How to Write a Winning Business Plan – Part 2: Products and Services

business planPut yourself in the place of potential investors when determining how to describe your product or service.  An investor would want to know what you offer and why it’s better than what’s already available on the market.  How is your product or service new and different?  If the product or service is not yet on the market, has it been tested and what were the results?  Explain costs, pricing, and future plans for the business.  You may also discuss barriers to entry and why a competitor won’t be able to easily duplicate your product or service more cheaply.

Example:

iWidget Pro allows individuals to easily set up web businesses in the fast growing online gaming industry.  The revolutionary product quickly energized commerce in the online gaming industry, while frequent updates to the software continue to improve ease of use.

Once a customer’s business venture is established, iWidget Next and iWidget World allow him or her to significantly enhance the venture’s game offerings, and can be tailored to meet entrepreneurs’ specific business objectives.

The iWidget products are priced to match current and projected future demand with supply and production costs.  Currently, each package costs $35 to produce and is offered at $56.

Unlike other desktop publishing software products, iWidget’s products are the only software products available that are tailored to meet the specific needs of online gaming industry entrepreneurs.    Other software makers have products that can be adapted to the online gaming industry, but they lack the advanced technologies that allow gaming websites to operate smoothly and quickly add new games.  Because of the specialized online gaming industry knowledge needed to develop software products for this market and the length of time needed for product development and testing (3 to 5 years), no competing products are anticipated in the near or medium term.