The importance of a comprehensive business plan for any new business cannot be overlooked, and this importance increases exponentially for a business as complex as a pharmaceutical business. A business plan serves not only as a roadmap for the management team but also as a complete blueprint of what the business will accomplish. This document is necessary if you want to entice potential investors to put money in your new venture.
Critical elements of any business plan include a description of your target market including size, demographics, and current needs. Your product needs to be described in adequate detail to allow investors to understand its impact, without giving away any key intellectual property.
You also need to include a strong exit plan, a plan for growth which includes new products and revenue streams for when patents expire and generics become available, and a plan for operations which is scalable yet able to meet small production needs.
A well thought out Intellectual Property Plan is also a basic requirement for any pharmaceutical business. Plans for a strong patent position in addition to other strategies to protect critical intellectual property must be built into your business plan so that investors can have a high level of confidence.
Another critical element of your plan is your “Go-to-Market” section; this details how you are going to promote, sell, and distribute your new product to the world. You need to describe your advertising plan, your channels, your sales plan, and how you plan to reach your target market. If you have a small niche product, then this plan should be highly specific and show strong knowledge of that specific niche. Your website plan, Marcom plan, and plan for launch should also be included in this section.
What most potential investors will spend the most time reviewing is your set of financial plans, which should include a sales forecast, income sheet, P&L sheet, cash flow projections, and balance sheet. You should have at least five years of growth projected, and know what you expect your headcount and overhead to be in that time frame. Investors will scrutinize this carefully, so if you are not fully confident in creating these sheets, it is best to retain a solid pharmaceutical consulting firm to create them for you after doing a full review of your idea and plans. Each sheet needs to be carefully cross-checked with all other sheets too so that there are no discrepancies from sheet to sheet.
Pharmaceutical consultants can help you plan your new business from the ground up, and can also help you design and build in contingencies for some of the typical pitfalls faced by new pharmaceutical businesses.
They will assess your product plans and target market, and help you create a winning business plan that will excite and entice potential investors. Their experience in this field, as well as their extensive industry contacts, will all work in your favor when launching your new enterprise.
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