Plan is a written description of steps you are going to take in future in order to achieve specific goals. It is necessary part of our lives because without proper planning you cannot successfully accomplish your goals. It is better way to cut down your expenses and complete your project in limited resources. It is necessary to write a plan before starting a business or project because without this you cannot successfully start a business. A plan will help you to understand market trends and scope of your business in market. Plan will be very helpful to determine what kind of work force you require, location of your business, fundamental requirements of business, finances of business etc. Although you can get services of a professional person to write a business plan but it is necessary for you to understand how to write a successful plan.
Today I will share some common steps that will help you to write your own plan for your business or project.
Do Some Research
Before writing a plan it is good to conduct some research in order to understand strengths and weaknesses of your rivals. It will help you to design your strategies for successful business and determine amount of finances you are required.
Executive Summary
It is first and most important part of plan because it is the summary of whole plan and the first thing that is preferred by all readers to read. It places before the table of contents but it should be written at last after designing whole plan. It contains mission statement that should be only three to four sentences long. These sentences are only to capture the interest of reader. Rest of the executive summary should contain necessary details such as short history of business, profile of founder and business commencement date, current snapshot, important locations, number of employees, products and services, summary of future plans and goals. You can use bullets to highlight important points for easy scanning. Avoid too many details in executive summary because one or two pages are sufficient.
Market Analysis
Next part of business plan will be market analysis. This analysis will show your strengths and weaknesses over your competitors. This part of the plan will include size of market, growth rate and chances of success of your business.
Description of Company
This section will describe nature of your business and needs of market. In this section you will determine the ways through which you can satisfy needs of your target customers. Your will mention those factors that will set you apart from your competitors. In short, company description should describe your whole business and portray a beautiful and attractive picture of business.
Hierarchical Structure
After description of business, you are required to describe setup of staff. Provide complete management hierarchy, division of labor, profile of business owner, management personnel, board of directors and employee incentives. This section is necessary to create loyalty in potential employees.
Marketing and Sales Management
This section will describe:
- Marketing Methods
- Distribute Methods
- Types of sales force
- Sales incentive
- Growth Strategies
Products and Services
It is one of the important sections of plan and focuses on the products and services offered by business. You have to include specifications and important features of products as well as services and benefits of these products and services. Prominent points of your products over your competitor, copy right, trade secrets, patent information all should be part of this section.
Funding Requirements and Sources
After describing your whole business, you are required to provide details about your funding requirements. This section contains information about bank or investor in order to understand the funding needs. You can include all possible sources of finances to persuade other investors as well.
Appendices
It is the final section of business plan. It contains information that does not fit in all above sections. You can provide information about letter of references, license and patents of organization, copies of contract, leases and other legal documents.
Here are some useful plan templates that can help you get started,