 Welcome to New Precious Plastic Video. Today we're going to be talking about the business plan template, which is a tool to take the information that we outlined in the action plan and the workspace calculator and roll that into a full long form business plan. Which really has two purposes. One is to clarify the idea for yourself and for your team, as well as be able to communicate this idea to potential funders. It's especially useful for grant applications, which is what you should always think about before moving on to a bank loan or an investment. So this template is an easy to follow framework for writing your plan. What we do is that we give you the headers in the organization, ask you some questions in each section to get you thinking, and then you fill in the rest based on your business idea. If there's other things that you feel like should be included, feel free to add them, but for now let's get into it. So we start with the cover page, which is where you should name your business as well as provide your logo if you have one. If you don't have one, you can use the precious plastic logo. And then on the next page you list your contact information so the reader knows where you're located and how they can get in touch with you. The next section is the executive summary, which is where you should quickly and concisely make a pitch for why someone should be funding you. So you're going to want to quickly explain the problem and the solution you're providing. You can do this in just about one or two paragraphs. The next section is the mission section, which is where you want to do three main things. First, you want to talk about the problem in more depth. Next is talking about your solution. And then third, you want to include your mission statement to tie it all together. I'm going to spend the most time, I would say, talking about the problem. So outlining why plastic waste is an issue globally and then as well locally. And then what your unique solution is to this problem. And then you want to kind of end with talking about your mission statement. For example, the problem could be that there simply is just no plastic waste of recycling infrastructure in your city. So your solution could be that you're setting up a collection in a sorting system along with a precious plastic shredder to more appropriately handle this material and keep it out of the built environment. Your mission could be then to clean up your local environment as well as provide quality waste management services for your town. The next section is the team section, which is where you should outline who's involved with the project, what their experience is, and then specifically what they're bringing to the table. If you have a picture, you should include that here. And it's really your chance to build some trust with the reader, showing that you have the right people and skills to successfully succeed with your business. If you're running this business alone, you can make this section just about you and your experience. The next big section is the market analysis section. And this comes from the right side of the action plan. It's where you're going to describe where the market is currently, how you're going to enter it, and then what differentiates you from your competitors. The first section is your products and services section. This is where you're going to talk about all the different offerings that you have in detail. If you have any pictures or sketches of your products and services, please include those here. That's going to help build some visual story for the reader. And it's important for you to talk about what similar products are out there and then what differentiates you. So this is building the story around your competitive advantage, which is at the core of any business. You should also include some information here about the total available market. Or if you were able to provide 100% of the products and services in this space, what the dollar value would be. The next section is our target groups. So we already outlined these in the action plan, but now's your chance to talk about them in more detail. How many potential customers are there in each one of these groups? You should also show what research you've done. So either out in the field, so talking to these people in person, or any online research that you've done as well. One important thing that you should talk about here is whether you're targeting customers directly or other businesses. You could be doing both, but I would say in general it's better to pick one or the other group. The next section is our engagement or our marketing section. So here's where you want to talk about what specific channels you're using and how many customers that you can reach with each one. For example, if you're using social media, which platforms are you using? You also want to include a rollout plan. So which mediums or channels are you starting with? And then how are you going to expand that over time? And what's your timeline? The next section is our sales channels or where you should describe what your sales channels are. So how are you selling your products and services through what mediums and why you chose each channel? And try to relate this back to your target groups. The next big section is the operations section. And this is the left side of the action plan. And it's where the reader should come away knowing how the business is actually functioning. So the next section is our key resources or the most important machines, tools, and people for us to successfully deliver on our mission. So here you can talk about, for example, why you chose the injection machine. Which advantages does this have for you? You should also talk about here which permits and licenses that you need to be able to successfully operate. Next up, key activities. So these are the key actions that you need to do really, really well to successfully succeed in your mission. So here's where you can talk about your production process or your service delivery process. So really describe this for the reader. How does this whole thing work about running your business? And how does your team's skills relate back to this process? Next is our running costs, which we already outlined in the action plan. But here's where we can list them again, talk about them in more detail. And then explain to the reader how we're going to make sure that we keep these costs down over time. Next up is our collaborator section. So here's where we're going to talk about the organizations and the people that are outside of your workspace that are going to be helping you. So talk about what it is exactly that they're bringing to the table and what the status of that relationship is. For example, you might have some letters of intent for a potential supplier or a customer that you want to include in your business plan. The next big section is the impact section. So here's where we're going to talk about the different outputs that we have from our business. And the first output that we have is the community output. So here's where we're talking about how we're going to be helping our global and local community. So is that going to be through jobs and economic development? Or is it going to be through cleaning up the local environment? You should describe this in detail what it is that you're bringing to your local area, as well as how you're going to contribute to the precious plastic community. You should really be thinking about also what your impact measures are or how you're going to know whether or not you succeeded in your community area. The next section is the planet. This is where we're going to talk about our environmental impact and how we're going to contribute to living in a more sustainable way. It's also important to think about our impact measures here or how we're going to know whether or not we succeeded in impacting the environment. One example of this would be to talk about the number of tons that we recycled on a monthly or yearly basis. The next section is our income stream section. So here's where we're going to describe in detail your revenue model. So think back to the action plan. We'll be right down there. Was it product sales, workshop ticket sales, or machine maintenance fees? How is it that we're going to price each one of these products? So you outline that in the Workspace Calculator. You can include that information here. Do you have any different models for pricing your products and services? If so, describe that here. The next section is our financial section. So here's where we're going to give a whole financial picture based on the information that we learned in the Workspace Calculator. First, talk about the investment costs that you will need to get started. You can find this on the cost sheet of the Workspace Calculator. You could copy that table over, add a total sum, so that the reader understands what it is that you're going to need to get started. Next, describe what type of money that it is that you're looking for. Is this grants, awards, a bank loan, or investments? Describe why you've chosen this different avenue and how you intend to achieve that. Next, you're going to copy over the profit and loss statement in the cash flow analysis from the Workspace Calculator. This is going to show a financial overview for the next one to three years. So the last section is the legal structure section. So this is where you're choosing what legal structure you're going to use for your organization and talk about why. So there's lots of different legal structures in every country. Choose the one that meets your needs the best. So this could be a traditional business, could also be a social enterprise, or a B Corporation, or a not-for-profit, or an association. It really depends on your local situation, your country's tax rules. But do some research into these different organizational structures. See which one meets your needs the most. At the end of your business plan, you have an appendix, and this is where you can attach any documents, pictures, or graphs that will help build your case for why someone should be contributing to your business. And you can refer to this appendix throughout the document if you need by just pointing to that specific item in the appendix. That's it for our video on the business plan template in our three-part series of how to get started with a precious plastic business. If you have any questions, please post them in our community platform. And for now, I'll see you in the next precious plastic video. Ah, young Chuck McGill-Pertra! Before you go, we just wanted to let you know that precious plastic runs by the support and fund of people just like you. Everything we develop is posted online, open source for free, so people from all around the world can help us tackling the plastic waste problem. If you are able and willing to help us, please visit support.preciousplastic.com and find a way to help us, or you can make a donation there.