How’s your business plan writing going? So far we’ve walked you through the steps to writing out your Business Description, an Industry Analysis, a Market Description, a Competitive Analysis, a Marketing Plan, and an Operations Plan. That means there are only three more components to go: a breakdown of your Management Team (this article), a detailed Financial Analysis, and the summation of the whole plan, called an Executive Overview. Exciting stuff!
In part 7, we’re going to dive into the Overview of the Management Team, which is essentially a breakdown of who is on your “team” when it comes to running your business. If you’re a “solo-preneur,” this section will probably be quite short, although you’ll still want to include advisors or people who are donating and lending their expertise to helping you be successful.
Overview of the Management Team
Here’s a look at whom you should try to mention in your Overview of the Management Team, no matter the size of your company:
The Key Players
If you do have a partner (or two) who is helping you run your business, you’ll want to list them here. For every person you list, you’ll want to include their official title (if you don’t have one, come up with a title that will enable people to understand their role), their specific responsibilities for the business, who their boss is (you?), their educational background, and a description of their experience that relates to the kinds of things they’re doing for your business.
Your Board of Directors
If you have an official Board of Directors who oversees your business and/or provides you with funds to keep it running, list out each member of the Board here, and include a sentence or two about who they are and what experience they bring with them.
Your Board of Advisors
A Board of Advisors is similar to a Board of Directors, except it doesn’t have an official role in the running of your business. Instead, an Advisory Board’s primary function is to “advise” and support you in your venture. List out the members of your Advisory Board, including brief background information for each person.
Consultants
Consultants are the people who you hire to help you with specific tasks related to your business or to support you for a certain period of time, such as a lawyer, an accountant, a web designer, a graphic designer, a press relations expert, and so on. Include a list of the different consultants who help you with various aspects of running your company.
YOUR Bio
Let’s not forget the most important piece of the Management Team – if you’re the founder of your company or business venture, you’ll want to include a 1-2 page biography or “bio” about who you are, what experience you have, what you’re all about, and why you created the company in the first place.
As always, let us know if you have any questions about writing out the Overview of the Management Team for your business plan. Up Next: the Financial Plan!
