Business plans are not just what is written on paper. It includes ideas running through them, visions, goals, future possibilities, and much more. Whether you are just trying to start a business or trying to expand your business to another level, re-watching your business plan will not only give you a better decision and analysis but also allow you to target possible investors.
Here is the list of key concepts that you should know to draft your business plan.
- Executive Summary
- Overview and Objectives
- Products and Services
- Market Opportunities
- Sales and Marketing
- Competitive Analysis
- Financial Analysis
Also, preparing research, and storing data comes in very handy if you are going to write a business plan. Writing a business plan earlier gives you an excellent opportunity to draw a baseline for your business. Meaning, that from it you can analyze where you started and where you have reached.
Also, other key points would be making a business plan short and direct. No one wants to read your business plan which is 30 pages long.
So keeping the above-mentioned points in mind, let’s have a look at what to include in key points to write a better business plan.
1. Executive Summary
Executive Summary is the introduction part of the business where you need to describe
- What is your business?
- What do you plan to solve?
- How do you plan to solve the problems?
If your business plan doesn’t include a problem-solving solution, then, it might get uninteresting for some of the investors. In fact, an executive summary says a lot about your business vision and goals, highlighting the major and crucial parts.
2. Overview and Objectives
Writing just after the Executive Summary, Overview, and Objectives may sound confusing and tricky. So here is the ice-breaker. The overview and objectives deal with the business ideology and small parts of it.
To write a good overview and objectives, ask yourself these questions first:
- What your business will offer?
- What things are required to run your business?
- Who are your possible customers?
- Whom your customers will service?
So, when you write your overview and objectives section, make sure that you have pointed out how you will do your business in a clear and attractive form. If there is jargon in your business, make sure you replace it with a simple word.
3. Products and Services
While writing this, you have to make sure that it doesn’t become very lengthy and boring. To get you some ideas, we have arranged a few questions which can come in handy while writing the Products and Services page in your business plan.
- What is your Product?
- Are your look-a-like products available in the market?
- What makes your products different in the market?
- How do you plan to sell your products?
- What resources will be required to sell the product?
4. Market Opportunities
Before you jump straight toward the market, you should have done market research and its place for your products. You should have conducted one research in the market before you establish a business.
Anyways, let’s head on what this market opportunity is. While writing a business plan, you must also write what are your chances of surviving in the market. How strong your competitors are, what are their weaknesses, and how you can outrun them?
5. Sales and Marketing
On the Sales and Marketing page, you can include the critical points of how you will sell your products. Mention the different types of your clients and their customers and pitch a proposal for them.
Similarly, with marketing, you can mention what ways you will promote your business and where you will promote it. Also, please pack your sales and marketing pages in the business plan with ideas that will convert every investor.
6. Competitive Analysis
Competitive Analysis includes a detailed analysis of you, your current competitors, and your future competitors who may enter the market in the future.
Like every organization, you should organize your SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threat) in the current market.
The real market keeps changing, and getting all the data of your competitors might be a tough hazard, so in your report, include some basic and common things only, that your competitors have. Meanwhile, don’t forget to catch their unique selling point as well.
7. Financial Analysis
Financial analysis is a great way to decide if you have gained a profit, or are at a loss for any business firm. And it’s how you attract your lenders, investors and shareholders to make you invest in yourself. With proper financial projections and estimations, one can know whether their company will succeed or not in the future. Most financial analysis documents in a business plan include:
- Balance Sheet
- Income Statement
- Cash Flow Statement
- Operating Budget
- And Break-Even Analysis
A good business plan is like a GPS that guides you through the various stages of the business development and also provides the investors and lenders the key information they require to determine whether or not to fund your company.