When you are first setting up a business, understanding exactly what you are setting out to achieve can be daunting. But a business plan takes some of that stress away by helping to cement your business idea into achievable goals. It can be as simple as dot pointing your strategy on the back of an envelope or a 30-page report of what your business is hoping to achieve.
However, a formal business plan should consist of specific information that you can present to investors (or a bank or just your spouse) to indicate how your business will succeed.
Your Business Plan Concept
What is the point of the business? In this section, try to outline your plan succinctly. Above all, you should discuss the industry your business will be operating within, what structure your business will take, the particular product or service.
Actioning The Strategy
What goals do you have for your business? When and how will you reach your goals? For instance, do you have a clear set of steps that you need to take to implement your strategy?
The Why – Your Product?
What’s your product’s competitive advantage over the others in your field? Are you a solicitor who specialises in family law? Do you sell vintage merchandise for Aussie Rules football teams?
Similarly, what niche does your business fulfil that your customers need? In other words, provide factual information about your product to your readers, and explain why your customers will want to purchase your product and not those of your competitors.
The Business Plan Market
Who are your target customers? What demographics do your customers primarily lie in? How will you attract and retain enough customers to make a profit? What methods will you use to capture your audience? In addition, what sets your business apart from the competition?
In other words, answering these questions will assist you in planning out your marketing strategy and demonstrate to your investors that you understand how you will be targeting your customers.
Financial Needs
These will be based on your projected financial statements. These statements provide a model of how your ideas about the company, its markets, and strategies will play out.
A report that outlines your business plan is probably preferable to a scrap of an envelope. Still, the main point is working through the business idea in a written form that you can take to your business strategists to formulate a more comprehensive and viable business plan that aligns with your goals.
However, as you write your business plan, stick to facts instead of feelings, projections instead of hopes, and realistic expectations of profit instead of unrealistic dreams of wealth. Facts—checkable, demonstrable facts—will invest your plan with the essential component of all: credibility.
It’s time to start writing that business plan if:
- You have a new idea for a business and want to explore its feasibility
- Your industry is undergoing significant changes and dramatic developments, and you want to map them out for your current business.
- You’re looking to sell your business and want to establish a value for it that facts and figures can support.
- You require financing for your business idea and want to plan out how you’ll expend the resources you’re committing.
If you’re looking for assistance with planning for your business’s future, you can speak with us.
