A venture is aimed at providing profits by selling its products or services to its target market. Many factors determine the success or failure of every business, with current research showing that almost 40 % of new startup ventures fail during the first year of business and one of the significant factors of failure, apart from lack of adequate capital, is a failure to plan. How to write a good business plan is a skill that everyone who aims at starting a business should master well and be able to have a clear roadmap on how the company will achieve its intended objectives.
A business plan is a formal document that gives detailed information on how a business is going to make profits, how it will attain its goals and objectives, who will be the team players in the business, the marketing and sales strategies, plus future financial projections and how to achieve them. To make your business successful one needs to know how to write a business plan and also review the business plan at least once every month to make sure that the objectives and goals are being achieved.
Most people think that business plans are for borrowing loans and also for luring in investors in the business, but on the contrary, a business plan is meant to help the owner of the company have a guide on how to achieve the objectives for starting that business.
Primary Purposes of Writing a Good Business Plan
• It will provide a clear way of how things in the business should flow and even the day to day activities to be consistently done to increase the chances of success of that business.
• A well-written business plan will be able to align the other members of the business and clarify everyone’s task to prioritize on maximizing the efficiency of the company, therefore, increasing chances of success.
• A good business plan serves as the company’s resume stating the vision, objectives and even financial projections to investors, partners and even the intended target market, thus broadening the chances of success of the business.
• The intensive market research conducted while writing a business plan helps to keep you on track and be able to increase profit margin since you will be able to know what your target market wants, how they want it and when they want it, thus giving you control on your products and services.
A Quick Guideline on How to Write a Good Business Plan
1. Conduct extensive research
A business plan is a detailed document. Therefore, the information to be featured in the business plan needs to be real and also need to have a source. How to write a business plan is heavily determined by the amount of information one has regarding the business, the one most credible way to get real and genuine information is by going to the field and researching. For a business plan research will range from target market research, the gap that the business seeks to fill and also the viability of the company this also entails researching on the possible competitors in that field of business. When conducting a research one need to choose a research method that is credible, and even that is in their budget.
2. Record all aspects of your business
Substantiate all aspects of your business from the milestones that your company might have gotten, including awards and also profit margin records, the prospects of your market, your products and services, marketing and sales strategies and even a hierarchy of employees.
Documenting your work will make it easy to select the significant parts to be included in the business plan, and this will also make sure that you do not forget to add any information in your business plan. When writing an excellent business plan organization skills are very important and tend to play a significant role.
3. Know the formal procedure of writing a business plan
A business plan is an official document, and thus it has a formal process that it follows. The critical components of a good business plan include:
• Executive summary – This is the first page of your business plan: it explains in brief what your business intends to achieve, the target market, resources both physical and human resources, in a nutshell, the executive summary gives the whole view of your business plan in a snapshot.
• Company description – This section gives you the chance to describe what your business does, the mission and vision of your business, when it was established, the problem your company is trying to solve in the market and also this section helps you to connect better with the people intended to read your business plan. In this section, you can also address things like where your business is located and also what are your future projections.
• Market analysis – This section deals with the target market, knowing your competitors, the techniques they are using and also searching for new ways to get ahead in your business.
• Organization and management – A well organized and managed business is a business that is bound to succeed and have a better profit margin. In this section, you will discuss the hierarchy of employment and the task of everyone in the business. You will also include the management and how they qualify to hold the positions they have in the company.
• The product and services – In this section you will be able to describe the product or service that your company is offering and also how it is solving a problem or filling a gap in the existing market. You will get to describe the products or services you provide, the current price in the market and accessibility of the products in the market.
• Marketing and sales – The market is one of the essential parts of any business and marketing will be able to help the company know how to price, package and create its product or services. This section will involve the pricing, advertising strategies, sales points, modes of delivery and packaging and how to make your products more unique to surpass your competition.
• Financial projections – Information like balance sheets, previous profit margins and also future economic predictions are recorded in this section.
4. Obey the rules of writing an official document
Use the right font: the most recommended is 12 inches Times New Roman; use the correct aligning technique for your record and ensure you use proper grammar that is easy to comprehend. Focus on the most important aspects needed in every section to avoid a too lengthy and too wordy document.
5. Focus on the needs of your audience
A business plan is used for many purposes so if you aim to get a loan your audience will be the bank and they require more of the financial projections and statements, compared to the investors who would need more of what you aim at doing and how organized your plan is.
As the main aim of any business is to deliver great products and/or services and in doing so be able to get profits from that, a business plan helps a lot in the actualization of any ideas that a business has. A written-down document is more potent than just words of a plan to conduct the business. Also, a written-down report helps a lot regarding keeping everyone involved in the business in check and helping them focus on the topmost priorities of the business.
How to Master the Skills Required to Write a Good Business Plan?
Enroll on www.udemy.com and get real skills; this also gives you an opportunity to learn and explore a lot of ways to improve your companies profit margins and sales. Here are two very good courses: ”The Complete Business Plan Course” and ”How To Write A Business Plan & A Winning Business Strategy!” Udemy provides you with the chance to lifelong learning at the touch of your phone. You don’t have to travel, enroll in university or college so as to become an expert in business and know how well to propel your business forward. You may ask why Udemy and not other sites? The X-factor about Udemy is the flexible schedules, a chance to interact with other students and also a personalized teaching procedure, plus their courses are super affordable and very easy to understand.
There is no doubt that when you set up your business, you don’t expect loses. Like they say, put the money where your mouth is, and it would be catastrophic if it all turned against you.