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BUSINESS ADVISOR
decision points along the way, at any of which potential investors may
or may not decide to continue with a venture. The idea is to guide and
accelerate your process. Here's a look at the 10 essential steps to any
feasibility study.
1. Executive summary
Financial feasibility reports are often long, detailed and, well, boring. Your boss, board members, surgeons, management company
reps — they're busy people, and they don't want to thumb through a 10-page report to find the salient points.
Put the end at the beginning of your report, which should be no more than 1 page. It's a summary, the 1-page overview of the report
that provides the major findings of your report, and is concise and non-technical. Your readers should know whether they lean toward
yes or no on the proposal without having to read the rest of the report details.
2. History of the study
This is where your report actually begins, so give some background on what it studies and the reasons for doing so. If you're analyzing the financial feasibility of outsourcing your billing services (or switching from paper to linen or whatever), you might explain, for
example, that you've been approached by or contacted a company that provides this service; that they have made appealing claims X, Y
and Z; and that you have concerns about the efficiency of the current
state of your billing. Provide reasons why this is the case. For example, you might explain that billing staff are falling behind with
increased surgical volume.
3. The goals of change
