Top Tips on Writing a Comprehensive Business Plan
A well-structured business plan is your roadmap to achieving success in business. Basically, your comprehensive business plan should be able to address a few questions like: what are your business goals for the current year? How much profit do you want to earn from various investments? What are your business strategies?
A business plan is not just a document that you will give to your banker to to someone that wants to invest in your business. It should be an actual roadmap that shows what your core business is, how you will develop that business, and how your business will capitalize on that success. Your plan should be concise enough to clearly articulate what makes your business unique, while also being able to justify the assumptions on which your premises rely.
Before delving into the elaborate process of writing a business plan, just formulate a simple structure: break the entire plan into three general categories:
The Business Concept
The emphasis should be on:
- The executive summary
- Description of your business
- Structure of your business
- Your products and services
- Your strategies for success
Prospective Clients
- Market strategy
- Competitive analysis
Operations and Finance
- Finances
- Technology
- Management
- Operations
Given below is a list of the top tips for writing a ‘winning plan’. Read on to know the more complex details as how to write a business plan.
Write from an investor's perspective
Chalk out a business plan from the perspective of a potential investor. Ask yourself a few questions like, what is the purpose of the business? How would it help you increase your profit margin? How would the business be beneficial for your customers? Each question you ask comes with its own set of specific requirements. So, give clear explanations as investors prefer clear explanations and intricate details.
Conduct market research
Is anyone else already doing what you're doing? If they are, how are you different? If no one else is doing what you're doing, why not?! The presence of a lot of competitors is often more reassuring than a complete lack of competitors. Get to know your playing field, and if you think you might be alone, that's the time to get worried.
Understand the market competition
To understand any business environment, it is important to understand the competition within the industry. If it is a particularly competitive environment, it is incumbent to understand the bases on which you plan to compete. Unless you have a clear understand of the nature of competition, you’ll never be able to formulate an effective business plan.
Pay attention to every detail
Create a concise plan and pay attention to every detail to ensure that your clients have sufficient information about your business. Your plan should reflect your sense of professionalism, realistic assumptions, credible projections and appropriate content.
Make sure all the key areas are covered in the plan
Conduct a thorough research on what your business plan should contain. It is necessary to include sections about the company, market competition, management team, products and services, and financial factors. Include simple color charts and graphs to make your plan more specific to the readers.
The Business Plan
Executive Summary
This is the most important component of the plan. The Executive Summary is the summary of the entire plan that is shown at the beginning of the business plan. It is the key qualifier for time-pressed clients. By reading the executive summary, they get to know what the plan is all about. The executive summary must be completed at the end of the business planning process and must incorporate the essential points to entice the clients to read further.
Business Description
The business description should start with a short description of the industry. In this paragraph, just describe the present outlook in the industry as well as the future possibilities for earning profit.
Financial Information
Financial factor is the "meat" of your business plan. Just incorporate the financial details in the business plan, show the details about external funding (if any), projected revenues, assets and how much profit your company can earn in the coming years.
Management Team
It is important to mention in the plan the names of the people who comprise your current team and what key hires your firm must make in order to execute on the new strategies.
Plan Review
After the completion of the plan, get someone, who was not a part of the strategic planning to review the plan and offer constructive criticism on various aspects of the plan. The review of the plan should give rise to further questions that need to be addressed in a revised draft.
Competitive Analysis
The main purpose of the competitive analysis is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors in the industry. On the basis of this analysis, you just need to formulate your strategies for entering the business plan.
So, now that you know how to write a simple business plan, start formulating your strategies to build a thriving business. If you need any help drafting a business plan, contact us today by completing the form on this page our calling our office at the number above!