Do you have a business plan? I’m pleased to bring you this post – I do need to let you know that I have been paid to publish this post – I think you’ll find the information really helpful. See my disclosure policy.
How To Effectively Put In Place A Business Plan
Business planning is key to any business of any size and at any stage of its development. You will find a global multinational conglomerate just as likely to need a business plan as the small independent bakery down the street. You’ll need to plan to avoid disaster, OK so you’re not likely to have a tough a time as that example, but it’s still important to plan. So what are the most important parts of a business plan? Let’s take a look.
Company Description
Brief description of your company, who are you and what do you do or sell and to who? This seems obvious but sometimes it takes writing it down to really get this centred in your mind. Write this up as if you are describing it to someone who has no idea about your industry sector.
Competitor Analysis
It’s important to see who you are up against and what they are doing differently to you. It’s easy to conduct a good competitor analysis and one way is to do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) the key being how do you become one of their threats, it’s kind of like reverse engineering your own business strategy in a way.
Staff & Management Structure
How you are going to implement your strategy will largely depend on getting the correct staffing and management structure in place as you can’t do everything by yourself. It’s important to get the recruitment process right as it can be very difficult later on to get rid of staff once they are established.
Equipment & Machinery
You will need to have a good idea of what equipment, machinery and any other supplies or goods you will need to be able to effectively run your business and this can be a fairly exhaustive list from office furniture to PCs, tools, premises, storage and even vehicles. It can be a good idea to see if it’s possible to source as much of this as you possibly can from second hand sources, even checking out auctions resulting from business closures where you can grab a great bargain, why let their loss not be your gain!If going second hand is not possible or even the best idea in certain circumstances you might want to consider renting some things to keep the initial costs down such as car leasing which will give you the appeal of a new vehicle without the upfront cost involved.
Product or Service Line
It’s important to not only describe the product or service your business provides but rather emphasise what the benefit is to the customer and what problem of theirs it will solve. It is also important to show how your product offers a better, more efficient or more cost effective solution than that of your competitors. Any features where you are different and better than the competition should be highlighted here.
Financials
Detailed financial projections and past results should be included here, show where these projections are coming from with evidence and plan for potentially good and poor outcomes and to show what position you would be in if things were tough and how you would cope with this. It’s also a good idea to include long-term projections as well as short term ones.
