Not having a well written plan for your business means that you have planned to fail. So it’s important you discover how to write your business plan to prevent your business from liquidating in posterity.
Seeking to write a business plan is a good thing, it means that you have a business idea which you are ready to develop so as to bring the idea to live and make profit from the business. A good business plan is a prerequisite for achieving the company’s goal.
How to write a Business Plan
Business plan can be seen as stated aims and objective that an organization works with so as to achieve its organizational goal. Wikipedia define business plan as a formal statement of business goal, reasons they are attainable and plans for reaching them with the details of what is needed to achieve the goal.
It is a precise statement about a business course of action and do not have to be written in 100 pages to prove to investors that you have done lots of research as most investors no longer have the time to read bulky write ups any more.
So what exactly do you want this business plan to achieve? Are you soliciting for funding? Do you need investors to come on board or you probably want a plan to keep your business on track?
If you are soliciting for funding you may have to explain how this business that needs funding will be able to realize profit and pay back its debt in posterity.
On the other hand if you are writing for your consumption it is pertinent you write the business plan in a step by step manner so that you will not encounter problems exhibiting the plan.
Who prepares a business plan?
The question of who has the competent authority to write a business plan arises often. Should the management of the company assign the task to any of its staffs or employ a professional writer to do the job? Any of the options that you adopt will require you to update the writer with enough information about your business plan so that they can do a good job in preparing it.
One thing you must bear in mind when making your business plan is the changing economy which happens to be the greatest influence on your business.
If you write a plan without taking cognizance of how far the economy can change, everything will come crashing on you. Then also, it will be over-zealous to assume that all your initial plans will be correct. It is not a scientific process.
A simple business plan should include the following
Executive summary
Your executive summary is the first opportunity that you have to grab a potential investor’s interest and should include your
Mission statement.
Explain every details of your business. What does your business do, what kind of customers does it plan to satisfy, take your time in explaining all these.
Information of your company
Information like when your company was formed, the names and roles of founders, where the company is located are supplied here.
Product or service rendered.
Give details of the product produced or the kind of service rendered by your company.
Make a summary of posterity plans
In the next five years where would your business be? Explain this in your business plan.
Company description.
Here is where you provide information on what your company does, what section of the population will your business serve? You are suppose to provide further details such as
1. Specify the member of the population who are prospective consumers of your product or service.
2. Give details of the nature of business and list the market need that you will satisfy
3. Show how your product or service meets this need that requires satisfying.
Market analysis
The basis is to determine the attractiveness of the market. Details to include in this section include
Industry description and outlook
Give detail information of the current size and historic growth rate of your industry
Information of the market size
Market size may be evaluated base on current sales and on potentials sale if the use of the product were expanded.
Information of market profitability.
Different firms in the market have different level of profitability but knowing the average profit potential for a market is effective in predicting how difficult or easy making profit could be.
Organization and Management.
Details of the ownership of your company, your company organizational structure, qualification for the board of directors and your management team are profiled in this section of your business plan
Every business has its on kind of management structure so it’s not pertinent that your own should be akin to others. Not forgetting that good management is the key to success should torchlight your decision on the kind of personnel that you want to install as managers of your company
Provide detail information on each department or division. This information may seem unnecessary to you but it is necessary to investors that will be reading your business plan as they will want to know who is in charge and why they are the best persons to occupy that position.
Assess the S.W.O.T
Explore the internal and external factors that might affect the business organization. The internal factors are the strength and weakness internal to the organization. The external factors are the opportunities and threats presented by the environment.
So it is said that if you know your self and your enemies you can will a hundred battles without a single loss.
Knowing your SWOT will help you define the chances of survival that your business have.
Strength in this matrix represents the characteristics of the business that gives it advantage over others.
Weakness Characteristics that place the business at a disadvantage in relation to others
Opportunity These are the elements that the business could exploit to its advantage. So what consideration are you making? Does your organization have exceptional skills that others don’t have? Is there a government policy that favors your business that doesn’t favor others? Example is when you enjoy patent over an invented product for some period of time.
Threats element is the environment that could course trouble or be a disadvantage to the business.
Legality.
Your business can not do without the laws and policy that regulate the conduct of business as well as consumer protection and right. Explain how the product your company will provide is not illegal in the country or harmful to users and prospective customers.
Hope this business plan writing guide helps you create one for your business and help it grow to a higher level. Have you created one for your business yet? If not do it right away!
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