Writing a business plan isn’t rocket science, anyone can write one. It is, however, advisable for the founder of a start-up to write the business plan. No one knows your business more than you.
What is a Business Plan?
A business plan is a written document that describes in detail how a business, usually a start-up, defines its objectives and how it plans to go about achieving set goals. A business plan lays out a written roadmap for the firm – from marketing, financial, and operational standpoints.
In its simplest form, a business plan is a guide – a roadmap – for your business that outlines goals and details how you plan to achieve them. A business plan is necessary because it gives you and investors reasons why your business is worth starting.
The first person a business plan should convince is you.
What Should be in a Business Plan?
Of course, a business plan can be all encompassing, from ideation of unique selling point to providing a comprehensive insight into the value proposition. However, it is important some key elements are factored when prepping a business plan. According to SBA.gov a business plan should contain the following:
- Executive Summary
- Overview and Objectives
- Products and Services
- Market Opportunities
- Sales and Marketing
- Competitive Analysis
- Operations
- Management Team
- Financial Analysis
A good business plan elucidates these key elements in such a way that anyone reading it will have an understanding of what the business is all about. It should be convincing and factual.
Who Must Your Business Plan Convince?
You!
The first person your business plan should convince.
Investors
Your business plan should convince potential investors enough to give you their money.
Partners
Your business plan should be able to convince potential partners to team up with you.
Skilled Employees
Without a solid business plan, you won’t be able to convince talents to join you. You need something to show that you are still in the startup phase.
If your business plan convinces you that your idea is worth your time, energy and resources, it might convince other people too.
Must Have in a Business Plan
Executive Summary
The executive summary gives a brief overview of the contents of your business plans, it contains your business purpose, goals, mission statement, and focuses.
Overview & Objectives
The overview of your business might be difficult to write if your business is still in the ideation stage, however, it is relatively easy if your business is operational.
Product & Services
This is where you sell the benefits of your business, the information here includes what you do and what you intend to sell it for.
Market Opportunity
Your business plan should carefully analyse your customers’ demographics, buying habits and willingness to purchase new products or services. This will give you a heads up and expose you to the market opportunities, as well as threats, that will inform and influence your decisions. A SWOT analysis will be helpful.
Operations & Financial Plan
Take your readers through how you intend to run your company, how your day-to-day operations are going to unfold, paint a picture they can relate with. You need to make your readers comfortable about logistics. Also, your financial analysis should contain your cash flow analysis, profit and loss analysis, and break-even analysis.
Management Team
This segment contains your organization chart. it should give a detailed explanation of how the operation plans flow and the system it revolves around. It is expected to have the positions of the management team and their functions clearly listed. Current Employee roles and/or (known) future hiring plans should be included in the structure.
Now that you know what a business plan is and how it affects your business, follow the steps above to write a winning business plan for your startup business, and you can also contact Talku Talku team to help you write a winning business plan that converts.
One Comment
Thank you for sharing this.