09.04.2021

Why prepare your business plan well?

When can a business plan be useful?

The basis for the operation and success of any business is a plan. Without it, the chances of success decrease significantly. It also helps prevent hasty decisions often based on emotions. Another important advantage of a business plan is that it facilitates the evaluation of activities. If the vision of the company's future is clearly established, it is easier to assess whether our actions will bring the expected results.
A business plan is also essential if we want to get a loan, grant or investor support. In this situation, we must treat it as a showcase of our enterprise due to the fact that it is on it that we will depend on whether we succeed in obtaining financing.

What should a good business plan look like?

When it comes to writing a business plan, there is no perfect example that should be followed. Its appearance should depend primarily on its purpose. If the purpose is to obtain funding, we should first of all focus on meeting the requirements of the institution in question, and then on presenting our idea in a positive light. In a situation where the business plan we are creating is for our own purposes, we should focus on a real presentation of the situation and setting realistic goals and strategies.

A typical business plan generally consists of the following parts:

1. company description

This part should be used to provide such information as: the most important data about the company, the form of legal activity, the name of the company contact information, the date of starting the business. In addition to this, it is also the place to present the company's mission, vision and goals.

2. product/service description

This is where we introduce the product or service we want to offer. Here you should focus on such aspects as: features, advantages, manufacturing costs, what value the product/service brings to customers and what distinguishes the product/service from solutions offered by competitors.

3. staff description

When drawing up a description of the staff, include such information as the number of people employed, the experience and qualifications of the management, the structure of the company, and employee costs.

4.Market and competition analysis

When analyzing the market and competition, we should focus primarily on prevailing market trends, opportunities and threats posed by market conditions, market values, characteristics of the target group, barriers to entry, competitive background and analysis of the largest players in the market. Tools such as SWOT analysis, Osterwalder's canvass and McKinsey matrix also prove useful in this section.

5. marketing and sales strategy

This section should convey how the company will advertise, how customers will learn about the company, what channels will be used for marketing, and how and to whom products/services will be sold.

6.Financial strategy

The financial plan should include such items as financial projections, income statement, cash flow, break-even point and balance sheet. It is also important that any information in this section should be supported by calculations that take into account market trends.

7 Schedule

In this section, we should specify all our actions over time. We should specify the time intervals in which the step will be implemented.

Summary

This section should be dedicated to the presentation of all the key information presented in the earlier sections, and an overall business risk assessment should follow.

When writing a business plan, remember that it is a showcase of your company. You should present it in superlatives, however, you should not forget about the existing risks and threats in the market.

Krzysztof Glinicki

See other entries

morphological analysis
Innovations

How can morphological analysis help your brand?

See more
Tools to support remote working in the company - part 3/3
Enterprise management

Tools to support remote working in the company - part 3/3

See more
urban and domestic innovations
Innovations

Smart House and Smart City - what innovations can be expected at home and in the city?

See more