From the course: Creating a Business Plan

Deliver your product

From the course: Creating a Business Plan

Deliver your product

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- The next section of your business plan needs to lay out product or service delivery. How are you going to get your product in the hands of your customers? If it's a product, who's going to ship it? Are you going to ship it direct through the post office or UPS or Federal Express? Are you going to sell your product through retail? If it's a service, are you going to go to the customer? Are you going to deliver your service remotely? Are you going to have the customer come to you to be serviced? And then, once you've laid out how you're going to get that product and service to them, explain the operational hurdles and challenges you'll face, as well as how you're going to get over them. Let me illustrate some of the different ways that you can discuss getting your product or service to your customers. ScottsMiracle-Gro, which is mostly a consumer packaged goods company, has multiple channels and multiple products and services, which requires them to have a multi-channel delivery approach. For some of their products, their delivery strategy is through retailers. They sell their products at large retailers, and those consumer packaged goods are picked up by consumers in the store. Another one of their businesses is direct to consumer, so the consumer goes to the website, they order, and then it's shipped directly to them. In one case, Scotts owned some retail stores, so they owned the channel that they were selling product through, as well as the location where customers were coming to get that product. And one of the businesses they had was a service business, and that service needed to be delivered at the customer's location, because it was a service for their lawn. Each of these different channels had its own operational challenges, and they were clearly spelled out, and the business was designed to overcome those challenges. Make sure you lay out the channels you're going to use to deliver your product or service and how you're going to overcome the challenges you're going to face.

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