A business plan is a document that contains information about the future company, its activities, and prospects. This document prescribes the business idea of the project; designates the products of the company – the goods that it will produce or the services that it will provide; analyze the market and competitors; indicate the channels and cost of attracting customers. Often add calculations related to the activities of the company.
Detailed financial statements, schedules, forecasts, and preliminary research results for a project are usually placed in an appendix to the business plan. An entrepreneur can draw up a business plan on their own, or they can entrust this work to a specialist.
How is a business plan different from a financial model?
It is important for aspiring entrepreneurs to understand that a business plan and a financial model are not the same things.
The business plan, which describes the entire project in detail and with calculations, contains a specific program of actions for years to come. The financial model is a table with initial data on revenue, profit, and balances. Such a table allows you to predict future ones based on existing indicators.
The financial model is used to calculate profit depending on various circumstances to understand which scenario will be the most profitable and which will lead the organization to losses. Often, a financial model with forecast indicators is included in a business plan.
Creating a business plan can be a difficult task. But if you know where to get help, it will not be hard for you to write an amazing business plan and then adjust it as a project develops. Such help can be obtained from one of the writing services like https://essayseek.com/. You will receive a business plan sample that can serve as a tool for writing your own document.
How to write a business plan 6 steps
- Write about your company
This section contains everything that is known about your company, from the corporate mission to the structure of the organization. Start with your value proposition and explain why consumers should choose you over your competitors. Next, reveal the mission and vision of your team. These three points may seem similar to you, but in fact, they carry different meanings:
- value proposition: why the client should choose you;
- mission: why you started your business;
- vision: what your company expects in the future.
- Analyze market and competitors
Next, you need to focus on your niche – market size and competitors. To analyze this qualitatively, use a SWOT analysis. This tool allows you to look at your company from all sides: you analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the project, opportunities, and threats.
- Create a marketing plan
Next is to analyze customers and methods of attracting them. The easiest and fastest way to create a marketing plan is to develop a buyer persona – a fictional or real person that matches the image of your ideal client. Try to describe the personas as realistically as possible so that the marketing plan can be built around them. When creating a plan, you can use a sales funnel.
- Focus on business operations
This section will focus entirely on the day-to-day operations of your company—it should explain how you plan to create and market your product or service. Go into the details of manufacturing processes and show that you have a well-established business mechanism, as well as plans for unforeseen situations in the market.
- Write about business finance
You need a well-thought-out budget that shows that you really understand the financial feasibility of your business idea.
- Measure success
And finally, you should think over a schedule with realistic intermediate goals and deadlines for achieving them. This is necessary for two reasons:
- You will be focused on the main task and will be able to celebrate the small victories of your company.
- You will be able to respond to drawdowns in terms quickly.
We hope our guide helped you write a business plan.