If you can’t write it down, then you can’t measure it, refine it, or scale it and ultimately that will mean the difference between success and failure of any business venture. This is the primary reason why you need to write a business plan.
The other reason for writing a business plan is to raise the startup or seed capital as well as attract the specific resources required to get your business venture out of the idea stage and into reality.
So, now that you’ve committed to formalizing your business plan, what should you include in your document? There are many approaches and all you have to do to find a suitable template is search the internet for “how to write a business plan”. My personal favorite can be found at Entrepreneur.com where you find a complete Business Plan Guide that will answer all of your most-likely questions. The specific sections you should consider for your plan should include:
- Executive summary: clearly state what you desire up front and highlight the most important aspects of your market position and product differentiations.
- Business description: highlight the critical success factors as well as market sizing and growth dynamics in order to establish the landscape for your business venture
- Competitive analysis: direct as well as indirect or adjacent competitors should be highlighted to validate the business proposition and market
- Go-to-market and marketing strategies: sales and marketing strategies to establish lead to cash expectations along with associated dependencies and time/resource assumptions
- Design and development plan: specific product or service as well as any protected intellectual property expectations should also include roadmaps, formalized processes and outsource versus in-house resources expectations
- Operations and management plan: identify key team members and backgrounds, operational expectations and potential for growth/scale areas over time
- Financial plan: the final section of a business plan includes spreadsheets showing the statement of operations, 3-5 year projections for revenue and expenses, financing and capital/ownership expectations, etc.
I would recommend that you take the first pass at your business plan today and don’t leave it to chance or someone else to do. If you still find yourself suffering from the procrastinator’s creed
Why do today what I can put off until tomorrow?”
after too many “tomorrows” then it would be better to engage someone to write your business plan for you. You will still be required to spend the same out of time answering the same questions but at least you will have someone with experience to assist you.
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