Business Plan
From Entrepedia: The Entrepreneurship Wiki
Your business plan should allow you to identify your business goals - both financial and otherwise - why they are attainable for your business, and the plan that you have in place so that you can achieve them. Although business plans are generally written with the intention of acquiring capital investments, they can also help you develop strategic planning within your business.
Business Plan Contents
There is technically no 'fixed' content criteria — it varies for every business — but it should contain the appropriate information to allow either you or a potential investor to make a desision whether or not to go ahead with the business.
Executive Summary
Your executive summary is designed to draw the reader in to the rest of your plan. It should be able to stand on its own, as a very concise overview of your business, but without giving everything away too quickly.
Marketing and Sales Plan
There are some general questions that you should ask when you are putting together a marketing and sales plan, such as the seemingly transparent "who is your customer?" However, the different categories of information within the plan have their own, separate considerations.
Business Model
You should be able to conceptualise the framework within which your business will function, and how it will achieve both profit and growth in the present and the future.
Positioning'
It is important to be able to identify the position within the market that your business or business idea will occupy — where is your niche? How will you define your position in relation to the needs of customers and the offers of competitors?
Customer Acquisition
There are different methods of attracting and acquiring customers – be they viral or more formulaic – but ideally you will be able to optimise all means of customer acquisition and maximise each customer's lifetime value.
Sales
You will need to price your product and services appropriately, as well as be able to provide an accurate sales forecast, to help yourself and venture capitalists see the potential in your business.
Financial Plan
The financial plan is what determines whether or not your business is or will be viable. You will need to provide financial statements — such as an income statement, a balance sheet (or projected ones), and a cash flow projection — as well as an analysis of this information.
Further Reading
- How to write a good business plan (by Company Creators)
