A good, concise and easily understandable business plan is essential before even starting your business. It is crucial in ensuring the success of your start-up and in winning over the minds of investors. Here are the 7 Tips for writing a good business plan:
1.Research
Research on structure, marketing strategies and finances of your business. Do some detective work on your competitors’ business model online and offline. Sometimes this helps you find your niche in the industry.
2. Identify and profile your target market
You cannot target everyone in general. Think of your long-term plans for your business and which markets do you think would need your services now and in the future. Once you have identified the most profitable and alluring segment, you need to profile them based on their demographics, geodemographic, psychographic and behavior-graphic.
3. Never rush to complete your business plan
There will be sections that you have information on while other sections are uncertain. A business plan is dynamic. You can and will change it according to any incoming insights or feedback you may receive later on.
4. Include expected figures
A challenge for start-ups is that there are no historical figures for turnover and finances. Hence, you would need to calculate your expected estimates and determine a benchmark for them eg. your closest competitors with similar business model or attributes.
5. Leave summary last
Your business plan summary is the last concern of your plan. Once you are done with the planning. Write a summary that is easy for banks, investors, partners or wholesalers to quickly understand your business. Make it realistic and a good summary would motivate your readers about being part of that business with you.
6. Always review
Never be satisfied with finishing up every section of your plan. Always review it to make a good impression to those reading it. Your professional image is at stake. Ask trusted people to proofread your final plan and think over their feedback.
7.Seek professional help
If you are new to starting up your own business, seek help from a business adviser, accountant, intellectual property lawyer etc as a precaution to avoid or reduce future business hiccups.
These tips may seem daunting and sometimes start-ups forget that they don’t need to do this alone. If you are a start-up and confused about what is a good business plan, contact us at tempo@braatheenterprises.com or set-up a call to discuss training needs at http://meetme.so/RobertBraathe
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