Tweet

Entrepreneurs – What Goes Into A Business Plan?

Written by: Lee Lister

Article Overview: You are ready to write your business plan for funding purposes, or you are starting a new business and know that you need one. So what goes into your business plan?

Entrepreneurs – What Goes Into A Business Plan?

You are ready to write your business plan for funding purposes, or you are starting a new business and know that you need one. So what goes into your business plan?

Well first of all, a good, well structured business plan can be the foundation to your new company. It is important that you spend some time ensuring that it is accurate. Here are the relative portions of your business plan.

* Executive Summary. This will be the first thing read by your potential investor and a strong executive summary with an overview of all that is required will ensure that the rest of your business plan is read.

* Business Overview and structure including shares issued and who owns them. This is where you describe your physical business, your business model, your Mission Statement, objectives of the business and key milestones,

* Business Strategies including business, financial, marketing and exit strategy. This is an important part of your business plan and details how you are going to mange your future business. The business strategy is how you run your business and how you intend to expand and grow from a new business. The financial strategy is how you will manage your finances, when you will invest, how much will go into research, if you will lease or buy etc. Your marketing strategy deals with marketing and advertising your business, to whom, how and at what costs. Your exit strategy is how the investor will be able to recoup their investment.

* Markets, which is who you expect to buy your products and services with some predictions of volumes.

* Products, which are the services and goods offered. You should include how they are manufactured or sourced as well as the fulfilment process.

* Financials such as costs, overheads, profit etc with realistic indications of why, how and when. You should also include your marketing and staffing budgets as well as overhead costs and your break even position.

* Staffing including resumes/CV's of major staff, brief terms of reference and an organisation chart.

* The Way Forward, what will happen in the future and how an investor will get their money back.

If you include all of these you will have a great business plan. This can seem daunting, which is why it can be worthwhile to employ a business planning consultant, who can also provide business consultancy. Good luck.

Related Articles
  The need for Financial Education
  The 5 Practices of Wildly Successful Entrepreneurs by Ed Abel
  Why Some Entrepreneurs Fail
  California's Not a Big Entrepreneurship State
  Loans For Women Business Owners

Article Tags: cambria, compatibility, endif, gb, gte, math, mso, priority, true name, xml, zoom



Related Forum Posts
Business Innovation - Hi Simon If you can finish off the Business Plan and think about your strategic direction or how you are going to use your product to convince people it's a great idea, it will set the foundation for your programming project. You see, when you are looking for funding you will need a Business Plan and Strategic Plan that will convince companies to invest into your new idea. Has anyone achieved this idea before using another industry besides health and fitness that you know of? You should also design some mockups as a "preview" for your programming project. This will also help reduce your programming costs as everyone will know exactly what you want if you have detailed mockups already completed including any functionality you require. Starting mockups for websites and software applications on paper is the best way if you're not a guru in graphic editing software.
New Small Business Topic - Hello everyone, I'm on the lookout for new topics to add to my site. We just launched a Franchising section and are planning Human Resources section. Do you have any thoughts for a new section? Here's a list of what we currently have: Angel Investors Branding Bank Loans Business Coaching Business Plan Franchises (New) Insurance Legal Marketing Public Relations Sales Small Biz Loans Venture Capital
2007 Goals - 1. Web site complete, fully operational 2. Revenue stream from both individual and corporate 3. Business Plan complete 4. Full marketing strategy complete and implemented
Private Venture Capital Consortiums and Funding Syndicates - From the posts in this forum (all threads) it is very clear that funding is in high demand and many entrepreneurs are unsuccessful in sourcing, not to mention secure, private international venture capital. There are about 6000 international associations linked to venture capital around the globe and they all make their presence noticed on the internet. For most entrepreneurs this will sound very attractive, and it should be, but many unfortunately will stare disappointment in the face at the start of their endevours. The international success rate for venture capital finance / funding in start up projects is an unbelieveable low 2% - 5% maximum. Most venture capitalist linked with associations will require some sort of surity or guarantee of up to 50% of the investment. The entrepreneur will then have to pay fees up front before a cent has been invested, not to mention broker / consultant commissions of up to 12% of the total value of the project. Why is the success rate so low (2% - 5%)? - 1. Business Plan - poor preparation and insufficient information. Every entrepreneur will explain how big a specific market is in potential profits but they all lack the basic important factor every investor wants to see and that is How and What are you going to do to capture 10% of that market sector. Stop telling every investor that you "want" to capture 10%, tell them how you will go about doing so. 2. Management Team - How can anyone expect from an investor to invest in a company with poor management. How about investing $5 million in a one man operation - where is the security for the venture capitalist. Be realistic, put yourself in the position of the investor, argue the facts and then approach an investor if you are able to convince them of your project or business. 3. Project - If your project or business (products or service) is not unique or cheaper venture capitalists will not invest - final. If it is existing technologies, products or services improve them or make them cheaper. Entrepreneurs should always research venture capitalist befire approaching them - it is the difference between success anf failure Always Remember - Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan. ----------------
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Top 5 Qualities in an Outsourcing Company

Think Time

Igniting Your Unstoppable Business Destiny

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.