So you have decided you are going to show that entrepreneurial flair and start a VR cafe. Now you must decide how you are going to formulate the idea and get it on paper. There is lots to think about in a business plan and it is important you start right. As detailed in Entrepreneur, a successful start to your business will ensure a successful future.
Choosing Your Market
There are a variety of different virtual markets for you to exploit with your venture. Clearly the gaming cafe is the most well known and is the largest market in the sector, but there is an increasing aspiration for those wishing to experience virtual reality to try an escape room.
You may be wondering what they are. These rooms are virtual spaces where users logically and pragmatically solves riddles, search and solve clues and interact with room features to escape to win. Personal pride plays a big part in this activity and they can encourage a returning, competitive customer base who aspire to be the best.
It is not only the very dynamic gaming and escape rooms you could cater for, be sure to capture the virtual reality requirements within education and corporate training. Increasingly these institutions are seeking VR set ups to partake in curriculum training and it is a growing market. Even companies like Walmart are following suit and using this technology to expose employees to extreme situations which would not be safe to practice in the ‘real world’.
The Business Plan
With your idea now firmly decided it is time to write your business plan. Some of you may have never heard of a business plan, in simple terms, it will convey to the world what you are about, how you will operate, who your customers are, how much money you will make and ultimately, is your business a viable one.
But who are you writing the plan for? That’s a simple one to answer, YOU. Your business plan will guide you through the process. Of course, if you grow, you may want to present it to investors or banks so it’s important to get it right.
A good business plan will be anything between 15-20 pages of A4 paper.
Key Elements of Your Business Plan
For your business plan you will need to include several well established sections. But absolutely key is the first impression. Having a professional cover is absolutely essential and it should include your company name, logo, contact details and be dated.
The other sections of your business plan should include:
- Executive Summary
- Key People
- Market Research
- SWOT Analysis
- Finances
- Sales and Marketing
- Operations
- Legal
- Contingency
- Appendices
Business Plan Executive Summary
The Executive Summary for your business plan is arguably the most important part of your business case. It will define 4 key things each person reading it will be focused on. This is;
- Your business and what it will do.
- Who your users will be.
- How you will operate each day and what each of the staff will do.
- Fiscal Summary
SWOT
A SWOT analysis stands for “Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats”. This is an analysis that looks at the internal and external factors that will affect your business. For example a Strength may be you are the only VR escape cafe in your town.
Finances
In your finances you should include the financial projections, highlighting key expenditure and expected dates. One of the most important dates you can highlight is your forecast break even point.
Marketing
The marketing section you should provide details how you have established there is a need for your business and how you will target customers to come in and use your fantastic virtual reality experience.
Contingency
Should technology temporarily fail you, it is important to detail what would do. For example you would have free Wifi, free coffee or vouchers for an hour when the technology is back online.
Summary
Here you surmise your business plan and it is your chance to demonstrate just how passionate you are. This is a really important part for investors thinking about your business proposition, they need to see just how committed you are to success.
Appendices
In the appendices you should include all of the empirical data you used to formulate the data within your business plan, this could be your market research, technical details of the hardware and software you will run and your experience in the field.
Finishing Your Plan
Once you have finished, go over your plan in detail, get friends and families to critique it, after all, it is your plan which will guide your business!