Starting the business plan

At this point you should have a pretty good idea of what your business is and what you hope to accomplish. The next thing you need to know is what information is important for a business plan.

The basic business plan outline

• Cover sheet
• Business summary
• Table of contents
• Organizational plan
• Marketing plan
• Financial analysis and documentation
• Supporting documents

Your first steps to a good business plan

Cover sheets are simple and fairly self-explanatory. Note that some information may not be available on the first draft, just put as much information as is available.

The information contained on a business plan cover sheet

• Name, phone number, address (or website) of the company itself.
• Name, phone number, address, and title of the owners or corporate officers.
• Month and year the plan was written.
• The name of who wrote the plan
• The draft number

The executive summary, and table of contents are at the beginning of a business plan but generally you write these sections last since you’ll need to know what your plan is before you can summarize it.

The first section of an organizational plan

The Business summary

The business summary is an overview of your business. Explain what you are selling, why you decided to form the business, as well as long-term & short-term goals. We shall now cover in detail what is included:

1)The Mission Statement

Once you have decided on your goals you will need to write out a mission statement. In a few paragraphs spell out exactly what your goals are, the direction you are planning to take the company and your company’s ideology.

A mission statement not only gives you something to refer back to as a reminder of goals but it also lets your employees know what type of company they’re working for and how they will be expected to behave. Think of it as a statement explaining the culture you want within your business.

2)The Business model

There are four main factors that are considered when deciding on a business model

• Value to the customer
• Target Market
• The four “P’s”; Price, place( distribution), production and promotion
• Competition

Once you have assessed your situation with all of these variables you can decide how you will work your business to fit your situation. Note that business models need to be adaptable as the business grows and develops you will make changes.

3)The business strategy

Determine your short and long term objectives and detail what strategies you intend to implement to achieve your goals.

4)The SWOT analysis –Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

The SWOT analysis lets you know what you are up against so you can determine if it will be worth it to even open shop.

The SWOT analysis can also be a tool to attract investors to your venture.

Get as detailed as humanly possible. Rigorously research your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses.

Don’t forget to make a detailed account of what opportunities you have and how you will utilize them to reach your goals.