How To Write A Quick & Relatively Painless
Business Plan ...
by: E.SAUNDERS
If you've never written a business plan before, the idea alone can be
overwhelming.
It doesn't have to be the nightmare of your imagination.
Traditionally, a business plan is used to secure funding from a lender or a
potential investment partner. It serves as something akin to your business's
resume, outlining the purpose and scope of your business, identifying the goals,
marketing and management, and establishing a basic balance sheet.
Now, even if you aren't going to seek additional funding, even if you're going
to grow your business by yourself from your office at home, you'd be wise to put
together a business plan. Simply going through the process has value. It'll help
you develop a clearly defined vision of what you intend to do with your business
and how you intend to do it.
These are some of the questions you should already have asked and answered
before you sit down to write your business plan:
What "want" does your business fill, and what service or product will you be
providing to fill that want?
Who will be your potential customer (this should be an established, niche market
with die-hard buyers).
Why will people purchase from you as opposed to the business down the street (in
other words ... what's your Unique Selling Position)?
How do you intend to reach your customers? A storefront? An ad in the phone
book? Direct mail? An Internet campaign? Selling door-to-door? A combination of
these?
Will you need additional funding and if so, how much will you need and how do
you intend to secure it?
Okay, so let's take a look at what you'll want to include in your business plan.
Most business plans are structured to examine four primary areas:
1. Executive Summary - a decription of the business
2. How you intend to market the business
3. How the busines finances will be arranged and
handled
4. How the busines will be managed
Let's take a further look at these.
Executive Summary: what the business will do, its Unique Selling Position, the
business goals, its ownership and legal structure, your skills and knowledge and
how they will benefit the business.
Marketing The Business: describe your product or service, identify your market
niche, how big it is, and how you plan to reach it. Define your customer,
identify your competition, detail your pricing plan, outline how you intend to
attract and convert customers.
Financing The Business: estimate your start-up costs, project your monthly
operating budget for the first year, outline your ROI (return on investment) and
cash flow for the first year, project your income and expense balance sheet for
the first two years, explain how you're going to compensate yourself, establish
who will maintain the accounting records and how they'll be maintained, and if
you're in need of funding, explain how much you need and how it'll be used by
the business.
Managing The Business: how will the business be managed day-to-day, what the
hiring and personnel procedures will be, how the products or services will be
developed and how they'll get into the hands of your customers. You'll also need
to account for equipment the business will need, and how insurance, rental
agreements, etc. will be handled.
That's it. In a nutshell!
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