
there were "technically" no rationale for our actions and realized
competitors. We had to think and the efforts that were being made to
brainstorm about who could do a thorough job. It is always better
become a potential competitor to do the job right first time around
once the business concept was instead of doing patch work later!
proven and was viable.
 Since the business concept was
The primary research helped the It is always better
business plan drastically since it to do the job right
a more efficient way of achieving
specifically addressed the areas that
the same result, the challenge first time around
were most critical to the success of
that we had to answer was will
this business concept: instead of doing
the people in China change their
patch work later!
way of working to be more
 64% of the respondents
efficient or there were any
confirmed that they face the
specific reasons why they would
same issues which we had pre-
want to stick to their old
empted.
processes.
 56% of the respondents were
With so many issues at hand, the
open to try the new business
best way to answer the above
service.
questions was to conduct primary
research into the Chinese market  Respondents further confirmed
and get the answers ourselves. the existing business model and
a few of them even proposed a
 We researched on obtaining new business model that could
contact information of be more efficient for the industry.
prospective interviewees who
could possibly answer our
With a solid backing of secondary
questions and help us
and primary researched information
understand the market better.
we were able to write a solid
Interviewees included industry
business plan for our client. A typical
participants, authors of related
format of our business plan is
books and articles, and people at
highlighted in our blog "Writing a
industry forums.
Solid Business Plan".
 We hired a bi-lingual resource One of the biggest
that could translate our The Financial Plan challenges with
questionnaire into Chinese and this business was
also conduct interviews in that there was no
Chinese where people where not One of the biggest challenges with
comfortable to talk in English. this business plan was that there precedence of a
was no precedence of a similar similar business or
 We tried to connect with relevant business or concept in any industry.
people in the US who had
concept in any
Everything had to be estimated and
connections in China. "Guanxi", rationalized to make this business
industry
which means "connections" or successful.
"relationships”, is very important
in China and it helped us open a
lot of doors.
©2010 Schweiger & Associates  www.SCAAS.com 17 Sweetspire Dr. Elgin, SC 29045  803.622.2659
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4. Some of the areas that we worked justified profit, if it grew as planned.
on extensively included:
The financial plan was completed
Business Model with short-term and long-term cash
Given the business concept, we flows, P&L statements, Balance
created the business model that sheets, customer ROIs, and Investor
would be most efficient for the ROIs up to the satisfaction of
customer and the business. It is industry experts and the
important to understand how and entrepreneur’s team.
when the cash will flow through the
business and who will be the Investor Research
stakeholders at each stage.
Based on the probability of success
Sales Methodology
we focused our research on
This is an important piece of any identifying investors from three
business. Especially in a service- groups of firms – private/public
oriented business, the sales price is companies that could benefit the
not so easy to determine as it is for a most from the business service,
product-based business. venture capitalist and banks that
Additionally, if the service is openly fund new businesses in that industry.
priced, it is easy for any customer to About Schweiger & Associates
Other than identifying the right set of
understand the cost structure and investors, we also ensured that our We are a team of experienced
then bargain on the price paid. consultants with both applied and
client understood their deal process
Service-oriented businesses need to academic strategic management and
and history and the key players organizational expertise who are
be compensated based on the value within each firm. For each committed to helping executives and
gained by the customer and it should prospective investor, our team their managers and employees build
not be based on the traditional model sustainable profitable organizations.
provided insights on the approach
of cost plus profit. Value-based and strategy specific to each We accomplish this by providing life-
model is also difficult to comprehend investor. cycle strategy solutions across the
and hence it gives businesses a solid Ideation, Validation and Execution
competitive advantage. Along with phases. There are five key areas in
Final Results which we offer solutions:
the entrepreneur, the S&A team
innovated a pricing mechanism  Strategy Development Solutions
which was simple enough to justify Our client, an entrepreneur and a  Strategy Execution Solutions
the value to the customer and at the venture capitalist was happy to
 Strategy Leadership Solutions
same time it was difficult enough for receive a comprehensive and
 Market Research Solutions
competition to duplicate our business professional set of documents that
model anytime soon. included a thorough and actionable  Mergers & Acquisition Solutions
business plan, financial plan, and
Expenses other relevant presentation materials
Reach us:
This was an interesting piece of the for prospective investors. We
financial plan. We formed a panel of continue to advice and guide our Dr. David Schweiger, President
industry experts and brainstormed client as they actively seek funding. David@scaas.com
with them on all possible expenses The aim of the Schweiger and
that one would need to make to run Associates team is to always ensure Vishal Khushalani, Vice President
the business cost-effectively. Every that our clients succeed in achieving Vishal@scaas.com
expense was estimated that the their goals which gives us the most
business would make in the near satisfaction than anything else.
term and long term and still make a
©2010 Schweiger & Associates  www.SCAAS.com 17 Sweetspire Dr. Elgin, SC 29045  803.622.2659
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