Tag: small business plan

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Business motivation

How To Chalk Out An Outline For A Business Plan That Says It All

You know your business plan inside out because you came up with it, but how do you think your team and investors will manage to understand each and every single thing that your plan consists of and revolves around? That’s when a business plan comes into play. But are you aware of what goes into making an effective business plan?

There are several kinds of business plans that are made to serve different kinds of purposes, some are made informally to familiarise the internal team, whereas some are extensive and coherent plans that are designed specially to be presented in front of your investors. In this article, we will introduce you to a basic outline of a business plan that you could refer to anytime. Let’s begin.

Executive Summary

The executive summary is just like a window that helps you take a sneak peek of what’s inside. A good executive summary will help you design the highlights of your business plan such as what is your product, what problem does it solve, who is your target audience, your financial projections, founding team, etc. An executive summary serves an investor the same purpose as a sample sized product serves you to help you decide if you want to buy the regular product. So remember to better be good at it for it’s the summary that decides if the plan goes into the bin or takes off the ground.

Shed Light On Scope And Opportunity

In a section called opportunity, you need to focus on why you are bringing your product or service into existence. What was the problem that sparked your interest and led you to birth this idea? Tell them what your product/service is all about, how different and better it is going to be from the competitors, and what is the solid solution that you are planning to offer. While writing this section, rather than bragging about the amazing features of your product, focus on the customer problems that are going to be solved by this product/service. 

Market Analysis

All your claims would further need to be backed up by some actual facts and figures. These statistics should be about the target audience that you have designed your product/service for. This section should have all the details regarding who you are targeting as your customer base, where do they belong, what are their interests, why do they need this product, and what difference is your product going to make in the market. All in all, this part is where you will give a detailed account of the target audience and the demographics.

Financial Projections

This is a very important section that covers the financial aspect of your plan. It should tell about the sales forecast, profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, and all your assumptions and objectives. Also, don’t forget to highlight the financial needs to build up the business as in how much money is required to launch the business and where to plan on sourcing this money from.

Execution

An idea on its own has no value until it’s met with proper execution. This is what every entrepreneur needs to be wary of. Work on your manufacturing plan, sales plan, and that marketing plan that is actually going to help kick start the business and allow it to go on smoothly.

These are some very common points that could be found in almost all of the business plans. But it’s for you to decide which point you want to keep and which one you want to exclude depending on the requirement of your business and the audience. Leaving you with all this information, we wish you all the best with the business plan in making.

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Business motivation

What NOT To Do While Writing A Business Plan

 Why do you make a business plan? To pitch the idea of your dreams and turn it into reality. But what if this business plan does the exact opposite? You will be crushed to see your years and years of hard work and excitement going down the drain just because of few loopholes that were not paid attention to. The whole world talks about what to do when you make a business plan, but we will talk about what not to do while making the plan.

Let’s together ponder upon a few mistakes that are repeatedly made by the entrepreneur while writing their startup business plan and be sure of learning our lessons.

Don’t Conduct A Half-hearted Research

The Colosseum in Rome has been standing tall since forever. It has been made possible only and only by the solid foundation that was laid for it. Similarly, a good, productive, and detailed research is something that will provide the strongest of the bases to your business and help it stay in the market longer than whatever you are hoping for. Bad or wrong research which is not reviewed or double-checked can make things go haywire. Be wary of it, and always double-check your sources.

Don’t Present Unrealistic Financial Goals

We all know nobody is a fool these days. When we talk about financial goals, investors observe keenly. Nobody likes to show a dreamy picture which is far from reality. Avoid being over the top and tell them about the real financial trajectory. Tell them how and what you have planned for a particular business in order to make it successful. The more real you are, the higher are the chances for you to get the funding.

Don’t Be Unaware Of Your Target Consumer

Can you sell maternity clothes to office going men? No, right? It is of extreme importance to who does your product/service target. Make it very clear in your business plan the kind of audience you intend to target and the demographics you are going for. Always remember, only after defining your target audience can you move further with conducting the secondary and tertiary market research.

Don’t Publicize Unnecessarily

Don’t try to amaze them with what they want to hear, rather show them the power of your vision. We know you believe in your business idea but how do you plan on making others develop the same kind of faith? By using the abused adjectives of all times like greatest, mind-blowing, promising, hottest, worth your while, or by presenting your extensive research and the growth trajectory to back your excitement up? Only and only the latter will be able to help you solidify your claims.

Don’t Underestimate The Competition

They say keep your friends close and enemies even closer and we don’t see anything wrong in this. Never forget to talk about the competition in your business plan or business pitch. Your investors will not appreciate your confidence where you completely scraped the competition section out of the business plan. Even if you don’t think you have any competition just because you have a brand new idea that has not been touched yet. Think about how, if you become successful, people would want to copy you and encash the opportunity. Think about how you are going to deal with the competition then. Think about what is unthought-of and always be prepared.

Writing a business is a tough job and needs a lot of factors to be considered before finally it is shown to the investors or prospective partners to gain their trust and sentiment. Your plan should be designed in a way that paints a coherent and realistic picture with a hint of your enthusiasm and determination to make it work. 

 

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Startup

Traditional Business Plans for Your Start-up: 7 Steps to Follow

Business Plans
Business Plans

“A vision without a plan is just a wish.” Any business success depends on how effective and well-thought business plan you build. Once you have a vision of the business, the next step should be making a solid business plan.

A business plan is one of the crucial for the task as if you want to take out a loan, things to discuss with a business partner for all this, you need a solid plan in order.

The traditional way of writing a business plan is simple and contains more details than other business plans. While writing the length and information about the plan, vary with your audience. Here seven several crucial steps you need to keep in mind while writing a traditional business plan.

Step 1: Writing a Supervisory Summary

Writing an introduction to your business is as important as any other introduction. This will make your customer believe in your business, so tell your audience to sell your business and explain to them why it matters.

While writing this summary doesn’t go over then one or two pages. Your summary should incorporate the business name, key employees, address, and business background.

Step 2: Write Your Description

As per the company requirements, a traditional business plan needs a good description or introduction of your business. This plan covers key concepts of your business, such as marketing, finances, and tools required to operate the business.

So, when you write the introduction, make sure you cover key points specifically and in simple words, this description needs your vision on paper.

Step 3: Studying your Market

Before starting any business, you necessitate to understand and study your audience. This is your chance to highlight your business to describe your industry and market. Demonstrate the competitive aspect as well.

This work will help you to understand your competitors well. This will contribute you to touch the points where your competitors have missed out.  You interpret the target audience well with their need and requirements.

Step 4: Operational Structure

This is where business factual details will induce. Means here you will explain how day to day basis your company will work. Here your plan contains full details. Here you will plan out your business legal structure, sole proprietorship, include these details easily.

We recommend you to put together an organizational chart if you possess multiple stakeholders just to show how and who is involved.

Step 5: Product Specification

Here where you finally get to tell in detail what you will be selling or offering. This section will be likely to be a bit longer as it’s important to share every basic detail of your product. Make sure to tell why your product is different from your competitor’s products. From price and how does that play in the market compared to competitors.

Don’t forget to include a marketing or promotion plan here. It is important if your product will be good, but it won’t matter if your audience won’t know about it. Here understanding your target market is important and understands details of how you going to make your product stand out.

Step 6: Raising Capital

If you are planning for a prospective investor, then this step is essential for you. While writing this step, you need to be clear how much funding request you are asking and why.

The investment plan should be clear and how much amount you need and where you will be using it. Explaining the role of funds would be used to clearly state the projected ROI.

Step 7: Financial Analysis and Predictions

You require to analyze the financial plan of your business.  If you are beginning a new business and not yet profitable, then you need to be clearer and more realistic with your predictions.

Consider your industry norms and find out about the comparable business have performed. While showcasing your financial outlook, you need to show your logic about your vision for the succeeding 5 years.

Later on, these seven steps remaining piece of information which are relevant to your business. But don’t dump your plan with vague information try to put those which are necessary and crucial for your business.

 

Categories
Business motivation

Business Plan: The Key To Flawless Execution

It’s tough to build a successful business when you don’t even know what you are trying to build and how you will build that. It is always advisable to come up with a  business plan. This layout of your business will help you realize where you are, what you want to achieve, and strategies to achieve them. It will allow and help you to get some clarity for yourself in order to set the key objectives for your dream business!  

Develop a system, streamline the entire process, and increase the efficiency of your business. not only making it faster and simpler. If you wish to get your business organized and strategically increase the profit margin, then keep reading.

Overview

First and foremost, we will talk about the overview of your business plan. An overview that tells what actually your business is all about. This section includes the official name of your business, its legal structure, and the location where you plan to operate. Along with these core points, you also need to mention the mission of your business because it is what all your plans are focussed on achieving. We would also suggest to include a chart that says who is accountable to accomplish the various tasks such as sales and marketing, finance, operations, etc.

Message

We all want our businesses to be successful but often fail to put across the message that our business wants to convey! All successful businesses to date have been very clear on the message they want to communicate to their target consumer base. The message that shows your importance in their lives and how you help them solve their burning problems! 

Marketing Strategy

To successfully market a business, it’s a basic requirement to know who is your target customer. You can figure out your target audience and evaluate their respective demographics and psychographics. You need to calculate the estimated size of your target market and where you can find groups of your target audience. If you do not have enough information to build up this section of your business plan, then probably you might require to conduct careful and detailed research to set and pivot your marketing position.

Products/Services

This section describes the product you sell, physical or digital. Choose one product as the primary product/service that your business revolves around and invest your energy and undivided attention in promoting and developing it. One of the many advantages of making a single product/service your primary concern is that the business development becomes way easier if only a single product is involved at the nascent stage.

Goals

It is very important to set goals for your respective businesses as all these plans would end up being of no use if you do not have a benchmark set for it. Always be prepared with the goals that you want to achieve and these goals should basically revolve around sales, revenue, impact, and progress.

With all the points mentioned above, it is understood that a goal and a plan, go hand in hand! Writing a business plan is all about knowing what you have taken care of and what you are unaware of! Try to become more aware of the things that you have not already thought about and note it down somewhere to make a cohesive document. You know there are hundreds of thousands of ideas crossing your mind around your dream business venture, you might as well pen them down in the form of a business plan to make the most of it.