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Business Plan

If you need help in writing a business plan then you've come to the right place. You are probably wanting to write a business plan for a variety of reasons which we won't go into here. We are going to provide you with a simple business plan that has all the necessary headings as well as explaining those headings. We've also provided some other useful text to go with this to help you even more along with links to articles to help beef up your business plan. You can then add in your own text where needed in order to help craft your own business plan to suit your particular needs.

So let's start with writing your business plan...we start off with the executive summary...

Executive Summary

Your executive summary ought to be written at the end (even though it must be found first in your business plan) once you have done all the ground work in preparation of your business plan - it is after all intended to be a summation of your business. This is the page that will grab the attention of the reader and make them appreciate what your business is about. By and large it ought to provide the reader 3 years highlights of your business or longer if you come up with a more long term business plan - i.e. when the shareholder(s) are apt to start seeing some profit on their investment. The executive summary should refer to the major players who are ready to help run the business and generate the proceeds for the investors and if any additional management will be required in the process. Click here for more free advice on how to write your executive summary.

Business Objectives

As the executive summary generally includes the breakdown of the first three years - your objectives should in addition be set out for your first 3 years of operation - this may well be a small number or may perhaps be to a great extent more meticulous - it's totally down to you, on the contrary having unrealistic goals to reach for your business in an unrealistic timeframe will put possible investors off rather than them being impressed at your towering objectives. Read more about business objectives.

Mission

Some people see objectives and mission as the same thing but they aren't - objectives are there for you to meet your mission. The final mission of any business should be to sell it! If you can build your business up to sell it whilst keeping some shares then you will have done well. To attain your definitive mission you will probably require a quantity of smaller missions - these may possibly be to attain a certain turnover, to reach a certain number of clients, to trade a certain number of units of a product or service and your objectives are there to meet this mission.

Check out some of these example mission statements before you have a go at writing your own mission statement.

Keys to Business Success

You ought to tell people how and why your business is going to be a triumph - if you cannot think of something to put in writing here then you are doomed. Even if your remedy is purely that you are going to work harder than your competitor - then at least that is something...but you will need to back it up with some confirmation especially if you are looking for investment in your business.

Company Summary

Here you should put in writing a simple arrangement of your business over the next 3 years unless you have a long term plan.

Company Ownership

Just note down who is going to own the business and allocation of share ownership and voting rights for and allocation of share ownership and voting rights for the shares - it's quite common for someone to hold part of a company but have no say in how that company is run. You need to declare if the business is a limited company, private, public or if you are a sole trader.

Not sure which business structure to go for?

Location(s) and facilities

Where is your business going to be trading from and why are you going to be trading from this place - you may perhaps not be capable of giving pinpoint address at this early stage but you ought to narrow it down as much as you can, as obviously this will have a critical impact on your business. It is by and large effortless to get premises for any business specially in this climate with so many businesses going out of business, but getting the suitable business premises for the right money is a different prospect entirely.

Read more about business premises.

Start-up Summary for your Business

Before you start trading it's a good idea to have a business bank account and you are also going to have to choose a new name for your Business.

Before you can promote any products or services you need to write down precisely all of the equipment you are going to need and if you are going to need any capital in order to pay for all of these items. You may well need to modify your start-up summary depending on your fiscal condition - so you may desire specific equipment but not be able to come up with the money for it until you have sold a few units of product / service.

Start-Up Costs

This is a simple list of stuff you need to buy and stuff you can bring into the company if you already have possession of them before your business can start operating. If you don't have adequate funds you should also include who is going to grant this money to get your business going.

Visit this page for more typical start up costs.

Investment

If you don't have enough money you should add in the total investment you are going to require and also involve the breakdown of the parties that are going to bankroll the investment. Add in the equity being given away to fund this or loan agreements in order to finance the agreement. Will you require a small business bank loan? If you cannot get a bank loan don't worry there are alternative methods for funding your Business.

Services

Describe the services if any you are going to offer.

Service Description

Describe in extra detail how you are going to deliver these services if any and how you will present these services differently compared to your competitors.

Future Services

It's important you look ahead in your business and deliberate how it may alter in the future, this means your business will be more adaptable in the future to variation if you have already planned for it. Also you may well be able to grant selected services in the future when you have purchased a selected piece of equipment or your company has adequate patrons to make it a viable project.

Products

List your products.

Product description

Some of your products might not be totally apparent as to what they are - or you may well have some unique product or method of selling it which is special to similar businesses; so bequeath the fine points here of how your products vary if at all from your competition.

Future Products

It's imperative you look in the future in your business and deliberate how it can adjust in the future, this means your business will be more flexible in the future to revolution if you have by now planned for it. Also you may perhaps be able to supply selected products in the future when you've purchased a specific piece of equipment or your company has sufficient patrons to make it viable to provide a particular product.

Market Analysis Summary

You ought to add in the succinct highlight(s) of how your business is going to be marketed.

Get free Marketing Plan advice.

Market Segmentation

Who is the target audience for your products and services? You may well consist of age, sex, location and additional factors within the segment. Try to avoid putting "everybody" as it is hardly ever the case - if each person can make use of your service or product then at least attempt to say more of one segment of people will likely purchase from you than another and state the reasons why. Good market segmentation can help you with your marketing strategy.

Target Market Segment Strategy

Once you have highlighted your target audience you then need to say how you are going to advertise to this selection of people. There ought to be primary methods of doing this as well as secondary and tertiary methods. Obviously some methods are liable to be more expensive than others and some are going to be more cost operational than others. You may modify your plan over a period depending on various factors of how your business operates.

Want to know more about Target Market Segment Strategy?

Market Trends

You ought to write if your particular business sector is buoyant at this instant or if it is flagging. What can you do to benefit from any upswing in the current trend; or exhibit what you are going to do to back up any downtrend in the present market trend. Try to include up to date statistics and not just your gut feeling. You can involve proceeds, how many businesses are in this particular sector, potential patrons to the business and whether these facts are going down or up. You can moreover comprise your own surveys of info within these. Regional libraries can provide information like this for no cost as well as research on the web - even though you will need to be careful of how exact this information is and how old the information is.

Service Business Analysis

This should basically be how your business is going to be run on a day to day business. By doing this you may unexpectedly realise you are missing members of staff that require to do several jobs that you had not catered for, or you may need part-time staff for certain essential jobs at particular times in the day. Additionally by analysing how the company is managed on a day to day business and what resources you need to make one red widget or service one red widget can help you assist you in working out the price you will need to charge.

Competition

Who are your most important competitors to your business and how are you going to modify your company in comparison to them so that your company can succeed in the long run. You also need to think when your business comes along - what are they expected to do in retort to you opening up - you might not like the answer.

Buying Patterns

Are the products and services you are providing seasonal to your clients or seasonal for you to get. If so then you will need to keep up fluid employee levels - this can be hard if you need highly educated employees for short periods. You also need to make sure you have cash flow if you are going to keep up staff levels and pay all your operation outlay whilst there maybe no or inadequate money coming in throughout the slow down.

Strategy and Implementation Summary

What is your common stratagem to make your business a winner and how will you attain this?

Marketing Strategy

What are the real ways you are going to use in order to market your business to your existing and would-be clients. You can also add the expenses involved in doing this and strategies involved in reducing your marketing expenditure and how your marketing strategy can target your customers better. For instance if you are using Pay Per Click as a procedure to target clients you may perhaps employ long tail keyword search phrases preferably than succinct generic words. This should bring down your PPC expenses as well as laser targeting your patrons; although it will of course take longer to set up. Read more about marketing strategy.

Pricing Strategy

How did you work out your price points services and products? Are you going to use cost-plus pricing, limit pricing, loss leaders, market-oriented pricing, penetration pricing, price discrimination, premium pricing, predatory pricing, contribution margin-based pricing, psychological pricing, dynamic pricing, target pricing, absorption pricing, high-low pricing, marginal-cost pricing, odd pricing, freemium or pay what you want pricing?

Check out this article on pricing up your products

Promotion Strategy

What promotion strategies are you going to apply to get the word out concerning your services and products to your potential patrons - are you going to do media releases, run events, networking, sales pitches, follow-ups, have promotional products?

Business Competitive Edge

Do you have some benefits above your rivals that you can exploit to your benefit? Are you able to keep your overheads lower than your competitors so that you are constantly the cheapest? Do you have a superior position? Are you the first or the only one to supply a product or service? Are you capable of staying ahead of the rivalry and if so what enables you to do this? Do you have a good identifying mark, trademarks, patents or a licence?

Web Strategy

Are you just going to have nothing at all or an all singing and dancing website with bells and whistles on? In most case it is going to be something in-between these two, and you ought to consider long and hard where your business is going to position itself. You can pay a quick visit to this website and get more info about putting your business online.

Sales Strategy

How are you going to pick up sales for your business in the first place and how are you going to grow or sustain sales as time goes on? How much are your sales going to cost you? Make certain you know what questions to ask of your potential customers and know the answers to likely questions they will ask you. How are you going to build up a connection with your patrons to get prospective sales from them? How are you going to observe your sales? Do you want to increase your sales?

Formulating a good business proposal will increase your chances of getting a sale. Use these sample business proposals to assist you.

Management Summary

Management Team

Who are the major players in your company?

Organizational Structure

What is the hierarchy of your company - who is in charge of each division in your company?

Personnel Plan

This should be a roll of every person in your company, how much they are paid and what if any share options they have for now and in the future. You can also add what type of contracts they have, short and long term and whether that is likely to alter in the future or not.

Financial Plan

Will you bring all your own funding or will it be a mix of your wealth, bank loans, or angel investors?

Break Even Analysis

How long will it take to get your investments back in terms of capital outlay through sales of your products and services. You ought to represent this in a graphical format. You can obtain free breakeven analysis including a spreadsheet and simple examples.

Profit and Loss

You can denote this usually in the form of a monthly and yearly bar chart as well as tables. Clearly these should be revised as your business goes along on a monthly base. You can obtain a free profit and loss spreadsheet to assist you.

Cash Flow

You ought to have charts and tables to explain your cash balance and your net cash flow.

Appendix

This ought to embrace all your vital information which makes your business tick. This ought to be your business financials - so all your tables of numbers, tax returns, inventory estimates and personal and business credit history information. The information in the appendix is highly confidential and should only be given to likely investors.

Exit Strategy

How exactly are you going to sell your Business?

Specific business plans

We also have over 6000 business plans listed in our easy to find listings from 24 hour and DVD and Video Hire to Zumba Tuition.

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Your business plan ought to involve the following...

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