A business plan maps out how your business will operate and how this will help you reach your business goals.
By putting your plan in writing, you’ll get a better sense of your business, know the steps to be taken to succeed, and inspire confidence in current and potential stakeholders.
We will go over the steps you need to take and considerations during each of these steps. Treat this as a handy guide, if you will, when you sit down to pen that B-Plan. If you thinking of starting a business, or already started one and still have not drafted your Business Plan; do it Now!
Step 1: High Level Overview
- Business Name
- What Products or Services you wish to sell
- Who is your Target Audience
- What are your success goals
- What is your Industry
- How does your Product or Service work
- What are the different roles in your company and what would be achieved by these roles
Step 2: Industry and Competitor Analysis
- Detailed Analysis of your Industry with facts & figures
- Is the indutry growing or shrinking
- Why do you think there is an opportunity in this industry
- Trends in the industry
- List down all your competitors
- Who are the major players
- What is their market share
- What market share are you looking for
- What are the barriers to entry for this industry
Step 3: Target Audience Analysis
- Decribe your target audience in detail
- List your audience’s Demographic & Psychographic (values, attitude, personality, opinions, hobbies etc) info
- What is the volume of this Target market
- Why is this TG ripe for potential sale
- How are you meeting your Audience’s needs
- What is your differentiating factor
- What problems are you solving for them that your competitor isn’t
- What techniques are you going to use for this (innovation, thinking, quality, data etc..)
Step 4: Legal
- Define the ownership of the business
- What is the legal structure of the company
- Compliances adhered to
Step 5: Product or Service Definition
- Define in detail your product or service
- What are the key highlights about your product or service you want people to understand
- What stage is this in
- What are the differentiating factors vis-a-vis your competitors
- Does it use any special technology
- Is there any design elements worth mentioning
- Note the R&D done on this
- Are there any patents
Step 6: Marketing Starategy
- Describe your Brand’s Identity
- How will this identity will help in reaching your target audience
- What will be the voice and tone of your marketing efforts
- What colors, imagery and visuals will be used
- How will your introduce your product or service to your audience
- What channels wil be used (social media, search, display ads etc)
- What is your strategy for each of these channels
Step 7: Sales Strategy
- How will sales be approached
- What modes — partnerships, distributors, online or offline staore, salespeople etc
- What are the sales steps already taken, if any
- What is the progress already made and how to proceed from here
- How will sales strategy work in tandem with marketing startegy
Step 8: Money
- State what funding you need now, how long will that last & what is needed in the future
- Where will the funding be used; give detailed breakup under each head
- Prepare an actual cash flow till date and projected cash flow
- Prepare monthly and yearly projected P&L statements
- List out what key miletones must be hit to be financially stable and when
- Identify what activities might lead to a loss and what steps are to be taken to break even
There you go guys! I have personally learned about these guidelines from the best and also used them for preparing B-Plans for my startups. Remember, you are making the B-Plan for yourself and not just for an investor. It is essential for You, the founder to have answers to pretty much everything about your business in your head!
Use StartupStash for all the resources you might need for researching and writing the B-Plan. Here is a sample B-plan for your reference.
Now, go forth and Get Working!
PS- I send out ocassional mails to my network sharing valuable content I come across and some which I pen down. The theme is centered around Marketing, Design Thinking & Startups. Would love to have you on board too: Sign-Up Here
