The 12-Minute Business Plan: Thanks ChatGPT 🚀
Starting a business is exciting, but one of the most daunting tasks is crafting a solid business plan. For many entrepreneurs, this is a huge roadblock that often delays progress. But what if I told you that with a little help from ChatGPT, you could create a comprehensive and solid business plan in just 12 minutes? ⏱️
I’ve assembled this tool (csv file below) and used it to assess several ideas. It really did take me 12 minutes to use the prompts to collect the data from ChatGPT. There are definitely limitations, which I will discuss below, like hallucinations, so it is important to read over and edit the entire plan with a critical eye and really think about each item. 🤔
While in the past, the Business Model Canvas was seen as the quick business planning resource, it is far less comprehensive with way more weaknesses than this 12-minute plan.
Why This is Useful for Startups 🚀
The 12-Minute Business Plan is not just a time-saver; it’s a game-changer for startups looking to scale quickly. Having a streamlined process for planning allows you to:
- 🚀 Launch new products faster
- 🔄 Pivot quickly based on market feedback
- 💰 Be ready for raises from investors or accelerators
- ⚠️ Manage risks comprehensively
The 12-Minute Business Plan Framework: A Quick and Efficient Guide 🔑
This framework isn’t just a theoretical exercise; it’s a practical guide that helps you organize your thoughts, assess key business elements, and quickly gather the information you need to move forward. In fact, many investors and startup accelerators recommend that entrepreneurs use similar if not identical resources (e.g., the Go to Market Strategy). These resources cover everything from risk assessments to customer considerations, which will give you a broad view of the challenges and opportunities before jumping in.
With the template I’ve put together and ChatGPT as your “intern,” you can be assured that you’re creating a plan that has covered critical business fundamentals and is built with an efficient and data-driven approach. 💡
Streamlined Information Gathering ⏳
Time is precious when you’re starting a business. ChatGPT helps you harvest information from the web quickly and efficiently. It saves hours of manual research, allowing you to make informed decisions without wasting time on endless searches. The 12-Minute Business Plan template is about making sure you have considered potential risks before taking the leap. ChatGPT can help identify possible hurdles so you can plan ahead and ensure you’re not caught off guard. 🧠
What can it do? Comprehensive Resources to Cover All the Bases 📋
A good business plan ensures you’ve considered all aspects of your business before diving in. The 12-Minute Business Plan encourages a comprehensive approach to your startup’s strategy. This includes all the key components investors and accelerators want to see, such as:
- Market Opportunity: What problem are you solving, and is there a real market for your solution? 🌎
- Customer Segments: Who are your target customers, and how well do you understand their needs and behaviors? 🎯
- Revenue Model: How will you make money? ChatGPT can help brainstorm possible monetization strategies tailored to your product. 💵
- Cost Structure: What are your startup costs, and how can you manage them effectively to stay profitable? 💸
- Marketing and Growth Strategy: What are your go-to-market tactics, and how will you engage with your audience? 📈
By addressing these critical questions quickly, you ensure that you have a well-rounded business plan that investors can rely on. Each of these areas helps minimize risk by prompting you to think through both the challenges and opportunities of your venture.
What can’t it do? Hallucinations and direct industry experience 🤖❌
While ChatGPT is a powerful for quickly generating ideas and gathering information, it does have some limitations in the context of the 12-Minute Business Planning tool. One major drawback is its tendency to produce hallucinations—inaccurate or fabricated information that can appear convincing but is not based on real data or verified sources. Additionally, ChatGPT lacks direct industry experience; it doesn’t have personal insights from years of hands-on experience in specific sectors. This means it can’t provide nuanced, in-the-field advice or real-world lessons that an experienced industry professional might offer.
The hallucinations are particularly bad around the competitive landscape items, fabricating companies out of thin air, but it’s easy to Google them and check. 🔍
Therefore, while it’s an excellent resource for generating broad strategies and frameworks, it’s important to verify key insights, especially when making decisions that depend on specialized knowledge or real-world experience. For further confidence in data, you can ask ChatGPT for references and then check those references on the web (because sometimes it will hallucinate the references!) 😅
What resources does it use? 📚
Here are the key resources you’ll be using to create your plan:
- Business Model Canvas: A visual framework to outline key business elements (e.g., value propositions, customer segments, resources, and partners) on one page, helping you structure and visualize your business model clearly.
- Business Plan: A comprehensive document that details your business goals, strategies, financial forecasts, market research, and risk assessments, often used to attract investors and guide execution.
- 3-Year Budget: A financial plan forecasting revenue, expenses, and profit over the next three years, helping you manage cash flow and resource allocation while setting realistic financial goals.
- Pitch Deck for VC Investors (Sequoia Capital Format): A concise presentation for potential investors, outlining the business idea, market opportunity, team, financials, and growth strategy, typically used to secure venture capital.
- Mullins Test: A strategic resource used to validate a business idea by analyzing the market opportunity, product offering, resources, and financial model to assess its viability and potential for success.
- SWOT Analysis: An assessment of the business’s internal strengths, weaknesses, external opportunities, and threats, helping you identify areas to leverage and improve for strategic planning.
- PESTEL Analysis: A framework for evaluating the external macro-environmental factors (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal) that could impact your business strategy.
- Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis: A model for analyzing the competitive forces in your industry, including the power of suppliers, buyers, threats of new entrants, substitutes, and industry rivalry, which can inform strategic decisions.
- Competitor Analysis: A deep dive into competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, products, and market positioning, helping you identify opportunities and threats while refining your business strategy.
- Risk Assessment: The process of identifying, evaluating, and prioritizing potential risks that could affect the business, allowing you to mitigate those risks through planning and strategic action.
- Market Analysis: A detailed study of the market conditions, target audience, competitors, and trends, helping you understand the demand, identify opportunities, and refine your marketing strategy.
- Go to Market Strategy: A comprehensive plan outlining how you will introduce your product to the market, including target customers, marketing channels, sales strategy, and timing, aimed at gaining market share.
- Action Plan (First 3 Months): A tactical roadmap detailing the specific tasks and milestones for the first three months of business, including product development, marketing, sales, and operations, ensuring an organized and focused start.
Fantastic! I’m ready to use the tool! 🎉
Here’s that CSV file with the ChatGPT prompts to use: Download the 12-Minute Business Plan CSV
You can open the CSV in Excel or Google Sheets and copy each prompt one by one and paste them into ChatGPT. Just fill in your business idea in the square brackets. Then remember to copy and paste the business plan into the question each time. The answers are better when you do this. 👩💻
Here’s a worked example showing my business plan to bring back Tiddlywinks: Download the 12-Minute Business Plan CSV
It’s raw data – simply copied and pasted from ChatGPT, so that you can see where certain items work or don’t work due to hallucinations. 🤖
The 12-Minute Business Plan: The Ultimate Time Saver ⏳
With this tool, you’re building a smart, data-driven plan that covers all critical factors. With such a template, you can start your business confidently, knowing that you’ve considered the important risks, target audiences, product offerings, and marketing strategies that will make you stand out. 💡
The future of business planning is here, and it’s faster, smarter, and powered by AI. Thanks, ChatGPT! 🙌