Time To Complete: Approximately 180-400 hours

A business plan is a document that clearly communicates what it is your company does, identifies your goals, and shows potential investors how you plan on being successful.

business plan acts as a road map.

By giving you an idea about what audience to target and how to go about doing it.

Creating a business plan also gives your business focus so you can put all the puzzle pieces together and create a strategy and plan for how the company is going to succeed.

Below I outline the major areas of a business plan

• Executive Summary
• Mission Statement, Core Purpose, and Core Values
• Product Description
• Market Analysis
• Industry Analysis
• Competitive Analysis
• Marketing Plan
• Operations Plan
• Management Team
• Financial Projections

Do Your Research

The first step to any business plan is simple: research. If a company is to be successful it is absolutely crucial that the owners know as much as they can before the business gets off of the ground.

There are three areas that every entrepreneur should analyze before starting a business: the company’s industry, competition, and market.

An industrial analysis is a snapshot of the current conditions of your industry at the present time and helps entrepreneurs understand the different factors at work (market, political, economic) within a given industry. Business owners can then identify the various threats and opportunities facing their business, ultimately helping them identify ways to create competitive advantages.

Researching what your potential competitors are doing is also extremely important. Therefore, the competitive analysis of a business plans should include an assessment of the differences between a firm and its competition, and a detection and examination tool to define the factors that cause these differences.

After researching your industry and your competitors, a good business owner will perform a market analysis. A market analysis is conducted to define and determine the attractiveness of a given market and to understand its evolving opportunities and threats as they relate to the strength and weaknesses of a particular business. The focus of this section should be on your target market, or the people you intend to sell your products/services to.

Create a Marketing Plan

After you completed your research, it is time to think about how you are going to market your product. The first step is to clearly define what your company is selling. This section will analyze the features of your product or service and define the unique selling point (USP) of your product.

The next step is to define your mission statement, core purpose, and core values. This section represents the identity of the company and shows potential investors what you wish to accomplish and how you will go about doing so.

Now that you have defined what your product or service is and your companys values, you can now create your marketing strategy. The marketing plan includes a sales forecast, marketing goals, your market position, and much more. The purpose of this section is to give detailed actions to be taking in order for your company to achieve sales success.

Organize Your Company

Making sure that the structure of your company is structurally sound is just as important as defining your sales goals. If there are any weaknesses in your company it is critical to find and fix them immediately. A solid operations plan will go a long way to insure your companys success. The operational plan will tell potential investors how you are going to get your product/service out to market. That is, how are you going to get your product out of the production stage to the doorstep of your target customer.

The management team section describes the team that will help you succeed in building your business. It will also describe how employees will be selected, trained, and rewarded and what service providers your company will need in the future.

You will also create financial projections in order to give you an idea of how your business is performing according to the market assumptions and the business model you choose. The financial statement should be projected out month by month for the first year and then annually for the next two years and include metrics such as startup expenses, assumptions, sales costs, operating costs, and cash flow.

After you have completed the nine sections described earlier, you will create an executive summary, which will summarize your business into a one page document. It will act as your pitch in order to impress potential investors and anyone who does not know about your company. The time it takes to complete the business plan writing process should take at least 200 hours. You can take a look at one of our sample business plans at any time.

Next, we will discuss how to write an Executive Summary.
 

Whether you have a question about your Business Plan or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

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Time For Completion: Approximately 2 hours

An Executive Summary is essentially a description of the whole business.

While it will be the first thing people who are reading your business plan will see, it should be the last thing you write.

Usually no more than 1-3 pages long, it performs a sales function or a ‘pitch’

You are selling your concept to an outsider, who does not know anything about it and yet you might want him/her to invest in your company or join the startup team.

It can be said that the Executive Summary puts all of the pieces of the puzzle together for the readers of your business plan.

Whats in it?

The Executive Summary includes the basic elements from each section of your business plan, and that is why it is written at the very end, when every detail is clear to you and can be presented to the investor.
It includes the summary of your business, marketing and operations.

Why its Important

Executive Summaries are important because it is the first thing someone reading your business plan will see. This quick glance may determine whether a potential investor finances your company or not. It also gives readers an overview of what they will read and act as an introduction to your business.

The executive summary should be written in a language that will persuade a potential investor to want to learn more about the company.

Now, the blog series will dive into each section in more detail. The first section will start off by giving an outline of a Mission Statement, Core Purpose, and Core Values.

Remember, you can take a look at one of our sample business plans at any time.
 

Whether you have a question about your Executive Summary or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

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Time For Completion: Approximately 5 hours

Your company’s Mission Statement, Core Purpose, and Core Values represent your company’s beliefs and values.

 

When writing a Mission Statement you are writing your organizations primary goal and purpose.

A company’s Core Values are qualities that the company would not give up no matter what, even if it meant going out of business. A Core Purpose is the reason that the company is in existence. The Core Purpose gives meaning to what the company or organization is doing and it will guide the company through both good and bad phases.

What’s in It?

The Mission, Core Values, and Core Purpose section is usually the shortest section of the business plan, containing only a few phrases or sentences. A Mission Statement is usually only a sentence or two, giving a complete and inspiring description of your company’s main goal. Core values are a short list of words or phrases that all members of the company will strive to embody. The Core Purpose is usually only one sentence, and is the most basic definition of what the company does.

Why it’s Important

It is an opportunity to show your passion for what you wish to accomplish and how you will go about doing so. More importantly, this section of your business plan serves to create the identity of your company. The Mission, Purpose, and Values that you state here will guide you and your team members through all of the challenges and successes that lay ahead of you in your business.

The next article will tell you how to set up a product description section. Remember, you can take a look at one of our sample business plans at any time.
 

Whether you have a question about your Core Values or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

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Time For Completion: Approximately 5-25 hours

In this section you get the chance to clearly explain the products or services your business will offer.

The information provided in this section will become the basis of your marketing plan

Product description should be written so the reader can easily understand what the product is and what it does. You should never assume that your product will sell itself, so you must always include a detailed description of the product. In addition to a comprehensive explanation of your product, the Product Description should also compare your product to other similar products on the market. This gives you the opportunity to clearly define what advantages your product has over the competition

Whats in it?

A Product Description contains an overview of your product or service, the product or services features, benefits, and advantages, as well as any product development activities, and liability issues. The overview should paint a complete picture of the product by answering the following questions in detail: what the product or service is, what it does, and how it performs its function.

If possible, it is a great idea to add pictures, blueprints, or any other graphical descriptions of your product to give as clear of an explanation of your product as possible. By doing this in comparison with other competing products, you can make it clear why your product is better than the competition.

The product summary should also take time to focus on the problem(s) that your product will solve. In addition to an explanation of the problems, you should also discuss what the causes are, how the product solves these problems, and the benefits to potential customers.

A complete description of your product, the problems it solves, and a comparison with competitors should all work to make a case as to why your product will be successful.

Why it’s Important

This section of the business plan is your opportunity to completely hash out your product idea, down to the finest detail, which gives you a complete understanding of your product. The information you learn from this section will help you improve your product and differentiate from competitors.

By writing a cohesive Product Description that explains the details of the product, the need for it, and how it has advantages of its competitors, you are making a strong case for why your product will succeed and be profitable. Without this information, investors have no way of knowing if you completely understand your product, or how you plan to compete with others, which makes for a very risky investment.

The next section will discuss how to properly research your potential customers in the Market Analysis section. Remember, you can take a look at one of our sample business plans at any time.

 

Whether you have a question about your Product Description or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

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Time For Completion:Approximately 30 HOURS

An Industry Analysis is the “analysis of conditions in an industry at a particular time, including the behavior of and relations between competitors, suppliers, and customers.

Understanding the different factors at work (market, political, economic) within a given industry is an important component of effective strategic planning for any company.

You should start out by defining type of industry you are and then determine what sector of the industry you will occupy. Once this is established, you can research what factors have a potential impact on your startup and the major organizations in the industry.

Whats in it?

The Industry Analysis should cover several different topics about the industry including industry size and growth trends, major organizations in the industry, and the important factors that affect the behavior of the industry. The industry size section should include revenue figures, the number of companies in the industry, and the number of employees.

The major organizations section should specify who your potential competitors are along with your suppliers, distributors, and trade organizations and include important specifics such as who owns the company, a brief description, who their target market is, when they were established, their contact information, and revenue.

Factors currently affecting the industry may include government regulations, environmental factors, as well as economic and market conditions, any of which can affect your chances of starting a successful business in the industry.

Why its important

Industry Analyses help business owners understand the big picture of their industry and identify the various threats and opportunities facing their business, ultimately helping them identify ways to create competitive advantages.

Knowing what political, economic, and market factors affect your industry will better prepare you for when you enter the market by understanding the major forces that effect how you do business.

Insider Tips:

• Identify and contact trade organizations to find most of this information.
• Build these relationships and bookmark great resources. As your business grows you will need to keep up with changes in the industry.

The next section will discuss how to analyze the competition in the Competitive Analysis. Remember, you can take a look at one of our sample business plans at any time.
 

Whether you have a question about your Industry Analysis or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

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Time To Complete: Approximately 10-40 hours

The Operational Plan is an essential component of the business plan and it tells the reviewer how you are going to get your product/service out to market.

That is, how are you going to get your product out of the production stage to the doorstep of your target customer. As an internal planning document, the Operations Plan should be a detailed and in-depth.

In a business plan, the Operations Plan should highlight the important facts for potential investors.The relative importance of an operational plan will depend on the nature of the business. For example, a production facility will probably require significant attention to operational issues.

Whats in it?

The Operations Plan will give you a detailed outline about the structure of your business. It will also answer how your product will be made and delivered to the customer, what regulations and organizations there are to monitor the industry, how you plan to stay up to date, who are your suppliers, how do you receive the product, how long will it take, how much it costs, what your backup plan is, and what quality control measures you have in place.

Operation plans also act as a guide book on inventory management and purchasing procedures.

Why its Important

The purpose of the Operations Plan is to describe the where’s and how’s of your business, meaning where you will locate the business (along with any physical necessities) and how you will produce products or services for your clients.

Business plan reviewers know the importance of a well thought out Operations Plan and place considerable weight on this section since it can mean the success or failure of a business. This document will also give the entrepreneur an opportunity to work out many potential problems on paper prior to commencing operations.

The next section will show you how to build an effective team. Remember, you can take a look at a sample business plan.

 

Whether you have a question about your Operations Plan or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

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