Business
Plan
What
is the purpose of a business plan?
You
will need an outline of your immediate goals. How much money
you need to get started, what products you plan to sell. This
will also give you a place to put down what your long range
goals will be for the next five years in general terms.
After
you start putting the plan together you may find that you
need more money than initially guessed at. This plan would
be an excellent selling tool to potential lenders.
Once
you have put it together you can use it to get feedback from
experts in the selected business you chose. Whether it is
just reselling affiliate products or items you buy at garage
sales, there are experts out there in the business world whom
will gladly give you some free advice. People are great at
criticizing and this will give you something to have criticized
before you actually put the business together.
Reasons
for writing a business plan include:
- Support
a loan application
- Raise
equity funding
- Define
objectives and describe programs to achieve those objectives
- Create
a regular business review and course correction process
- Define
a new business
- Define
agreements between partners
- Set
a value on a business for sale or legal purposes
- Evaluate
a new product line, promotion, or expansion
What
Should Be In A Business Plan
You
should outline the purpose and goals of the business.
When
preparing your plan be conservative, The main purpose of the
business plan is to be sure you have enough capital and time
so that the sales and profits of the business will support
the first two. So many business fail because they did not
consider the financial costs versus the time it would take
to recover that cost.
Anticipate
problems will arise. Your plan should include predicted problems
and obstacles with alternatives in case they arise.
Your
business plan does not have to be in in some lawyer terms,
make it simple and easy to understand.
You
should make a detail outline and checklist of what legal requirements
will have to be met. My associates and I here at American
TradUR are always glad to offer free advice...but we are not
the experts in legal requirements for all business situations.
If you need some legal advice I would recommend Lawguru.com
where you can find helpful legal advice and lawyers online
or purchase the Quicken Business Deluxe Package from softwarenirvana.net.
Compiling
A Business Plan
If
you are unsure how to start a business plan a great place
to start would be with the Mini-Plan offered free by the Wall
Street Journal. Click here
to sign up for the online business plan wizard.
You
can also find many software programs with multiple layouts
and tutorials of business plans. One good source of this type
of software is the Business
Plan Pro which offers business plan templates for over
450 different types of business. CLICK
HERE TO LEARN MORE
 |
To
view a list of sample business plans click here. |
A
good business plan should not be more than 10 pages in length.
You want to cover principal areas such as financial goals
and resources, market analysis, and a description of the product
or service. The content of the business plan should vary based
on the amount of initial investments and whether you plan
to seek funding from other people using this business plan.
If the business plan is for your use only then it can be more
tailored toward setting out goals for yourself to reach and
what types of resources will be required to reach these goals.
You may find that when beginning a simple business plan that
you had underestimated the start up costs and wish to seek
further assistance. That is the primary purpose of creating
a business plan, no matter how big of business you plan to
start. If the plan will be used for seeking financial assistance
then you will need to point out financial resources and planned
returns to investors in more detail.
Once
you have the basic concept of what your business will be about
start writing it down in a brainstorming session putting down
any ideas you might have. With this you should start gathering
as much research you can on the product or service in the
existing market. Do internet searches for keywords related
to the business and see what and how the competition is marketing
your business.
With
as much data as possible compiled and studied you are ready
to start putting together a first draft of the plan.
The
recommended business plan can be outlined as follows into
seven sections.
- Brief
Summary of Business: Covering All of The
Following Topic Headings
- Company
Summary:
Description Of Company, Owners, Startup Costs And Financial
Analysis, Location and Facilities
- Products
or Services:
Description, Competition Assessment, Advertising Plans,
Expansion Plans
- Market
Analysis:
Summary of The Market, Market Entry Strategy, Market Growth
Potential, Trends, Comparative Business Associations,
Distribution Sources and Techniques, Competition
- Market
Entry Plan:
Advertising, Pricing, Promotion, Distribution, Sales Potential,
Affiliation Plans
- Management:
Briefs on each Member, Weakness, Personnel Salary Plans
- Financial
Analysis:
Estimates Of Costs, Financial Indicators, Cost Versus
Return Timeline, Estimated Profit and Loss, Projected
Cash Flow
Once
you have compiled the business plan you will be able to see
if it is going to be financially rewarding for all involved.
You may want to find someone in the same industry to review
your business plan. You could approach a potential affiliated
type of business that would not be in direct competition and
ask them to review your proposed business plan.
