A business plan is a formal document that is used for several different instances. These include seeking funding from financial institutions and seeking investors. It is the blueprint or guide on how your business will operate. The document outlines the internal and external processes needed for a business to meet its customer’s expectations while it stays fiscally sound and responsible.
Executive Summary
Think of the Executive Summary as your introduction to the company. It should include items like your mission statement, the products/services you will be offering, and an overview of the company finances and future aspirations.
Company Description
This statement should be much more detailed than your purpose statement. Items that should be in your company description include items like who you are targeting (businesses or consumers), how your customers benefit from your product, and the demographics of your customer base.
Market Analysis
This is the section to highlight what you have learned through your market research. Call out who your competitors are. What products or services do they offer? How are they doing in sales? What are the market trends in your industry?
Organization and Management Plan
This is the area of your business plan that should include details of your business’s organizational structure and information concerning the officers and leadership of the business.
Products and Services
In this section of your business plan, you will list out information about the products and services you will be offering. The details should include things like your products, how they came to be, up-sales and down sales to be offered, the lifecycle of your products, any patents or trademark documents, etc.
Marketing & Sales Goals
This section will include items such as the different marketing strategies that you plan on using, the different platforms you plan to use to market on, how these strategies will impact your customer base and brand image, the details of your sales strategies, and more.
Funding
Are you in a position where you need to seek funding from a financial institution? In this section, you will need to describe how much money you are seeking, how you will use the funding over a five-year time frame, propose the terms of the agreement, and your plan to pay the funding back.
Financial Projections
You will have to provide potential lenders or shareholders with a set of financial projections. What are your projections for the next five years? Be sure to provide the audience with monthly, quarterly, and annual projections. What are the different income streams that you plan to use to get there? Use plenty of graphs and charts to show. All of these items need to be as clear and easy to read as possible.
Appendix
This is the place to attach all of the documents related to your Business Plan. These items can include items like licenses, trademarks, patents, resumes of the officers of the business, product photos, and any other documents relevant to the business or its operations.
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