How to Write a Business Plan

In this post we’re going to see all that you require to write a great business plan.

All the other steps pale in comparison to the step we’re going to discuss first.

Research

Research is the first stage of creating a business plan. What are you going to do? How is the business going to generate revenue? How long will it take? What kind of opportunities are there?

The research job implies that you will take the time to get to know your audience better. That also means you’re going to speak their language and not fill the content with corporate jargon. Ideally, you are attempting to create a shared learning experience here.

It all depends on who your investors are. Depending on where they come from, use language they understand. Convey what they need to know by drawing a picture in their minds. Make it visual and simple.

The explanations should be simple enough for anyone to get hold of the idea. Also, the appendix section is always there to add more details and specifications.

Also, keeping things simple has another advantage.

Business owners generally are no MBAs. They are running a successful business but that doesn’t mean they are aware of terminologies and all the surrounding jargon.

In fact to make it simpler for them instead of using technical jargon record a video for them. If you’re going to launch a tech product a prototype of the product and its video can help. If you are developing an app, a video walkthrough of the app can help.

They are learning and that’s why you should turn to them with a similar mind and space.

Finding the ideal customer

Your ideal customer is—

Once you define the target segment it’s time to identify the ideal customer.

The way most business plans do this is they construct a buyer persona of their ideal customer. This paints a realistic picture of who they are and what they want.

It’s a representation of their name, gender, incomes, dislikes and desires.

This might seem a lot of work but gives you a solid idea of who to sell. It’s a really useful tool to lessen the work that goes on increasing later on. By having this fixed goal you will be able to keep your focus unchanging during hard times.

Next,

Create these things on your business plan.

Executive summary

The executive summary is just that. It gives potential investors a one paragraph idea of the business and future plans.

It’s generally 1 or 2 pages and sums up goals and vision.

Opportunity

The opportunity section highlights what you sell, what problem you sell, who’s your market and competition. Are you gonna sell locally or internationally? The section covers: how’s the existing market share between other competitors and so on.

If you are an email marketing tool, highlight how your automation differs from other similar tools.

The opportunity section covers how your business is going to get growth in the long-term.

Note that the entire market isn’t something you’d ideally want to target. In the best case scenario you’re only going to reach a segment of this market.

The segment is a core group of people who you can target and sell to.

Execution

The execution section gives investors more actionable ideas. There’s more discussion on the opportunity and your milestones, sales plan operations and so on. How are you going to drive leads and sales? Will you advertise? If so where? Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads? Are you going to engage in content marketing? These are all questions that need answers.

Company and management

Investors want to get hold of the idea as to who runs the company and who is part of your team. You need to describe your hires and your current plan with the business, its structure, location and also history.

Financial plan

The financial plan shows how many sales you are going to capture in the first year or first 6 months, cash flow, income statement and so on. List out all subscription expenses you encounter in your business for instance.

Calculate the ROI of your marketing efforts. If you are investing in content marketing for your startup, outline how much you spent on content marketing and the results it produced. Or the ROI of the discounts and coupons you offered.

Appendix

It’s for product images, references and other information.

Keep it short

Business plans aren’t academic essays. Investors don’t really have the time for marathon readings. Plans should be short and succinct.

If you want people to read the plan you need as few pages as possible.

Business plan is something that should be dynamic, changing and acquiring more directions as your company grows. This means you need to revise your strategy as your business calls for fresh insights.