Tips to Help you Write a Good Business Plan: Step by Step Guide

Every business must have a well-written business plan in order to grow and meet its goals. Business plans have many advantages which every entrepreneur should know. A business plan does not only help you evaluate the growth rate of your business, it also helps to ensure that you don’t lose track and target. Business plans help you plan before hand, how your business will survive hard times that are bound to occur in future. It is just like a road-map that tells you when you are missing track and how to raise enough capital for your business. Investors always request to see a company’s business plan before they invest. A good business plan helps you define your market and how to reach them. Before you can write a good business plan, there are some helpful tips you need to know. That is the sole aim of this business article.

Key Elements Aspects of a Good and Attractive Business Plan

It is good you know some inevitable aspects of a standard business plan. This will help you know if your company’s business plan is standard or not. Also note that the parts of a business plan might slightly vary, but these key elements helps to ensure that your business can survive any future challenge and also meet your set goals, at the expected time.

Always remember that a business plan should be written before the commencement of a business. This will help you avoid many business mistakes many young entrepreneurs make. Then you can update it if you have a slight change of plan. But you can also write yours even after you have started the business. It gives you the opportunity to know what is involved in the business and then make adequate provisions for the tools to help you meet customer demand and competition in your business field.

See:

Here are Some of the Key Elements of Any Business Plan:

Executive Summary

This is where you summarize other key elements of a business plan. Investors first skim through the executive summary of any company’s business plan before deciding if they will invest or study it further. Alejandro Cremades gave a concise executive summary template.

Company Description

Here is where you give a detailed explanation of your company, its purpose, mission and vision. Another thing you must not forget to present is the physical location (for businesses that have physical location)/website URL.

Organization and Management

Concisely write how the company was formed; the founder(s) and co-founder(s). The various departments and how each is managed. Also give a list of Board of Directors.

Market Analysis

Make an extensive research on your industry and then explain your market and then your top competitors. In general, explain in detail, your company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT analysis).

Products or Services

You now explain the products your offer or the services you render and their prices or service fee(s).

See:

Marketing and Sales Plan

Explain how you wish to market your products, that is the different channels and strategies you use to reach your customers. Reveal your marketing budget here and also show the statistics of the effectiveness of your marketing strategies.

Operational Plan

This is where you prove that you really understand your business field. Enlighten investors on the latest technology you use, how you manage your supply chain, etc.

Funding Request

You show the result of a forecast of the amount of money you will need to meet your target. Also tell them how the funds are invested.

Financial Projections

You need to carefully analyze your past financial statements. Prove that the money you invested in your business will yield enough money to earn a decent return for your investors and also enough for profit. Make sure analysis is realistic.

Appendices

This is where you provide in other information, documentation and references that didn’t fit properly to any of the key elements of a business plan. Some of these documents include: resumes of founders, co-founders and other top-ranking executives. Other documents are licenses, contracts, trademarks and patent registrations, copies of insurances, etc.

Check:

Helpful Business Plan Tips for Young Entrepreneurs

Research and Understand your Product(s) and Market

Make out enough time to carry out extensive research about the business you are venturing into. Understand the product and services your are planning to offer. Also study how your competitors are thriving. This will help you write an attractive business plan.

Create a Detailed Company Profile

This is where you reveal the history of your company, your products and services, your sales and marketing strategies, etc. There are many recommended places you can publish your companies profile. You can include it in the About Us page of your company’s website or add it in your social media page. When you have a good company profile, you will find it easier to write an attractive business plan.

Always Consider your Audience

if you really understand the main reason why are writing a business plan, then you will consider your audience. Always know that different categories of investors might come across your business plan. Never assume they will really understand all the terms you used in the document. Explain all terms explicitly. This will help you attract more investors.

See:

Make your Business Plan Realistic

You must not be too optimistic in order to write an attractive business plan. Investors know that every business has challenges. All they want to know is the strategies you use to overcome these challenges when they come. Never tell them that there are no challenges.

Make it Concise; About 18 to 25 pages

Never write a bulky business plan. No investor will spend the whole day studying your business plan. Know the key elements of a business plan and concentrate more on those areas. They are the areas investors might want to spend more time to study. Then summarize the less important elements. Although there is no specified number of pages a business plan should be, but about 18 to 25 pages is cool.

Give your Business Plan a Professional Formatting and Proofreading

Make out time to format your business plan. Know the write colors to combine. Proofread it and if possible, give it to someone else to help you do the proofreading. This is because there are some mistakes your eyes and sense might not detect.

Source for Professional Guides from your Business Mentors

Most times, you need the help of someone who is already successful in the business field to write an attractive business plan. They will teach and advice you from experience. Do you want to find professional business mentor and business plan templates? Check out Score.

See:

Conclusion

What is your next step? If you already have a business plan, use these tips make make it standard and attractive. You can now start developing a business plan for your company if your company does not have one. Always feel free to add your own ideas. The tips in this article is not rigid because ideas change with time. A change in technology might make some other business plan tips very crucial. So always check other resources online.

Use the comment box to add your own contribution or ask questions. Share this article with your social media friends. Enjoy!