Chapter 7. Entrepreneurial Thinking and Storytelling
中文參考課件:
Contents:
Business plan and Storytelling
Writing a Business Plan
Entrepreneurship Roadshow
Objectives:
Understand the basic contents of the business plan
Preparation process and structure of the business plan
Entrepreneurial thinking and storytelling
Writing a business plan
Understand entrepreneurship roadshow
7.1. Business plan and Storytelling
What is business plan?
Business plan is an outline – in a formal manner- the overall ‘ blueprint’ for the business.
Business plan is a key component of the success or failure of a company whether new or established.
Business plan also a communication tool designed to inform, guide sometime sell the business concepts to the third parties
If you seeking funds and want to attract investors the business plan becomes significant.
Three common types of BusinessPlans
Plan for financial management
Plan for supply chain management
Plan for internal management
The financial application plan is to attract potential investors.
Plan for equity market Plan for bankers for debt financing
A supply chain plan is for your product positioning, market, customer-supplier.
The internal plan is for your internal organizational system.
The vision of entrepreneurs should be included in the business plan.
Power of storytelling
Stories provide meaning, create context, and evoke a sense of purpose. Humans have always told stories and a vital part of daily communication.
Storytelling is a strong business skill for entrepreneurs. When you come up with an idea of your business there will be a story behind it.
Tell this story and provide the context so your customers /stakeholders understand why they are investing in it. Storytelling helps the audience connected with you so they trust you.
Every story has a structure, an introduction, a call to adventure, a contrasting middle where good and evil often battle it out, and a resolution, a business plan is no different and leads the reader through in exactly the same way:
Presentation of the situation and the characters (Presentation of the business idea and the promoting team)
Problem to be solved (Problem to resolved)
Setting the scene (Socio-economic, competitive, etc. analysis)
Development of the characters(Internal analysis)
The action (the Marketing, HR, and operations plans)
The resolution (the financial plan)
Stories that work
To be successful, each and every story must demonstrate the following two things
1.Authenticity
Your story must be authentic and true-each and every one of them, all the time. If you tell fake or steal stories, you will lose the trust of the audience.
2.Purpose
Sharing stories is about having a purpose. Why are you sharing this story? What does it prove? How does it relate to the business situation you are in? It means your story must have a clear message to the target audience.
Four ways to effective storytelling
1.Followthe structure of storytelling basics
WHY: Knowing the part of the story will make it easy for you to plug in your information
Storytelling is a craft in which the broad outline is given. The basic structure of a story can be the set-up, the development, and the resolution.
The structure or template of storytelling can be straight forward, however finding that researches your audience, engage their emotions, and helps you make your point is hard.
2.AskRight Questions
WHY: the right questions will guide you as you weave the facts into an interesting tale
To figure out the set-up, development and resolution answer these questions
Who is/are the "character(s)"?
This doesn't have to be a person--it can be a product, or a team, or a research project, etc.
What do they want?
Or, what do the people involved with the product, team, project, etc., want? What would make everyone "live happily ever after"?
And why can't they have it?
Again, focus on the people. Even if the answer to this question is complicated, try to break it down into generalities that are easy to understand. Who are the "good guys" and who--or what--are the "bad guys"?
3.Add suspense to spark interest.
Why: When people aren't sure what is going to happen next, they are more interested in what is going to happen next.
Suspense is the essential ingredient of a story, even a short personal one. It drives the narrative, and its most basic form is, "How does the story turn out?" Try some of these ways to create it:
Set up an expectation for your listeners, an expectation that isn't satisfied. That'ssurprising, and creates suspense.
4. Make the abstract concrete.
Why: People like things that are plain. If you give real-life examples to help people understand complex situations or data, they can "connect."
Don't just dump a bunch of dry data on your listeners. Build a story around the whys, when, hows,etc., of the data.
That will help your listeners grasp what all those numbers, graphs, and charts mean.
Also, they will be able to put them into a context because you'll be giving them a framework.
