Contents of a business plan

Contents of a written business ts of a written business ad article as a pdf. Well-prepared, attractive written business plan is an essential document in the quest for either debt or equity financing, to provide a benchmark against which to compare actual company performance, and to refine strategies and develop ideas on how the business should be conducted. From a practical standpoint, a business plan serves as a road map for how you plan to grow the business and take it to the next gh the written business plan of a start-up venture must be tailored to the particular business and industry, the essential items in a written business plan include the following:The cover page should include the following:D. Confidentiality and nondisclosure of contents and table of table of contents and table of appendices should refer the reader to the sections and subsections of the business executive summary is the first part of the business plan to be read by potential lenders and investors. In the case of a poorly written executive summary, the executive summary is often the only part of the business plan that gets read. Accordingly, you should take the time necessary to prepare a dynamic executive summary that describes the business, identifies the stage of the company and its strategic direction, describes the company's market and marketing plan, briefly discusses the background of management, and states the company's revenue and profit expectations. Remember, you only get one chance to make a good first of a business body of the business plan should include detailed discussions of the following subjects:I. Exit strategy -- how and when investors will be able to get their money out of the business. Get a free attorney you're planning for the future of your new small business, you may also want to consider hiring an attorney. Findlaw can match you with a small business attorney in your area for a free initial t a qualified business attorney to help younavigate the process of starting a business. Me find a do-it-yourself business ss incorporation business attorneysnear your legal nts and ation and to hiring a tion and ng a business security and retirement r directory cts attorneysincorporation lawyersbusiness litigation lawyersintellectual property ss licenses and ng your business ng a business steps to start a ng a business ss reneur live ise 500 ss opportunities iption on the next to articles to add them to your what it takes to launch, sustain and grow a michelle ts of a business are seven major sections of a business plan, and each one is a complex document. Read this selection from our business plan tutorial to fully understand these that you understand why you need a business plan and you've spent some time doing your homework gathering the information you need to create one, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get everything down on paper. The following pages will describe in detail the seven essential sections of a business plan: what you should include, what you shouldn't include, how to work the numbers and additional resources you can turn to for help. With that in mind, jump right ive summarywithin the overall outline of the business plan, the executive summary will follow the title page. Clearly state what you're asking for in the statement should be kept short and businesslike, probably no more than half a page. It could be longer, depending on how complicated the use of funds may be, but the summary of a business plan, like the summary of a loan application, is generally no longer than one page. It should point out just exactly what will be sold, to whom and why the business will hold a competitive ial features. Highlights the important financial points of the business including sales, profits, cash flows and return on ial requirements. If the loan for initial capital will be based on security instead of equity, you should also specify the source of t business position. Details any developments within the company that are essential to the success of the business. If the statement of purpose is eight pages, nobody's going to read it because it'll be very clear that the business, no matter what its merits, won't be a good investment because the principals are indecisive and don't really know what they want. Make it easy for the reader to realize at first glance both your needs and them all about itthe business description usually begins with a short description of the industry. You should also provide information on all the various markets within the industry, including any new products or developments that will benefit or adversely affect your business. This is important if you're seeking funding; the investor will want to know just how dependable your information is, and won't risk money on assumptions or describing your business, the first thing you need to concentrate on is its structure. Also state whether the business is new or already addition to structure, legal form should be reiterated once again. Detail whether the business is a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation, who its principals are, and what they will bring to the should also mention who you will sell to, how the product will be distributed, and the business's support systems.

Content of business plan

Support may come in the form of advertising, promotions and customer you've described the business, you need to describe the products or services you intend to market. You may want to emphasize any unique features or variations from concepts that can typically be found in the specific in showing how you will give your business a competitive edge. For example, your business will be better because you will supply a full line of products; competitor a doesn't have a full line. Answer that question for yourself, and then convey that answer to others in the business concept section. Just explain the factors you think will make it successful, like the following: it's a well-organized business, it will have state-of-the-art equipment, its location is exceptional, the market is ready for it, and it's a dynamite product at a fair you're using your business plan as a document for financial purposes, explain why the added equity or debt money is going to make your business more how you will expand your business or be able to create something by using that why your business is going to be profitable. A potential lender is going to want to know how successful you're going to be in this particular business. Give the reader an idea of the experience of the other key people in the business. They'll want to know what suppliers or experts you've spoken to about your business and their response to your idea. They may even ask you to clarify your choice of location or reasons for selling this particular business description can be a few paragraphs in length to a few pages, depending on the complexity of your plan. If your plan isn't too complicated, keep your business description short, describing the industry in one paragraph, the product in another, and the business and its success factors in three or four paragraphs that will end the you may need to have a lengthy business description in some cases, it's our opinion that a short statement conveys the required information in a much more effective manner. It doesn't attempt to hold the reader's attention for an extended period of time, and this is important if you're presenting to a potential investor who will have other plans he or she will need to read as well. If the business description is long and drawn-out, you'll lose the reader's attention, and possibly any chance of receiving the necessary funding for the fy and analyze your competitionthe competitive analysis is a statement of the business strategy and how it relates to the competition. Aaker in his book, developing business strategies, suggests concentrating your efforts in four areas:the reasons behind successful as well as unsuccessful firmsprime customer motivatorsmajor component costsindustry mobility barriersaccording to theory, the performance of a company within a market is directly related to the possession of key assets and skills. After you've finished, you'll be able to determine just where you stand in relation to the other firms competing in your you've established the key assets and skills necessary to succeed in this business and have defined your distinct competitive advantage, you need to communicate them in a strategic form that will attract market share as well as defend it. You need to establish this competitive advantage clearly so the reader understands not only how you will accomplish your goals, but also why your strategy will and development you'll cover in this sectionthe purpose of the design and development plan section is to provide investors with a description of the product's design, chart its development within the context of production, marketing and the company itself, and create a development budget that will enable the company to reach its are generally three areas you'll cover in the development plan section:product developmentmarket developmentorganizational developmenteach of these elements needs to be examined from the funding of the plan to the point where the business begins to experience a continuous income. Although these elements will differ in nature concerning their content, each will be based on structure and first step in the development process is setting goals for the overall development plan. Your goals should be quantifiable in order to set up time lines, directed so they relate to the success of the business, consequential so they have impact upon the company, and feasible so that they aren't beyond the bounds of actual for product developmentgoals for product development should center on the technical as well as the marketing aspects of the product so that you have a focused outline from which the development team can work. Without the necessary expertise, the chances of bringing a product successfully to market ureswith your goals set and expertise in place, you need to form a set of procedural tasks or work assignments for each area of the development plan. For example, to produce a recipe for a premium lager beer, you would need to do the following:gather ine optimum malting mashing wort and evaluate which hops provide the best ine yeast amounts and fermentation ine aging ate the whether or not to pasteurize the development of procedures provides a list of work assignments that need to be accomplished, but one thing it doesn't provide are the stages of development that coordinate the work assignments within the overall development plan. To do this, you first need to amend the work assignments created in the procedures section so that all the individual work elements are accounted for in the development plan. All elements of the product are checked against goals to assure the integrity of the ling and coststhis is one of the most important elements in the development plan. All overhead expenses required to operate the business during the development phase such as taxes, rent, phone, utilities, office supplies, etc. The salaries of marketing personnel required to develop pre-promotional materials and plan the marketing campaign that should begin prior to delivery of the sional services. Those costs associated with the consultation of outside experts such as accountants, lawyers, and business laneous costs. To determine the capital requirements for the development budget, you first have to establish what type of equipment you will need, whether you will acquire the equipment or use outside contractors, and finally, if you decide to acquire the equipment, whether you will lease or purchase nelas we mentioned already, the company has to have the proper expertise in key areas to succeed; however, not every company will start a business with the expertise required in every key area. This can be done by reviewing the goals of your development plan to establish key areas that need attention.

What are the contents of a business plan

In order to do this, you should develop an organizational chart for your development ing risksfinally, the risks involved in developing the product should be assessed and a plan developed to address each one. Login clicking "create account" i agree to the entrepreneur privacy policy and terms of main ultimate guide to business plans. The fact that the opening section of your business plan is the last thing you’ll work on, it is the first thing anyone looking at your business plan will see. This is best managed by having a single person write the your business plan to your audience. This means keeping in mind that what’s important to a vc may not be on the same list of priorities as a small business loan manager at your local bank. It also means being flexible with the the layout and knowing which sections to you'll need to are the sections with which your business plans should kick things off with, that includes having a:The cover letter serves the same purpose that it does when you submit one along with a resume as a job candidate. That you’re submitting a business plan for your business, which you can describe in a sentence, and what the prospective reader can look forward to reading about in the following pages). Page should give anyone skimming through your business plan a clear roadmap of which section falls where. The benefits being that depending on who’s reading the plan, some people might go through everything chronologically and others will have different priority sections they’ll want to jump straight through to and skip means having every section, and potentially subsection, that could be of interest on the table of contents. Even though it comes after you’ve written and thought through every other facet of your business, it is arguably the most important part of the purpose is suggested in its name, giving time-crunched executives (or your rich uncle) the high-level overview of your business that will either persuade them to continue reading further or toss your plan in the trash can without a second thought. It must be at least 6 characters r future terms and entrepreneur of the year r future terms and entrepreneur of the year ts of a business plan  /. Business nable ectual ting ing plan, selling g a business -disclosure ss plan, business planning, vision, , pitching, elevator ial livewwire has really helped penumbra power with the difficult, early stage of gaining traction in a new business. Single most important thing to remember as a founder is that your business will live or die by the way you shell livewire award was thoroughly efficient in providing pr buzz, funding opportunities and feedback, vital in the early stages of running a roberts (bananaberry). An early stage start-up, the shell livewire award provided the much needed support to help validate our business maksimiuk (hubebub). Good business plan should include all of the following information:The cover gives the reader an instant impression of the business so it needs to look professional. It should show the business name and logo, if you have one, and your name. However, since it is the first bit you will read, we will describe it summary should briefly describe the business and highlight its purpose. It should explain how the purpose will be achieved and why the proprietor is the person to make it one of the uses for your business plan is to raise finance, then a clear simple outline will catch the attention of prospective funders and make them interested enough to read on. If you are already in business, briefly describe your history to date and, in particular, provide details of turnover and profitability for the previous one or two years. Indicate how much money you need to raise and the proposed section should briefly describe the purpose and goals of the business. Typical objectives might be profitability, sales growth, diversification and improvement in market ives might include, for example:To sell 220 units and generate £100,000 over the next 12 achieve a gross profit margin of 45%; or,To capture 18% of the defined marketing plan to achieve these objectives should be described using the 4ps (price, product, promotion, place). Your chosen positioning will also affect how you implement the n how you propose to position the business (and the product) in the market place. Location of your business and the way you will distribute your product to your clients are both important. The latter is often a difficult strategy for small businesses so most, either consciously or unconsciously, choose the differentiation y, you need to explain your promotional strategy - how you intend to break into the market and let the customer know you n how you will promote what you have to offer, for example, through advertising, direct mail, door-to-door leaflets, social media campaigns, ment and is important to demonstrate that you have the ability to carry out the tasks to make the business work. Focus only on the key be the people involved highlighting the particular strengths and skills they bring to the business. The production process (if appropriate) and highlight any competitive reader is already aware of the logic behind your choice of premises; here describe the premises themselves, including details of any necessary licences, health and safety requirements, planning permission, you have worked out your likely costs, and determined the price at which you will sell your product or service, you can work out exactly how much you need to sell in order to cover costs - either in terms of units sold or productive hours worked.

The objective of this section of the plan is to demonstrate that the business will achieve both of these requirements. If a substantial investment is sought or if the business is unlikely to show profitability within the year, then forecasts for two or even three years may be section will normally include a cashflow forecast, a forecast profit and loss account and a forecast balance sheet. This might not, however, show the business exactly as you would like; you might, for example, be introducing fixed assets or stock which will not appear on the cash flow ctive funders are interested in risks - the risk that you may not achieve your forecast, the risk that you may default on the loan and even the risk that your business might cease to trade. You can help the business plan appraiser by briefly considering such questions yourself and assessing the likely risks particularly of falling sales or rising ial te how much money or other assets will be invested by yourself (and any partners). The offer of security is a demonstration of your commitment to, and confidence in, the business. You may find there are some aspects of your business where more background information might be helpful, but don’t regard this as an excuse to include addition to the items mentioned above, you might include:Quotations for equipment and necessary information - partnership agreement, leases etc. Copy of your primary research questionnaires; nt secondary research describing your business, in highlighting the features and benefits of your product or service, in demonstrating your knowledge of the market, in providing details of actual performance or forecasts of potential and in demonstrating your willingness to take risk, you have prepared a business plan. You can now think about writing the r, we suggested that the quality of the information you gather for your plan will determine the quality of your business plan. Equally, the quality of the business plan will determine the success or otherwise of any application for funding. No less importantly, the quality of your business planning will determine the success or otherwise of your er that your plan is neither a static document nor simply a tool with which to get funding; it is an evolving statement of all the ideas, research and actions which you are employing to ensure the survival and growth of your business will require frequent changes of direction as new opportunities present themselves. How you meet those opportunities will be a function of the quality of your planning, of your flexibility of approach, and of how you develop and use your ing your business plan. Good business plan is a complete description of a business and its plans for the next one to three ss plan | business ng strategically at the business planning small businesses starting up think of strategic or long-term planning as something that is only undertaken by large ss planning | strategic you're a startup, writing a business plan is a great way to gather all your thoughts and ideas together in one place, no matter how poorly formed they might be at this ss plan | business value proposition of a to describe the value proposition of your business to customers, clients and potential business partners or investors by steven leach (unltd) for shell ss planning | value analysis - strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and to carry out a swot analysis for business ss planning | you need a business plan: the importance of best businesses see business planning as a continuous activity setting both long-term and short-term goals and objectives. Both are important, as is regular monitoring to determine if goals and objectives are being ss plan | business way of planning your business is to undertake a pest ss planning | io planning can be used both to look generally at what might happen in the environment (for example, the effect on the economy if the government changes) and to help you think specifically about your own business and its position within the market ss planning | scenario wikipedia, the free to: navigation, article has multiple issues. Business plan is a formal statement of business goals, reasons they are attainable, and plans for reaching them. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those ss plans may target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, taxpayer, or larger community. When the existing business is to assume a major change or when planning a new venture, a 3 to 5 year business plan is required, since investors will look for their investment return in that timeframe. 3] for government agencies, external stakeholders include tax-payers, higher-level government agencies, and international lending bodies such as the international monetary fund, the world bank, various economic agencies of the united nations, and development ally focused business plans target intermediate goals required to reach the external goals. An internal business plan is often developed in conjunction with a balanced scorecard or a list of critical success factors. Business plans that identify and target internal goals, but provide only general guidance on how they will be met are called strategic ional plans describe the goals of an internal organization, working group or department. The content and format of the business plan is determined by the goals and audience. For example, a business plan for a non-profit might discuss the fit between the business plan and the organization’s mission. Banks are quite concerned about defaults, so a business plan for a bank loan will build a convincing case for the organization’s ability to repay the loan. A business plan for a project requiring equity financing will need to explain why current resources, upcoming growth opportunities, and sustainable competitive advantage will lead to a high exit valuation. A business plan draws on a wide range of knowledge from many different business disciplines: finance, human resource management, intellectual property management, supply chain management, operations management, and marketing, among others. 6] it can be helpful to view the business plan as a collection of sub-plans, one for each of the main business disciplines. A good business plan can help to make a good business credible, understandable, and attractive to someone who is unfamiliar with the business.

Writing a good business plan can’t guarantee success, but it can go a long way toward reducing the odds of failure. It is common for businesses, especially start-ups, to have three or four formats for the same business "elevator pitch" is a short summary of the plan's executive summary. Written presentation for external stakeholders is a detailed, well written, and pleasingly formatted plan targeted at external internal operational plan is a detailed plan describing planning details that are needed by management but may not be of interest to external stakeholders. Such plans have a somewhat higher degree of candor and informality than the version targeted at external stakeholders and l structure for a business plan for a start up venture [10]. Page and table of ss environment ments and l questions addressed by a business plan for a start up venture [11]. Are the risks and threats confronting the business, and what can be done to mitigate them? And revenue estimates are central to any business plan for deciding the viability of the planned venture. Reference class forecasting has been developed to reduce the risks of cost overruns and revenue shortfalls and thus generate more accurate business and liability issues[edit]. Externally targeted business plan should list all legal concerns and financial liabilities that might negatively affect investors. Depending on the amount of funds being raised and the audience to whom the plan is presented, failure to do this may have severe legal tions on content and audience[edit]. Disclosure agreements (ndas) with third parties, non-compete agreements, conflicts of interest, privacy concerns, and the protection of one's trade secrets may severely limit the audience to which one might show the business plan. Alternatively, they may require each party receiving the business plan to sign a contract accepting special clauses and situation is complicated by the fact that many venture capitalists will refuse to sign an nda before looking at a business plan, lest it put them in the untenable position of looking at two independently developed look-alike business plans, both claiming originality. In such situations one may need to develop two versions of the business plan: a stripped down plan that can be used to develop a relationship and a detail plan that is only shown when investors have sufficient interest and trust to sign an business plans[edit]. The business plan itself is generally regarded as open business plan is a business plan with unlimited audience. The business plan is typically web published and made available to the free software and open source business model, trade secrets, copyright and patents can no longer be used as effective locking mechanisms to provide sustainable advantages to a particular business and therefore a secret business plan is less relevant in those ss plans are used in some primary and secondary programs to teach economic principles. Has a lunar boom town project where students of all ages can collaborate with designing and revising business models and practice evaluating them to learn practical business planning techniques and ising is the primary purpose for many business plans, since they are related to the inherent probable success/failure of the company p company ment by objectives (mbo) is a process of agreeing upon objectives (as can be detailed within business plans) within an organization so that management and employees agree to the objectives and understand what they are in the gic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. Business plans can help decision makers see how specific projects relate to the organization's strategic quality management (tqm) is a business management strategy aimed at embedding awareness of quality in all organizational processes. Tqm has been widely used in manufacturing, education, call centers, government, and service industries, as well as nasa space and science for profit businesses[edit]. For-profit business plans typically focus on financial goals, such as profit or creation of wealth. Non-profit, as well as government agency business plans tend to focus on the "organizational mission" which is the basis for their governmental status or their non-profit, tax-exempt status, respectively—although non-profits may also focus on optimizing primary difference between profit and non-profit organizations is that "for-profit" organizations look to maximize wealth versus non-profit organizations, which look to provide a greater good to society. Satires are used both to express cynicism about business plans and as an educational tool to improve the quality of business plans. For example,In his presentation, five criteria for a successful business plan in biotech, dr. Roger bernier, uses dilbert comic strips to remind people what not to do when researching and writing a business plan for a biotech start-up. Anatomy of a business plan: a step-by-step guide to building a business and securing your company’s future (6th edition). Tasmanian government project management knowledge base government project plan archived june 22, 2009, at the wayback machine. Boston college, carroll school of management, business plan project archived 2008-01-16 at the wayback machine.

The business school advises students that "to create a robust business plan, teams must take a comprehensive view of the enterprise and incorporate management-practice knowledge from every first-semester course. It is increasingly common for business schools to use business plan projects to provide an opportunity for students to integrate knowledge learned through their courses. Bornstein (1993), 'the ernst & young business plan guide' (new york: john wiley and sons) isbn 0-471-57826-6. The motley ries: business documentsbusiness plan competitionsentrepreneurshipformal statementsmanagementstrategic managementventure capitalhidden categories: webarchive template wayback linksarticles that may contain original research from august 2012all articles that may contain original researcharticles needing additional references from august 2012all articles needing additional referencesarticles needing cleanup from march 2015all pages needing cleanupcleanup tagged articles with a reason field from march 2015wikipedia pages needing cleanup from march 2015articles lacking reliable references from march 2015all articles lacking reliable referencesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from january 2015articles needing additional references from august logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia out wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this a bookdownload as pdfprintable ansالعربيةбеларускаябеларуская (тарашкевіца)‎българскиcatalàčeštinadanskdeutscheestiελληνικάespañolفارسیfrançaisհայերենहिन्दीhrvatskibahasa indonesiaíslenskaitalianoעבריתқазақшаkiswahiliкыргызчаlatviešulietuviųmagyarмакедонскиnederlands日本語norskoʻzbekcha/ўзбекчаpolskiportuguêsрусскийshqipsimple englishslovenčinaslovenščinaсрпски / srpskisuomisvenskaไทยукраїнськаtiếng việt中文.