Business plan writing is one of the entrepreneurship basics. Many entrepreneurs decide to hire professional business plan writers. In most cases this is a smart move, but since in first phases of business development every penny is essential, saving this money and investing it in your company growth is definitely a smarter thing to do.
Entrepreneurs who decide to write their own business plan need to follow certain form and explain their business in simple terms, so investors can understand all of its potential and profitability. In this article we will try to explain you the basics of business plan writing and give you the foundation for further reading on this topic.
Before you start writing
Various analysis and researches should be conducted before you start typing. Some of these are:
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Analyze the market– determine the profile of your future customers. Inspect tones of demographic and marketing data and determine which people your products will target.
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Establish potential market size– determining your potential market share is the only way to find out whether your business will be profitable enough.
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Legal concerns– before you start your business you need to inspect does your ideas and strategies are in accordance with the law. Tax-laws are especially important. While doing this, don’t forget to take all expert help that you can get. Since business and tax laws defer from one state to another, if you are planning to run business in New South Wales for example, you should ask Sydney-based tax lawyers for advice, or if you’re in Queensland, ask the ones from Brisbane and so on. Try to make it local.
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Identify business needs– Try to pin point basic needs for your business to start running. You might need: initial investments, one or few employees, one or few offices or workrooms, etc.
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Don’t forget the basics– Always give close attention to all the technical details. Every business needs an office, furniture, computers, etc.
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Determine the costs– Count initial costs that you will need for your business to become operative.
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Target potential investors– Do a research about influential and rich people who might be interested in investing money in your business idea.
Ready, Set, Write…
Business plans have established structure and investors who read several business plans a day should know by intuition, where to find information they need. Most of them don’t read the whole plan at first, so you should make it transparent and simple and emphasize the most important parts.
Most business plans contain:
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Title Page- we advise you to make it simple and minimalistic, although its design should mainly depend on your industry.
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Contents– it needs to be transparent and useful for investors who want to jump to certain parts of the plan.
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Company description– this should cover up to one page and it should contain a company overview and list of the services and products it will be able to put on the market.
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Products and Services– products or services that you mentioned in the previous chapter need to be analyzed and inspected here. You should emphasize all of their benefits, you also need to keep it real and mention difficulties you experienced in their development.
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Marketing Plan– it should present your future marketing strategy and describe the ways you will use for presenting products or services to its consumers.
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Operational Plan– this part is very important and it should explain how you will run your business on a daily basis.
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Organizational Plan– here you should explain your business’s organizational structure.
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Financial Plan– investors are mainly interested in financial side of your future business. Compare costs with your predictions about future revenue, and explain them how your idea will bring mutual profits.
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Executive Summary – This is the part where you need to appeal to investors who read the plan and summarize all the benefits that your business will bring.
With good business plan you will be able to attract investors and secure initial funding for your future business. Since we are living in the digital age, you shouldn’t only stick to classic investors. You can also start crowd funding campaigns, which should include various different types of engagement like creative videos, commercials and graphics.