Business plan is an efficient technique to combine various business objectives into logical arrangement that involves truthful thinking of business concepts to identify the available opportunities and recognize problematic areas for business and start planning for that. In simple terms, business plan can be defined as a business functioning on paper that serves as a useful tool for the start-ups as well as existing businesses seeking growth and expansion (Amir, Hormozi, Sutton, & McMinn, 2002).
While writing my business plan, I need to pay attention in the content, sequence, style, structure and organization of the plan to make sure that the information included in it is communicated to the readers in desired manner. It is very important to know the audience of our business plan before we start working on it to make it precise. As suggested by Baliga and Rodrigues (2015), the different segments I need to incorporate in my business plan are:
The cover page and table of content that gives idea to the audience about what they are going to read and the themes covered in the plan in order to get their attention.
Executive Summary that exhibits the key topics included in business plan to create interest in the audience.
Description of business highlighting the background of business, product description and benefits, target market segment and unique selling proposition.
Competitive analysis explaining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats provided by internal and external environment.
Market analysis revealing the target market, growth potential and competition the organization might face.
Marketing plan including strategies to reach the audience, make them purchase aware our product and persuading them to make purchase decision along with the estimated cost.
Operational plan describing the entire process from acquisition of raw material to production of finished goods.
Financial plan specifying capital requirement, assets, liabilities, estimated costs, projected profits and expected returns.
Management summary including the knowledge, experience and expertise of team members.
In addition to correct formatting, we need to be careful about the language we use. The business plan should be able to get attention of the audience, arouse interest in the readers, make them desire our products and services and persuade them to take the desired action of buying the product.
For example, if my business idea is about starting recycling business, my business plan should be able to convince the audience that I am there to address the problem of waste management to some extent by providing them concrete data related with the cost required for up the business, the feasibility of the idea in the market, revenue model for our business, break-even point for the business, existing competitors, strategies to promote business, cost associated with the operations and process involved in recycling backed up by our own research of research done by other credible sources.
It is difficult to choose any one of the aspects as the most important one in the business plan. If we draft an excellent business plan but our structure is too messy, there are several grammatical errors and the content cannot be read easily, nobody will be interested in going through it. Similarly, it we properly structure the business plan but fail to include provide facts and figures to support the ideas presented in the paper, it is not going to work either. So, maintaining balance between every aspects is important.
Referring specifically to the format of business plan, I think the executive summary is the most important part as most of the readers decide whether to give a read through the business plan based on execution summary. However, it does not mean that we can pay less attention to the remaining parts. All the details must be synchronized and presented in consistent and logical manner to appeal the readers (Spinelli & Adams).
References
Amir, M., Hormozi, G. S., Sutton, R. D., & McMinn, W. L. (2002). Business Plans for New and Small Businesses: Paving the Path to Success. Managemant Decision, 40 (8), 755-763.
Baliga, A. J., & Rodrigues, L. L. (2015, April). Business Plan- The Secret to Success. The International Journal of Business and Management, 3 (4), 210-214.
Spinelli, S., & Adams, R. J. (n.d.). New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century (Nineth ed.). Irwin: McGraw Hill Education.
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Business plan is an efficient technique to combine various business objectives into logical arrangement that involves truthful thinking of business concepts to identify the available opportunities and recognize problematic areas for business and start planning for that. In simple terms, business plan can be defined as a business functioning on paper that serves as a useful tool for the start-ups as well as existing businesses seeking growth and expansion (Amir, Hormozi, Sutton, & McMinn, 2002).
While writing my business plan, I need to pay attention in the content, sequence, style, structure and organization of the plan to make sure that the information included in it is communicated to the readers in desired manner. It is very important to know the audience of our business plan before we start working on it to make it precise. As suggested by Baliga and Rodrigues (2015), the different segments I need to incorporate in my business plan are:
The cover page and table of content that gives idea to the audience about what they are going to read and the themes covered in the plan in order to get their attention.
Executive Summary that exhibits the key topics included in business plan to create interest in the audience.
Description of business highlighting the background of business, product description and benefits, target market segment and unique selling proposition.
Competitive analysis explaining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats provided by internal and external environment.
Market analysis revealing the target market, growth potential and competition the organization might face.
Marketing plan including strategies to reach the audience, make them purchase aware our product and persuading them to make purchase decision along with the estimated cost.
Operational plan describing the entire process from acquisition of raw material to production of finished goods.
Financial plan specifying capital requirement, assets, liabilities, estimated costs, projected profits and expected returns.
Management summary including the knowledge, experience and expertise of team members.
In addition to correct formatting, we need to be careful about the language we use. The business plan should be able to get attention of the audience, arouse interest in the readers, make them desire our products and services and persuade them to take the desired action of buying the product.
For example, if my business idea is about starting recycling business, my business plan should be able to convince the audience that I am there to address the problem of waste management to some extent by providing them concrete data related with the cost required for up the business, the feasibility of the idea in the market, revenue model for our business, break-even point for the business, existing competitors, strategies to promote business, cost associated with the operations and process involved in recycling backed up by our own research of research done by other credible sources.
It is difficult to choose any one of the aspects as the most important one in the business plan. If we draft an excellent business plan but our structure is too messy, there are several grammatical errors and the content cannot be read easily, nobody will be interested in going through it. Similarly, it we properly structure the business plan but fail to include provide facts and figures to support the ideas presented in the paper, it is not going to work either. So, maintaining balance between every aspects is important.
Referring specifically to the format of business plan, I think the executive summary is the most important part as most of the readers decide whether to give a read through the business plan based on execution summary. However, it does not mean that we can pay less attention to the remaining parts. All the details must be synchronized and presented in consistent and logical manner to appeal the readers (Spinelli & Adams).
References
Amir, M., Hormozi, G. S., Sutton, R. D., & McMinn, W. L. (2002). Business Plans for New and Small Businesses: Paving the Path to Success. Managemant Decision, 40 (8), 755-763.
Baliga, A. J., & Rodrigues, L. L. (2015, April). Business Plan- The Secret to Success. The International Journal of Business and Management, 3 (4), 210-214.
Spinelli, S., & Adams, R. J. (n.d.). New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century (Nineth ed.). Irwin: McGraw Hill Education.