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Write your business plan
By: QCCOIN Date: May 30, 2021, 10:34 am
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/Business Guide/Plan your business/Write your business plan
Write your business plan
Your business plan is the foundation of your business. Learn how
to write a business plan quickly and efficiently with a business
plan template.
Content
Business plans help you run your business
Pick a business plan format that works for you
Business plans help you run your business
A good business plan guides you through each stage of starting
and managing your business. You’ll use your business plan as a
roadmap for how to structure, run, and grow your new business.
It’s a way to think through the key elements of your business.
Business plans can help you get funding or bring on new business
partners. Investors want to feel confident they’ll see a return
on their investment. Your business plan is the tool you’ll use
to convince people that working with you — or investing in your
company — is a smart choice.
Pick a business plan format that works for you
There’s no right or wrong way to write a business plan. What’s
important is that your plan meets your needs.
Most business plans fall into one of two common categories:
traditional or lean startup.
Traditional business plans are more common, use a standard
structure, and encourage you to go into detail in each section.
They tend to require more work upfront and can be dozens of
pages long.
Lean startup business plans are less common but still use a
standard structure. They focus on summarizing only the most
important points of the key elements of your plan. They can take
as little as one hour to make and are typically only one page.
Traditional business plan format
You might prefer a traditional business plan format if you’re
very detail oriented, want a comprehensive plan, or plan to
request financing from traditional sources.
When you write your business plan, you don’t have to stick to
the exact business plan outline. Instead, use the sections that
make the most sense for your business and your needs.
Traditional business plans use some combination of these nine
sections.
Executive summary
Briefly tell your reader what your company is and why it will be
successful. Include your mission statement, your product or
service, and basic information about your company’s leadership
team, employees, and location. You should also include financial
information and high-level growth plans if you plan to ask for
financing.
Company description
Use your company description to provide detailed information
about your company. Go into detail about the problems your
business solves. Be specific, and list out the consumers,
organization, or businesses your company plans to serve.
Explain the competitive advantages that will make your business
a success. Are there experts on your team? Have you found the
perfect location for your store? Your company description is the
place to boast about your strengths.
Market analysis
You'll need a good understanding of your industry outlook and
target market. Competitive research will show you what other
businesses are doing and what their strengths are. In your
market research, look for trends and themes. What do successful
competitors do? Why does it work? Can you do it better? Now's
the time to answer these questions.
Organization and management
Tell your reader how your company will be structured and who
will run it.
Describe the legal structure of your business. State whether you
have or intend to incorporate your business as a C or an S
corporation, form a general or limited partnership, or if you're
a sole proprietor or LLC.
Use an organizational chart to lay out who's in charge of what
in your company. Show how each person's unique experience will
contribute to the success of your venture. Consider including
resumes and CVs of key members of your team.
Service or product line
Describe what you sell or what service you offer. Explain how it
benefits your customers and what the product lifecycle looks
like. Share your plans for intellectual property, like copyright
or patent filings. If you're doing research and development for
your service or product, explain it in detail.
Marketing and sales
There's no single way to approach a marketing strategy. Your
strategy should evolve and change to fit your unique needs.
Your goal in this section is to describe how you'll attract and
retain customers. You'll also describe how a sale will actually
happen. You'll refer to this section later when you make
financial projections, so make sure to thoroughly describe your
complete marketing and sales strategies.
Funding request
If you're asking for funding, this is where you'll outline your
funding requirements. Your goal is to clearly explain how much
funding you’ll need over the next five years and what you'll use
it for.
Specify whether you want debt or equity, the terms you'd like
applied, and the length of time your request will cover. Give a
detailed description of how you'll use your funds. Specify if
you need funds to buy equipment or materials, pay salaries, or
cover specific bills until revenue increases. Always include a
description of your future strategic financial plans, like
paying off debt or selling your business.
Financial projections
Supplement your funding request with financial projections. Your
goal is to convince the reader that your business is stable and
will be a financial success.
If your business is already established, include income
statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements for the
last three to five years. If you have other collateral you could
put against a loan, make sure to list it now.
Provide a prospective financial outlook for the next five years.
Include forecasted income statements, balance sheets, cash flow
statements, and capital expenditure budgets. For the first year,
be even more specific and use quarterly — or even monthly —
projections. Make sure to clearly explain your projections, and
match them to your funding requests.
This is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the
financial story of your business.
Appendix
Use your appendix to provide supporting documents or other
materials were specially requested. Common items to include are
credit histories, resumes, product pictures, letters of
reference, licenses, permits, or patents, legal documents,
permits, and other contracts.
Example traditional business plans
Before you write your business plan, read these example business
plans written by fictional business owners. Rebecca owns a
consulting firm, and Andrew owns a toy company.
Example business plans
Before you write your business plan, read these example business
plans written by fictional business owners. Rebecca owns a
consulting firm, and Andrew owns a toy company.
Lean startup format
You might prefer a lean startup format if you want to explain or
start your business quickly, your business is relatively simple,
or you plan to regularly change and refine your business plan.
Lean startup formats are charts that use only a handful of
elements to describe your company’s value proposition,
infrastructure, customers, and finances. They’re useful for
visualizing tradeoffs and fundamental facts about your company.
There are different ways to develop a lean startup template. You
can search the web to find free templates to build your business
plan. We discuss nine components of a model business plan here:
Key partnerships
Note the other businesses or services you’ll work with to run
your business. Think about suppliers, manufacturers,
subcontractors and similar strategic partners.
Key activities
List the ways your business will gain a competitive advantage.
Highlight things like selling direct to consumers, or using
technology to tap into the sharing economy.
Key resources
List any resource you’ll leverage to create value for your
customer. Your most important assets could include staff,
capital, or intellectual property. Don’t forget to leverage
business resources that might be available to women, veterans,
Native Americans, and HUBZone businesses.
Value proposition
Make a clear and compelling statement about the unique value
your company brings to the market.
Customer relationships
Describe how customers will interact with your business. Is it
automated or personal? In person or online? Think through the
customer experience from start to finish.
Customer segments
Be specific when you name your target market. Your business
won’t be for everybody, so it’s important to have a clear sense
of who your business will serve.
Channels
List the most important ways you’ll talk to your customers. Most
businesses use a mix of channels and optimize them over time.
Cost structure
Will your company focus on reducing cost or maximizing value?
Define your strategy, then list the most significant costs
you’ll face pursuing it.
Revenue streams
Explain how your company will actually make money. Some examples
are direct sales, memberships fees, and selling advertising
space. If your company has multiple revenue streams, list them
all.
Example lean business plan
Before you write your business plan, read this example business
plan written by a fictional business owner, Andrew, who owns a
toy company.
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