Business Plan

A business plan template is said to be a document enabling one to write the plan of the business quickly. It can also be said to be what you document and describe about your future business. This includes an introduction, executive summary, company description, and marketing plan, competitive analysis, design and development plan, operations and management plan, financial section. A business plan enables you grow your business. 

To put this in a simple way, a business plan covers your business goals and objectives, the strategies you’ll use to meet these goals, potential problems that may come up in your business, ways to solve these problems, the organizational structure of your business which includes titles, responsibilities and, not forgetting the amount of capital needed to finance the business to keep it going.

By writing a business plan, it outlines what the business does and what one is trying to achieve at the end of the day. It ends up explaining what the market opportunity is, what makes the business unique and how it will become a success.

Writing a business plan helps one to first of all, check that the idea you have makes sense, also makes one plan sales, marketing and business operations. Then again, helps one identify problems and how to overcome all huddles. By writing a business plan, you also end up setting out goals, objectives and the financial return expected. Finally, it helps to work out what one needs financially and also convinces other people to back the business.

A business plan is used by investment-seeking entrepreneurs to carry out the vision to potential investors. It can also be used by companies trying to attract key employees who are prospect for new business, to deal with suppliers or just to learn how to manage companies better.

Whenever you are writing a business plan, keep the plan short. Focus on what the reader needs to know, cross check and ensure that there are no errors. Do not forget to include detailed financial forecasts and assumptions.

Be real. Business partners, financiers and employees always end up seeing through plans that are too optimistic then in the end for seeable weaknesses and threats are not taken into consideration.

Be professional by including contents page, section numbering, executive summary and useful charts if they appear to be helpful. Describe the products or services being used by avoiding the use of jargons. Also include the business operations, financial forecasts as well as S.W.O.T analysis.

Lesson Learnt

Being real with the business plan will help us identify the realities at hand and find ways to overcome them instead of being over optimistic about them and then end up not considering the weaknesses and threats that may arise.