“A goal without a plan is just a wish”
Did you understand what this proverb actually mean? Let me help you out.
In order to make your dream come true, the factor that acts as a backbone is a great plan and its execution. You wish to achieve many things in life, but in order to make those big dreams come true, what you need is an execution plan to help you achieve them in real life.
The same pattern applies for your business goals, you can’t make your startup dream a reality without having a good business plan of execution.
Your business plan should be a roadmap that defines what exactly your business is going to do. This will help you as well as the people connected with your business that are your employees, clients and especially your investors understand your business better.
A detailed and clearly defined business plan assures a gateway to profitability. What if someone asks you to present your business idea in a week? How will you define your thoughts and ideas to make it presentable to help them understand better?
Here is a quick guide or a basic formula to follow to create a high-quality business plan that could surely bring in more investors for your business. So dive into know-how!
Administrative Summary
Start creating your business plan by defining the definition of your business. Yes, putting your ideas into words may help you convey your ideas about the business easily.
Divide your ideas into different modules of execution. Dividing them into parts will make it easy for you to work on each of them and make the plan self-explanatory.
After defining the idea, jump on the mission and vision statements of the company, this includes the visionary idea you have for the growth of the company and the goals that you keep to achieve as a successful outcome of the business.
Turn problems into business opportunities
Once you are done with the verbal definition about your business, it’s time you explain to people what lead you to this business idea. In this section of the business plan, you have to define different problems that the people in the market face and how your product or service can help them solve it.
Including your own story in the business plan about how you recognized and experienced the same problem as they did and decided to find a solution which is apparently your business idea will help you make a good pitch for your business and can give a better understanding about what exactly you are going to provide to the market.
Know your audience
The third thing that takes the position in the business planning process is what kind of audience do you think would need your service. The first rule of a successful business is knowing your customers well.
Is your product suitable for youth or you manufactured a baby product like a baby bottle washer? Defining the age group in your business model will help you find the right interested audience that would actually need your product and would use them. This will also help you make the necessary changes in your product or service based on the kind of response you get from those people.
Define how you are different from the others in the market
You are a start-up with just a business idea, so while you are making a plan of action to rule the industry, the most important question that arises here is how well do you know the industry.
Research about the ups and downs that the niche that you are trying to enter has faced in terms of business owners. Learn the different trends and how can you use this trend to give your business a voluntary hike.
Get ready with your business analytical report. These facts and data will help you get an idea about the changes that are ought to come in your business lifecycle and how your product could stand out from the rest in the business.
Product development and execution plan
After all the research and collecting the necessary information for the business, it’s time to show the real picture of how your product will look like or what are your plans for its execution.
Define the different stages of product development and prepare a rough plan about how many resources you might need to make it happen in real life. Hereby resources, I mean the workforce as well as the raw materials that would collectively make a product work.
Create a rough sketch or just prepare documents that could support your ideas for others to believe and work with you.
Marketing and funding plan
After the product development phase, the next thing that follows the business planning flowchart is how to sell it by letting people recognize it in the market.
This includes a rough idea about branding and presenting the final product to the audience by making a launch plan. A great marketing strategy can increase sales by 50% in the market, so having a plan for it would surely help your business sales number.
The other important aspect that follows marketing is getting the right funds to grow the business. Have a plan B along with the plan A (especially in terms of money) which you are making right now. Having a backup plan for your business will help your business to sustain the worst conditions that might occur during the course of your business lifecycle. Studying the different case studies or taking help from a startup business consultant can help you plan it better.
Appendix of business plan
Coming to the final aspect of the business plan, that is summarizing it by attaching the necessary documents, credits, licence, permits, materials and supporting information. This section actually gives an overall view of the business plan by giving a broader view of the detailed information.
It is a sort of a backup which could help one to get a quick view of the business plan to understand and verify it with the attached documents, charts and graphs.
Summing Up
Business plans are more than just defining what your business is all about. It is actually a hard cored version of your ideas and plans to create an action plan to convert things into reality.
It’s important to be realistic and specific about what you define in your business plan document as this is how you can make a roadmap towards your success. Navigate through each section mentioned above, think how can you fill in your business information in these sections and start creating an effective business plan.
Author Bio:
James Vargas is an experienced business expert, business management consultant, and manager at Get Everything Delivered, a business consultancy service. He has 1.5-decade corporate experience and is tailoring the best project delivery practices to the start-up owners based on his knowledge to generate great revenue for their business.
