Every business should have a well-defined business plan. Your business plan will provide the guidance that you want to take your business to the next level. Let’s take a look at the steps that you need to follow when writing your business plan.
Executive Summary
The executive summary is the first stage in drafting a business strategy. Include everything you’d discuss in a five-minute interview here.
Describe the basics of the proposed business: What will be the name of your product? Who will be your clients? What are the names of the owners? What do you think the future of your company and industry holds? Make it upbeat, professional, thorough, and succinct.
Business Description
Following the executive summary, offer a brief description of the business you intend to start. You must include a basic description of the industry in which your company operates. You’ll discuss your company’s mission statement, goals and objectives, business philosophy, and legal ownership structure.
Describe your company’s most critical assets and fundamental competencies. What variables will contribute to the firm’s success? What do you believe your primary competitive advantages will be? What are your own qualifications, experience, talents, and qualities that you can contribute to this new venture?
Marketing Analysis/Plan
After the basic description, the next item to write is your marketing strategy. Market study is a crucial foundation for every marketing plan, whether it is for a new or current firm, and it will assist justify the sales estimate. Existing firms will significantly depend on historical performance as a predictor of future results. New enterprises have a tougher problem, since they will rely more heavily on market research conducted through libraries, trade groups, government statistics, polls, competitor observations, and other sources. Make sure your market study is relevant to determining the feasibility of your new business and the accuracy of your sales estimate in all circumstances.
Location
It is critical to write down your company’s location. Locations with more consumer traffic tend to be more expensive to acquire or rent, but typically require less advertising to attract customers. This is especially true in retail establishments, where foot traffic and accessibility are crucial.
If you’re running an online business, you’ll want to think about how you’ll get people to visit your site. General remarks like “I’ll employ Facebook advertisements and email marketing” won’t aid your case nearly as much unless you have a comprehensive statistical analysis of testing you’ve run or another similar firm you’ve worked with. If you don’t have any data to base your estimations on, it may indicate that you didn’t give the rest of your business strategy enough attention.
Competitor Analysis
Business is competitive by nature, and few firms are brand new. If there are no rivals, be cautious; your items may not have a market. Extend your understanding of competitiveness. If you want to establish the town’s first roller skating rink, you’ll have to compete with movie theaters, malls, bowling alleys, and other businesses.
Management and Operations
Because management issues are the major cause of business failures, discussing management qualities and structure is critical. The principals’ resumes should be included in the supporting material. List these essential persons and their qualifications if your company will have few workers and rely significantly on outside expertise. Include personal financial accounts for all of the principals in the supporting data section if you’re looking for funding.
People
A company’s capacity to attract, develop, and retain competent employees is critical to its success. The importance you place on this portion of your strategy will be determined by the quantity and type of personnel you need.
Financial Statements Projected
These statements are typically useful, but they aren’t required. Throughout your Business Plan, you will build and define your business strategy. You’ll need to produce predicted Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow Statements in the finance portion to evaluate the financial effect of those methods
Summary
In this section, you can attach or explain any details that were not included in the preceding sections. This part should contain the financial accounts of the principals engaged in the firm, as well as any additional information you believe an investor would find useful.