Business Plan: Step-by-Step

Last Updated on September 18, 2024

A business plan is an essential document that describes your business future. It determines the success of your company. When starting a new business or planning to expand an existing business, you need to remain focused and positive. The primary cause for business failure is lack of planning.  A business plan is a road map that directs you to run, structure, and grow your business. It guides on every stage. Besides, it helps you to get a new partner or funding from investors. It is a tool you can use to convince people to invest in your company. This is how you need to write a business plan;

Executive summary

In this section, give a brief summary of all the details in your plan. Tell your readers why your company will be successful. Indicate your product or services, mission statement, and any other essential information such as location, your leadership team, and employees. If planning to ask for finances, include a high-level growth plan and all your financial information.

If it’s an existing business, write an executive summary of your business partner, employees, or investors. Give all the information you know your audience will want to know.

Description Of Your Company

Give detailed information about your company. Describe the problem your company solves. Give a list of the clients your company is planning to serve. Go into detail of how your business will provide a competitive advantage to make it grow. Do you have a perfect location for the business? Do you have a qualified team? Company description is the section you need to boast about the strength of your company.

Market Analysis

Your target market is an integral part of your planning. Get a proper understanding of the target market and industry overview. Market analysis will help to understand how other businesses are doing. In your research, seek to know their strengths, what the competitors are doing to be successful, and seek to know whether you have the capacity to do better. Answer these questions in this section.

Management structure

Explain to your readers who and how you will run the company and how it will be structured. Describe whether you intend to incorporate your company as a sole proprietor, limited partnership, or LLC. Describe its legal structure. Using a structural chart, lay out everyone’s responsibility in your team. Show their exceptional expertise and how they will use their knowledge to contribute to the success of your business. Consider attaching the resumes of every team member.

Product / Services

Share in detail the product or the services you will be offering. Describe how its lifecycle will be like and how it will be of benefit to your clients. Will there be packaging? Will you be using a system to bill them? How will it reach your customers?

Marketing

The marketing strategy is diverse. You should change your approach to fit your unique needs.  In this section, your mission is to show how you will attract and retain customers. Ensure you comprehensively describe your sales and marketing strategy. Refer to this part after finalizing your financial projections.

Fiscal Request

This part interests the investor the most. If you aren’t sure how to do it, get one of the professional business plan writers at paperleaf to help you. Remember, your convincing power in this part will determine whether you will get an investor or not.  They will want to know how much funding you will need and how you will use it.  Outline your funding requirements and specify whether you will want it as equity or as debt. Explain the term of application and the duration of its payback. Give a detailed description of how you will use the funds. Is it to pay salaries, buy materials or equipment, or is it for covering bills?

Financial Projection

Remember, your goal is to show that your business will be stable and will experience financial success. Hence, supplement your fiscal request with financial projections. If your business is already running, give your cash flow statement, balance sheet, and income statement for the last three years. Also, provide the prospective financial outlook for the coming three years. This is the best part to provide charts and graphs to explain your business financial story.

Appendix

If you have any other additional supporting information you haven’t given out so far, list it here. It can be a bank statement, permits, licenses, resumes of key employees, credit history, etc.