Writing a business plan is not an easy task, especially if you are starting a small business with little to no funding. However, it’s important to do it before you begin investing in equipment or marketing strategies.
A well-written business plan can help potential investors evaluate your company, determine whether or not they will contribute money to start up production, and what kind of investment you need. It also helps you organize your thoughts and creativity about how to run your business.
Business plans typically have two main sections – one that describes the project and the other that talks about who will be involved and what resources there already are for the product/service. These descriptions and bullets make the document flow more easily; therefore, stay organized by writing both quickly!
Another key part of this article is the importance of defining your goals. A goal without a plan is just a wish, which may come true, but probably won’t. Define what you want your business to achieve so you can connect all the necessary steps to get there.
The first thing you should do is to make sure that you know what you want out of this plan. You will need to be very clear about both short-term and long-term objectives.
It’s impossible to write a business plan if you don’t have any goal! And it’s also hard to achieve your longer term goals if you don’t know what you wanted in the shorter term, which usually covers one year.
So now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about some easy ways to start writing your business plan.
After you have determined your business idea, it is time to craft an appropriate business plan. This will be your springboard to launch your venture!
You do not need professional help writing your business plan, but you should know what types of businesses use a formal business plan as their framework. Many small business owners hire professionals to draft theirs because they do not feel confident in their own business skills or they want more detail than just an overview.
Either way, doing it yourself gives you flexibility to edit and add onto your plan as needed. You can also share your plan with others if you like by having them review it. Make sure to keep it private however so people cannot access all the details.
There are five main parts to a business plan: company description, mission statement, goals, strategies, and financials.
The first two items under the company description section are establishing who your business will benefit and what area of the market your business will target.
Next comes the mission statement which describes why your business exists and what makes your business unique. Your goal here should be to describe one or several key benefits that your business offers over other similar competitors.
After the mission statement, go into some brief, general objectives such as increase sales, expand current client base, etc. Depending on the size of your business these may be short-term (six months) or long term (one year).
Starting your business does not mean closing yourself off from the world! You will need to connect with other people to help you achieve your goals.
Running a business means interacting with different types of people, which can be a challenge at times.
But don’t worry, you are not alone in this. There are many ways to approach meeting new people, including through social events, groups, conferences, and more.
By connecting with others, you’ll find that most people have things they love doing and want to keep doing them. This way, you can create a job opportunity for themselves by offering their services to you or buying what you sell.
The hardest part about marketing is keeping up with the trends. Make sure you are looking into all the right resources and learning how to use them effectively.
A business plan is not just about making a pie-in-the-sky goal of having a successful business, it’s also about planning how to make that dream come true. You need to establish some basic financial goals first, such as paying off debt or saving up for your business.
Having a sound financial base will help you achieve your bigger dreams. Starting with small, achievable ones will give you momentum and keep you motivated.
You can add onto this list as your business grows. For example, if your business wants to expand, you could look into investing in more equipment or additional marketing tools.
Writing a business plan is not an easy task, especially if you have little experience with it. Before starting to write yours, you must first do some basic research and learning about how to create one.
There are many free templates online that can be used as a basis to start writing your own. Many of these come with instructions so that you can easily modify them to fit your needs.
By doing this, you will also get good tips and tricks from other people’s plans! All too often we feel like we have to develop our own original idea, when in fact there are lots of great ideas out there that have been done before.
Take time to look into what has worked for others, see what features they had and which ones were missing, and then add those things to your plan.
You may even find someone else’s plan template that you could use as a base to expand upon.
The first step in writing your business plan is to create an organized company framework or template. This framework can be designing yourself, but most people use the three-box structure we will discuss here.
The three boxes are: mission/purpose, key leadership roles, and then the executives of the organization. Make sure to include enough space between each box to make it easy to add additional details.
In this context, the “executives” refer to anyone who makes up more than two thirds of the board of directors (CEO, president, vice presidents, etc.). These individuals usually have significant power so they should be included as part of the organizational leadership section.
Typically, only one person belongs to the executive group, unless there are multiple positions with major responsibilities. In that case, you could list them all under the title of CEO or President depending on what best fits the position.
The second part of creating a business plan is establishing an organizational framework to manage your business! This includes deciding who will be involved in the business, what position they hold, their responsibilities, how much equity they have in the business, etc.
You do not need to include every person with jobs in the business in this section, but you should consider including at least one other individual per department or job position. This way, each employee has someone they can talk to about responsibility, growth strategies, and overall career guidance.
Also, think about whether you want to keep everything totally private or if there are certain people outside the organization that should know some key information. We recommend keeping it as simple as possible unless you feel more confident then.
Once all these components are established, the next step is to determine who will help contribute to the business by offering services and/or products.
Now that you have determined what your business is, and where you want to take it, it’s time to write down how you are going to get there! A good first step in writing your business plan is to make sure your ideas and goals are clear.
It’s very easy to brainstorm all of the different ways to grow your business, but then once you start organizing those thoughts into something cohesive, things can get tricky.
That’s why it’s important to be as thorough as possible when thinking about the next steps in your business. Make sure to include everything from “How will I market my product?” to "What processes will I use to produce my products?" All of these parts should go together to form one strong concept.
After all, part of being successful is having a solid process that keeps you moving forward.
