How to Write a Business Plan.
A popular quote says “There’s no luck in business. There’s only drive, determination, planning, opportunity.”
In the last five months we have trained different rural women on how to start and scale up their businesses, for every start up at some point, there is always a need for partners and investors to invest in their business. At this stage one of the major requirements is a business plan.
A business plan is a written document that describes in detail how a business usually a startup defines its objectives and how it is to go about achieving its goals. A business plan lays out a written roadmap for the firm from marketing, financial, and operational standpoints.
Listed below are headline format suitable for every small businesses in writing a Traditional business plan
Executive summary. Briefly tell your reader what your company is and why it will be successful.
- Company description.
- Market analysis.
- Organization and management.
- Service or product line.
- Marketing and sales.
- Funding request.
- Financial projections.
Once you have your idea in place, you need to ask yourself a few important questions:
- What is the purpose of your business?
- Who are you selling to?
- What are your end goals?
- How will you finance your startup costs?
These questions can be answered in a well-written business plan. A lot of mistakes are made by new businesses rushing into things without pondering these aspects of the business. You need to find your target customer base. Who is going to buy your product or service? If you can’t find evidence that there’s a demand for your idea, then what would be the point?
Highlight the purpose of setting up the business by answering the following questions;
What – problem is the business solving
How – do you intend to solve the problem?
Where – are your targets audience
Answering the above listed question will help in analyzing the demographics of your target audience which is like the basis for your business plan?
Knowing your customer and how to reach them is very essential for every growing business, conduct a market research and fix in your financial projection correctly.
In conclusion, a business plan is generally an overview report of how your business projection looks like and how it will scale up over a period of time. Most time this is what your partners or investor is interested in seeing. It’s like a guideline that helps in running your business though it’s subject to change.