Components of a business plan

invest serious money to your business, you need a plan.
A business plan defines your business and identifies your operation and your aims.
It provides specific and organised information about your company — it’s like a resume of your company.
A business plan has two main purposes.
l To provide you with a detailed plan to help you as you make your new venture grow.
l To convince investors that you are the sort of person and that this is the sort of business in which they should invest.
Before writing your business plan it will help to look at as many examples as possible giving sample business plans for all types of companies. Most of them contain similar components.
Executive Summary
This is the first section your business plan, and it is exactly what it sounds like a compact, concise outline of the whole plan. In this section you should state:
l The nature of the company.
l The products/services you will offer.
l What’s special about your products/ services?
l Who the managers are
l How much money you need and what you will use it for.
l Most people only read the summary so you need to generate excitement in your executive summary, showing how unique your business and your team are.
Table of contents
Try to keep this one page, listing everything your plan includes along with page numbers.
Company description.
l How did you get started?
l How has the company grown?
l Provide a history of sale, profits and other important information?
l Where are you now?
l What plans do you have for the future?
Products/Services
Put yourself in the investor’s shoes and ask yourself what you want to know before investing money in your business.
Questions
l What products or services do you offer?
l What makes them different from others?
l How does it make people’s lives better?
l What kind of equipment do you need?
Market Analysis.
l The section shows all the research you have done such as distribution problems, government regulations, technology opportunities, industry characteristics and trends, projected growth, customer behaviour, complementary products/services, etc.
Marketing Plan
After discussing what the market is like, you have to show how you and your fellow managers intend to capture the market.
List the steps you will take to ensure that customers know about your product/services and why they will prefer it over the competition. List all the tactics you will use, from the cheapest to the most expensive.
Operations Plan
This is the nuts and bolts of your business plan. You have to give precise information about what is involved in running your business — the location, the bricks and mortar, the equipment you will need, the staff requirement etc.
Financial Plan
In this section you will need to include details of sales forecasts, profit and loss statement, cash low projections, balance sheets, etc.
Management includes details of the management of your company, who is on board, who will manage each department and why.
Appendices
l There will probably be lots of appendices attached to your business plan — managers resumes, promotional materials, product photographs and description financial details, etc.
Checklist
l Read lots of sample business plans — just put in search on any search engine and you will find lots of useful sites.
l Check out the bookshelves too — there are lots of books providing excellent business, detailed advice on how to write your business plan.
l Don’t wait until the last minute to start writing. If you have ideas for your business, a solid plan will enable you to formulate all your thoughts better.
l Concentrate on strengths rather than originality. Investors usually pay more attention to the strength of the management team than to looking for a truly original idea.
l Try to be as consice as possible. Business plans are, of essence, very long documents, probably 40-60 pages.
l Keep focused. Stick to the essential facts, and cut out any padding.
l Spruce up your display. Make an effort to jazz up the formatting with heading, shaded sections, tables, charts, bullets and other graphics.
l Package it appropriately. It’s not worth spending a lot of money on expensive leather-bound packaging. Investors want something that is easy to read and that lies flat on the desk.
l Edit, edit, edit. Get it right and you will achieve the result you want.
l Proofread the executive summary carefully. This is the most important section — make sure it is exciting, interesting and that there are no mistakes. People should read this and want to know more.