When starting a business, there are many things that we need to consider. As an example, we may need to put many pieces together, so we could start to create a fully working business operation. Without proper plans, we could be overloaded with so much information that we could get easily confused about many things. In essence, business plan is formal document. It contains a number of ideas that we can put together in a highly logical sequence. Just like when building a house, blue print is entirely necessary. In this case, business plan is our first step in starting a business.
Our business plan should be both workable and realistic. It should outline different aspects, including financial summary, market statistics, industry performance and others. Like the common saying, if we fail to plan, it means that we are planning to fail. Many business owners create plans only when they seek start-up capital or financing for their business. In reality, business plan is essential, regardless of whetherwe are looking to get external financial helps or not. Bankers and investors need to understand our plan before they provide us with capital, but it’s more important that we are able to effectively implement what’s stated in the business plan.
Once we write the business plan, we will have a complete picture of our business, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. There are also financial and legal considerations that need to be taken care of. This will allow us to completely understand our business and we could define the framework of our business operations before jumping ahead. There are important elements of that should be included in business plan. As an example, we should have executive summary and it is a critical aspect for our business plan. Investors could reject our business plans if the executive summary isn’t properly written.
Executive summary could be a one or two-page summary of our entire business ideas. We should also include things like financial projections, risks, involved personnel, competition analysis, market analysis and the actual implementation of the plan. Although executive summary is placed in the front, it must be written last. The first thing that we should write is the company or business overview. We could start with the brief business overview. We should include enough details on the history of the business and its type of entity. We also need to include mission and vision statement, ownership structure, objectives and the actual funding request.
There should also be descriptions on products and services in our business plan. This section should be able to explain to reader about products and services we are proposing to sell. Detailed products and services descriptions may contain benefits, features, competitive advantages value propositions, where and how the products will be produced and serviced. This is an essential thing if we want to ensure that investors are interested with our products and overall services.
