bumuo ng isang mini business plan

Your Wealthy Mind

Because Ideas Change Lives

Paano Gumawa ng Business Plan

February 13, 2018 by Ray L. 3 Comments

Join our Newsletter

Subscribe to our mailing list to receive awesome freebies and updates right in your email inbox.

Thank you for subscribing!

Something went wrong.

We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously

English Version (Click Here)

Sa pagluluto, ang mga pinakamagagaling na chef ay sumusunod sa konseptong “mise en place” (lahat nasa tamang lugar). Ibig sabihin noon, kailangan naintindihan mo na ang mga instructions o tagubilin sa pagluluto at inihanda mo na ang lahat ng sangkap bago ka magsimula. Kung hindi mo siniguradong ihanda ang lahat ng kailangan, ang mga nakalimutan mong gawin ay pwedeng makasira sa lasa ng iyong niluluto. Ang konseptong ito ay pwede mo ring gamitin sa pagsisimula ng negosyo. Kailangang planado mo na ang lahat para makita mo ang mga bagay na pwedeng pagmulan ng problema at iresolba mo sila bago ka magsimula, at ililista mo rin ang mga bagay na kailangan mong gawin para mas mataas ang pagkakataong magtagumpay ang iyong negosyo.

Bukod sa paghahanda para sa mga problemang pwedeng harapin, kapag nangangailangan ka ng loans sa bangko o kailangan mo ng investors na magbibigay ng pera o kapital para sa iyong negosyo, malamang gugustuhin muna nilang makita ang iyong business plan . Isipin mo lang, kung may nanghihingi sa iyo ng sampung libong dolyar (halos P500,000), ang negosyanteng alam ang kailangan nilang gawin para magtagumpay ang kanilang negoyso ay mas nararapat bigyan ng pagkakataon kumpara sa isa pang negosyanteng nanghuhula lang.

Maraming ibang mas detalyadong guides tungkol sa pagsulat ng business plan sa internet. Ang article na ito ay maglalaman lang ng basics. Ang pangunahing dahilan kung bakit isinulat ko ito ay dahil hindi ganoon karami ang mga guides na nakasulat sa Tagalog. Kapag kailangan mong magsimulang gumawa ng business plan, basahin mo lang ito para makita ang ilang mga bagay na kailangan mong pagisipan.

Executive summary

Madalas ito ang pinakaunang bahagi ng business plan pagkatapos ng title page. Ang executive summary ay naglalaman ng mga pinakamahalagang impormasyon tungkol sa iyong kumpanya.

• Ano ang ginagawa ng kumpanya mo?
• Ano ang iyong mga produkto o serbisyong ginagawa?
• Ano ang mission statement ng kumpanya mo?

Ano ang iyong pinakamahalagang competitive advantages at disadvantages (mga ginagawa ninyo kung saan mas magaling kayo kumpara sa ibang kumpanya, at mga bagay na hindi mo magawa nang kasing husay nila) pati na rin operational strengths at weaknesses (mga nagagawa niyong mabuti sa negosyo at mga problema niyo sa pagpapatakbo ng negosyo)? Ang lahat ng iyong at iba pa ay dapat nakabuod sa bahaging ito.

Bukod pa roon, sabi ng iba kailangan mo ring sabihin dito ang mga bagay na kailangan mo mula sa mga taong magbabasa ng iyong plan. Kapag kailangan mo ng investment na pera para sa kung ano mang bagay, pwede mo silang ilarawan dito. Siguraduhin mo lang na kaaya-aya ito para sa mga investors.

Ang isa pang payo na ibinibigay ng mga tao ay dapat mo raw isulat ang executive summary pagkatapos mong isulat ang iba pang bahagi ng iyong business plan. Kung mayroon ka nang klarong overview o pagtanaw ng iyong negosyo, saka ka lang makakapagsulat ng summary na magbubuod nito ng maayos.

Business or company description

Kailangan nakalagay dito ang mga pinakamahalagang detalye ng iyong industriya at kumpanya . Gaano kalaki ang iyong organisasyon? Nasaan ang opisina ninyo? Ano ang pangunahing ginagawa ng iyong kumpanya? (i.e. manufacturing products, services and repairs, atbp.)

Kailangan mo ring ilagay dito ang pinakamagagandang impormasyon tungkol sa kumpanya niyo . Sabihin mo ang mga bagay kung saan mahusay ang kumpanya niyo at anong mga factors o mga bagay ang nakakatulong sa iyong negosyo tulad ng iyong mga competitive advantages, operational strengths, technological advantages, at iba pa.

Organization and management

Ano ang legal structure ng iyong kumpanya? (Sole proprietorship? Corporation?) Sino sino ang iyong pinakamatataas na executives at team members? Mayroon ba sa inyong may special skills o experience na mabuting malaman ng mga investors? May mga tauhan ka ba na mga celebrities, influencers, o mga mahusay na entrepreneur na makatutulong nang husto sa iyong kumpanya na magtagumpay sa negosyo?

Market strategy or market analysis

Pagusapan mong mabuti ang mga kasalukuyang nangyayari sa iyong industriya at ang market na gusto mong pasukin. Maraming tao ba ang bibili ng mga produkto o serbisyo mo? Papatok ba ang negosyo mo sa kasalukuyang panahon? May mga bagong trends ka bang maaaring gamitin? Mayroon din bang mga bagong pangyayari na pwedeng magdulot ng mga problema? Alin naman doon ang magagamit mo para maging mas matibay ang posisyon ng iyong negosyo?

Anong klaseng tao (o organisasyon) ang nasa iyong target market (mga pagbebentahan mo)? Sinu sino ang iyong pinakamahahalaga mong customers? Sino ang mga taong bibili ng iyong produkto o gagamit ng iyong mga serbisyo?

Bago pa iyon, kailangan mo ring alamin kapag may malaking market para sa iyong produkto o serbisyo, at kung kayang suportahan ng mga produkto mo ang pangangailangan ng mga customers mo. Kapag mali ang kalkulasyon mo dito, baka matulad ka sa mga kumpanyang nagbebenta dati ng mga segway at “hoverboards” . May maganda nga silang produkto, pero hindi naman pala ganoon kalaki ang market (walang masyadong bumibili).

Competitor analysis

Ang isang mahalagang business tip na natutunan ko ay mabuti kapag mayroon kang kompetisyon . Kapag may mga kakompetensya kang mga kumpanya na gumagawa ng produkto o serbisyong katulad ng iyo, ibig sabihin noon may market nga para sa produkto mo. May mga taong bumibili ng mga bagay na gusto mong ibenta, at marami ang bumibili kaya may mga negosyong nabubuhay at umaasenso dito.

Ang tanong naman ngayon, ano ang pwede mong matutunan sa iyong mga kakompetensya? Ano ang ginagawa nila? May mga trends ba silang sinusundan o sinisimulan? Ano ang pinagkaiba mo sa kanila? Bakit naman ikaw ang pipiliin ng mga customers at hindi ang kakompetensya mo?

Products and services

Ilarawan mo nang mabuti ang mga produkto o serbisyong ibebenta mo. Ano ang mga ito at ano ang espesyal sa gawa mo? Paano ito ginagawa? May mga kaparehong produkto ba sa market? Gaano kabuti ang iyong produkto kumpara sa iba? Bukod sa lahat, pag usapan mo kung bakit gugustuhin ng mga customers ang iyong produkto. Anong pangunahing benepisyo ang ibibigay ng iyong produkto o serbisyo sa ibang tao?

Marketing strategy

Anong niche o specialization ang papasukin mo? Sinu sino ang iyong mga ideal customers (tamang tama sa pangangailangan nila ang produkto mo)? Paano mo ipropromote o iaadvertise ang iyong produkto sa iyong mga customers? Paano mo ibebenta ang produkto mo? Anong mga tindahan ang magiistock nito? Ibebenta mo ba ito online? Paano mo gagawin ang pagtanggap ng orders at delivery? Ang lahat ng iyon at maraming pang ibang detalye ay dapat kasama sa iyong marketing strategy.

Financial plan/analysis/projections

Kung nangangailangan ka ng funding o pera, dito ang pinakamainam na lugar kung saan mo pwedeng ilagay iyon. Ilarawan mo ang halagang kakailanganin mo, saan mo ito gagamitin, mga kondisyong gusto mo, at marami pang iba. Gumawa ka ng napakaayos at detalyadong estimates ng posibleng cash flow, income statements, balance sheets at iba pa tungkol dito.

Isang payo na natutunan ko mula sa What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School  ni Mark McCormack ay para sa mga entrepreneur na nagsisimula pa lang , doblehin mo ang expected overhead projections (ang budget mo para sa iyong gastusin sa darating na taon). Gaano ka man kametikuloso sa iyong pagplano, may mga lilitaw na hindi inaasahang gastusin kang babayaran.

Habang sinasabi ng iba na nawawalang kwenta ang battle plans kapag nakaharap mo na ang kalaban at ang mga business plan ay nagiging walang kwenta kapag nakaharap mo na ang mga customers, kailangan mo pa ring gumawa ng business plan. Sabi nga naman ng iba, ang mga hindi gumagawa ng plano ay nagplaplanong mabigo. Kailangan mo lang maging flexible at magbago ng mga plano kapag kinakailangan. Ang business plan nga naman ay isang mabuting simula para sa mga bagay na kailangan mong gawin AT ito rin ay mabuting dokumento kapag naghahanap ka ng mga investors.

Siya nga pala, bukod pa sa article na ito, narito ang ibang sources na pwede mong basahin tungkol sa paggawa ng business plan:

• A Standard Business Plan Outline [Updated for 2017]
• Write your business plan
• How to Write a Business Plan
• Comprehensive Business Plan Outline for Small Business
• Raising Capital as a Minority Business Owner / Entrepreneur

About Ray L.

Ray is the main writer behind YourWealthyMind.com. He is a proponent of self-improvement and self-education, and he believes that anyone can achieve their goals once they learn the knowledge and skills they need to attain them. He considers it his mission to enrich lives and end poverty by teaching people lessons they may need to succeed.

November 23, 2021 at 10:30 am

Very informative and easy to understand especially that it’s written in Tagalog. Would like to have a permission to use (include) this in my lesson for my grade 10 students. Since it’s modular distance learning and they have to study on their own, they were having a difficulty in understanding the lesson especially if it’s written in English. I’ll be giving them this link so that they will be able to understand the concept and the components of a business plan.

November 24, 2021 at 7:27 am

Hello Teacher Jo,

Sure! Please go ahead and use it! I hope your students find it useful.

Regards, Ray L. YourWealthyMind.com

[…] Tagalog Version (Click Here) […]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Let me Sign up for the Newsletter!

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Affiliate Policy

Mini Business Plan Sample: Everything You Need To Know

Using a mini business plan sample is essential when you want to draft a business plan for your startup. 3 min read updated on September 19, 2022

Using a mini business plan sample is essential when you want to draft a business plan for your startup. Writing a business plan helps you become focused and develop a sound marketing plan. It also helps you determine your unique selling proposition and makes you consider the question: What makes my product/service different from the competitors'?

Let's overview important elements and what you need to consider when writing a business plan.

Know Your Strengths & Weaknesses

When creating a business plan, you begin to define and understand your strengths and weaknesses. You learn about the areas you are good at and those that might need some improvement.

Your business plan is a reflection of your insights, instincts, intuitions, and ideas about your business and its future. By drawing up such a blueprint, you can safely test out your predictions in a hypothetical scenario before translating it into the real world.

Have a Target Audience in Mind

When writing a business plan , you should develop several versions targeted at specific audiences. To avoid one of the common mistakes made by inexperienced business owners, you should understand who you're developing your business plan for. Be realistic about financial projections and estimates. Don't over project profits. Instead, present an achievable sales forecast based on an actual market review.

Include Verifiable Facts

You should also back up all claims to lend credibility to your plan. This involves following up assertions and projections with quotes, facts, and statistics from trusted sources.

Presentation

The format of the presentation also matters. For many individuals, reading a long unbroken text-heavy document can quickly get monotonous. You should format your business plan and break up long paragraphs using graphs or charts. Standards industry fonts include Times New Roman, Verdana, and Arial.

To make your business plan easy to skim and engaging, it's best to keep it short and simple. Doing so will enable potential investors to quickly go through your plan and determine if it's a business worth investing in.

What to Include in Your Business Plan

Let's overview some of the important components of a typical business plan.

Executive Summary

The executive summary comes after the title page (containing the business name, logo, slogan, and contact information) and the table of contents. It is a summary of the most important aspects of your business (packed into a few short sentences) and provides readers and potential investors with a high-level overview of the entire business concept. It is a “teaser” and should entice readers to go through the rest of the document.

Company Synopsis

This section presents answers to the two most important questions concerning the business: What problems do you aim to solve for customers and how are you going to do it?

Market Overview

The market overview provides insights into products or services in the industry that will compete with the business you want to start . This section should speak to the overall outlook, trends, growth rate, and industry size. The aim of this section is to convince readers (through the presentation of facts and insightful analysis) that the market is worth venturing into and that your business can capture a large enough share to ensure profitability.

This section bolsters the assertions made in the company synopsis described above. It includes a description and a comprehensive analysis of your product/solution and how it solves the problems described in the synopsis.

Revenue Model

This section gives readers an idea of the revenue generating ability of your business. It identifies the possible revenue channels you aim to use, how you intend to price your product/service, and the reasons behind your choices.

Operating Model

This section describes the actual day-to-day operations of your business. It should include a detailed breakdown of the assets, human resources, processes, and technologies you need to deliver value to your target customers.

Competitive Analysis

This section is synonymous with the market overview. It should contain a more detailed review of your business' closest competitors ― their strengths and weaknesses as well as their overall business model. It's best to identify three competitors.

Other sections to include in your business plan are:

• Customer Definition
• Customer Acquisition
• Management Team

If you need help with a mini business plan sample, you can post your legal need on the UpCounsel marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5% of attorneys/lawyers on its site. Attorneys on UpCounsel come from prestigious law schools like Yale Law and Harvard Law and usually have 14 years of legal experience, including work on behalf of or with companies like Airbnb, Menlo Ventures, and Google.

Hire the top business lawyers and save up to 60% on legal fees

Content Approved by UpCounsel

• Creating a Business Plan
• Sample of a Good Business Plan
• Service Business Plan
• Parts of Business Plan and Definition
• Details of a Business Plan
• Business Plan Format: Everything you Need to Know
• Startup Business Plan Presentation Template
• How to Make a Business Plan Format
• Contents of a Business Plan
• Business Plan for New Company

• Sources of Business Finance
• Small Business Loans
• Small Business Grants
• Crowdfunding Sites
• How to Get a Business Loan
• Small Business Insurance Providers
• Best Factoring Companies
• Types of Bank Accounts
• Best Banks for Small Business
• Best Business Bank Accounts
• Open a Business Bank Account
• Bank Accounts for Small Businesses
• Free Business Checking Accounts
• Best Business Credit Cards
• Get a Business Credit Card
• Business Credit Cards for Bad Credit
• Build Business Credit Fast
• Business Loan Eligibility Criteria
• Small-Business Bookkeeping Basics
• How to Set Financial Goals
• Business Loan Calculators
• How to Calculate ROI
• Calculate Net Income
• Calculate Working Capital
• Calculate Operating Income
• Calculate Net Present Value (NPV)
• Calculate Payroll Tax

How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Steps (+ Template and Examples)

Every successful business has one thing in common, a good and well-executed business plan. A business plan is more than a document, it is a complete guide that outlines the goals your business wants to achieve, including its financial goals . It helps you analyze results, make strategic decisions, show your business operations and growth.

If you want to start a business or already have one and need to pitch it to investors for funding, writing a good business plan improves your chances of attracting financiers. As a startup, if you want to secure loans from financial institutions, part of the requirements involve submitting your business plan.

Writing a business plan does not have to be a complicated or time-consuming process. In this article, you will learn the step-by-step process for writing a successful business plan.

You will also learn what you need a business plan for, tips and strategies for writing a convincing business plan, business plan examples and templates that will save you tons of time, and the alternatives to the traditional business plan.

Let’s get started.

What Do You Need A Business Plan For?

Businesses create business plans for different purposes such as to secure funds, monitor business growth, measure your marketing strategies, and measure your business success.

1. Secure Funds

One of the primary reasons for writing a business plan is to secure funds, either from financial institutions/agencies or investors.

For you to effectively acquire funds, your business plan must contain the key elements of your business plan . For example, your business plan should include your growth plans, goals you want to achieve, and milestones you have recorded.

A business plan can also attract new business partners that are willing to contribute financially and intellectually. If you are writing a business plan to a bank, your project must show your traction , that is, the proof that you can pay back any loan borrowed.

Also, if you are writing to an investor, your plan must contain evidence that you can effectively utilize the funds you want them to invest in your business. Here, you are using your business plan to persuade a group or an individual that your business is a source of a good investment.

2. Monitor Business Growth

A business plan can help you track cash flows in your business. It steers your business to greater heights. A business plan capable of tracking business growth should contain:

• The business goals
• Methods to achieve the goals
• Time-frame for attaining those goals

A good business plan should guide you through every step in achieving your goals. It can also track the allocation of assets to every aspect of the business. You can tell when you are spending more than you should on a project.

You can compare a business plan to a written GPS. It helps you manage your business and hints at the right time to expand your business.

3. Measure Business Success

A business plan can help you measure your business success rate. Some small-scale businesses are thriving better than more prominent companies because of their track record of success.

Right from the onset of your business operation, set goals and work towards them. Write a plan to guide you through your procedures. Use your plan to measure how much you have achieved and how much is left to attain.

You can also weigh your success by monitoring the position of your brand relative to competitors. On the other hand, a business plan can also show you why you have not achieved a goal. It can tell if you have elapsed the time frame you set to attain a goal.

4. Document Your Marketing Strategies

You can use a business plan to document your marketing plans. Every business should have an effective marketing plan.

Competition mandates every business owner to go the extraordinary mile to remain relevant in the market. Your business plan should contain your marketing strategies that work. You can measure the success rate of your marketing plans.

In your business plan, your marketing strategy must answer the questions:

• How do you want to reach your target audience?
• How do you plan to retain your customers?
• What is/are your pricing plans?
• What is your budget for marketing?

How to Write a Business Plan Step-by-Step

1. create your executive summary.

The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans . Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.

Generally, there are nine sections in a business plan, the executive summary should condense essential ideas from the other eight sections.

A good executive summary should do the following:

• A Snapshot of Growth Potential. Briefly inform the reader about your company and why it will be successful)
• Contain your Mission Statement which explains what the main objective or focus of your business is.
• Product Description and Differentiation. Brief description of your products or services and why it is different from other solutions in the market.
• The Team. Basic information about your company’s leadership team and employees
• Business Concept. A solid description of what your business does.
• Target Market. The customers you plan to sell to.
• Marketing Strategy. Your plans on reaching and selling to your customers
• Current Financial State. Brief information about what revenue your business currently generates.
• Projected Financial State. Brief information about what you foresee your business revenue to be in the future.

The executive summary is the make-or-break section of your business plan. If your summary cannot in less than two pages cannot clearly describe how your business will solve a particular problem of your target audience and make a profit, your business plan is set on a faulty foundation.

Avoid using the executive summary to hype your business, instead, focus on helping the reader understand the what and how of your plan.

View the executive summary as an opportunity to introduce your vision for your company. You know your executive summary is powerful when it can answer these key questions:

• Who is your target audience?
• What sector or industry are you in?
• What are your products and services?
• What is the future of your industry?
• Is your company scaleable?
• Who are the owners and leaders of your company? What are their backgrounds and experience levels?
• What is the motivation for starting your company?
• What are the next steps?

Writing the executive summary last although it is the most important section of your business plan is an excellent idea. The reason why is because it is a high-level overview of your business plan. It is the section that determines whether potential investors and lenders will read further or not.

The executive summary can be a stand-alone document that covers everything in your business plan. It is not uncommon for investors to request only the executive summary when evaluating your business. If the information in the executive summary impresses them, they will ask for the complete business plan.

If you are writing your business plan for your planning purposes, you do not need to write the executive summary.

2. Add Your Company Overview

The company overview or description is the next section in your business plan after the executive summary. It describes what your business does.

Adding your company overview can be tricky especially when your business is still in the planning stages. Existing businesses can easily summarize their current operations but may encounter difficulties trying to explain what they plan to become.

Your company overview should contain the following:

• What products and services you will provide
• Geographical markets and locations your company have a presence
• What you need to run your business
• Who your target audience or customers are
• Who will service your customers
• Your company’s purpose, mission, and vision
• Information about your company’s founders
• Who the founders are
• Notable achievements of your company so far

When creating a company overview, you have to focus on three basics: identifying your industry, identifying your customer, and explaining the problem you solve.

If you are stuck when creating your company overview, try to answer some of these questions that pertain to you.

• Who are you targeting? (The answer is not everyone)
• What pain point does your product or service solve for your customers that they will be willing to spend money on resolving?
• How does your product or service overcome that pain point?
• Where is the location of your business?
• What products, equipment, and services do you need to run your business?
• How is your company’s product or service different from your competition in the eyes of your customers?
• How many employees do you need and what skills do you require them to have?

After answering some or all of these questions, you will get more than enough information you need to write your company overview or description section. When writing this section, describe what your company does for your customers.

The company description or overview section contains three elements: mission statement, history, and objectives.

• Mission Statement

The mission statement refers to the reason why your business or company is existing. It goes beyond what you do or sell, it is about the ‘why’. A good mission statement should be emotional and inspirational.

Your mission statement should follow the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). For example, Shopify’s mission statement is “Make commerce better for everyone.”

When describing your company’s history, make it simple and avoid the temptation of tying it to a defensive narrative. Write it in the manner you would a profile. Your company’s history should include the following information:

• Founding Date
• Major Milestones
• Location(s)
• Flagship Products or Services
• Number of Employees
• Executive Leadership Roles

When you fill in this information, you use it to write one or two paragraphs about your company’s history.

Business Objectives

Your business objective must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.) Failure to clearly identify your business objectives does not inspire confidence and makes it hard for your team members to work towards a common purpose.

3. Perform Market and Competitive Analyses to Proof a Big Enough Business Opportunity

The third step in writing a business plan is the market and competitive analysis section. Every business, no matter the size, needs to perform comprehensive market and competitive analyses before it enters into a market.

Performing market and competitive analyses are critical for the success of your business. It helps you avoid entering the right market with the wrong product, or vice versa. Anyone reading your business plans, especially financiers and financial institutions will want to see proof that there is a big enough business opportunity you are targeting.

This section is where you describe the market and industry you want to operate in and show the big opportunities in the market that your business can leverage to make a profit. If you noticed any unique trends when doing your research, show them in this section.

Market analysis alone is not enough, you have to add competitive analysis to strengthen this section. There are already businesses in the industry or market, how do you plan to take a share of the market from them?

You have to clearly illustrate the competitive landscape in your business plan. Are there areas your competitors are doing well? Are there areas where they are not doing so well? Show it.

Make it clear in this section why you are moving into the industry and what weaknesses are present there that you plan to explain. How are your competitors going to react to your market entry? How do you plan to get customers? Do you plan on taking your competitors' competitors, tap into other sources for customers, or both?

Illustrate the competitive landscape as well. What are your competitors doing well and not so well?

Answering these questions and thoughts will aid your market and competitive analysis of the opportunities in your space. Depending on how sophisticated your industry is, or the expectations of your financiers, you may need to carry out a more comprehensive market and competitive analysis to prove that big business opportunity.

Instead of looking at the market and competitive analyses as one entity, separating them will make the research even more comprehensive.

Market Analysis

Market analysis, boarding speaking, refers to research a business carried out on its industry, market, and competitors. It helps businesses gain a good understanding of their target market and the outlook of their industry. Before starting a company, it is vital to carry out market research to find out if the market is viable.

The market analysis section is a key part of the business plan. It is the section where you identify who your best clients or customers are. You cannot omit this section, without it your business plan is incomplete.

A good market analysis will tell your readers how you fit into the existing market and what makes you stand out. This section requires in-depth research, it will probably be the most time-consuming part of the business plan to write.

• Market Research

To create a compelling market analysis that will win over investors and financial institutions, you have to carry out thorough market research . Your market research should be targeted at your primary target market for your products or services. Here is what you want to find out about your target market.

• Your target market’s needs or pain points
• The existing solutions for their pain points
• Geographic Location
• Demographics

The purpose of carrying out a marketing analysis is to get all the information you need to show that you have a solid and thorough understanding of your target audience.

Only after you have fully understood the people you plan to sell your products or services to, can you evaluate correctly if your target market will be interested in your products or services.

You can easily convince interested parties to invest in your business if you can show them you thoroughly understand the market and show them that there is a market for your products or services.

How to Quantify Your Target Market

One of the goals of your marketing research is to understand who your ideal customers are and their purchasing power. To quantify your target market, you have to determine the following:

• Your Potential Customers: They are the people you plan to target. For example, if you sell accounting software for small businesses , then anyone who runs an enterprise or large business is unlikely to be your customers. Also, individuals who do not have a business will most likely not be interested in your product.
• Total Households: If you are selling household products such as heating and air conditioning systems, determining the number of total households is more important than finding out the total population in the area you want to sell to. The logic is simple, people buy the product but it is the household that uses it.
• Median Income: You need to know the median income of your target market. If you target a market that cannot afford to buy your products and services, your business will not last long.
• Income by Demographics: If your potential customers belong to a certain age group or gender, determining income levels by demographics is necessary. For example, if you sell men's clothes, your target audience is men.

What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?

Your business does not exist on its own, it can only flourish within an industry and alongside competitors. Market analysis takes into consideration your industry, target market, and competitors. Understanding these three entities will drastically improve your company’s chances of success.

You can view your market analysis as an examination of the market you want to break into and an education on the emerging trends and themes in that market. Good market analyses include the following:

• Industry Description. You find out about the history of your industry, the current and future market size, and who the largest players/companies are in your industry.
• Overview of Target Market. You research your target market and its characteristics. Who are you targeting? Note, it cannot be everyone, it has to be a specific group. You also have to find out all information possible about your customers that can help you understand how and why they make buying decisions.
• Size of Target Market: You need to know the size of your target market, how frequently they buy, and the expected quantity they buy so you do not risk overproducing and having lots of bad inventory. Researching the size of your target market will help you determine if it is big enough for sustained business or not.
• Growth Potential: Before picking a target market, you want to be sure there are lots of potential for future growth. You want to avoid going for an industry that is declining slowly or rapidly with almost zero growth potential.
• Market Share Potential: Does your business stand a good chance of taking a good share of the market?
• Market Pricing and Promotional Strategies: Your market analysis should give you an idea of the price point you can expect to charge for your products and services. Researching your target market will also give you ideas of pricing strategies you can implement to break into the market or to enjoy maximum profits.
• Potential Barriers to Entry: One of the biggest benefits of conducting market analysis is that it shows you every potential barrier to entry your business will likely encounter. It is a good idea to discuss potential barriers to entry such as changing technology. It informs readers of your business plan that you understand the market.
• Research on Competitors: You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and how you can exploit them for the benefit of your business. Find patterns and trends among your competitors that make them successful, discover what works and what doesn’t, and see what you can do better.

The market analysis section is not just for talking about your target market, industry, and competitors. You also have to explain how your company can fill the hole you have identified in the market.

Here are some questions you can answer that can help you position your product or service in a positive light to your readers.

• Is your product or service of superior quality?
• What additional features do you offer that your competitors do not offer?
• Are you targeting a ‘new’ market?

Basically, your market analysis should include an analysis of what already exists in the market and an explanation of how your company fits into the market.

Competitive Analysis

In the competitive analysis section, y ou have to understand who your direct and indirect competitions are, and how successful they are in the marketplace. It is the section where you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, the advantage(s) they possess in the market and show the unique features or qualities that make you different from your competitors.

Many businesses do market analysis and competitive analysis together. However, to fully understand what the competitive analysis entails, it is essential to separate it from the market analysis.

Competitive analysis for your business can also include analysis on how to overcome barriers to entry in your target market.

The primary goal of conducting a competitive analysis is to distinguish your business from your competitors. A strong competitive analysis is essential if you want to convince potential funding sources to invest in your business. You have to show potential investors and lenders that your business has what it takes to compete in the marketplace successfully.

Competitive analysis will s how you what the strengths of your competition are and what they are doing to maintain that advantage.

When doing your competitive research, you first have to identify your competitor and then get all the information you can about them. The idea of spending time to identify your competitor and learn everything about them may seem daunting but it is well worth it.

Find answers to the following questions after you have identified who your competitors are.

• What are your successful competitors doing?
• Why is what they are doing working?
• Can your business do it better?
• What are the weaknesses of your successful competitors?
• What are they not doing well?
• Can your business turn its weaknesses into strengths?
• How good is your competitors’ customer service?
• Where do your competitors invest in advertising?
• What sales and pricing strategies are they using?
• What marketing strategies are they using?
• What kind of press coverage do they get?
• What are their customers saying about your competitors (both the positive and negative)?

If your competitors have a website, it is a good idea to visit their websites for more competitors’ research. Check their “About Us” page for more information.

If you are presenting your business plan to investors, you need to clearly distinguish yourself from your competitors. Investors can easily tell when you have not properly researched your competitors.

Take time to think about what unique qualities or features set you apart from your competitors. If you do not have any direct competition offering your product to the market, it does not mean you leave out the competitor analysis section blank. Instead research on other companies that are providing a similar product, or whose product is solving the problem your product solves.

The next step is to create a table listing the top competitors you want to include in your business plan. Ensure you list your business as the last and on the right. What you just created is known as the competitor analysis table.

Direct vs Indirect Competition

You cannot know if your product or service will be a fit for your target market if you have not understood your business and the competitive landscape.

There is no market you want to target where you will not encounter competition, even if your product is innovative. Including competitive analysis in your business plan is essential.

If you are entering an established market, you need to explain how you plan to differentiate your products from the available options in the market. Also, include a list of few companies that you view as your direct competitors The competition you face in an established market is your direct competition.

In situations where you are entering a market with no direct competition, it does not mean there is no competition there. Consider your indirect competition that offers substitutes for the products or services you offer.

For example, if you sell an innovative SaaS product, let us say a project management software , a company offering time management software is your indirect competition.

There is an easy way to find out who your indirect competitors are in the absence of no direct competitors. You simply have to research how your potential customers are solving the problems that your product or service seeks to solve. That is your direct competition.

Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition

There are three main factors that any business can use to differentiate itself from its competition. They are cost leadership, product differentiation, and market segmentation.

1. Cost Leadership

A strategy you can impose to maximize your profits and gain an edge over your competitors. It involves offering lower prices than what the majority of your competitors are offering.

A common practice among businesses looking to enter into a market where there are dominant players is to use free trials or pricing to attract as many customers as possible to their offer.

2. Product Differentiation

Your product or service should have a unique selling proposition (USP) that your competitors do not have or do not stress in their marketing.

Part of the marketing strategy should involve making your products unique and different from your competitors. It does not have to be different from your competitors, it can be the addition to a feature or benefit that your competitors do not currently have.

3. Market Segmentation

As a new business seeking to break into an industry, you will gain more success from focusing on a specific niche or target market, and not the whole industry.

If your competitors are focused on a general need or target market, you can differentiate yourself from them by having a small and hyper-targeted audience. For example, if your competitors are selling men’s clothes in their online stores , you can sell hoodies for men.

4. Define Your Business and Management Structure

The next step in your business plan is your business and management structure. It is the section where you describe the legal structure of your business and the team running it.

Your business is only as good as the management team that runs it, while the management team can only strive when there is a proper business and management structure in place.

If your company is a sole proprietor or a limited liability company (LLC), a general or limited partnership, or a C or an S corporation, state it clearly in this section.

Use an organizational chart to show the management structure in your business. Clearly show who is in charge of what area in your company. It is where you show how each key manager or team leader’s unique experience can contribute immensely to the success of your company. You can also opt to add the resumes and CVs of the key players in your company.

The business and management structure section should show who the owner is, and other owners of the businesses (if the business has other owners). For businesses or companies with multiple owners, include the percent ownership of the various owners and clearly show the extent of each others’ involvement in the company.

Investors want to know who is behind the company and the team running it to determine if it has the right management to achieve its set goals.

Management Team

The management team section is where you show that you have the right team in place to successfully execute the business operations and ideas. Take time to create the management structure for your business. Think about all the important roles and responsibilities that you need managers for to grow your business.

Include brief bios of each key team member and ensure you highlight only the relevant information that is needed. If your team members have background industry experience or have held top positions for other companies and achieved success while filling that role, highlight it in this section.

A common mistake that many startups make is assigning C-level titles such as (CMO and CEO) to everyone on their team. It is unrealistic for a small business to have those titles. While it may look good on paper for the ego of your team members, it can prevent investors from investing in your business.

Instead of building an unrealistic management structure that does not fit your business reality, it is best to allow business titles to grow as the business grows. Starting everyone at the top leaves no room for future change or growth, which is bad for productivity.

Your management team does not have to be complete before you start writing your business plan. You can have a complete business plan even when there are managerial positions that are empty and need filling.

If you have management gaps in your team, simply show the gaps and indicate you are searching for the right candidates for the role(s). Investors do not expect you to have a full management team when you are just starting your business.

Key Questions to Answer When Structuring Your Management Team

• Who are the key leaders?
• What experiences, skills, and educational backgrounds do you expect your key leaders to have?
• Do your key leaders have industry experience?
• What positions will they fill and what duties will they perform in those positions?
• What level of authority do the key leaders have and what are their responsibilities?
• What is the salary for the various management positions that will attract the ideal candidates?

Additional Tips for Writing the Management Structure Section

1. Avoid Adding ‘Ghost’ Names to Your Management Team

There is always that temptation to include a ‘ghost’ name to your management team to attract and influence investors to invest in your business. Although the presence of these celebrity management team members may attract the attention of investors, it can cause your business to lose any credibility if you get found out.

Seasoned investors will investigate further the members of your management team before committing fully to your business If they find out that the celebrity name used does not play any actual role in your business, they will not invest and may write you off as dishonest.

2. Focus on Credentials But Pay Extra Attention to the Roles

Investors want to know the experience that your key team members have to determine if they can successfully reach the company’s growth and financial goals.

While it is an excellent boost for your key management team to have the right credentials, you also want to pay extra attention to the roles they will play in your company.

Organizational Chart

Adding an organizational chart in this section of your business plan is not necessary, you can do it in your business plan’s appendix.

If you are exploring funding options, it is not uncommon to get asked for your organizational chart. The function of an organizational chart goes beyond raising money, you can also use it as a useful planning tool for your business.

An organizational chart can help you identify how best to structure your management team for maximum productivity and point you towards key roles you need to fill in the future.

You can use the organizational chart to show your company’s internal management structure such as the roles and responsibilities of your management team, and relationships that exist between them.

5. Describe Your Product and Service Offering

In your business plan, you have to describe what you sell or the service you plan to offer. It is the next step after defining your business and management structure. The products and services section is where you sell the benefits of your business.

Here you have to explain how your product or service will benefit your customers and describe your product lifecycle. It is also the section where you write down your plans for intellectual property like patent filings and copyrighting.

The research and development that you are undertaking for your product or service need to be explained in detail in this section. However, do not get too technical, sell the general idea and its benefits.

If you have any diagrams or intricate designs of your product or service, do not include them in the products and services section. Instead, leave them for the addendum page. Also, if you are leaving out diagrams or designs for the addendum, ensure you add this phrase “For more detail, visit the addendum Page #.”

Your product and service section in your business plan should include the following:

• A detailed explanation that clearly shows how your product or service works.
• The pricing model for your product or service.
• Your business’ sales and distribution strategy.
• The ideal customers that want your product or service.
• The benefits of your products and services.
• Reason(s) why your product or service is a better alternative to what your competitors are currently offering in the market.
• Plans for filling the orders you receive
• If you have current or pending patents, copyrights, and trademarks for your product or service, you can also discuss them in this section.

What to Focus On When Describing the Benefits, Lifecycle, and Production Process of Your Products or Services

In the products and services section, you have to distill the benefits, lifecycle, and production process of your products and services.

When describing the benefits of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Unique features
• Translating the unique features into benefits
• The emotional, psychological, and practical payoffs to attract customers
• Intellectual property rights or any patents

When describing the product life cycle of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Upsells, cross-sells, and down-sells
• Time between purchases
• Plans for research and development.

When describing the production process for your products or services, you need to think about the following:

• The creation of new or existing products and services.
• The sources for the raw materials or components you need for production.
• Assembling the products
• Maintaining quality control
• Supply-chain logistics (receiving the raw materials and delivering the finished products)
• The day-to-day management of the production processes, bookkeeping, and inventory.

Tips for Writing the Products or Services Section of Your Business Plan

1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords

The products and services section of your business plan should clearly describe the products and services that your company provides. However, it is not a section to include technical jargons that anyone outside your industry will not understand.

A good practice is to remove highly detailed or technical descriptions in favor of simple terms. Industry buzzwords are not necessary, if there are simpler terms you can use, then use them. If you plan to use your business plan to source funds, making the product or service section so technical will do you no favors.

2. Describe How Your Products or Services Differ from Your Competitors

When potential investors look at your business plan, they want to know how the products and services you are offering differ from that of your competition. Differentiating your products or services from your competition in a way that makes your solution more attractive is critical.

If you are going the innovative path and there is no market currently for your product or service, you need to describe in this section why the market needs your product or service.

For example, overnight delivery was a niche business that only a few companies were participating in. Federal Express (FedEx) had to show in its business plan that there was a large opportunity for that service and they justified why the market needed that service.

3. Long or Short Products or Services Section

Should your products or services section be short? Does the long products or services section attract more investors?

There are no straightforward answers to these questions. Whether your products or services section should be long or relatively short depends on the nature of your business.

If your business is product-focused, then automatically you need to use more space to describe the details of your products. However, if the product your business sells is a commodity item that relies on competitive pricing or other pricing strategies, you do not have to use up so much space to provide significant details about the product.

Likewise, if you are selling a commodity that is available in numerous outlets, then you do not have to spend time on writing a long products or services section.

The key to the success of your business is most likely the effectiveness of your marketing strategies compared to your competitors. Use more space to address that section.

If you are creating a new product or service that the market does not know about, your products or services section can be lengthy. The reason why is because you need to explain everything about the product or service such as the nature of the product, its use case, and values.

A short products or services section for an innovative product or service will not give the readers enough information to properly evaluate your business.

4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers

Your business will rely on vendors or suppliers to supply raw materials or the components needed to make your products. In your products and services section, describe your relationships with your vendors and suppliers fully.

Avoid the mistake of relying on only one supplier or vendor. If that supplier or vendor fails to supply or goes out of business, you can easily face supply problems and struggle to meet your demands. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships for better business stability.

5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers

The primary goal of your business plan is to convince your readers that your business is viable and to create a guide for your business to follow. It applies to the products and services section.

When drafting this section, think like the reader. See your reader as someone who has no idea about your products and services. You are using the products and services section to provide the needed information to help your reader understand your products and services. As a result, you have to be clear and to the point.

While you want to educate your readers about your products or services, you also do not want to bore them with lots of technical details. Show your products and services and not your fancy choice of words.

Your products and services section should provide the answer to the “what” question for your business. You and your management team may run the business, but it is your products and services that are the lifeblood of the business.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing your Products and Services Section

Answering these questions can help you write your products and services section quickly and in a way that will appeal to your readers.

• Are your products existing on the market or are they still in the development stage?
• What is your timeline for adding new products and services to the market?
• What are the positives that make your products and services different from your competitors?
• Do your products and services have any competitive advantage that your competitors’ products and services do not currently have?
• Do your products or services have any competitive disadvantages that you need to overcome to compete with your competitors? If your answer is yes, state how you plan to overcome them,
• How much does it cost to produce your products or services? How much do you plan to sell it for?
• What is the price for your products and services compared to your competitors? Is pricing an issue?
• What are your operating costs and will it be low enough for you to compete with your competitors and still take home a reasonable profit margin?
• What is your plan for acquiring your products? Are you involved in the production of your products or services?
• Are you the manufacturer and produce all the components you need to create your products? Do you assemble your products by using components supplied by other manufacturers? Do you purchase your products directly from suppliers or wholesalers?
• Do you have a steady supply of products that you need to start your business? (If your business is yet to kick-off)
• How do you plan to distribute your products or services to the market?

You can also hint at the marketing or promotion plans you have for your products or services such as how you plan to build awareness or retain customers. The next section is where you can go fully into details about your business’s marketing and sales plan.

6. Show and Explain Your Marketing and Sales Plan

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but it means nothing if you do not have a marketing and sales plan to inform your customers about them. Your marketing and sales plan is critical to the success of your business.

The sales and marketing section is where you show and offer a detailed explanation of your marketing and sales plan and how you plan to execute it. It covers your pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success, and the benefits of your products and services.

There are several ways you can approach your marketing and sales strategy. Ideally, your marketing and sales strategy has to fit the unique needs of your business.

In this section, you describe how the plans your business has for attracting and retaining customers, and the exact process for making a sale happen. It is essential to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales plans because you are still going to reference this section when you are making financial projections for your business.

Outline Your Business’ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The sales and marketing section is where you outline your business’s unique selling proposition (USP). When you are developing your unique selling proposition, think about the strongest reasons why people should buy from you over your competition. That reason(s) is most likely a good fit to serve as your unique selling proposition (USP).

Target Market and Target Audience

Plans on how to get your products or services to your target market and how to get your target audience to buy them go into this section. You also highlight the strengths of your business here, particularly what sets them apart from your competition.

Before you start writing your marketing and sales plan, you need to have properly defined your target audience and fleshed out your buyer persona. If you do not first understand the individual you are marketing to, your marketing and sales plan will lack any substance and easily fall.

Creating a Smart Marketing and Sales Plan

Marketing your products and services is an investment that requires you to spend money. Like any other investment, you have to generate a good return on investment (ROI) to justify using that marketing and sales plan. Good marketing and sales plans bring in high sales and profits to your company.

Avoid spending money on unproductive marketing channels. Do your research and find out the best marketing and sales plan that works best for your company.

Your marketing and sales plan can be broken into different parts: your positioning statement, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising, public relations, content marketing, social media, and strategic alliances.

Your Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement is the first part of your marketing and sales plan. It refers to the way you present your company to your customers.

Are you the premium solution, the low-price solution, or are you the intermediary between the two extremes in the market? What do you offer that your competitors do not that can give you leverage in the market?

Before you start writing your positioning statement, you need to spend some time evaluating the current market conditions. Here are some questions that can help you to evaluate the market

• What are the unique features or benefits that you offer that your competitors lack?
• What are your customers’ primary needs and wants?
• Why should a customer choose you over your competition? How do you plan to differentiate yourself from the competition?
• How does your company’s solution compare with other solutions in the market?

After answering these questions, then you can start writing your positioning statement. Your positioning statement does not have to be in-depth or too long.

All you need to explain with your positioning statement are two focus areas. The first is the position of your company within the competitive landscape. The other focus area is the core value proposition that sets your company apart from other alternatives that your ideal customer might consider.

Here is a simple template you can use to develop a positioning statement.

For [description of target market] who [need of target market], [product or service] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [top competition], it [most essential distinguishing feature].

For example, let’s create the positioning statement for fictional accounting software and QuickBooks alternative , TBooks.

“For small business owners who need accounting services, TBooks is an accounting software that helps small businesses handle their small business bookkeeping basics quickly and easily. Unlike Wave, TBooks gives small businesses access to live sessions with top accountants.”

You can edit this positioning statement sample and fill it with your business details.

After writing your positioning statement, the next step is the pricing of your offerings. The overall positioning strategy you set in your positioning statement will often determine how you price your products or services.

Pricing is a powerful tool that sends a strong message to your customers. Failure to get your pricing strategy right can make or mar your business. If you are targeting a low-income audience, setting a premium price can result in low sales.

You can use pricing to communicate your positioning to your customers. For example, if you are offering a product at a premium price, you are sending a message to your customers that the product belongs to the premium category.

Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering

Setting a price for your offering involves more than just putting a price tag on it. Deciding on the right pricing for your offering requires following some basic rules. They include covering your costs, primary and secondary profit center pricing, and matching the market rate.

• Covering Your Costs: The price you set for your products or service should be more than it costs you to produce and deliver them. Every business has the same goal, to make a profit. Depending on the strategy you want to use, there are exceptions to this rule. However, the vast majority of businesses follow this rule.
• Primary and Secondary Profit Center Pricing: When a company sets its price above the cost of production, it is making that product its primary profit center. A company can also decide not to make its initial price its primary profit center by selling below or at even with its production cost. It rather depends on the support product or even maintenance that is associated with the initial purchase to make its profit. The initial price thus became its secondary profit center.
• Matching the Market Rate: A good rule to follow when pricing your products or services is to match your pricing with consumer demand and expectations. If you price your products or services beyond the price your customer perceives as the ideal price range, you may end up with no customers. Pricing your products too low below what your customer perceives as the ideal price range may lead to them undervaluing your offering.

Pricing Strategy

Your pricing strategy influences the price of your offering. There are several pricing strategies available for you to choose from when examining the right pricing strategy for your business. They include cost-plus pricing, market-based pricing, value pricing, and more.

• Cost-plus Pricing: This strategy is one of the simplest and oldest pricing strategies. Here you consider the cost of producing a unit of your product and then add a profit to it to arrive at your market price. It is an effective pricing strategy for manufacturers because it helps them cover their initial costs. Another name for the cost-plus pricing strategy is the markup pricing strategy.
• Market-based Pricing: This pricing strategy analyses the market including competitors’ pricing and then sets a price based on what the market is expecting. With this pricing strategy, you can either set your price at the low-end or high-end of the market.
• Value Pricing: This pricing strategy involves setting a price based on the value you are providing to your customer. When adopting a value-based pricing strategy, you have to set a price that your customers are willing to pay. Service-based businesses such as small business insurance providers , luxury goods sellers, and the fashion industry use this pricing strategy.

After carefully sorting out your positioning statement and pricing, the next item to look at is your promotional strategy. Your promotional strategy explains how you plan on communicating with your customers and prospects.

As a business, you must measure all your costs, including the cost of your promotions. You also want to measure how much sales your promotions bring for your business to determine its usefulness. Promotional strategies or programs that do not lead to profit need to be removed.

There are different types of promotional strategies you can adopt for your business, they include advertising, public relations, and content marketing.

Advertising

Your business plan should include your advertising plan which can be found in the marketing and sales plan section. You need to include an overview of your advertising plans such as the areas you plan to spend money on to advertise your business and offers.

Ensure that you make it clear in this section if your business will be advertising online or using the more traditional offline media, or the combination of both online and offline media. You can also include the advertising medium you want to use to raise awareness about your business and offers.

Some common online advertising mediums you can use include social media ads, landing pages, sales pages, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, emails, Google Ads, and others. Some common traditional and offline advertising mediums include word of mouth, radios, direct mail, televisions, flyers, billboards, posters, and others.

A key component of your advertising strategy is how you plan to measure the effectiveness and success of your advertising campaign. There is no point in sticking with an advertising plan or medium that does not produce results for your business in the long run.

Public Relations

A great way to reach your customers is to get the media to cover your business or product. Publicity, especially good ones, should be a part of your marketing and sales plan. In this section, show your plans for getting prominent reviews of your product from reputable publications and sources.

Your business needs that exposure to grow. If public relations is a crucial part of your promotional strategy, provide details about your public relations plan here.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a popular promotional strategy used by businesses to inform and attract their customers. It is about teaching and educating your prospects on various topics of interest in your niche, it does not just involve informing them about the benefits and features of the products and services you have,

Businesses publish content usually for free where they provide useful information, tips, and advice so that their target market can be made aware of the importance of their products and services. Content marketing strategies seek to nurture prospects into buyers over time by simply providing value.

Your company can create a blog where it will be publishing content for its target market. You will need to use the best website builder such as Wix and Squarespace and the best web hosting services such as Bluehost, Hostinger, and other Bluehost alternatives to create a functional blog or website.

If content marketing is a crucial part of your promotional strategy (as it should be), detail your plans under promotions.

Including high-quality images of the packaging of your product in your business plan is a lovely idea. You can add the images of the packaging of that product in the marketing and sales plan section. If you are not selling a product, then you do not need to include any worry about the physical packaging of your product.

When organizing the packaging section of your business plan, you can answer the following questions to make maximum use of this section.

• Is your choice of packaging consistent with your positioning strategy?
• What key value proposition does your packaging communicate? (It should reflect the key value proposition of your business)
• How does your packaging compare to that of your competitors?

Social Media

Your 21st-century business needs to have a good social media presence. Not having one is leaving out opportunities for growth and reaching out to your prospect.

You do not have to join the thousands of social media platforms out there. What you need to do is join the ones that your customers are active on and be active there.

Businesses use social media to provide information about their products such as promotions, discounts, the benefits of their products, and content on their blogs.

Social media is also a platform for engaging with your customers and getting feedback about your products or services. Make no mistake, more and more of your prospects are using social media channels to find more information about companies.

You need to consider the social media channels you want to prioritize your business (prioritize the ones your customers are active in) and your branding plans in this section.

Strategic Alliances

If your company plans to work closely with other companies as part of your sales and marketing plan, include it in this section. Prove details about those partnerships in your business plan if you have already established them.

Strategic alliances can be beneficial for all parties involved including your company. Working closely with another company in the form of a partnership can provide access to a different target market segment for your company.

The company you are partnering with may also gain access to your target market or simply offer a new product or service (that of your company) to its customers.

Mutually beneficial partnerships can cover the weaknesses of one company with the strength of another. You should consider strategic alliances with companies that sell complimentary products to yours. For example, if you provide printers, you can partner with a company that produces ink since the customers that buy printers from you will also need inks for printing.

Steps Involved in Creating a Marketing and Sales Plan

1. Focus on Your Target Market

Identify who your customers are, the market you want to target. Then determine the best ways to get your products or services to your potential customers.

2. Evaluate Your Competition

One of the goals of having a marketing plan is to distinguish yourself from your competition. You cannot stand out from them without first knowing them in and out.

You can know your competitors by gathering information about their products, pricing, service, and advertising campaigns.

These questions can help you know your competition.

• What makes your competition successful?
• What are their weaknesses?
• What are customers saying about your competition?

3. Consider Your Brand

Customers' perception of your brand has a strong impact on your sales. Your marketing and sales plan should seek to bolster the image of your brand. Before you start marketing your business, think about the message you want to pass across about your business and your products and services.

4. Focus on Benefits

The majority of your customers do not view your product in terms of features, what they want to know is the benefits and solutions your product offers. Think about the problems your product solves and the benefits it delivers, and use it to create the right sales and marketing message.

Your marketing plan should focus on what you want your customer to get instead of what you provide. Identify those benefits in your marketing and sales plan.

5. Focus on Differentiation

Your marketing and sales plan should look for a unique angle they can take that differentiates your business from the competition, even if the products offered are similar. Some good areas of differentiation you can use are your benefits, pricing, and features.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing Your Marketing and Sales Plan

• What is your company’s budget for sales and marketing campaigns?
• What key metrics will you use to determine if your marketing plans are successful?
• What are your alternatives if your initial marketing efforts do not succeed?
• Who are the sales representatives you need to promote your products or services?
• What are the marketing and sales channels you plan to use? How do you plan to get your products in front of your ideal customers?
• Where will you sell your products?

You may want to include samples of marketing materials you plan to use such as print ads, website descriptions, and social media ads. While it is not compulsory to include these samples, it can help you better communicate your marketing and sales plan and objectives.

The purpose of the marketing and sales section is to answer this question “How will you reach your customers?” If you cannot convincingly provide an answer to this question, you need to rework your marketing and sales section.

7. Clearly Show Your Funding Request

If you are writing your business plan to ask for funding from investors or financial institutions, the funding request section is where you will outline your funding requirements. The funding request section should answer the question ‘How much money will your business need in the near future (3 to 5 years)?’

A good funding request section will clearly outline and explain the amount of funding your business needs over the next five years. You need to know the amount of money your business needs to make an accurate funding request.

Also, when writing your funding request, provide details of how the funds will be used over the period. Specify if you want to use the funds to buy raw materials or machinery, pay salaries, pay for advertisements, and cover specific bills such as rent and electricity.

In addition to explaining what you want to use the funds requested for, you need to clearly state the projected return on investment (ROI) . Investors and creditors want to know if your business can generate profit for them if they put funds into it.

Ensure you do not inflate the figures and stay as realistic as possible. Investors and financial institutions you are seeking funds from will do their research before investing money in your business.

If you are not sure of an exact number to request from, you can use some range of numbers as rough estimates. Add a best-case scenario and a work-case scenario to your funding request. Also, include a description of your strategic future financial plans such as selling your business or paying off debts.

Funding Request: Debt or Equity?

When making your funding request, specify the type of funding you want. Do you want debt or equity? Draw out the terms that will be applicable for the funding, and the length of time the funding request will cover.

Case for Equity

If your new business has not yet started generating profits, you are most likely preparing to sell equity in your business to raise capital at the early stage. Equity here refers to ownership. In this case, you are selling a portion of your company to raise capital.

Although this method of raising capital for your business does not put your business in debt, keep in mind that an equity owner may expect to play a key role in company decisions even if he does not hold a major stake in the company.

Most equity sales for startups are usually private transactions . If you are making a funding request by offering equity in exchange for funding, let the investor know that they will be paid a dividend (a share of the company’s profit). Also, let the investor know the process for selling their equity in your business.

Case for Debt

You may decide not to offer equity in exchange for funds, instead, you make a funding request with the promise to pay back the money borrowed at the agreed time frame.

When making a funding request with an agreement to pay back, note that you will have to repay your creditors both the principal amount borrowed and the interest on it. Financial institutions offer this type of funding for businesses.

Large companies combine both equity and debt in their capital structure. When drafting your business plan, decide if you want to offer both or one over the other.

Before you sell equity in exchange for funding in your business, consider if you are willing to accept not being in total control of your business. Also, before you seek loans in your funding request section, ensure that the terms of repayment are favorable.

You should set a clear timeline in your funding request so that potential investors and creditors can know what you are expecting. Some investors and creditors may agree to your funding request and then delay payment for longer than 30 days, meanwhile, your business needs an immediate cash injection to operate efficiently.

Additional Tips for Writing the Funding Request Section of your Business Plan

The funding request section is not necessary for every business, it is only needed by businesses who plan to use their business plan to secure funding.

If you are adding the funding request section to your business plan, provide an itemized summary of how you plan to use the funds requested. Hiring a lawyer, accountant, or other professionals may be necessary for the proper development of this section.

You should also gather and use financial statements that add credibility and support to your funding requests. Ensure that the financial statements you use should include your projected financial data such as projected cash flows, forecast statements, and expenditure budgets.

If you are an existing business, include all historical financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements .

Provide monthly and quarterly financial statements for a year. If your business has records that date back beyond the one-year mark, add the yearly statements of those years. These documents are for the appendix section of your business plan.

8. Detail Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projections

If you used the funding request section in your business plan, supplement it with a financial plan, metrics, and projections. This section paints a picture of the past performance of your business and then goes ahead to make an informed projection about its future.

The goal of this section is to convince readers that your business is going to be a financial success. It outlines your business plan to generate enough profit to repay the loan (with interest if applicable) and to generate a decent return on investment for investors.

If you have an existing business already in operation, use this section to demonstrate stability through finance. This section should include your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements covering the last three to five years. If your business has some acceptable collateral that you can use to acquire loans, list it in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

Apart from current financial statements, this section should also contain a prospective financial outlook that spans the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and capital expenditure budget.

If your business is new and is not yet generating profit, use clear and realistic projections to show the potentials of your business.

When drafting this section, research industry norms and the performance of comparable businesses. Your financial projections should cover at least five years. State the logic behind your financial projections. Remember you can always make adjustments to this section as the variables change.

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section create a baseline which your business can either exceed or fail to reach. If your business fails to reach your projections in this section, you need to understand why it failed.

Investors and loan managers spend a lot of time going through the financial plan, metrics, and projection section compared to other parts of the business plan. Ensure you spend time creating credible financial analyses for your business in this section.

Many entrepreneurs find this section daunting to write. You do not need a business degree to create a solid financial forecast for your business. Business finances, especially for startups, are not as complicated as they seem. There are several online tools and templates that make writing this section so much easier.

Use Graphs and Charts

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business. Charts and images make it easier to communicate your finances.

Accuracy in this section is key, ensure you carefully analyze your past financial statements properly before making financial projects.

Address the Risk Factors and Show Realistic Financial Projections

Keep your financial plan, metrics, and projection realistic. It is okay to be optimistic in your financial projection, however, you have to justify it.

You should also address the various risk factors associated with your business in this section. Investors want to know the potential risks involved, show them. You should also show your plans for mitigating those risks.

What You Should In The Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection Section of Your Business Plan

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section of your business plan should have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first year. It should also include annual projections that cover 3 to 5 years.

A three-year projection is a basic requirement to have in your business plan. However, some investors may request a five-year forecast.

Your business plan should include the following financial statements: sales forecast, personnel plan, income statement, income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and an exit strategy.

1. Sales Forecast

Sales forecast refers to your projections about the number of sales your business is going to record over the next few years. It is typically broken into several rows, with each row assigned to a core product or service that your business is offering.

One common mistake people make in their business plan is to break down the sales forecast section into long details. A sales forecast should forecast the high-level details.

For example, if you are forecasting sales for a payroll software provider, you could break down your forecast into target market segments or subscription categories.

Your sales forecast section should also have a corresponding row for each sales row to cover the direct cost or Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The objective of these rows is to show the expenses that your business incurs in making and delivering your product or service.

Note that your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) should only cover those direct costs incurred when making your products. Other indirect expenses such as insurance, salaries, payroll tax, and rent should not be included.

For example, the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a restaurant is the cost of ingredients while for a consulting company it will be the cost of paper and other presentation materials.

2. Personnel Plan

The personnel plan section is where you provide details about the payment plan for your employees. For a small business, you can easily list every position in your company and how much you plan to pay in the personnel plan.

However, for larger businesses, you have to break the personnel plan into functional groups such as sales and marketing.

The personnel plan will also include the cost of an employee beyond salary, commonly referred to as the employee burden. These costs include insurance, payroll taxes , and other essential costs incurred monthly as a result of having employees on your payroll.

3. Income Statement

The income statement section shows if your business is making a profit or taking a loss. Another name for the income statement is the profit and loss (P&L). It takes data from your sales forecast and personnel plan and adds other ongoing expenses you incur while running your business.

Every business plan should have an income statement. It subtracts your business expenses from its earnings to show if your business is generating profit or incurring losses.

The income statement has the following items: sales, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), gross margin, operating expenses, total operating expenses, operating income , total expenses, and net profit.

• Sales refer to the revenue your business generates from selling its products or services. Other names for sales are income or revenue.
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) refers to the total cost of selling your products. Other names for COGS are direct costs or cost of sales. Manufacturing businesses use the Costs of Goods Manufactured (COGM) .
• Gross Margin is the figure you get when you subtract your COGS from your sales. In your income statement, you can express it as a percentage of total sales (Gross margin / Sales = Gross Margin Percent).
• Operating Expenses refer to all the expenses you incur from running your business. It exempts the COGS because it stands alone as a core part of your income statement. You also have to exclude taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Your operating expenses include salaries, marketing expenses, research and development (R&D) expenses, and other expenses.
• Total Operating Expenses refers to the sum of all your operating expenses including those exemptions named above under operating expenses.
• Operating Income refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It is simply known as the acronym EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Calculating your operating income is simple, all you need to do is to subtract your COGS and total operating expenses from your sales.
• Total Expenses refer to the sum of your operating expenses and your business’ interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
• Net profit shows whether your business has made a profit or taken a loss during a given timeframe.

4. Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement tracks the money you have in the bank at any given point. It is often confused with the income statement or the profit and loss statement. They are both different types of financial statements. The income statement calculates your profits and losses while the cash flow statement shows you how much you have in the bank.

5. Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a financial statement that provides an overview of the financial health of your business. It contains information about the assets and liabilities of your company, and owner’s or shareholders’ equity.

You can get the net worth of your company by subtracting your company’s liabilities from its assets.

6. Exit Strategy

The exit strategy refers to a probable plan for selling your business either to the public in an IPO or to another company. It is the last thing you include in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

You can choose to omit the exit strategy from your business plan if you plan to maintain full ownership of your business and do not plan on seeking angel investment or virtual capitalist (VC) funding.

Investors may want to know what your exit plan is. They invest in your business to get a good return on investment.

Your exit strategy does not have to include long and boring details. Ensure you identify some interested parties who may be interested in buying the company if it becomes a success.

Key Questions to Answer with Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection

Your financial plan, metrics, and projection section helps investors, creditors, or your internal managers to understand what your expenses are, the amount of cash you need, and what it takes to make your company profitable. It also shows what you will be doing with any funding.

You do not need to show actual financial data if you do not have one. Adding forecasts and projections to your financial statements is added proof that your strategy is feasible and shows investors you have planned properly.

Here are some key questions to answer to help you develop this section.

• What is your sales forecast for the next year?
• When will your company achieve a positive cash flow?
• What are the core expenses you need to operate?
• How much money do you need upfront to operate or grow your company?
• How will you use the loans or investments?

9. Add an Appendix to Your Business Plan

Adding an appendix to your business plan is optional. It is a useful place to put any charts, tables, legal notes, definitions, permits, résumés, and other critical information that do not fit into other sections of your business plan.

The appendix section is where you would want to include details of a patent or patent-pending if you have one. You can always add illustrations or images of your products here. It is the last section of your business plan.

When writing your business plan, there are details you cut short or remove to prevent the entire section from becoming too lengthy. There are also details you want to include in the business plan but are not a good fit for any of the previous sections. You can add that additional information to the appendix section.

Businesses also use the appendix section to include supporting documents or other materials specially requested by investors or lenders.

You can include just about any information that supports the assumptions and statements you made in the business plan under the appendix. It is the one place in the business plan where unrelated data and information can coexist amicably.

If your appendix section is lengthy, try organizing it by adding a table of contents at the beginning of the appendix section. It is also advisable to group similar information to make it easier for the reader to access them.

A well-organized appendix section makes it easier to share your information clearly and concisely. Add footnotes throughout the rest of the business plan or make references in the plan to the documents in the appendix.

The appendix section is usually only necessary if you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, or hoping to attract partners.

People reading business plans do not want to spend time going through a heap of backup information, numbers, and charts. Keep these documents or information in the Appendix section in case the reader wants to dig deeper.

Common Items to Include in the Appendix Section of Your Business Plan

The appendix section includes documents that supplement or support the information or claims given in other sections of the business plans. Common items you can include in the appendix section include:

• Additional data about the process of manufacturing or creation
• Additional description of products or services such as product schematics
• Additional financial documents or projections
• Articles of incorporation and status
• Backup for market research or competitive analysis
• Bank statements
• Business registries
• Client testimonials (if your business is already running)
• Copies of insurances
• Credit histories (personal or/and business)
• Deeds and permits
• Equipment leases
• Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
• Industry associations and memberships
• Images of product
• Intellectual property
• Key customer contracts
• Legal documents and other contracts
• Letters of reference
• Links to references
• Market research data
• Organizational charts
• Photographs of potential facilities
• Professional licenses pertaining to your legal structure or type of business
• Purchase orders
• Resumes of the founder(s) and key managers
• State and federal identification numbers or codes
• Trademarks or patents’ registrations

Avoid using the appendix section as a place to dump any document or information you feel like adding. Only add documents or information that you support or increase the credibility of your business plan.

Tips and Strategies for Writing a Convincing Business Plan

To achieve a perfect business plan, you need to consider some key tips and strategies. These tips will raise the efficiency of your business plan above average.

1. Know Your Audience

When writing a business plan, you need to know your audience . Business owners write business plans for different reasons. Your business plan has to be specific. For example, you can write business plans to potential investors, banks, and even fellow board members of the company.

The audience you are writing to determines the structure of the business plan. As a business owner, you have to know your audience. Not everyone will be your audience. Knowing your audience will help you to narrow the scope of your business plan.

Consider what your audience wants to see in your projects, the likely questions they might ask, and what interests them.

• A business plan used to address a company's board members will center on its employment schemes, internal affairs, projects, stakeholders, etc.
• A business plan for financial institutions will talk about the size of your market and the chances for you to pay back any loans you demand.
• A business plan for investors will show proof that you can return the investment capital within a specific time. In addition, it discusses your financial projections, tractions, and market size.

2. Get Inspiration from People

Writing a business plan from scratch as an entrepreneur can be daunting. That is why you need the right inspiration to push you to write one. You can gain inspiration from the successful business plans of other businesses. Look at their business plans, the style they use, the structure of the project, etc.

To make your business plan easier to create, search companies related to your business to get an exact copy of what you need to create an effective business plan. You can also make references while citing examples in your business plans.

When drafting your business plan, get as much help from others as you possibly can. By getting inspiration from people, you can create something better than what they have.

3. Avoid Being Over Optimistic

Many business owners make use of strong adjectives to qualify their content. One of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make when preparing a business plan is promising too much.

The use of superlatives and over-optimistic claims can prepare the audience for more than you can offer. In the end, you disappoint the confidence they have in you.

In most cases, the best option is to be realistic with your claims and statistics. Most of the investors can sense a bit of incompetency from the overuse of superlatives. As a new entrepreneur, do not be tempted to over-promise to get the interests of investors.

The concept of entrepreneurship centers on risks, nothing is certain when you make future analyses. What separates the best is the ability to do careful research and work towards achieving that, not promising more than you can achieve.

To make an excellent first impression as an entrepreneur, replace superlatives with compelling data-driven content. In this way, you are more specific than someone promising a huge ROI from an investment.

4. Keep it Simple and Short

When writing business plans, ensure you keep them simple throughout. Irrespective of the purpose of the business plan, your goal is to convince the audience.

One way to achieve this goal is to make them understand your proposal. Therefore, it would be best if you avoid the use of complex grammar to express yourself. It would be a huge turn-off if the people you want to convince are not familiar with your use of words.

Another thing to note is the length of your business plan. It would be best if you made it as brief as possible.

You hardly see investors or agencies that read through an extremely long document. In that case, if your first few pages can’t convince them, then you have lost it. The more pages you write, the higher the chances of you derailing from the essential contents.

To ensure your business plan has a high conversion rate, you need to dispose of every unnecessary information. For example, if you have a strategy that you are not sure of, it would be best to leave it out of the plan.

5. Make an Outline and Follow Through

A perfect business plan must have touched every part needed to convince the audience. Business owners get easily tempted to concentrate more on their products than on other sections. Doing this can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business plan.

For example, imagine you talking about a product but omitting or providing very little information about the target audience. You will leave your clients confused.

To ensure that your business plan communicates your full business model to readers, you have to input all the necessary information in it. One of the best ways to achieve this is to design a structure and stick to it.

This structure is what guides you throughout the writing. To make your work easier, you can assign an estimated word count or page limit to every section to avoid making it too bulky for easy reading. As a guide, the necessary things your business plan must contain are:

• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Product or service description
• Target audience
• Market size
• Competition analysis
• Financial projections

Some specific businesses can include some other essential sections, but these are the key sections that must be in every business plan.

6. Ask a Professional to Proofread

When writing a business plan, you must tie all loose ends to get a perfect result. When you are done with writing, call a professional to go through the document for you. You are bound to make mistakes, and the way to correct them is to get external help.

You should get a professional in your field who can relate to every section of your business plan. It would be easier for the professional to notice the inner flaws in the document than an editor with no knowledge of your business.

In addition to getting a professional to proofread, get an editor to proofread and edit your document. The editor will help you identify grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inappropriate writing styles.

Writing a business plan can be daunting, but you can surmount that obstacle and get the best out of it with these tips.

Business Plan Examples and Templates That’ll Save You Tons of Time

1. hubspot's one-page business plan.

The one-page business plan template by HubSpot is the perfect guide for businesses of any size, irrespective of their business strategy. Although the template is condensed into a page, your final business plan should not be a page long! The template is designed to ask helpful questions that can help you develop your business plan.

Hubspot’s one-page business plan template is divided into nine fields:

• Business opportunity
• Company description
• Industry analysis
• Target market
• Implementation timeline
• Marketing plan
• Financial summary
• Funding required

2. Bplan’s Free Business Plan Template

Bplans' free business plan template is investor-approved. It is a rich template used by prestigious educational institutions such as Babson College and Princeton University to teach entrepreneurs how to create a business plan.

The template has six sections: the executive summary, opportunity, execution, company, financial plan, and appendix. There is a step-by-step guide for writing every little detail in the business plan. Follow the instructions each step of the way and you will create a business plan that impresses investors or lenders easily.

3. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

HubSpot’s downloadable business plan template is a more comprehensive option compared to the one-page business template by HubSpot. This free and downloadable business plan template is designed for entrepreneurs.

The template is a comprehensive guide and checklist for business owners just starting their businesses. It tells you everything you need to fill in each section of the business plan and how to do it.

There are nine sections in this business plan template: an executive summary, company and business description, product and services line, market analysis, marketing plan, sales plan, legal notes, financial considerations, and appendix.

4. Business Plan by My Own Business Institute

My Own Business Institute (MOBI) which is a part of Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship offers a free business plan template. You can either copy the free business template from the link provided above or download it as a Word document.

The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.

• The Business Profile
• The Vision and the People
• Home-Based Business and Freelance Business Opportunities
• Organization
• Licenses and Permits
• Business Insurance
• Communication Tools
• Acquisitions
• Location and Leasing
• Accounting and Cash Flow
• Opening and Marketing
• Managing Employees
• Expanding and Handling Problems

There are lots of helpful tips on how to fill each section in the free business plan template by MOBI.

5. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

Score is an American nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs build successful companies. This business plan template for startups by Score is available for free download. The business plan template asks a whooping 150 generic questions that help entrepreneurs from different fields to set up the perfect business plan.

The business plan template for startups contains clear instructions and worksheets, all you have to do is answer the questions and fill the worksheets.

There are nine sections in the business plan template: executive summary, company description, products and services, marketing plan, operational plan, management and organization, startup expenses and capitalization, financial plan, and appendices.

The ‘refining the plan’ resource contains instructions that help you modify your business plan to suit your specific needs, industry, and target audience. After you have completed Score’s business plan template, you can work with a SCORE mentor for expert advice in business planning.

6. Minimalist Architecture Business Plan Template by Venngage

The minimalist architecture business plan template is a simple template by Venngage that you can customize to suit your business needs .

There are five sections in the template: an executive summary, statement of problem, approach and methodology, qualifications, and schedule and benchmark. The business plan template has instructions that guide users on what to fill in each section.

7. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two free business plan templates, filled with practical real-life examples that you can model to create your business plan. Both free business plan templates are written by fictional business owners: Rebecca who owns a consulting firm, and Andrew who owns a toy company.

There are five sections in the two SBA’s free business plan templates.

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Service Line
• Marketing and Sales

8. The $100 Startup's One-Page Business Plan

The one-page business plan by the $100 startup is a simple business plan template for entrepreneurs who do not want to create a long and complicated plan . You can include more details in the appendices for funders who want more information beyond what you can put in the one-page business plan.

There are five sections in the one-page business plan such as overview, ka-ching, hustling, success, and obstacles or challenges or open questions. You can answer all the questions using one or two sentences.

9. PandaDoc’s Free Business Plan Template

The free business plan template by PandaDoc is a comprehensive 15-page document that describes the information you should include in every section.

There are 11 sections in PandaDoc’s free business plan template.

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Products and services
• Operations plan
• Management organization
• Financial plan
• Conclusion / Call to action
• Confidentiality statement

You have to sign up for its 14-day free trial to access the template. You will find different business plan templates on PandaDoc once you sign up (including templates for general businesses and specific businesses such as bakeries, startups, restaurants, salons, hotels, and coffee shops)

PandaDoc allows you to customize its business plan templates to fit the needs of your business. After editing the template, you can send it to interested parties and track opens and views through PandaDoc.

10. Invoiceberry Templates for Word, Open Office, Excel, or PPT

InvoiceBerry is a U.K based online invoicing and tracking platform that offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats for freelancers and small businesses.

Before you can download the free business plan template, it will ask you to give it your email address. After you complete the little task, it will send the download link to your inbox for you to download. It also provides a business plan checklist in .xlsx file format that ensures you add the right information to the business plan.

Alternatives to the Traditional Business Plan

A business plan is very important in mapping out how one expects their business to grow over a set number of years, particularly when they need external investment in their business. However, many investors do not have the time to watch you present your business plan. It is a long and boring read.

Luckily, there are three alternatives to the traditional business plan (the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck). These alternatives are less laborious and easier and quicker to present to investors.

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

The business model canvas is a business tool used to present all the important components of setting up a business, such as customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance in a single sheet. It provides a very focused blueprint that defines your business initially which you can later expand on if needed.

The sheet is divided mainly into company, industry, and consumer models that are interconnected in how they find problems and proffer solutions.

Segments of the Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas was developed by founder Alexander Osterwalder to answer important business questions. It contains nine segments.

• Key Partners: Who will be occupying important executive positions in your business? What do they bring to the table? Will there be a third party involved with the company?
• Key Activities: What important activities will production entail? What activities will be carried out to ensure the smooth running of the company?
• The Product’s Value Propositions: What does your product do? How will it be different from other products?
• Customer Segments: What demography of consumers are you targeting? What are the habits of these consumers? Who are the MVPs of your target consumers?
• Customer Relationships: How will the team support and work with its customer base? How do you intend to build and maintain trust with the customer?
• Key Resources: What type of personnel and tools will be needed? What size of the budget will they need access to?
• Channels: How do you plan to create awareness of your products? How do you intend to transport your product to the customer?
• Cost Structure: What is the estimated cost of production? How much will distribution cost?
• Revenue Streams: For what value are customers willing to pay? How do they prefer to pay for the product? Are there any external revenues attached apart from the main source? How do the revenue streams contribute to the overall revenue?

Lean Canvas

The lean canvas is a problem-oriented alternative to the standard business model canvas. It was proposed by Ash Maurya, creator of Lean Stack as a development of the business model generation. It uses a more problem-focused approach and it majorly targets entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept as the business model canvas, however, they have been modified slightly to suit the needs and purpose of a small startup. The key partners, key activities, customer relationships, and key resources are replaced by new segments which are:

• Problem: Simple and straightforward number of problems you have identified, ideally three.
• Solution: The solutions to each problem.
• Unfair Advantage: Something you possess that can't be easily bought or replicated.
• Key Metrics: Important numbers that will tell how your business is doing.

Startup Pitch Deck

While the business model canvas compresses into a factual sheet, startup pitch decks expand flamboyantly.

Pitch decks, through slides, convey your business plan, often through graphs and images used to emphasize estimations and observations in your presentation. Entrepreneurs often use pitch decks to fully convince their target audience of their plans before discussing funding arrangements.

Considering the likelihood of it being used in a small time frame, a good startup pitch deck should ideally contain 20 slides or less to have enough time to answer questions from the audience.

Unlike the standard and lean business model canvases, a pitch deck doesn't have a set template on how to present your business plan but there are still important components to it. These components often mirror those of the business model canvas except that they are in slide form and contain more details.

Using Airbnb (one of the most successful start-ups in recent history) for reference, the important components of a good slide are listed below.

• Cover/Introduction Slide: Here, you should include your company's name and mission statement. Your mission statement should be a very catchy tagline. Also, include personal information and contact details to provide an easy link for potential investors.
• Problem Slide: This slide requires you to create a connection with the audience or the investor that you are pitching. For example in their pitch, Airbnb summarized the most important problems it would solve in three brief points – pricing of hotels, disconnection from city culture, and connection problems for local bookings.
• Solution Slide: This slide includes your core value proposition. List simple and direct solutions to the problems you have mentioned
• Customer Analysis: Here you will provide information on the customers you will be offering your service to. The identity of your customers plays an important part in fundraising as well as the long-run viability of the business.
• Market Validation: Use competitive analysis to show numbers that prove the presence of a market for your product, industry behavior in the present and the long run, as well as the percentage of the market you aim to attract. It shows that you understand your competitors and customers and convinces investors of the opportunities presented in the market.
• Business Model: Your business model is the hook of your presentation. It may vary in complexity but it should generally include a pricing system informed by your market analysis. The goal of the slide is to confirm your business model is easy to implement.
• Marketing Strategy: This slide should summarize a few customer acquisition methods that you plan to use to grow the business.
• Competitive Advantage: What this slide will do is provide information on what will set you apart and make you a more attractive option to customers. It could be the possession of technology that is not widely known in the market.
• Team Slide: Here you will give a brief description of your team. Include your key management personnel here and their specific roles in the company. Include their educational background, job history, and skillsets. Also, talk about their accomplishments in their careers so far to build investors' confidence in members of your team.
• Traction Slide: This validates the company’s business model by showing growth through early sales and support. The slide aims to reduce any lingering fears in potential investors by showing realistic periodic milestones and profit margins. It can include current sales, growth, valuable customers, pre-orders, or data from surveys outlining current consumer interest.
• Funding Slide: This slide is popularly referred to as ‘the ask'. Here you will include important details like how much is needed to get your business off the ground and how the funding will be spent to help the company reach its goals.
• Appendix Slides: Your pitch deck appendix should always be included alongside a standard pitch presentation. It consists of additional slides you could not show in the pitch deck but you need to complement your presentation.

It is important to support your calculations with pictorial renditions. Infographics, such as pie charts or bar graphs, will be more effective in presenting the information than just listing numbers. For example, a six-month graph that shows rising profit margins will easily look more impressive than merely writing it.

Lastly, since a pitch deck is primarily used to secure meetings and you may be sharing your pitch with several investors, it is advisable to keep a separate public version that doesn't include financials. Only disclose the one with projections once you have secured a link with an investor.

Advantages of the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck over the Traditional Business Plan

• Time-Saving: Writing a detailed traditional business plan could take weeks or months. On the other hand, all three alternatives can be done in a few days or even one night of brainstorming if you have a comprehensive understanding of your business.
• Easier to Understand: Since the information presented is almost entirely factual, it puts focus on what is most important in running the business. They cut away the excess pages of fillers in a traditional business plan and allow investors to see what is driving the business and what is getting in the way.
• Easy to Update: Businesses typically present their business plans to many potential investors before they secure funding. What this means is that you may regularly have to amend your presentation to update statistics or adjust to audience-specific needs. For a traditional business plan, this could mean rewriting a whole section of your plan. For the three alternatives, updating is much easier because they are not voluminous.
• Guide for a More In-depth Business Plan: All three alternatives have the added benefit of being able to double as a sketch of your business plan if the need to create one arises in the future.

Business Plan FAQ

Business plans are important for any entrepreneur who is looking for a framework to run their company over some time or seeking external support. Although they are essential for new businesses, every company should ideally have a business plan to track their growth from time to time.  They can be used by startups seeking investments or loans to convey their business ideas or an employee to convince his boss of the feasibility of starting a new project. They can also be used by companies seeking to recruit high-profile employee targets into key positions or trying to secure partnerships with other firms.

Business plans often vary depending on your target audience, the scope, and the goals for the plan. Startup plans are the most common among the different types of business plans.  A start-up plan is used by a new business to present all the necessary information to help get the business up and running. They are usually used by entrepreneurs who are seeking funding from investors or bank loans. The established company alternative to a start-up plan is a feasibility plan. A feasibility plan is often used by an established company looking for new business opportunities. They are used to show the upsides of creating a new product for a consumer base. Because the audience is usually company people, it requires less company analysis. The third type of business plan is the lean business plan. A lean business plan is a brief, straight-to-the-point breakdown of your ideas and analysis for your business. It does not contain details of your proposal and can be written on one page. Finally, you have the what-if plan. As it implies, a what-if plan is a preparation for the worst-case scenario. You must always be prepared for the possibility of your original plan being rejected. A good what-if plan will serve as a good plan B to the original.

A good business plan has 10 key components. They include an executive plan, product analysis, desired customer base, company analysis, industry analysis, marketing strategy, sales strategy, financial projection, funding, and appendix. Executive Plan Your business should begin with your executive plan. An executive plan will provide early insight into what you are planning to achieve with your business. It should include your mission statement and highlight some of the important points which you will explain later. Product Analysis The next component of your business plan is your product analysis. A key part of this section is explaining the type of item or service you are going to offer as well as the market problems your product will solve. Desired Consumer Base Your product analysis should be supplemented with a detailed breakdown of your desired consumer base. Investors are always interested in knowing the economic power of your market as well as potential MVP customers. Company Analysis The next component of your business plan is your company analysis. Here, you explain how you want to run your business. It will include your operational strategy, an insight into the workforce needed to keep the company running, and important executive positions. It will also provide a calculation of expected operational costs.  Industry Analysis A good business plan should also contain well laid out industry analysis. It is important to convince potential investors you know the companies you will be competing with, as well as your plans to gain an edge on the competition. Marketing Strategy Your business plan should also include your marketing strategy. This is how you intend to spread awareness of your product. It should include a detailed explanation of the company brand as well as your advertising methods. Sales Strategy Your sales strategy comes after the market strategy. Here you give an overview of your company's pricing strategy and how you aim to maximize profits. You can also explain how your prices will adapt to market behaviors. Financial Projection The financial projection is the next component of your business plan. It explains your company's expected running cost and revenue earned during the tenure of the business plan. Financial projection gives a clear idea of how your company will develop in the future. Funding The next component of your business plan is funding. You have to detail how much external investment you need to get your business idea off the ground here. Appendix The last component of your plan is the appendix. This is where you put licenses, graphs, or key information that does not fit in any of the other components.

The business model canvas is a business management tool used to quickly define your business idea and model. It is often used when investors need you to pitch your business idea during a brief window.

A pitch deck is similar to a business model canvas except that it makes use of slides in its presentation. A pitch is not primarily used to secure funding, rather its main purpose is to entice potential investors by selling a very optimistic outlook on the business.

Business plan competitions help you evaluate the strength of your business plan. By participating in business plan competitions, you are improving your experience. The experience provides you with a degree of validation while practicing important skills. The main motivation for entering into the competitions is often to secure funding by finishing in podium positions. There is also the chance that you may catch the eye of a casual observer outside of the competition. These competitions also provide good networking opportunities. You could meet mentors who will take a keen interest in guiding you in your business journey. You also have the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs whose ideas can complement yours.

Exlore Further

• 12 Key Elements of a Business Plan (Top Components Explained)
• 13 Sources of Business Finance For Companies & Sole Traders
• 5 Common Types of Business Structures (+ Pros & Cons)
• How to Buy a Business in 8 Steps (+ Due Diligence Checklist)

Was This Article Helpful?

Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

Language selection

Dropdown language (interface text).

• Português, Brasil
• Canada.ca | 
• Services | 
• Departments
• Patnubay para sa Business Plan

Ano ang business plan at bakit kailangan ko ito?

Ang isang business plan ay nakasulat na dokumento na naglalarawan ng iyong negosyo, mga layunin at istratehiya nito, ang market kung saan nais mong magbenta, at ang iyong financial forecast. Mahalaga ang business plan dahil tumutulong ito sa iyo na magkaroon ng makahulugang mithiin, makakuha ng pondo mula sa labas, sukatin ang iyong tagumpay, linawin ang kinakailangan sa operasyon ng pagtakbo at itatag ang resonableng financial forecast. Ang paghanda ng plano ay tutulong din sa iyo na ituon ang iyong pansin sa pagpapalakad ng bagong negosyo at bigyan ito ng pinakamabuting pagkakataon sa pagtagumpay.

Ang magtatag ng tulong sa pananalapi upang simulan ang iyong bagong negosyo ay tuwirang may kinalaman sa lakas ng iyong business plan. Upang makakuha ng pondo mula sa bangko o mga investor, kailangan mong ipakita na nauunawaan mo ang bawat bahagi ng iyong negosyo at ang kakayahan nitong lumikha ng tubo.

Ang business plan ay hindi lamang isang bagay na ipapakita sa mga nagpapahiram at mga investor; kinakailangan din ito upang matulungan kang magplano para sa paglago at pag-unlad ng iyong negosyo. Ang tagumpay ng iyong negosyo ay nakasalalay sa iyong mga plano para sa kinabukasan.

Nakalista sa ibabâ ang mga halimbawa ng mga katanungan na dapat mong itanong sa iyong sarili kapag isinusulat mo ang iyong business plan.

• Paano ako makakatubo?
• Paano ko palalakarin ang negosyo kung ang benta ay mahina o ang tubo ay mababa?
• Sino ang aking kakompetensiya, at paano kami patuloy na makakapagnegosyo?
• Sino ang aking target market?

Ano ang dapat isama sa isang business plan?

Bagamat maaaring iba-iba ang haba at sakop ng business plan, ang lahat ng mga matagumpay na business plan ay mayroong karaniwang elemento. Ang mga sumusunod ay dapat isama sa business plan.

• Executive Summary (Paglalarawan ng Negosyo)
• Alamin kung ano ang iyong Oportunidad sa Negosyo
• Istratehiya sa Marketing at Sales Strategy ng isang Business plan
• Iyong Grupo

Pamamalakad

• Mga financial forecast ng isang Business plan
• Iba pang mga mahalagang dokumento

Ang Executive Summary (Paglalarawan ng Negosyo)

Ang executive summary ay isang malawak na pananaw ng mga mahalagang punto ng iyong business plan at kadalasan itong isinasaalang-alang bilang pinakamahalagang bahagi. Ito ay nakaposisyon sa harap ng plano, at karaniwang ang unang bahagi na babasahin ng napipintong mga investor o nagpapahiram. Ang summary ay dapat:

• May kasamang mga pinakaimportanteng punto mula sa bawat isa sa ibang mga bahagi upang ipaliwanag ang basehan ng iyong negosyo
• Sapat na kawili-wili upang maakit ang bumabasa na ipagpatuloy ang pagbasa ng iyong buong business plan.
• Maikli ngunit malinaw - hindi hihigit sa dalawang pahina

Bagamat ang executive summary ay ang unang bahagi ng plan, maigi ang isulat ito sa huli; kapag tapos na ang ibang mga bahagi ng plan.

Alamin kung ano ang Iyong Oportunidad sa Negosyo

Sa bahaging ito ng iyong business plan, iyong ilalarawan kung ano ang iyong negosyo, kung ano ang mga produkto at/o serbisyo nito, at kung ano ang iyong mga plano para sa negosyo. Karaniwang kasama dito ang sumusunod:

• Kung sino ikaw
• Kung ano ang iyong ginagawa
• Kung ano ang iyong iaalok
• Kung anong market ang gusto mong itarget

Tandaan na maaaring hindi naiintindihan tulad ng pagkakaintindi mo ng taong bumabasa ng plan kung ano ang iyong negosyo at o mga produkto at serbisyo nito; kaya subukang iwasan ang mga komplikadong salita. Maigi rin ang kumuha ng isang taong hindi kasangkot sa negosyo na basahin ang bahagi na ito ng iyong plan upang masiguro na naiintindihan ito ng kahit sino.

Kabilang sa ilang mga bagay na dapat mong ipaliwanag sa iyong plan:

• Ito ba ay bagong negosyo, binili ba ang isang kasalukuyang negosyo o pinapalaki ba ang isang kasalukuyang negosyo?
• Ang seksyon ng industriya kung nasaan ang iyong negosyo
• Kung gaano ka-unique ang iyong produkto o serbisyo
• Ang bentahe ng iyong negosyo kumpara sa kakompetisyon
• Ang mga pangunahing layunin ng iyong negosyo
• Ang legal na anyô ng iyong negosyo (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation)

Maaari mo rin isama ang petsa ng pagrehistro/pag-incorporate ng negosyo, ang pangalan ng negosyo, ang address at kung paano makokontak.

Istratehiya sa Marketing at Sales ng isang Business plan

Ang malakas na business plan ay may kasamang bahagi na naglalarawan ng mga ispesipikong gagawin mo upang i-promote at ibenta ang iyong mga produkto o serbisyo. Ipinapakita ng isang matatag na seksyon ng sales at marketing na malinaw sa iyo kung paano mo dadalhin sa market ang iyong produkto o serbisyo, at masasagot nito ang mga sumusunod na katanungan para sa bumabasa:

• Sino ang iyong mga customer? Magsiyasat at isama ang mga detalye ukol sa mga klase ng customer na interesado sa iyong produkto o serbisyo. Maaari mong ipaliwanag kung paano mo ipro-promote ang iyong sarili sa mga bibiling customer.
• Paano mo maaabot ang iyong mga customer? Dapat mong kilalanin ang iyong mga customer at malaman kung ano ang pinakamabuting paraan upang maabot sila. Ang pagsisiyasat ay makakatulong sa iyo na malaman ang mabisang paraan upang makipag-ugnayan sa iyong piniling audience, maaring sa Internet, sa telepono o sa harap-harapang pag-usap.
• Sino ang iyong kompetisyon? Oras na naunawaan mo ito, kailangan mong malaman ang kanilang lakas at kahinaan, at gamitin ang impormasyong ito upang asesuhin ang mga maaaring maging oportunidad at banta sa iyong negosyo.
• Paano mo ipoposisyon ang iyong produkto o serbisyo? Ilarawan kung bakit unique ang iyong produkto o serbisyo sa market na iyong tinatarget.
• Paano mo prepresyohan ang iyong produkto o serbisyo? Ilalahad ng impormasyon na ito ang iyong estratehiya sa pag-presyo, kasama ang pabuya, presyong bulto, at/o group sales.

Ang Iyong Team

Huwag maliitin ang kahalagahan ng bahaging ito ng iyong plan. Kailangang malaman ng mga mga investor na ikaw at ang iyong mga tauhan ay mayroong kinakailangang balanse ng mga katangian, motibasyon at karanasan upang magtagumpay. Ipapaliwanag sa bahaging ito ang mga tauhang nagtatrabaho sa iyong negosyo at kung paano mo planong pamahalaan ang iyong mga gawain. Maaaring isama sa impormasyon sa bahaging ito ang:

• Maikling layout ng organisasyon o talangguhit ng negosyo
• Talambuhay ng mga manager (kasama ang iyong sarili)
• Sino ang gumagawa ng ano, kasama ng maikling paglalarawan ng trabaho sa bawat tungkulin
• Mga kinakailangang katangian ng bawat tungkulin
• Ano mang iba pang mahalagang impormasyon na may kinalaman sa mga tauhan

Mabuti ring ibalangkas ang anumang recruitment o training plan, kasama ang gastos at oras na kailangan.

Ibabalangkas ng bahagi ng pamamalakad ng iyong business plan ang iyong pang-araw-araw na pangangailangan, ang kinakailangang lugar, mga kinakailangan sa management information systems at information technology, at anumang mga plano mong gawin upang pahusayin ang negosyo. Karaniwang kabilang sa seksyon na ito ang impormasyon tulad ng:

• Mga pang-araw-araw na pamamalakad – mga paglalarawan ng mga oras ng pagpapalakad, seasonality ng negosyo, mga supplier at ang kanilang credit terms, atbp.
• Mga kinakailangang lugar – kabilang dito ang mga bagay tulad ng laki at lokasyon, impormasyon sa kasunduan sa pagrenta, presyo ng mga supplier at anumang ibang dokumento ng lisensiya.
• Management information systems – inventory control, talaan ng accounts, quality control at customer tracking
• Mga kinakailangang Information technology (IT) – ang iyong IT systems, sinumang mga consultant o support service at balangkas na plano ng anumang nakaplanong IT development.

Financial Forecasts ng Business Plan

Ginagawang katotohanan ng iyong financial forecast ang iyong plan. Bilang bahagi ng anumang magandang business plan, kailangan mong isama ang financial projection para sa negosyo na nagbibigay ng forecast para sa susunod na tatlo hanggang limang taon. Ang unang 12 buwan ay magkakaroon ng pinakamaraming detalye, gastos at kinita, upang maintindihan ng mga investor ang iyong istratehiya.

Dapat isama sa iyong financial forecast ang sumusunod:

• Cash flow statements – cash balance at unang 12-18 buwan na buwanang cash flow pattern, kasama ang working capital, mga suweldo at mga benta
• Profit at loss forecast – ang tinatayang antas ng kita batay sa iyong inaasahang benta, gastos sa pagbigay ng produkto at serbisyo, at iyong gastos sa pamamalakad ng negosyo
• Sales forecast – ang perang inaasahan mong makamit buhat sa benta ng produkto o serbisyo

Ilang bagay na dapat isaalang-alang na isama:

• Magkano ang kapital na kailangan mo kung naghahanap ka ng pondo mula sa labas?
• Ano ang seguridad na maiaalay mo sa nagpapahiram?
• Paano mo pinaplanong bayaran ang iyong utang?
• Ano ang iyong mga mapagkukunan ng benta at kita?
• Dapat isakop ng mga forecast ang iba't-ibang mga pangyayari.
• Rebyuhin ang mga risk at magkaroon ng mga planong magagawa upang i-offset ang mga risk.
• Rebyuhin ang industry benchmarks/averages para sa iyong uri ng negosyo.

Mahalaga ang mag-research upang maihambing ang iyong negosyo sa ibang maliliit na negosyo sa iyong industriya.

Ibang Mahalagang Dokumento

Hindi laging kailangan ang mga sumusunod na bahagi, pero maaaring pabutihin nito ang anumang business plan:

• Pagpapatupad ng Plan – nasa bahaging ito ang mga tinantiyang petsa ng pagkumpleto ng iba't-ibang aspeto ng iyong business plan, mga target para sa iyong negosyo at mga maitututupad.
• Mga appendix – dapat kasama rito ang mga materyales na kinakailangan tulad ng mga lisensiya at permit, mga kasunduan, mga kontrata at ibang mga dokumento na nagsusuporta ng iyong business plan.

Sino ang dapat sumulat ng aking business plan?

Ikaw, ang entrepreneur, ang dapat na maghanda ng iyong business plan. Ito ay ang iyong negosyo at plano, ngunit huwag mag-atubiling humingi ng tulong mula sa iyong management team, mga consultant, accountant, bookkeeper, copy editor o ibang mga taong may karanasan.

Para sa karagdagang impormasyon sa pagsulat ng iyong business plan at ibang paksa ng negosyo, tumawag sa Small Business Services / Services aux petites entreprises ngayon. Ang serbisyo sa telepono ay ibinibigay sa Ingles o Pranses.

1-888-576-4444

Contact us by email

Related Topics

Top business essentials.

• Ang Pagsimula ng isang Negosyo
• Balangkas ng Marketing Plan

Mga Tagalog na Dokumento

• Pagbuo ng Patalastas ng Kompanya
• Ang Pagkonsulta sa isang Abogado para sa Iyong Negosyo
• Ang Pagsimula ng isang Sistema para sa Pagbabayad ng Suweldo
• Ang Pamamahala ng Negosyo na Pag-aari ng Pamilya
• Paano Titiyakin ang Iyong Kinita
• Pagsimula ng Negosyo: Alin ang Tama para sa Iyo?
• Pagbigay Pangalan ng Negosyo
• Unawain ang Iyong Business Lease
• Pagnenesgosyo Mula sa Tahanan
• Pagpili at Pagtayo ng isang Lokasyon
• Pagbili ng Negosyo
• Bumili ng isang Negosyo o Simulan ang Iyong Sarili
• Pagbuo ng Ideya
• Pasimula sa Market Research

How To Write A Business Plan (2024 Guide)

Updated: Apr 17, 2024, 11:59am

Table of Contents

Brainstorm an executive summary, create a company description, brainstorm your business goals, describe your services or products, conduct market research, create financial plans, bottom line, frequently asked questions.

Every business starts with a vision, which is distilled and communicated through a business plan. In addition to your high-level hopes and dreams, a strong business plan outlines short-term and long-term goals, budget and whatever else you might need to get started. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to write a business plan that you can stick to and help guide your operations as you get started.

Featured Partners

ZenBusiness

$0 + State Fees

Varies By State & Package

On ZenBusiness' Website

On LegalZoom's Website

Northwest Registered Agent

$39 + State Fees

On Northwest Registered Agent's Website

$0 + State Fee

On Formations' Website

Drafting the Summary

An executive summary is an extremely important first step in your business. You have to be able to put the basic facts of your business in an elevator pitch-style sentence to grab investors’ attention and keep their interest. This should communicate your business’s name, what the products or services you’re selling are and what marketplace you’re entering.

Ask for Help

When drafting the executive summary, you should have a few different options. Enlist a few thought partners to review your executive summary possibilities to determine which one is best.

After you have the executive summary in place, you can work on the company description, which contains more specific information. In the description, you’ll need to include your business’s registered name , your business address and any key employees involved in the business. 

The business description should also include the structure of your business, such as sole proprietorship , limited liability company (LLC) , partnership or corporation. This is the time to specify how much of an ownership stake everyone has in the company. Finally, include a section that outlines the history of the company and how it has evolved over time.

Wherever you are on the business journey, you return to your goals and assess where you are in meeting your in-progress targets and setting new goals to work toward.

Numbers-based Goals

Goals can cover a variety of sections of your business. Financial and profit goals are a given for when you’re establishing your business, but there are other goals to take into account as well with regard to brand awareness and growth. For example, you might want to hit a certain number of followers across social channels or raise your engagement rates.

Another goal could be to attract new investors or find grants if you’re a nonprofit business. If you’re looking to grow, you’ll want to set revenue targets to make that happen as well.

Intangible Goals

Goals unrelated to traceable numbers are important as well. These can include seeing your business’s advertisement reach the general public or receiving a terrific client review. These goals are important for the direction you take your business and the direction you want it to go in the future.

The business plan should have a section that explains the services or products that you’re offering. This is the part where you can also describe how they fit in the current market or are providing something necessary or entirely new. If you have any patents or trademarks, this is where you can include those too.

If you have any visual aids, they should be included here as well. This would also be a good place to include pricing strategy and explain your materials.

This is the part of the business plan where you can explain your expertise and different approach in greater depth. Show how what you’re offering is vital to the market and fills an important gap.

You can also situate your business in your industry and compare it to other ones and how you have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Other than financial goals, you want to have a budget and set your planned weekly, monthly and annual spending. There are several different costs to consider, such as operational costs.

Business Operations Costs

Rent for your business is the first big cost to factor into your budget. If your business is remote, the cost that replaces rent will be the software that maintains your virtual operations.

Marketing and sales costs should be next on your list. Devoting money to making sure people know about your business is as important as making sure it functions.

Other Costs

Although you can’t anticipate disasters, there are likely to be unanticipated costs that come up at some point in your business’s existence. It’s important to factor these possible costs into your financial plans so you’re not caught totally unaware.

Business plans are important for businesses of all sizes so that you can define where your business is and where you want it to go. Growing your business requires a vision, and giving yourself a roadmap in the form of a business plan will set you up for success.

How do I write a simple business plan?

When you’re working on a business plan, make sure you have as much information as possible so that you can simplify it to the most relevant information. A simple business plan still needs all of the parts included in this article, but you can be very clear and direct.

What are some common mistakes in a business plan?

The most common mistakes in a business plan are common writing issues like grammar errors or misspellings. It’s important to be clear in your sentence structure and proofread your business plan before sending it to any investors or partners.

What basic items should be included in a business plan?

When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business,  an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.

• Best VPN Services
• Best Project Management Software
• Best Web Hosting Services
• Best Antivirus Software
• Best LLC Services
• Best POS Systems
• Best Business VOIP Services
• Best Credit Card Processing Companies
• Best CRM Software for Small Business
• Best Fleet Management Software
• Best Business Credit Cards
• Best Business Loans
• Best Business Software
• Best Business Apps
• Best Free Software For Business
• How to Start a Business
• How To Make A Small Business Website
• How To Trademark A Name
• What Is An LLC?
• How To Set Up An LLC In 7 Steps
• What is Project Management?
• How To Write An Effective Business Proposal

What Is SNMP? Simple Network Management Protocol Explained

What Is A Single-Member LLC? Definition, Pros And Cons

What Is Penetration Testing? Definition & Best Practices

What Is Network Access Control (NAC)?

What Is Network Segmentation?

How To Start A Business In Louisiana (2024 Guide)

Julia is a writer in New York and started covering tech and business during the pandemic. She also covers books and the publishing industry.

Free Small Business Plan Templates and Examples

By Kate Eby | April 27, 2022

• Share on Facebook
• Share on LinkedIn

Link copied

We’ve compiled the most useful collection of free small business plan templates for entrepreneurs, project managers, development teams, investors, and other stakeholders, as well as a list of useful tips for filling out a small business template.

Included on this page, you’ll find a simple small business template and a one-page small business plan template . You can also download a fill-in-the-blank small business plan template , and a sample small business plan template to get started.

Small Business Plan Template

Download Small Business Plan Template Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF | Google Docs  

Use this small business plan template to identify trends and demographics in the company overview. Highlight how your product or service uniquely benefits consumers in the offerings section, and note your proposed timeline, milestones, and the key performance metrics (KPIs) you will use to measure your success. This template has all the components of a standard business plan, from the executive summary through financing details.

Small Business Plan Sample Template

Download Small Business Plan Sample Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF | Google Docs  

Use this small business plan sample template to draft the subsections and headings of the contents of your plan. This template provides editable sample text that shows you how to organize and create a ready-to-be-implemented business plan. This sample template helps remove the guesswork of what to include in a small business plan.

Simple Small Business Plan Template

Download Simple Small Business Plan Template Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF

Use this streamlined, customizable, simple small business plan template to chart revenue, expenses, and net profit or loss forecasts with sample graphics. Order your small business plan with numbered subsections and list them in a table of contents. Supplement the plan with additional information in the appendix for a complete business plan that you can present to investors.

Small Business Plan Chart Template

Download Small Business Plan Chart Template Microsoft PowerPoint | Google Slides

Use this small business plan chart template to plan and track month-by-month and annual business planning. The flexible color-coded bar chart simplifies tracking and allows you to customize the plan to meet your needs. Add tasks, track owner status, and adjust the timeline to chart your progress with this dynamic, visually rich small business planning tool.

Small Business Plan Outline Template

Download Small Business Plan Outline Template Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF | Google Docs

Use this small business plan outline template to jumpstart a plan for your small business. This template includes the nine essential elements of a traditional business plan, plus a title page, a table of contents, and an appendix to ensure that your document is complete, comprehensive, and in order. Easily simplify or expand the outline to meet your company’s needs.

Printable Small Business Plan Template

Download Printable Small Business Plan Template  Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF | Google Docs

This print-friendly small business plan template is ideal for presentations to investors and stakeholders. The customizable template includes all the standard, critical business plan elements, and serves as a guide for writing a complete and comprehensive plan. Easily edit and add content to this printable template, so you can focus on executing the small business plan.

Small Business Startup Plan Template

Download Small Business Startup Plan Template Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF | Google Docs  

Use this small business startup plan template to draft your mission statement and list your keys to business success, in order to persuade investors and inform stakeholders. Customize your startup plan with fillable tables for sales revenue, gross profit margin, and cost of sales projections to secure your business's pricing structure.

Fill-in-the-Blank Small Business Plan Template

Download Fill-in-the-Blank Small Business Plan Template  Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF

This small business plan template simplifies the process to help you create a comprehensive, organized business plan. Simply enter original content for the executive summary, company overview, and other sections to customize the plan. This fill-in-the-blank small business plan template helps you to maintain organization and removes the guesswork in order to ensure success.

One Page Small Business Plan Template

Download One Page Small Business Plan Template  Microsoft Excel | Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF

This one page small business plan template is ideal for quick, simple presentations. Use this template to summarize your business overview, market analysis, marketing, and sales plan, key objectives and success metrics, and milestones timeline. Complete the fillable sections to educate investors and inform stakeholders.

One Page Small Business Plan Example

Download One Page Business Plan Example Microsoft Excel | Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF

This one page small business plan example prompts you to list your vision, mission, product or service, team member names, roles, and relevant experience to promote your small business. Use the market analysis, marketing, sales plan sections to detail how you aim to sell your product or service. This small business plan features fillable tables for key objectives and success metrics. Plus, you’ll find space for your financial cost structure and revenue sources to show how your business will remain profitable.

What Is a Small Business Plan Template?

A small business plan template is a roadmap for defining your business objectives and detailing the operational, financial, and marketing resources required for success. Use a small business plan template to strategize growth, forecast financial needs, and promote investment. 

A small business plan template organizes and outlines the content needed to achieve goals for growth and profit, including marketing and sales tactics. As opposed to starting from scratch, using a template makes it easy to organize the information and customize the plan to meet your needs. 

A small business plan template includes standard business plan sections, as well as the following sections: 

• Executive Summary: Summarize the key points in your small business plan in two pages or less to hold your reader's attention and promote buy-in. Write this section last to capitalize on your understanding of the small business plan.
• Company Overview: Describe the nature of your small business, the industry landscape and trends, demographics, and economic and governmental influences. List your location, product or service, and goals to show what makes your small business unique.
• Problem and Solution: Identify and explain the problem your product or service will solve and its costs. Propose and describe your solution and its benefits. Conclude this section with a summary of the problem and solution.
• Target Market: Identify your small business's target market by researching your product and service to determine the most likely demographic. Explain your target market's motivations for buying your product or service.
• Competition: Note the other competitor product or service offerings, pricing, and company revenues to understand how to outperform your competitors. Detail your small business's competitive advantages, based on research.
• Product or Service Offerings: Describe your product or service, how it benefits your target market, and what makes it unique. Highlight how your product or service will outsell competitors.
• Marketing: Detail your marketing plan with objectives and strategy, including goals, costs, and an action plan. A successful marketing plan reduces costs and boosts your product or service sales.
• Timeline and Metrics: Break down your small business plan into smaller activities. Describe these activities (and the performance metrics you intend to use to track them) and list a completion date for each.
• Financial Forecasts: Explain how your organization uses past performance and market research to inform your business's economic forecasts. Estimate growth and profits based on your informed assumptions.
• Financing: List your funding sources and how you intend to use the funds to keep your company on track as it grows. Smart financing at the planning stage prepares your organization for unexpected challenges and helps to mitigate risk.

A small business plan template enables you to complete your business plan quickly and comprehensively, so you can achieve your goals and turn your product or service idea into a profitable reality.

Optimize Your Business Plan with Real-Time Work Management in Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

Finding Investors

How Funding Works

Idea Validation Bootcamp

Pitch Deck Bootcamp

Pitching Investors

Product MVP

Product/MVP

Idea Validation

Customer Acquisition

Emotional Support

How To Write A Business Plan: A Comprehensive Guide

The Startups Team

How To Write A Business Plan: A Comprehensive Guide

A comprehensive, step-by-step guide - complete with real examples - on writing business plans with just the right amount of panache to catch an investor's attention and serve as a guiding star for your business.

Introduction to Business Plans

So you've got a killer startup idea. Now you need to write a business plan that is equally killer.

You fire up your computer, open a Google doc, and stare at the blank page for several minutes before it suddenly dawns on you that,  Hm…maybe I have no idea how to write a business plan from scratch after all.

Don't let it get you down. After all, why would you know anything about business planning? For that very reason we have  4 amazing business plan samples  to share with you as inspiration.

For most founders,  writing a business plan  feels like the startup equivalent of homework. It's the thing you know you have to do, but nobody actually wants to do.

Here's the good news: writing a business plan doesn't have to be this daunting, cumbersome chore.

Once you understand the fundamental questions that your business plan should answer for your readers and how to position everything in a way that compels your them to take action, writing a business plan becomes way more approachable.

Before you set fingers to the keyboard to turn your business idea into written documentation of your organizational structure and business goals, we're going to walk you through the most important things to keep in mind (like company description, financials, and market analysis, etc.) and to help you tackle the writing process confidently — with plenty of real life business plan examples along the way to get you writing a business plan to be proud of!

Keep It Short and Simple.

There's this old-school idea that business plans need to be ultra-dense, complex documents the size of a doorstop because that's how you convey how serious you are about your company.

Not so much.

Complexity and length for complexity and length's sake is almost never a good idea, especially when it comes to writing a business plan. There are a couple of reasons for this.

1. Investors Are Short On Time

If your chief goal is using your business plan to secure funding, then it means you intend on getting it in front of an investor. And if there's one thing investors are, it's busy. So keep this in mind throughout writing a business plan.

Investors wade through hundreds of business plans a year. There's no version of you presenting an 80-page business plan to an investor and they enthusiastically dive in and take hours out of their day to pour over the thing front to back.

Instead, they're looking for you to get your point across as quickly and clearly as possible so they can skim your business plan and get to the most salient parts to determine whether or not they think your opportunity is worth pursuing (or at the very least initiating further discussions).

You should be able to refine all of the key value points that investors look for to 15-20 pages (not including appendices where you will detail your financials). If you find yourself writing beyond that, then it's probably a case of either over explaining, repeating information, or including irrelevant details in your business plan (you don't need to devote 10 pages to how you're going to set up your website, for example).

Bottom line: always be on the lookout for opportunities to “trim the fat" while writing a business plan (and pay special attention to the executive summary section below), and you'll be more likely to secure funding.

2. Know Your Audience

If you fill your business plan with buzzwords, industry-specific jargon or acronyms, and long complicated sentences, it might make sense to a handful of people familiar with your niche and those with superhuman attention spans (not many), but it alienates the vast majority of readers who aren't experts in your particular industry. And if no one can understand so much as your company overview, they won't make it through the rest of your business plan.

Your best bet here is to use simple, straightforward language that's easily understood by anyone — from the most savvy of investor to your Great Aunt Bertha who still uses a landline.

How To Format Your Business Plan

You might be a prodigy in quantum mechanics, but if you show up to your interview rocking cargo shorts and lime green Crocs, you can probably guess what the hiring manager is going to notice first.

In the same way,  how  you present your business plan to your readers equally as important as what you present to them. So don't go over the top with an extensive executive summary, or get lazy with endless bullet points on your marketing strategy.

If your business plan is laden with inconsistent margins, multiple font types and sizes, missing headings and page numbers, and lacks a table of contents, it's going to create a far less digestible reading experience (and totally take away from your amazing idea and hours of work writing a business plan!)

While there's no one  right  way to format your business plan, the idea here is to ensure that it presents professionally. Here's some easy formatting tips to help you do just that.

If your margins are too narrow, it makes the page look super cluttered and more difficult to read.

A good rule of thumb is sticking to standard one-inch margins all around.

Your business plan is made up of several key sections, like chapters in a book.

Whenever you begin a section (“Traction” for example) you'll want to signify it using a header so that your reader immediately knows what to expect from the content that follows.

This also helps break up your content and keep everything nice and organized in your business plan.

Subheadings

Subheadings are mini versions of headings meant to break up content within each individual section and capture the attention of your readers to keep them moving down the page.

In fact, we're using sub-headers right now in this section for that very purpose!

Limit your business plan to two typefaces (one for headings and one for body copy and subheadings, for example) that you can find in a standard text editor like Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

Only pick fonts that are easy to read and contain both capital and lowercase letters.

Avoid script-style or jarring fonts that distract from the actual content. Modern, sans-serif fonts like Helvetica, Arial, and Proxima Nova are a good way to go.

Keep your body copy between 11 and 12-point font size to ensure readability (some fonts are more squint-inducing than others).

You can offset your headings from your body copy by simply upping the font size and by bolding your subheadings.

Sometimes it's better to show instead of just tell.

Assume that your readers are going to skim your plan rather than read it word-for-word and treat it as an opportunity to grab their attention with color graphics, tables, and charts (especially with financial forecasts), as well as product images, if applicable.

This will also help your reader better visualize what your business model is all about.

Need some help with this?

Our  business planning wizard  comes pre-loaded with a modular business plan template that you can complete in any order and makes it ridiculously easy to generate everything you need from your value proposition, mission statement, financial projections, competitive advantage, sales strategy, market research, target market, financial statements, marketing strategy, in a way that clearly communicates your business idea.

Refine Your Business Plans. Then Refine Them Some More.

Your business isn't static, so why should your business plan be?

Your business strategy is always evolving, and so are good business plans. This means that the early versions of your business plans probably won't (and shouldn't be) your last. The details of even even the best business plans are only as good as their last update.

As your business progresses and your ideas about it shift, it's important revisit your business plan from time to time to make sure it reflects those changes, keeping everything as accurate and up-to-date as possible. What good is market analysis if the market has shifted and you have an entirely different set of potential customers? And what good would the business model be if you've recently pivoted? A revised business plan is a solid business plan. It doesn't ensure business success, but it certainly helps to support it.

This rule especially holds true when you go about your market research and learn something that goes against your initial assumptions, impacting everything from your sales strategy to your financial projections.

At the same time, before you begin shopping your business plan around to potential investors or bankers, it's imperative to get a second pair of eyes on it after you've put the final period on your first draft.

After you run your spell check, have someone with strong “English teacher skills” run a fine-tooth comb over your plan for any spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors you may have glossed over. An updated, detailed business plan (without errors!) should be constantly in your business goals.

More than that, your trusty business plan critic can also give you valuable feedback on how it reads from a stylistic perspective. While different investors prefer different styles, the key here is to remain consistent with your audience and business.

Writing Your Business Plan: A Section-By-Section Breakdown

We devoted an entire article carefully breaking down the  key components of a business plan  which takes a comprehensive look of what each section entails and why.

If you haven't already, you should check that out, as it will act as the perfect companion piece to what we're about to dive into in a moment.

For our purposes here, we're going to look at a few real world business plan examples (as well as one of our own self-penned “dummy” plans) to give you an inside look at how to position key information on a section-by-section basis.

1. Executive Summary

Quick overview.

After your Title Page — which includes your company name, slogan (if applicable), and contact information — and your Table of Contents, the Executive Summary will be the first section of actual content about your business.

The primary goal of your Executive Summary is to provide your readers with a high level overview of your business plan as a whole by summarizing the most important aspects in a few short sentences. Think of your Executive Summary as a kind of “teaser” for your business concept and the information to follow — information which you will explain in greater detail throughout your plan. This isn't the place for your a deep dive on your competitive advantages, or cash flow statement. It is an appropriate place to share your mission statement and value proposition.

Executive Summary Example

Here's an example of an Executive Summary taken from a sample business plan written by the Startups.com team for a fictional company called Culina. Here, we'll see how the Executive Summary offers brief overviews of the  Product ,  Market Opportunity ,  Traction , and  Next Steps .

Culina Tech specializes in home automation and IoT technology products designed to create the ultimate smart kitchen for modern homeowners.

Our flagship product, the Culina Smart Plug, enables users to make any kitchen appliance or cooking device intelligent. Compatible with all existing brands that plug into standard two or three-prong wall outlets, Culina creates an entire network of Wi-Fi-connected kitchen devices that can be controlled and monitored remotely right from your smartphone.

The majority of US households now spend roughly 35% of their energy consumption on appliances, electronics, and lighting.  With the ability to set energy usage caps on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, Culina helps homeowners stay within their monthly utility budget through more efficient use of the dishwasher, refrigerator, freezer, stove, and other common kitchen appliances.

Additionally, 50.8% of house fires are caused in the kitchen — more than any other room in the home — translating to over $5 billion in property damage costs per year.  Culina provides the preventative intelligence necessary to dramatically reduce kitchen-related disasters and their associated costs and risk of personal harm.

Our team has already completed the product development and design phase, and we are now ready to begin mass manufacturing. We've also gained a major foothold among consumers and investors alike, with 10,000 pre-ordered units sold and $5 million in investment capital secured to date.

We're currently seeking a $15M Series B capital investment that will give us the financial flexibility to ramp up hardware manufacturing, improve software UX and UI, expand our sales and marketing efforts, and fulfill pre-orders in time for the 2018 holiday season.

2. Company Synopsis

Your Company Synopsis section answers two critically important questions for your readers: What painful  PROBLEM  are you solving for your customers? And what is your elegant  SOLUTION  to that problem? The combination of these two components form your value proposition.

Company Synopsis Example

Let's look at a real-life company description example from  HolliBlu * — a mobile app that connects healthcare facilities with local skilled nurses — to see how they successfully address both of these key aspects.  *Note: Full disclosure; Our team worked directly with this company on their business plan via Fundable.

Notice how we get a crystal clear understanding of why the company exists to begin with when they set up the  problem  — that traditional nurse recruitment methods are costly, inconvenient, and time-consuming, creating significant barriers to providing quality nursing to patients in need.

Once we understand the painful problem that HolliBlu's customers face, we're then directly told how their  solution  links back directly to that problem — by creating an entire community of qualified nurses and directly connecting them with local employers more cost-effectively and more efficiently than traditional methods.

3. Market Overview

Your Market Overview provides color around the industry that you will be competing in as it relates to your product/service.

This will include statistics about industry size, [growth](https://www.startups.com/library/expert-advice/the-case-for-growing-slowly) rate, trends, and overall outlook. If this part of your business plan can be summed up in one word, it's  research .

The idea is to gather as much raw data as you can to make the case for your readers that:

This is a market big enough to get excited about.

You can capture a big enough share of this market to get excited about.

Target Market Overview Example

Here's an example from HolliBlu's business plan:

HolliBlu's Market Overview hits all of the marks — clearly laying out the industry size ($74.8 billion), the Total Addressable Market or TAM (3 million registered nurses), industry growth rate (581,500 new RN jobs through 2018; $355 billion by 2020), and industry trends (movement toward federally-mandated compliance with nurse/patient ratios, companies offering sign-on bonuses to secure qualified nurses, increasing popularity of home-based healthcare).

4. Product (How it Works)

Where your Company Synopsis is meant to shed light on why the company exists by demonstrating the problem you're setting out to solve and then bolstering that with an impactful solution, your Product or How it Works section allows you to get into the nitty gritty of how it actually delivers that value, and any competitive advantage it provides you.

Product (How it Works) Example

In the below example from our team's Culina sample plan, we've divided the section up using subheadings to call attention to product's  key features  and how it actually works from a user perspective.

This approach is particularly effective if your product or service has several unique features that you want to highlight.

5. Revenue Model

Quite simply, your Revenue Model gives your readers a framework for how you plan on making money. It identifies which revenue channels you're leveraging, how you're pricing your product or service, and why.

Revenue Model Example

Let's take a look at another real world business plan example with brewpub startup  Magic Waters Brewpub .*

It can be easy to get hung up on the financial aspect here, especially if you haven't fully developed your product yet. And that's okay. *Note: Full disclosure; Our team worked directly with this company on their business plan via Fundable.

The thing to remember is that investors will want to see that you've at least made some basic assumptions about your monetization strategy.

6. Operating Model

Your Operating Model quite simply refers to how your company actually runs itself. It's the detailed breakdown of the processes, technologies, and physical requirements (assets) that allow you to deliver the value to your customers that your product or service promises.

Operating Model Example

Let's say you were opening up a local coffee shop, for example. Your Operating Model might detail the following:

Information about your facility (location, indoor and outdoor space features, lease amount, utility costs, etc.)

The equipment you need to purchase (coffee and espresso machines, appliances, shelving and storage, etc.) and their respective costs.

The inventory you plan to order regularly (product, supplies, etc.), how you plan to order it (an online supplier) and how often it gets delivered (Mon-Fri).

Your staffing requirements (including how many part or full time employees you'll need, at what wages, their job descriptions, etc.)

In addition, you can also use your Operating Model to lay out the ways you intend to manage the costs and efficiencies associated with your business, including:

The  Critical Costs  that make or break your business. In the case of our coffee shop example, you might say something like,

“We're estimating the marketing cost to acquire a customer is going to be $25.  Our average sale is $45.  So long as we can keep our customer acquisition costs below $25 we will have enough margin to grow with.”

Cost Maturation & Milestones  that show how your Critical Costs might fluctuate over time.

“If we sell 50 coffees a day, our average unit cost will be $8 on a sale of $10.  At that point we're barely breaking even. However as we scale up to 200 coffees a day, our unit costs drop significantly to $4, creating a 100% increase in net income.”

Investment Costs  that highlight strategic uses of capital that will have a big Return on Investment (ROI) later.

“We're investing $100,000 into a revolutionary new coffee brewing system that will allow us to brew twice the amount our current output with the same amount of space and staff.”

Operating Efficiencies  explaining your capability of delivering your product or service in the most cost effective manner possible while maintaining the highest standards of quality.

“By using energy efficient Ecoboilers, we're able to keep our water hot while minimizing the amount of energy required. Our machines also feature an energy saving mode. Both of these allow us to dramatically cut energy costs.”

7. Competitive Analysis

Like the Market Overview section, you want to show your readers that you've done your homework and have a crazy high level of awareness about your current competitors or any potential competitors that may crop up down the line for your given business model.

When writing your Competitive Analysis, your overview should cover  who  your closest competitors are, the chief  strengths  they bring to the table, and their biggest  weaknesses .

You'll want to identify at least 3 competitors — either direct, indirect, or a combination of the two. It's an extremely important aspect of the business planning process.

Competition Analysis Example

Here's an example of how HolliBlu lays out their Competitive Analysis section for just one of their competitors, implementing each of the criteria noted above:

8. Customer Definition

Your Customer Definition section allows you to note which customer segment(s) you're going after, what characteristics and habits each customer segment embodies, how each segment uniquely benefits from your product or service, and how all of this ties together to create the ideal portrait of an actual paying customer, and how you'll cultivate and manage customer relationships.

Customer Definition Example

HolliBlu's Customer Definition section is effective for several reasons. Let's deconstruct their first target market segment, hospitals.

What's particularly successful here is that we are explained why hospitals are optimal buyers.

They accomplish this by harkening back to the central problem at the core of the opportunity (when hospitals can't supply enough staff to meet patient demands, they have to resort on costly staffing agencies).

On top of that, we are also told how  big  of an opportunity going after this customer segment represents (5,534 hospitals in the US).

This template is followed for each of the company's 3 core customer segments. This provides consistency, but more than that, it emphasizes how diligent research reinforces their assumptions about who their customers are and why they'd open their wallets. Keep all of this in mind when you are write your own business plan.

9. Customer Acquisition

Now that you've defined who your customers are for your readers, your Customer Acquisition section will tell them what marketing and sales strategy and tactics you plan to leverage to actually reach the target market (or target markets) and ultimately convert them into paying customers.

marketing Strategy Example

Similar to the exercise you will go through with your Revenue Model, in addition to identifying  which  channels you're pursuing, you'll also want to detail all of relevant costs associated with your customer acquisition channels.

Let's say you spent $100 on your marketing plan to acquire 100 customers during 2018. To get your CAC, you simply divide the number of customers acquired by your spend, giving you a $1.00 CAC.

10. Traction

This one's huge. Traction tells investors one important thing: that you're business has momentum. It's evidence that you're making forward progress and hitting milestones. That things are happening. It's one of the most critical components of a successful business plan.

Why is this so important? Financial projections are great and all, but if you can prove to investors that your company's got legs before they've even put a dime into it, then it will get them thinking about all the great things you'll be able to accomplish when they do bankroll you.

Traction Example

In our Culina Traction section, we've called attention to several forms of traction, touching on some of the biggest ones that you'll want to consider when writing your own plan.

Have I built or launched my product or service yet?

Have I reached any customers yet?

Have I generated any revenue yet?

Have I forged any strategic industry relationships that will be instrumental in driving growth?

The key takeaway here: the more traction you can show, the more credibility you build with investors. After all, you can't leave it all on market analysis alone.

11. Management Team

Here's what your Management Team section isn't: it's not an exhaustive rundown of each and every position your team members have held over the course of their lives.

Instead, you should tell investors which aspects of your team's experience and expertise directly translates to the success of  this  company and  this  industry.

In other words, what applicable, relevant background do they bring to the table?

Management Team Example

Let's be real. The vast majority of startup teams probably aren't stacked with Harvard and Stanford grads. But the thing to home in on is how the prior experience listed speaks directly to how it qualifies that team member's current position.

The word of the day here is relevancy. If it's not relevant, you probably don't need to include it in your typical business plan.

12. Funding

Funding overview.

The ask! This is where you come out and, you guessed it,  ask  your investors point blank how much money you need to move your business forward, what specific milestones their investment will allow you to reach, how you'll allocate the capital you secure, and what the investor will get in exchange for their investment.

You can also include information about your  exit strategy  (IPO, acquisition, merger?).

Funding Example

While we've preached against redundancy in your business plan, an exception to the rule is using the Funding section to offer up a very brief recap that essentially says, “here are the biggest reasons you should invest in my company and why it will ultimately benefit you.”

13. Financials

Spreadsheets and numbers and charts, oh my! Yes, it's everybody's “favorite” business plan section: Financials.

Your Financials section will come last and contain all of the forecasted numbers that say to investors that this is a sound investment. This will include things like your sales forecast, expense budget, and break-even analysis. A lot of this will be assumptions, or estimates.

The key here is keeping those estimates as realistic as humanly possible by breaking your figures into components and looking at each one individually.

Financials Example

The balance sheet above illustrates the business' estimated net worth over a three-year period by summarizing its assets (tangible objects owned by the company), liabilities (debt owed to a creditor of the company), and shareholders' equity (source of financing used to fund the assets).

In plain words, the balance sheet is basically a snapshot of your business' financial status by laying out what you own and owe, helping investors determine the level of risk involved and giving them a good understanding of the financial health of the business.

If you're looking to up your game from those outdated Excel-style spreadsheets,  our business planning software  will help you create clean, sleek, modern financial reports the modern way. Plus, it's as easy to use as it is attractive to look at. You might even find yourself enjoying financial projections, building a cash flow statement, and business planning overall.

You've Got This!

You've committed to writing your business plan and now you've got some tricks of the trade to help you out along the way. Whether you're applying for a business loan or seeking investors, your well-crafted business plan will act as your Holy Grail in helping take your business goals to the next plateau.

This is a ton of work. It's not a few hours and a free business plan template. It's not just a business plan software. We've been there before. Writing your [business plan](https://www.startups.com/library/expert-advice/top-4-business-plan-examples) is just one small step in startup journey. There's a whole long road ahead of you filled with a marketing plan, investor outreach, chasing venture capitalists, actually getting funded, and growing your business into a successful company.

And guess what? We've got helpful information on all of it — and all at your disposal! We hope this guides you confidently on how to write a business plan worth bragging about.

Ronald Calderon

Great info for feedback my current business plan!

Upgrade to join the discussion.

• pagpepresyo

Mga Halimbawa ng Strategic Plan | Pinakamahusay na 11 Tool Para sa Epektibong Madiskarteng Pagpaplano | Na-update noong 2024

Jane Ng • 14 Enero, 2024 • 13 basahin

Naghahanap ng Mga Halimbawa ng Strategic Plan? Ang pagkakaroon ng isang estratehikong plano ay mahalaga para sa anumang negosyo o paglago ng organisasyon. Ang isang mahusay na ginawang plano ay maaaring gumawa ng lahat ng pagkakaiba sa tagumpay ng iyong pakikipagsapalaran. Tinutulungan ka nitong magkaroon ng makatotohanang pananaw para sa hinaharap at mapakinabangan ang potensyal ng kumpanya.

Kaya, kung nahihirapan kang bumuo ng isang madiskarteng plano para sa iyong negosyo o organisasyon. Sa blog post na ito, tatalakayin natin ang isang halimbawa ng estratehikong plano kasama ang ilang nakakatuwang ideya para sa estratehikong pagpaplano at mga tool na maaaring magsilbing gabay upang matulungan kang gumawa ng matagumpay na plano.

Talaan ng nilalaman

Ano ang isang madiskarteng plano, mga halimbawa ng strategic plan, mga tool para sa epektibong madiskarteng pagpaplano, paano ka tinutulungan ng ahaslides sa madiskarteng pagpaplano, key takeaways, mga madalas itanong, mga tip para sa mas mahusay na pakikipag-ugnayan.

• Paggawa ng stratehiya
• Mga Halimbawa ng Pagpaplano ng Scenario
• Ano ang Career Planning?
• Pamamahala ng Stress

Naghahanap ng tool para makipag-ugnayan sa iyong team?

Ipunin ang mga miyembro ng iyong koponan sa pamamagitan ng isang masayang pagsusulit sa AhaSlides. Mag-sign up para kumuha ng libreng pagsusulit mula sa AhaSlides template library!

Ang estratehikong plano ay isang plano na nagbabalangkas sa mga pangmatagalang layunin, layunin, at estratehiya ng organisasyon para makamit ang mga ito.  

Ito ay isang roadmap na tumutulong sa iyong organisasyon na maghanda at maglaan ng mga mapagkukunan, pagsisikap, at pagkilos upang makamit ang bisyon at misyon nito.

Sa partikular, ang isang estratehikong plano ay karaniwang tumatagal ng 3-5 taon at maaaring mangailangan ng organisasyon na suriin ang kasalukuyang posisyon nito kasama ang mga lakas, kahinaan, potensyal, at antas ng kompetisyon. Batay sa pagsusuring ito, tutukuyin ng organisasyon ang mga madiskarteng layunin at layunin nito   (kailangan nilang maging SMART: tiyak, masusukat, matamo, may-katuturan, at nakatali sa oras).

Kasunod nito, ililista ng plano ang mga kinakailangang hakbang at aksyon upang makamit ang mga layuning ito, pati na rin ang mga mapagkukunang kailangan, mga timeline, at mga hakbang sa pagganap upang masubaybayan ang pag-unlad at tagumpay.

Upang matiyak ang tagumpay, ang iyong estratehikong plano ay nangangailangan ng mga tool na makakatulong sa pagpaplano, pamamahala, komunikasyon, pakikipagtulungan, at pananagutan upang matulungan ang organisasyon na manatiling nakatuon at manatili sa daloy ng trabaho.

Narito ang ilang modelo ng strategic planning na magagamit ng iyong negosyo:

1/ SWOT Analysis - Halimbawa ng Strategic Plan 

Ang modelo ng SWOT Analysis ay binuo ni  Albert Humphrey . Ang modelong ito ay isang kilalang modelo ng pagsusuri sa negosyo para sa mga organisasyong gustong lumikha ng isang estratehikong plano sa pamamagitan ng pagsusuri sa apat na salik:

• W - Mga kahinaan
• O - Mga Pagkakataon
• T - Mga pananakot

Sa mga salik na ito, mauunawaan ng iyong organisasyon ang kasalukuyang sitwasyon, mga pakinabang, at mga lugar kung saan kailangang pagbutihin. Bilang karagdagan, matutukoy ng iyong organisasyon ang mga panlabas na banta na maaaring makaapekto dito at ang mga pagkakataong sakupin sa kasalukuyan o sa hinaharap.

Pagkatapos magkaroon ng ganitong pangkalahatang-ideya, ang mga organisasyon ay magkakaroon ng matibay na batayan para sa epektibong pagpaplano, pag-iwas sa mga panganib sa ibang pagkakataon.

Halimbawa ng Strategic Plan:   Upang matulungan kang mas maunawaan kung paano gamitin ang pagsusuri ng SWOT upang bumuo ng isang estratehikong plano, magbibigay kami ng isang halimbawa.

Mayroon kang maliit na negosyo na nagbebenta ng mga produktong gawa sa kamay na sabon. Narito ang isang SWOT analysis ng iyong negosyo:

Batay sa SWOT analysis na ito, ang iyong negosyo ay maaaring bumuo ng isang strategic plan na nakatutok sa

• Palawakin ang mga channel ng pamamahagi ng produkto
• Pagbuo ng mga bagong linya ng produkto
• Pagbutihin ang online marketing at advertising

Sa diskarteng ito, maaari mong gamitin ang iyong mga lakas, tulad ng mga de-kalidad na produkto at personalized na serbisyo sa customer.

2/ Balanced Scorecard Model - Halimbawa ng Strategic Plan 

Ang Balanced Scorecard Model ay isang modelo ng estratehikong pagpaplano na tumutulong sa mga negosyo na bumuo ng sustainably at mapagkakatiwalaan sa lahat ng 4 na aspeto:

• Financial:  Kailangang sukatin at subaybayan ng mga organisasyon ang mga resulta sa pananalapi, kabilang ang mga nakapirming gastos, mga gastos sa pagbaba ng halaga, return on investment, return on investment, rate ng paglago ng kita, atbp.
• Customers:  Kailangang sukatin at suriin ng mga organisasyon ang kasiyahan ng customer, kasama ang kanilang kakayahang matugunan ang mga pangangailangan ng customer.
• Panloob na proseso:  Kailangang sukatin at suriin ng mga organisasyon kung gaano sila kahusay.
• Pag-aaral at Paglago:  Nakatuon ang mga organisasyon sa pagsasanay at pagtulong sa kanilang mga empleyado na umunlad, na tumutulong sa kanila na mapabuti ang kanilang kaalaman at kasanayan upang mapanatili ang isang mapagkumpitensyang edge sa merkado.

Halimbawa ng Strategic Plan: Narito ang isang halimbawa upang matulungan kang maunawaan ang higit pa tungkol sa modelong ito:

Ipagpalagay na ikaw ang may-ari ng isang sikat na brand ng kape, narito kung paano mo ilalapat ang modelong ito sa iyong strategic plan.

Tinitiyak ng Balanced Scorecard model na isinasaalang-alang ng isang negosyo ang lahat ng aspeto ng mga operasyon nito at nagbibigay ng balangkas para sa pagsukat ng progreso at pagsasaayos ng mga estratehiya kung kinakailangan.

3/ Blue Ocean Strategy Model - Halimbawa ng Strategic Plan 

Modelo ng Blue Ocean Strategy  ay isang diskarte sa pagbuo at pagpapalawak ng isang bagong merkado kung saan walang kompetisyon o kompetisyon ay hindi kailangan.

Mayroong anim na pangunahing prinsipyo para sa matagumpay na pagpapatupad ng diskarte sa asul na karagatan.

• Buuin muli ang mga hangganan ng merkado:  Kailangang buuin muli ng mga negosyo ang mga hangganan ng merkado upang makawala sa kumpetisyon at bumuo ng mga asul na karagatan.
• Tumutok sa malaking larawan, hindi sa mga numero:  Kailangang tumuon ang mga negosyo sa malaking larawan kapag nagpaplano ng kanilang diskarte. Huwag magulo sa mga detalye.
• Higit pa sa mga kasalukuyang hinihingi:  Sa halip na tumuon sa mga umiiral nang produkto o serbisyo, kailangan nilang tukuyin ang mga hindi customer o potensyal na customer.
• Kunin ang madiskarteng pagkakasunud-sunod:  Ang mga negosyo ay kailangang gumawa ng value proposition na nagpapaiba sa kanila at nagsasaayos ng mga internal na proseso, system, at tao.
• Pagtagumpayan ang mga hadlang sa organisasyon.  Upang matagumpay na maipatupad ang Blue Ocean Strategy, ang negosyo ay mangangailangan ng buy-in mula sa lahat ng antas ng organisasyon at epektibong makipag-usap sa diskarte.
• Pagpapatupad ng Diskarte.  Ang mga negosyo ay nagpapatupad ng diskarte habang pinapaliit ang mga panganib sa pagpapatakbo at pinipigilan ang sabotahe mula sa loob.

Halimbawa ng Strategic Plan: Ang sumusunod ay isang halimbawa ng mga aplikasyon ng Blue Ocean Model.

Patuloy nating ipagpalagay na isa kang may-ari ng negosyong organic na sabon. 

• Buuin muli ang mga hangganan ng merkado:  Ang iyong negosyo ay maaaring tumukoy ng isang bagong espasyo sa pamilihan sa pamamagitan ng paggawa ng isang linya ng mga sabon na para lamang sa sensitibong balat.
• Tumutok sa malaking larawan, hindi sa mga numero:  Sa halip na tumuon lamang sa mga kita, ang iyong negosyo ay maaaring lumikha ng halaga para sa mga customer sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay-diin sa mga natural at organikong sangkap sa mga produktong sabon.
• Higit pa sa mga kasalukuyang hinihingi:  Maaari kang mag-tap sa bagong demand sa pamamagitan ng pagtukoy sa mga hindi customer, gaya ng mga may sensitibong balat. Pagkatapos ay lumikha ng mga nakakahimok na dahilan para gamitin nila ang iyong produkto.
• Kunin ang madiskarteng pagkakasunud-sunod:  Maaaring gumawa ang iyong negosyo ng value proposition na nagbubukod dito sa mga kakumpitensya, sa kasong ito sa mga natural at organic na sangkap. Pagkatapos ay ihanay ang mga panloob na proseso, sistema, at tao nito upang maisakatuparan ang pangakong iyon.
• Pagtagumpayan ang mga hadlang sa organisasyon:  Upang matagumpay na maipatupad ang diskarteng ito, kailangan ng iyong negosyo ng suporta mula sa lahat ng antas ng mga stakeholder para sa bagong produktong ito. 
• Pagpapatupad ng Diskarte:  Ang iyong negosyo ay maaaring bumuo ng mga sukatan ng pagganap at isaayos ang diskarte sa paglipas ng panahon upang matiyak na mahusay silang gumaganap.

Narito ang ilang sikat na tool upang matulungan kang magkaroon ng epektibong estratehikong plano:

Mga Tool Para sa Pagtitipon at Pagsusuri ng Data

#1 - pagsusuri ng pest.

Ang PEST ay isang tool sa pagsusuri na tumutulong sa iyong negosyo na maunawaan ang "malaking larawan" ng kapaligiran ng negosyo (karaniwan ay macro-environmental) kung saan ka lumalahok, at sa gayon ay matukoy ang mga pagkakataon at potensyal na banta. 

Susuriin ng PEST Analysis ang kapaligirang ito sa pamamagitan ng sumusunod na 4 na salik:

• Pulitika:  Ang mga salik na institusyon at legal ay maaaring makaapekto sa posibilidad at pag-unlad ng anumang industriya.
• Economics:  Kailangang bigyang-pansin ng mga organisasyon ang parehong panandalian at pangmatagalang mga salik sa ekonomiya at interbensyon ng gobyerno upang magpasya kung aling mga industriya at lugar ang mamumuhunan.
• Social:  Ang bawat bansa at teritoryo ay may kanya-kanyang natatanging kultural na halaga at panlipunang mga salik. Ang mga salik na ito ay lumilikha ng mga katangian ng mga mamimili sa mga rehiyong iyon, na gumagawa ng malaking epekto sa lahat ng produkto, serbisyo, merkado, at mga mamimili.
• Teknolohiya:  Ang teknolohiya ay isang mahalagang kadahilanan dahil ito ay may malalim na epekto sa mga produkto, serbisyo, merkado, supplier, distributor, kakumpitensya, customer, proseso ng pagmamanupaktura, mga kasanayan sa marketing, at posisyon ng mga organisasyon.

Ang pagsusuri sa PEST ay tumutulong sa iyong negosyo na maunawaan ang kapaligiran ng negosyo. Mula doon, maaari kang mag-map out ng isang malinaw na estratehikong plano, sulitin ang mga pagkakataong darating sa iyo, bawasan ang mga banta at madaling malampasan ang mga hamon.

#2 - Limang Puwersa ni Porter

Kinakatawan ng Five Forces ang 5 mapagkumpitensyang pwersa na kailangang suriin upang masuri ang pangmatagalang pagiging kaakit-akit ng isang market o isang segment sa isang partikular na industriya, sa gayon ay tinutulungan ang iyong negosyo na magkaroon ng isang epektibong diskarte sa pag-unlad. 

Narito ang 5 pwersang iyon

• Banta mula sa mga bagong kalaban
• Kapangyarihan ng mga supplier
• Banta mula sa mga kapalit na produkto at serbisyo
• Kapangyarihan ng mga customer
• Ang matinding kompetisyon ng mga katunggali sa parehong industriya

Ang limang salik na ito ay may dialectical na relasyon sa isa't isa, na nagpapakita ng kompetisyon sa industriya. Samakatuwid, kailangan mong pag-aralan ang mga salik na ito at bumuo ng mga diskarte upang matukoy kung ano ang partikular na kaakit-akit at namumukod-tangi para sa negosyo. 

#3 - Pagsusuri ng SWOT

Higit pa sa pagiging isang modelo para sa estratehikong pagpaplano, ang SWOT ay isang mahalagang kasangkapan para sa pagsasagawa ng pagsusuri sa merkado. Sa pamamagitan ng paggamit ng SWOT, matutukoy mo ang mga kalakasan, kahinaan, pagkakataon, at banta ng iyong organisasyon bago magpatupad ng isang matagumpay na diskarte.

Mga Tool Para sa Pagbuo at Pagpapatupad ng Diskarte

#4 - pagpaplano ng senaryo .

Ang pagpaplano ng senaryo ay isang tool sa estratehikong pagpaplano na isinasaalang-alang ang maramihang mga senaryo sa hinaharap at sinusuri ang kanilang potensyal para sa isang organisasyon. 

Ang proseso ng pagpaplano ng senaryo ay may dalawang yugto:

• Pagkilala sa mga pangunahing kawalan ng katiyakan at mga uso na maaaring humubog sa hinaharap.
• Pagbuo ng maramihang mga senaryo ng pagtugon batay sa mga salik na iyon.

Ang bawat senaryo ay naglalarawan ng ibang posibleng hinaharap, na may sarili nitong natatanging hanay ng mga pagpapalagay at resulta. Sa pamamagitan ng pagsasaalang-alang sa mga sitwasyong ito, mas mauunawaan ng iyong organisasyon ang iba't ibang posibleng hinaharap na maaaring harapin nito, at bumuo ng mga diskarte na mas nababanat at madaling ibagay.

#5 - Pagsusuri ng Value Chain

Ang modelo ng Value Chain Analysis ay isang analytical tool para sa pag-unawa kung paano lilikha ng halaga para sa mga customer ang mga aktibidad sa loob ng iyong organisasyon.

May tatlong hakbang sa pagsasagawa ng value chain analysis para sa isang organisasyon:

• Hatiin ang mga aktibidad ng organisasyon sa mga pangunahing aktibidad at pansuportang aktibidad
• Paghahati-hati ng gastos para sa bawat aktibidad
• Tukuyin ang mga pangunahing aktibidad na lumilikha ng kasiyahan ng customer at tagumpay ng organisasyon

Mula sa tatlong hakbang sa itaas, mas mabisang masusukat ng iyong organisasyon ang mga kakayahan nito sa pamamagitan ng pagtukoy at pagsusuri sa bawat aktibidad. Pagkatapos, ang bawat aktibidad sa paglikha ng halaga ay itinuturing na isang mapagkukunan upang lumikha ng isang mapagkumpitensyang kalamangan para sa organisasyon.

#6 - Mga Kritikal na Salik ng Tagumpay

Ang Critical Success Factors (CSF) ay tumutukoy sa mga dahilan na humahantong sa tagumpay ng isang negosyo o itinakda kung ano ang kailangang gawin ng mga empleyado upang matulungan ang kanilang negosyo na makamit ang tagumpay.

Ang ilang mga kapaki-pakinabang na tanong para sa pagtukoy sa CSF ng iyong negosyo ay kinabibilangan ng:

• Anong mga kadahilanan ang malamang na humantong sa nais na resulta ng negosyo?
• Anong mga kinakailangan ang dapat na umiiral upang makagawa ng resulta?
• Anong mga tool ang kailangan ng negosyo upang makamit ang layuning iyon?
• Anong mga kasanayan ang kailangan ng negosyo upang makamit ang layuning iyon?

Sa pamamagitan ng pagtukoy sa CSF, ang iyong negosyo ay maaaring lumikha ng isang karaniwang reference point para sa kung ano ang kailangan nitong gawin upang makamit ang mga layunin nito, sa gayon ay nag-uudyok sa mga manggagawa na makarating doon.

#7 - Isang Balanseng Scorecard

Bukod sa pagiging isang modelo para sa madiskarteng pagpaplano, ang A Balanced Scorecard ay isang tool sa pamamahala ng pagganap na tumutulong sa iyong subaybayan ang pag-unlad patungo sa iyong mga madiskarteng layunin. Tinutulungan ka rin nito na sukatin at ipaalam ang iyong pag-unlad sa mga stakeholder.

#8 - Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas

Bukod sa paggana bilang isang modelo ng estratehikong pagpaplano, ang Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas ay tumutulong sa pagkilala sa mga bagong pagkakataon sa merkado sa pamamagitan ng pag-align ng mga alok ng iyong organisasyon sa mga alok ng iyong mga kakumpitensya. 

Sa pamamagitan ng paggamit ng tool na ito, matutukoy mo ang mga lugar kung saan maaaring maging kakaiba ang iyong organisasyon at makabuo ng bagong demand.

Mga Tool Para sa Pagsukat at Pagsusuri

#9 - mga pangunahing tagapagpahiwatig ng pagganap.

Ang Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) ay isang tool para sukatin at suriin ang performance ng trabaho. Karaniwang ipinapahayag ang mga KPI sa pamamagitan ng mga numero, ratios, at quantitative indicator, upang ipakita ang performance ng mga grupo o dibisyon ng negosyo.

Tinutulungan ng mga KPI ang mga negosyo na subaybayan at suriin ang pagganap ng mga empleyado sa isang transparent, malinaw, partikular, at patas na paraan salamat sa partikular na data.

>> Matuto nang higit pa tungkol sa  KPI laban sa OKR

Mga Tool Para sa Brainstorming  

#10 - mind mapping.

Ang mind mapping ay isang visual na tool na maaaring magamit sa panahon ng proseso ng estratehikong pagpaplano upang makatulong sa brainstorming at pag-aayos ng mga ideya. Ito ay isang paraan ng biswal na representasyon ng impormasyon at mga ideya sa pamamagitan ng pagguhit ng diagram. 

Bukod sa pagtulong sa pagtuklas ng mga bagong ideya, nakakatulong ito upang makahanap ng mga koneksyon sa pagitan ng iba't ibang mga madiskarteng layunin, na maaaring matiyak na ang estratehikong plano ay komprehensibo at epektibo.

AhaSlides  nag-aalok ng maraming  mga tampok  na maaaring maging kapaki-pakinabang para sa iyong madiskarteng pagpaplano.

Hinahayaan ka ng AhaSlides na lumikha ng nakakaengganyo at interactive na mga presentasyon na maaaring magamit upang makipag-usap ng mga kumplikadong ideya o mangalap ng feedback. Kasama ni  pre-made na mga template , mayroon din kaming mga tampok tulad ng  live na poll ,  mga pagsusulit , at mabuhay  Tanong&Sagot  mga session na makakatulong sa iyong hikayatin ang pakikipag-ugnayan. Pati na rin ang pagtiyak na ang lahat ng stakeholder ay may boses at maaaring magbigay ng input sa proseso ng pagpaplano.

Bukod sa  salitang ulap  nagbibigay-daan sa mga miyembro ng koponan na makipagtulungan at bumuo ng mga bagong ideya sa panahon ng estratehikong pagpaplano, na makakatulong sa pagtukoy ng mga bagong pagkakataon o solusyon sa mga hamon na maaaring lumitaw.

Sa pangkalahatan, ang AhaSlides ay isang mahalagang tool para sa estratehikong pagpaplano dahil itinataguyod nito ang komunikasyon, pakikipagtulungan, at paggawa ng desisyon na batay sa data.

Ang pagkakaroon ng isang mahusay na tinukoy na halimbawa ng estratehikong plano ay kritikal para sa anumang organisasyon upang makamit ang mga layunin at layunin nito. Samakatuwid, sa impormasyon sa artikulo, ang iyong organisasyon ay maaaring bumuo ng isang kumpletong estratehikong plano na naaayon sa kanyang pananaw at misyon, na nagreresulta sa pangmatagalang paglago at tagumpay.

At huwag kalimutan sa pamamagitan ng paggamit ng iba't ibang tool at modelo ng strategic planning tulad ng SWOT analysis, Balanced Scorecard, at Blue Ocean Strategy,... matutukoy ng iyong organisasyon ang mga kalakasan, kahinaan, pagkakataon, at pagbabanta nito, subaybayan ang pag-unlad patungo sa mga layunin nito, at bumuo makabagong mga estratehiya upang maiiba ang sarili sa merkado. 

Bukod dito, ang mga digital na tool tulad ng AhaSlides ay maaaring makatulong sa pagiging epektibo ng proseso ng estratehikong pagpaplano. 

Pinakamahusay na halimbawa ng IT strategic plan?

Ang paglikha ng isang komprehensibong IT strategic plan ay mahalaga para sa mga organisasyon na iayon ang kanilang mga inisyatiba sa teknolohiya sa kanilang pangkalahatang mga layunin sa negosyo. Bagama't walang isang "pinakamahusay" na estratehikong plano sa IT na akma sa lahat ng organisasyon, pakitandaan na ang Mga Pangunahing Inisyatiba ay dapat kasama ang: (1) Pagkilala sa mga pangunahing inisyatiba at proyekto ng IT para sa panahon ng pagpaplano. (2) Mga detalyadong paglalarawan ng bawat inisyatiba, kabilang ang mga layunin, saklaw, at inaasahang resulta. at (3) Paghahanay ng bawat inisyatiba sa mga tiyak na layuning estratehiko.

Ano ang mabisang estratehikong pagpaplano?

Ang epektibong estratehikong pagpaplano ay isang nakabalangkas at pasulong na pag-iisip na proseso na ginagamit ng mga organisasyon upang tukuyin ang kanilang pangmatagalang pananaw, magtakda ng malinaw na mga layunin, at matukoy ang mga aksyon na kinakailangan upang makamit ang kanilang mga layunin. Ang epektibong estratehikong pagpaplano ay higit pa sa paglikha ng isang dokumento; ito ay nagsasangkot ng pakikipag-ugnayan sa mga stakeholder, paghahanay ng mga mapagkukunan, at patuloy na pag-angkop sa nagbabagong mga pangyayari.

Isang manunulat na gustong lumikha ng praktikal at mahalagang nilalaman para sa madla

Mga Tip para Makipag-ugnayan sa Mga Poll at Trivia

Higit pa mula sa AhaSlides

How to Write a Business Plan (Plus Examples & Templates)

Have you ever wondered how to write a business plan step by step? Mike Andes, told us: 

This guide will help you write a business plan to impress investors.

Throughout this process, we’ll get information from Mike Andes, who started Augusta Lawn Care Services when he was 12 and turned it into a franchise with over 90 locations. He has gone on to help others learn how to write business plans and start businesses.  He knows a thing or two about writing  business plans!

We’ll start by discussing the definition of a business plan. Then we’ll discuss how to come up with the idea, how to do the market research, and then the important elements in the business plan format. Keep reading to start your journey!

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is simply a road map of what you are trying to achieve with your business and how you will go about achieving it. It should cover all elements of your business including: 

• Finding customers
• Plans for developing a team
•  Competition
• Legal structures
• Key milestones you are pursuing

If you aren’t quite ready to create a business plan, consider starting by reading our business startup guide .

Get a Business Idea

Before you can write a business plan, you have to have a business idea. You may see a problem that needs to be solved and have an idea how to solve it, or you might start by evaluating your interests and skills. 

Mike told us, “The three things I suggest asking yourself when thinking about starting a business are:

• What am I good at?
• What would I enjoy doing?
• What can I get paid for?”

If all three of these questions don’t lead to at least one common answer, it will probably be a much harder road to success. Either there is not much market for it, you won’t be good at it, or you won’t enjoy doing it. 

As Mike told us, “There’s enough stress starting and running a business that if you don’t like it or aren’t good at it, it’s hard to succeed.”

If you’d like to hear more about Mike’s approach to starting a business, check out our YouTube video

Conduct Market Analysis

Market analysis is focused on establishing if there is a target market for your products and services, how large the target market is, and identifying the demographics of people or businesses that would be interested in the product or service. The goal here is to establish how much money your business concept can make.

Product and Service Demand

A search engine is your best friend when trying to figure out if there is demand for your products and services. Personally, I love using presearch.org because it lets you directly search on a ton of different platforms including Google, Youtube, Twitter, and more. Check out the screenshot for the full list of search options.

With quick web searches, you can find out how many competitors you have, look through their reviews, and see if there are common complaints about the competitors. Bad reviews are a great place to find opportunities to offer better products or services. 

If there are no similar products or services, you may have stumbled upon something new, or there may just be no demand for it. To find out, go talk to your most honest friend about the idea and see what they think. If they tell you it’s dumb or stare at you vacantly, there’s probably no market for it.

You can also conduct a survey through social media to get public opinion on your idea. Using Facebook Business Manager , you could get a feel for who would be interested in your product or service.

 I ran a quick test of how many people between 18-65  you could reach in the U.S. during a week. It returned an estimated 700-2,000 for the total number of leads, which is enough to do a fairly accurate statistical analysis.

Identify Demographics of Target Market

Depending on what type of business you want to run, your target market will be different. The narrower the demographic, the fewer potential customers you’ll have. If you did a survey, you’ll be able to use that data to help define your target audience. Some considerations you’ll want to consider are:

• Other Interests
• Marital Status
• Do they have kids?

Once you have this information, it can help you narrow down your options for location and help define your marketing further. One resource that Mike recommended using is the Census Bureau’s Quick Facts Map . He told us,  

“It helps you quickly evaluate what the best areas are for your business to be located.”

How to Write a Business Plan

Now that you’ve developed your idea a little and established there is a market for it, you can begin writing a business plan. Getting started is easier with the business plan template we created for you to download. I strongly recommend using it as it is updated to make it easier to create an action plan. 

Each of the following should be a section of your business plan:

• Business Plan Cover Page
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Description of Products and Services

SWOT Analysis

• Competitor Data
• Competitive Analysis
• Marketing Expenses Strategy 

Pricing Strategy

• Distribution Channel Assessment
• Operational Plan
• Management and Organizational Strategy
• Financial Statements and/or Financial Projections

We’ll look into each of these. Don’t forget to download our free business plan template (mentioned just above) so you can follow along as we go. 

How to Write a Business Plan Step 1. Create a Cover Page

The first thing investors will see is the cover page for your business plan. Make sure it looks professional. A great cover page shows that you think about first impressions.

A good business plan should have the following elements on a cover page:

• Professionally designed logo
• Company name
• Mission or Vision Statement
• Contact Info

Basically, think of a cover page for your business plan like a giant business card. It is meant to capture people’s attention but be quickly processed.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 2. Create a Table of Contents

Most people are busy enough that they don’t have a lot of time. Providing a table of contents makes it easy for them to find the pages of your plan that are meaningful to them.

A table of contents will be immediately after the cover page, but you can include it after the executive summary. Including the table of contents immediately after the executive summary will help investors know what section of your business plan they want to review more thoroughly.

Check out Canva’s article about creating a  table of contents . It has a ton of great information about creating easy access to each section of your business plan. Just remember that you’ll want to use different strategies for digital and hard copy business plans.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 3. Write an Executive Summary

An executive summary is where your business plan should catch the readers interest.  It doesn’t need to be long, but should be quick and easy to read.

Mike told us,

How long should an executive summary bein an informal business plan?

For casual use, an executive summary should be similar to an elevator pitch, no more than 150-160 words, just enough to get them interested and wanting more. Indeed has a great article on elevator pitches .  This can also be used for the content of emails to get readers’ attention.

It consists of three basic parts:

• An introduction to you and your business.
• What your business is about.
• A call to action

Example of an informal executive summary 

One of the best elevator pitches I’ve used is:

So far that pitch has achieved a 100% success rate in getting partnerships for the business.

What should I include in an executive summary for investors?

Investors are going to need a more detailed executive summary if you want to secure financing or sell equity. The executive summary should be a brief overview of your entire business plan and include:

• Introduction of yourself and company.
• An origin story (Recognition of a problem and how you came to solution)
• An introduction to your products or services.
• Your unique value proposition. Make sure to include intellectual property.
• Where you are in the business life cycle
• Request and why you need it.

Successful business plan examples

The owner of Urbanity told us he spent 2 months writing a 75-page business plan and received a $250,000 loan from the bank when he was 23. Make your business plan as detailed as possible when looking for financing. We’ve provided a template to help you prepare the portions of a business plan that banks expect.

Here’s the interview with the owner of Urbanity:

When to write an executive summary?

Even though the summary is near the beginning of a business plan, you should write it after you complete the rest of a business plan. You can’t talk about revenue, profits, and expected expenditures if you haven’t done the market research and created a financial plan.

What mistakes do people make when writing an executive summary?

Business owners commonly go into too much detail about the following items in an executive summary:

• Marketing and sales processes
• Financial statements
• Organizational structure
• Market analysis

These are things that people will want to know later, but they don’t hook the reader. They won’t spark interest in your small business, but they’ll close the deal.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 4. Company Description

Every business plan should include a company description. A great business plan will include the following elements while describing the company:

• Mission statement
• Philosophy and vision
• Company goals

Target market

• Legal structure

Let’s take a look at what each section includes in a good business plan.

Mission Statement

A mission statement is a brief explanation of why you started the company and what the company’s main focus is. It should be no more than one or two sentences. Check out HubSpot’s article 27 Inspiring Mission Statement for a great read on informative and inspiring mission and vision statements. 

Company Philosophy and Vision

The company philosophy is what drives your company. You’ll normally hear them called core values.  These are the building blocks that make your company different. You want to communicate your values to customers, business owners, and investors as often as possible to build a company culture, but make sure to back them up.

What makes your company different?

Each company is different. Your new business should rise above the standard company lines of honesty, integrity, fun, innovation, and community when communicating your business values. The standard answers are corporate jargon and lack authenticity. 

Examples of core values

One of my clients decided to add a core values page to their website. As a tech company they emphasized the values:

•  Prioritize communication.
•  Never stop learning.
•  Be transparent.
•  Start small and grow incrementally.

These values communicate how the owner and the rest of the company operate. They also show a value proposition and competitive advantage because they specifically focus on delivering business value from the start. These values also genuinely show what the company is about and customers recognize the sincerity. Indeed has a great blog about how to identify your core values .

What is a vision statement?

A vision statement communicate the long lasting change a business pursues. The vision helps investors and customers understand what your company is trying to accomplish. The vision statement goes beyond a mission statement to provide something meaningful to the community, customer’s lives, or even the world.

Example vision statements

The Alzheimer’s Association is a great example of a vision statement:

A world without Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementia.

It clearly tells how they want to change the world. A world without Alzheimers might be unachievable, but that means they always have room for improvement.

Business Goals

You have to measure success against goals for a business plan to be meaningful. A business plan helps guide a company similar to how your GPS provides a road map to your favorite travel destination. A goal to make as much money as possible is not inspirational and sounds greedy.

Sure, business owners want to increase their profits and improve customer service, but they need to present an overview of what they consider success. The goals should help everyone prioritize their work.

How far in advance should a business plan?

Business planning should be done at least one year in advance, but many banks and investors prefer three to five year business plans. Longer plans show investors that the management team  understands the market and knows the business is operating in a constantly shifting market. In addition, a plan helps businesses to adjust to changes because they have already considered how to handle them.

Example of great business goals

My all time-favorite long-term company goals are included in Tesla’s Master Plan, Part Deux . These goals were written in 2016 and drive the company’s decisions through 2026. They are the reason that investors are so forgiving when Elon Musk continually fails to meet his quarterly and annual goals.

If the progress aligns with the business plan investors are likely to continue to believe in the company. Just make sure the goals are reasonable or you’ll be discredited (unless you’re Elon Musk).

You did target market research before creating a business plan. Now it’s time to add it to the plan so others understand what your ideal customer looks like. As a new business owner, you may not be considered an expert in your field yet, so document everything. Make sure the references you use are from respectable sources. 

Use information from the specific lender when you are applying for lending. Most lenders provide industry research reports and using their data can strengthen the position of your business plan.

A small business plan should include a section on the external environment. Understanding the industry is crucial because we don’t plan a business in a vacuum. Make sure to research the industry trends, competitors, and forecasts. I personally prefer IBIS World for my business research. Make sure to answer questions like:

• What is the industry outlook long-term and short-term?
• How will your business take advantage of projected industry changes and trends?
• What might happen to your competitors and how will your business successfully compete?

Industry resources

Some helpful resources to help you establish more about your industry are:

• Trade Associations
• Federal Reserve
• Bureau of Labor Statistics

Legal Structure

There are five basic types of legal structures that most people will utilize:

• Sole proprietorships
• Limited Liability Companies (LLC)

Partnerships

Corporations.

• Franchises.

Each business structure has their pros and cons. An LLC is the most common legal structure due to its protection of personal assets and ease of setting up. Make sure to specify how ownership is divided and what roles each owner plays when you have more than one business owner.

You’ll have to decide which structure is best for you, but we’ve gathered information on each to make it easier.

Sole Proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is the easiest legal structure to set up but doesn’t protect the owner’s personal assets from legal issues. That means if something goes wrong, you could lose both your company and your home.

To start a sole proprietorship, fill out a special tax form called a  Schedule C . Sole proprietors can also join the American Independent Business Alliance .

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

An LLC is the most common business structure used in the United States because an LLC protects the owner’s personal assets. It’s similar to partnerships and corporations, but can be a single-member LLC in most states. An LLC requires a document called an operating agreement.

Each state has different requirements. Here’s a link to find your state’s requirements . Delaware and Nevada are common states to file an LLC because they are really business-friendly. Here’s a blog on the top 10 states to get an LLC.

Partnerships are typically for legal firms. If you choose to use a partnership choose a Limited Liability Partnership. Alternatively, you can just use an LLC.

Corporations are typically for massive organizations. Corporations have taxes on both corporate and income tax so unless you plan on selling stock, you are better off considering an LLC with S-Corp status . Investopedia has good information corporations here .

There are several opportunities to purchase successful franchises. TopFranchise.com has a list of companies in a variety of industries that offer franchise opportunities. This makes it where an entrepreneur can benefit from the reputation of an established business that has already worked out many of the kinks of starting from scratch.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 5. Products and Services

This section of the business plan should focus on what you sell, how you source it, and how you sell it. You should include:

• Unique features that differentiate your business products from competitors
• Intellectual property
• Your supply chain
• Cost and pricing structure 

Questions to answer about your products and services

Mike gave us a list  of the most important questions to answer about your product and services:

• How will you be selling the product? (in person, ecommerce, wholesale, direct to consumer)?
• How do you let them know they need a product?
• How do you communicate the message?
• How will you do transactions?
• How much will you be selling it for?
• How many do you think you’ll sell and why?

Make sure to use the worksheet on our business plan template .

How to Write a Business Plan Step 6. Sales and Marketing Plan

The marketing and sales plan is focused on the strategy to bring awareness to your company and guides how you will get the product to the consumer.  It should contain the following sections:

SWOT Analysis stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Not only do you want to identify them, but you also want to document how the business plans to deal with them.

Business owners need to do a thorough job documenting how their service or product stacks up against the competition.

If proper research isn’t done, investors will be able to tell that the owner hasn’t researched the competition and is less likely to believe that the team can protect its service from threats by the more well-established competition. This is one of the most common parts of a presentation that trips up business owners presenting on Shark Tank .

SWOT Examples

Examples of strengths and weaknesses could be things like the lack of cash flow, intellectual property ownership, high costs of suppliers, and customers’ expectations on shipping times.

Opportunities could be ways to capitalize on your strengths or improve your weaknesses, but may also be gaps in the industry. This includes:

• Adding offerings that fit with your current small business
• Increase sales to current customers
• Reducing costs through bulk ordering
• Finding ways to reduce inventory
•  And other areas you can improve

Threats will normally come from outside of the company but could also be things like losing a key member of the team. Threats normally come from competition, regulations, taxes, and unforeseen events.

The management team should use the SWOT analysis to guide other areas of business planning, but it absolutely has to be done before a business owner starts marketing. 

Include Competitor Data in Your Business Plan

When you plan a business, taking into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of the competition is key to navigating the field. Providing an overview of your competition and where they are headed shows that you are invested in understanding the industry.

For smaller businesses, you’ll want to search both the company and the owners names to see what they are working on. For publicly held corporations, you can find their quarterly and annual reports on the SEC website .

What another business plans to do can impact your business. Make sure to include things that might make it attractive for bigger companies to outsource to a small business.

Marketing Strategy

The marketing and sales part of business plans should be focused on how you are going to make potential customers aware of your business and then sell to them.

If you haven’t already included it, Mike recommends:

“They’ll want to know about Demographics, ages, and wealth of your target market.”

Make sure to include the Total addressable market .  The term refers to the value if you captured 100% of the market.

Advertising Strategy

You’ll explain what formats of advertising you’ll be using. Some possibilities are:

• Online: Facebook and Google are the big names to work with here.
• Print : Print can be used to reach broad groups or targeted markets. Check out this for tips .
• Radio : iHeartMedia is one of the best ways to advertise on the radio
• Cable television : High priced, hard to measure ROI, but here’s an explanation of the process
• Billboards: Attracting customers with billboards can be beneficial in high traffic areas.

You’ll want to define how you’ll be using each including frequency, duration, and cost. If you have the materials already created, including pictures or links to the marketing to show creative assets.

Mike told us “Most businesses are marketing digitally now due to Covid, but that’s not always the right answer.”

Make sure the marketing strategy will help team members or external marketing agencies stay within the brand guidelines .

This section of a business plan should be focused on pricing. There are a ton of pricing strategies that may work for different business plans. Which one will work for you depends on what kind of a business you run.

Some common pricing strategies are:

• Value-based pricing – Commonly used with home buying and selling or other products that are status symbols.
• Skimming pricing – Commonly seen in video game consoles, price starts off high to recoup expenses quickly, then reduces over time.
• Competition-based pricing – Pricing based on competitors’ pricing is commonly seen at gas stations.
• Freemium services –  Commonly used for software, where there is a free plan, then purchase options for more functionality.

HubSpot has a great calculator and blog on pricing strategies.

Beyond explaining what strategy your business plans to use, you should include references for how you came to this pricing strategy and how it will impact your cash flow.

Distribution Plan

This part of a business plan is focused on how the product or service is going to go through the supply chain. These may include multiple divisions or multiple companies. Make sure to include any parts of the workflow that are automated so investors can see where cost savings are expected and when.

Supply Chain Examples

For instance, lawn care companies  would need to cover aspects such as:

• Suppliers for lawn care equipment and tools
• Any chemicals or treatments needed
• Repair parts for sprinkler systems
• Vehicles to transport equipment and employees
• Insurance to protect the company vehicles and people.

Examples of Supply Chains

These are fairly flat supply chains compared to something like a clothing designer where the clothes would go through multiple vendors. A clothing company might have the following supply chain:

• Raw materials
• Shipping of raw materials
• Converting of raw materials to thread
• Shipping thread to produce garments
• Garment producer
• Shipping to company
• Company storage
• Shipping to retail stores

There have been advances such as print on demand that eliminate many of these steps. If you are designing completely custom clothing, all of this would need to be planned to keep from having business disruptions.

The main thing to include in the business plan is the list of suppliers, the path the supply chain follows, the time from order to the customer’s home, and the costs associated with each step of the process.

According to BizPlanReview , a business plan without this information is likely to get rejected because they have failed to research the key elements necessary to make sales to the customer.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 7. Company Organization and Operational Plan

This part of the business plan is focused on how the business model will function while serving customers.  The business plan should provide an overview of  how the team will manage the following aspects:

Quality Control

• Legal environment

Let’s look at each for some insight.

Production has already been discussed in previous sections so I won’t go into it much. When writing a business plan for investors, try to avoid repetition as it creates a more simple business plan.

If the organizational plan will be used by the team as an overview of how to perform the best services for the customer, then redundancy makes more sense as it communicates what is important to the business.

Quality control policies help to keep the team focused on how to verify that the company adheres to the business plan and meets or exceeds customer expectations.

Quality control can be anything from a standard that says “all labels on shirts can be no more than 1/16″ off center” to a defined checklist of steps that should be performed and filled out for every customer.

There are a variety of organizations that help define quality control including:

• International Organization for Standardization – Quality standards for energy, technology, food, production environments, and cybersecurity
• AICPA – Standard defined for accounting.
• The Joint Commission – Healthcare
• ASHRAE – HVAC best practices

You can find lists of the organizations that contribute most to the government regulation of industries on Open Secrets . Research what the leaders in your field are doing. Follow their example and implement it in your quality control plan.

For location, you should use information from the market research to establish where the location will be. Make sure to include the following in the location documentation.

• The size of your location
• The type of building (retail, industrial, commercial, etc.)
• Zoning restrictions – Urban Wire has a good map on how zoning works in each state
• Accessibility – Does it meet ADA requirements?
• Costs including rent, maintenance, utilities, insurance and any buildout or remodeling costs
• Utilities – b.e.f. has a good energy calculator .

Legal Environment

The legal requirement section is focused on defining how to meet the legal requirements for your industry. A good business plan should include all of the following:

• Any licenses and/or permits that are needed and whether you’ve obtained them
• Any trademarks, copyrights, or patents that you have or are in the process of applying for
• The insurance coverage your business requires and how much it costs
• Any environmental, health, or workplace regulations affecting your business
• Any special regulations affecting your industry
• Bonding requirements, if applicable

Your local SBA office can help you establish requirements in your area. I strongly recommend using them. They are a great resource.

Your business plan should include a plan for company organization and hiring. While you may be the only person with the company right now, down the road you’ll need more people. Make sure to consider and document the answers to the following questions:

• What is the current leadership structure and what will it look like in the future?
• What types of employees will you have? Are there any licensing or educational requirements?
• How many employees will you need?
• Will you ever hire freelancers or independent contractors?
• What is each position’s job description?
• What is the pay structure (hourly, salaried, base plus commission, etc.)?
• How do you plan to find qualified employees and contractors?

One of the most crucial parts of a business plan is the organizational chart. This simply shows the positions the company will need, who is in charge of them and the relationship of each of them. It will look similar to this:

Our small business plan template has a much more in-depth organizational chart you can edit to include when you include the organizational chart in your business plan.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 8. Financial Statements 

No business plan is complete without financial statements or financial projections. The business plan format will be different based on whether you are writing a business plan to expand a business or a startup business plan. Let’s dig deeper into each.

Provide All Financial Income from an Existing Business

An existing business should use their past financial documents including the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement to find trends to estimate the next 3-5 years.

You can create easy trendlines in excel to predict future revenue, profit and loss, cash flow, and other changes in year-over-year performance. This will show your expected performance assuming business continues as normal.

If you are seeking an investment, then the business is probably not going to continue as normal. Depending on the financial plan and the purpose of getting financing, adjustments may be needed to the following:

• Higher Revenue if expanding business
• Lower Cost of Goods Sold if purchasing inventory with bulk discounts
• Adding interest if utilizing financing (not equity deal)
• Changes in expenses
• Addition of financing information to the cash flow statement
• Changes in Earnings per Share on the balance sheet

Financial modeling is a challenging subject, but there are plenty of low-cost courses on the subject. If you need help planning your business financial documentation take some time to watch some of them.

Make it a point to document how you calculated all the changes to the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement in your business plan so that key team members or investors can verify your research.

Financial Projections For A Startup Business Plan

Unlike an existing business, a startup doesn’t have previous success to model its future performance. In this scenario, you need to focus on how to make a business plan realistic through the use of industry research and averages.

Mike gave the following advice in his interview:

Financial Forecasting Mistakes

One of the things a lot of inexperienced people use is the argument, “If I get one percent of the market, it is worth $100 million.” If you use this, investors are likely to file the document under bad business plan examples.

Let’s use custom t-shirts as an example.

Credence Research estimated in 2018 there were 11,334,800,000 custom t-shirts sold for a total of $206.12 Billion, with a 6% compound annual growth rate.

With that data,  you can calculate that the industry will grow to $270 Billion in 2023 and that the average shirt sold creates $18.18 in revenue.

Combine that with an IBIS World estimate of 11,094 custom screen printers and that means even if you become an average seller, you’ll get .009% of the market.

Here’s a table for easier viewing of that information.

The point here is to make sure your business proposal examples make sense.

You’ll need to know industry averages such as cost of customer acquisition, revenue per customer, the average cost of goods sold, and admin costs to be able to create accurate estimates.

Our simple business plan templates walk you through most of these processes. If you follow them you’ll have a good idea of how to write a business proposal.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 9. Business Plan Example of Funding Requests

What is a business plan without a plan on how to obtain funding?

The Small Business Administration has an example for a pizza restaurant that theoretically needed nearly $20k to make it through their first month.

In our video, How to Start a $500K/Year T-Shirt Business (Pt. 1 ), Sanford Booth told us he needed about $200,000 to start his franchise and broke even after 4 months.

Freshbooks estimates it takes on average 2-3 years for a business to be profitable, which means the fictitious pizza company from the SBA could need up to $330k to make it through that time and still pay their bills for their home and pizza shop.

Not every business needs that much to start, but realistically it’s a good idea to assume that you need a fairly large cushion.

Ways to get funding for a small business

There are a variety of ways to cover this. the most common are:

• Bootstrapping – Using your savings without external funding.
• Taking out debt – loans, credit cards
• Equity, Seed Funding – Ownership of a percentage of the company in exchange for current funds
• Crowdsourcing – Promising a good for funding to create the product

Keep reading for more tips on how to write a business plan.

How funding will be used

When asking for business financing make sure to include:

• How much to get started?
• What is the minimum viable product and how soon can you make money?
• How will the money be spent?

Mike emphasized two aspects that should be included in every plan, 

How to Write a Business Plan Resources

Here are some links to a business plan sample and business plan outline. 

• Sample plan

It’s also helpful to follow some of the leading influencers in the business plan writing community. Here’s a list:

• Wise Plans –  Shares a lot of information on starting businesses and is a business plan writing company.
• Optimus Business Plans –  Another business plan writing company.
• Venture Capital – A venture capital thread that can help give you ideas.

How to Write a Business Plan: What’s Next?

We hope this guide about how to write a simple business plan step by step has been helpful. We’ve covered:

• The definition of a business plan
• Coming up with a business idea
• Performing market research
• The critical components of a business plan
• An example business plan

In addition, we provided you with a simple business plan template to assist you in the process of writing your startup business plan. The startup business plan template also includes a business model template that will be the key to your success.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of our business hub .

Have you written a business plan before? How did it impact your ability to achieve your goals?

80% of businesses fail... Learn how not to.

Learn from business failures and successes in 5 min or less. The stories, frameworks, and tactics that will make you a 10x better founder.

Brandon Boushy

Related articles

25 Side Business Ideas (for 2024)

How to Become an Entrepreneur in 13 Steps

How to Sell on eBay: Learn From $360K/Year Seller

nice work https://binarychemist.com/

My Name is PRETTY NGOMANE. A south African female. Aspiring to do farming. And finding a home away from home for the differently abled persons in their daily needs.

Become a business owner in less than 90 days

Start your 10-day free trial of the UpFlip Academy and learn how to start your own business from scratch.

Get business advice straight to your   Inbox 

Talaan ng mga Nilalaman

Mula sa plano hanggang sa pagpapatupad: paano pagsamahin ang dalawang llc at umunlad sa us market.

Have questions on formation, banking and taxes?

Schedule a FREE consultation with a formation and compliance expert today 📞

Madalas na hindi isinasaalang-alang ng mga negosyante ang mga benepisyong legal at nauugnay sa pagsunod sa pagsasama ng dalawang LLC bilang nag-uudyok sa pagsasama.

Gayunpaman, ang mga reward na iyon ang magbibigay-daan sa iyong exponential growth.

Pinagsasama-sama ng pagsasama-sama ng dalawang LLC ang mga asset na madiskarte at nakatuon sa paglago, na ginagawa itong isang mas produktibo at kumikitang pagsisikap.

Kung pinagsasama mo ang iyong dalawang negosyo o nagsasama sa isa pang kumpanya (banyaga o pambansa), ibibigay ng artikulong ito ang impormasyong kailangan mo upang lumikha ng isang batayang pag-unawa sa kung ano ang aasahan habang pinagsasama ang dalawang LLC.

Sa doola, naniniwala kami na ang mga negosyante sa buong mundo ay dapat na makapagpatakbo ng negosyo sa US.

Iyon ang dahilan kung bakit binibigyan namin ang mga nagnanais na negosyante ng mga mapagkukunan, tool, at kaalaman na kailangan nila upang magtagumpay sa kanilang negosyo sa US.

Mag-sign up gamit ang doola Kabuuang Pagsunod at hilahin ang iyong pagsasama sa isang kadalian na hindi mo naisip.  

Mga Benepisyo ng Pagsasama ng Dalawang LLC

Mga Kalamangan sa Pananalapi ng LLC Mergers

Ang pagsasama-sama ng mga LLC ay maaaring makabuluhang mapahusay ang katatagan at kahusayan sa pananalapi para sa alinmang dalawang kumpanya. Sa pamamagitan ng pagsasama-sama ng mga mapagkukunan, ang mga gastos ay maaaring mabawasan sa pamamagitan ng ibinahaging mga gastos sa pagpapatakbo, na nagreresulta sa pinabuting mga margin ng kita.

Bukod pa rito, ang pagsasama ay maaaring magpataas ng access sa kapital, dahil ang pinagsama-samang entity ay maaaring magpakita ng mas kaakit-akit na pagkakataon sa pamumuhunan, pag-akit ng mga bagong mamumuhunan .

Ang pinagsamang kumpanya ay nakikinabang din mula sa isang pinalawak na base ng customer, na maaaring humimok ng paglago ng kita habang nagkakalat ng mga panganib sa pagpapatakbo.

Bukod dito, ang mga benepisyo sa buwis ay maaaring maisakatuparan sa pamamagitan ng paggamit ng mga paborableng istruktura at pagbabawas na magagamit para sa mga LLC, na posibleng magresulta sa mas mababang mga pananagutan sa buwis.

Higit pa rito, ang pagsasama ay nagbibigay-daan para sa mga streamlined na proseso, na maaaring humantong sa pagtitipid sa gastos sa staffing, teknolohiya, at pamamahala ng supply chain.

Mga Madiskarteng Oportunidad sa Paglago

Ang pagsasama-sama ng dalawang LLC ay nagbubukas ng isang kayamanan ng mga madiskarteng pagkakataon sa paglago. Ang pinagsanib na entity ay maaaring pahusayin ang kakayahang kumpetisyon nito at potensyal na pagbabago sa pamamagitan ng pagsasama-sama ng mga natatanging kakayahan at kadalubhasaan.

Ang pakikipagtulungang ito ay madalas na humahantong sa pagbuo ng mga bagong produkto o serbisyo, na nagpapahintulot sa kumpanya na makakuha ng mas malaking bahagi sa merkado.

Ang pagsasanib ay maaari ding mapadali ang pagpasok sa mga bagong heyograpikong merkado o mga vertical ng industriya, na nagpapalawak sa abot ng kumpanya at base ng customer.

Ang pinagsamang talent pool sa loob ng isang pinagsamang LLC ay maaaring magmaneho ng mas mahusay na paglutas ng problema at paggawa ng desisyon, na nagpapaunlad ng kultura ng pagkamalikhain at madiskarteng pag-iisip.

Kung gagawin nang tama, ang pagsasanib ay magpapalakas sa kapangyarihan ng pakikipagtawaran ng kumpanya sa mga supplier at kasosyo, na nagbibigay-daan sa mas kanais-nais na mga tuntunin at kundisyon.

Pinapasimple ang mga Operasyon ng Negosyo

Ang pagsasama-sama ng dalawang LLC ay maaaring makabuluhang gawing simple ang mga pagpapatakbo ng negosyo. Maaaring alisin ng pinagsanib na kumpanya ang mga redundancies at i-streamline ang mga daloy ng trabaho sa pamamagitan ng pagsasama ng mga system at proseso.

Ang pagsasama-samang ito ay kadalasang nagreresulta sa pagtaas ng kahusayan at pagbabawas ng administratibong overhead.

Pinapahusay din ng mga sentralisadong operasyon ang komunikasyon at koordinasyon sa mga departamento, na nagpapatibay ng mas magkakaugnay na istruktura ng organisasyon.

Bukod dito, ang pagsasama ng teknolohiya ay maaaring mag-optimize ng pagganap at suportahan ang data-driven na paggawa ng desisyon, na nagbibigay ng isang malinaw na pangkalahatang-ideya ng mga operasyon.

Ang pagsasanib ay nagbibigay-daan para sa pinag-isang pagba-brand at mga pagsusumikap sa marketing, pagpapatibay ng pagkakakilanlan ng tatak at pagbabawas ng pagiging kumplikado ng pamamahala ng maraming mga diskarte sa tatak.

Ang isang solong pangkat ng pamamahala ay maaaring tumuon sa mga madiskarteng priyoridad nang walang mga abala sa pamamahala ng mga hiwalay na entity, na humahantong sa mas epektibong pamumuno at pamamahala.

Mga Hakbang sa Pagsamahin ang Dalawang LLC

1. paglikha ng plano ng pagsasama.

Ang pangunahing hakbang sa pagsasama ng dalawang LLC ay ang paglikha ng isang komprehensibong plano. Binabalangkas ng dokumentong ito ang mga tuntunin at kundisyon kung saan magaganap ang pagsasanib, na nagsisilbing blueprint para sa buong proseso.

Karaniwang kinabibilangan ito ng mga detalye tulad ng mga pangalan ng mga pinagsasamang entity, ang iminungkahing petsa ng bisa, at kung paano iko-convert o ipapalit ang mga interes ng bawat LLC.

Ang plano ay tumutugon sa istruktura ng pamamahala ng bagong nabuong LLC, na tumutukoy sa mga tungkulin at responsibilidad sa pamamahala. Mahalagang isama ang mga pinansiyal na kaayusan, tulad ng pamamahagi ng asset, mga obligasyon sa utang, at mga pagsasaalang-alang sa buwis.

Ang pagsunod sa legal at regulasyon ay dapat ding matugunan upang matiyak na ang pagsasama ay sumusunod sa mga batas ng estado at pederal.

2. Pag-apruba sa Kasunduan sa Pagsama-sama

Pagkatapos ma-draft ang plano ng pagsasanib, ang susunod na hakbang ay ang pag-secure ng pag-apruba para sa kasunduan. Kabilang dito ang pagkuha ng pahintulot mula sa mga miyembro o tagapamahala ng bawat LLC, ayon sa kinakailangan ng mga kasunduan sa pagpapatakbo at mga regulasyon ng estado.

Ang pagpupulong ng mga pormal na pagpupulong kung saan maaaring suriin ng mga stakeholder ang mga tuntunin ng pagsasama, talakayin ang mga potensyal na epekto, at tugunan ang mga alalahanin.

Tinitiyak ng komprehensibong komunikasyon na ang lahat ng partido ay ganap na alam ang tungkol sa proseso ng pagsasama at mga implikasyon nito.

Ang pag-apruba ay karaniwang nangangailangan ng mayoryang boto, ngunit ang mga partikular na limitasyon sa pagboto ay maaaring mag-iba depende sa LLC mga kasunduan sa pagpapatakbo . Ang pagdodokumento sa proseso ng pag-apruba na ito ay mahalaga upang mapanatili ang transparency at legal na pagsunod.

Kapag naaprubahan, ang kasunduan sa pagsasama ay nagsisilbing isang umiiral na kontrata, na gumagabay sa mga susunod na hakbang ng pagsasama.

3. Paghahain ng Pahayag ng Pagsasama

Ang paghahain ng pahayag ng pagsasanib ay isang mahalagang hakbang sa paggawa ng pormal sa pagsasama ng dalawang LLC. Ang legal na dokumentong ito ay dapat isumite sa naaangkop na awtoridad ng estado, karaniwang ang Kalihim ng Estado, kung saan nakarehistro ang mga LLC.

Kasama sa pahayag ang mahahalagang detalye gaya ng mga pangalan ng pinagsasamang LLC at mga numero ng pagkakakilanlan, petsa ng bisa ng merger, at pangalan ng nabubuhay na entity.

Kinukumpirma rin nito na ang mga miyembro o tagapamahala ay nararapat na naaprubahan ang kasunduan sa pagsasama. Ang pagsusumite ng paghaharap na ito ay mahalaga sa pagkilala sa pagsasanib at pagtiyak ng legal na pagsunod sa mga regulasyon ng estado.

Gagawin ng aming mga dalubhasang CPA masayang gabayan ka  t sa bawat bahagi ng proseso, at ang aming mga legal na consultant ay handang suportahan ka.  

Mga Pagsasaalang-alang sa Legal at Administratibo

Pag-dissolve ng mga Orihinal na LLC

Ang pag-dissolve sa mga orihinal na LLC ay isang kritikal na hakbang kasunod ng pagsasama. Ang prosesong ito ay legal na nagwawakas sa pagkakaroon ng mga pre-merger entity, na tinitiyak na walang kalabuan hinggil sa operational status ng pinagsanib na LLC.

Upang matunaw ang mga orihinal na LLC, dapat kang maghain ng certificate of dissolution o mga artikulo ng dissolution sa Kalihim ng Estado sa kani-kanilang mga estado kung saan nakarehistro ang mga LLC.

Kasama sa paghahain na ito ang mga detalye gaya ng pangalan ng LLC, ang petsa ng bisa ng pagbuwag, at kumpirmasyon na natugunan ang lahat ng obligasyon.

Bago ang pagbuwag, mahalagang bayaran ang anumang natitirang pananagutan, ipaalam sa mga nagpapautang, at ipamahagi ang mga natitirang asset ayon sa mga kasunduan sa pagpapatakbo ng LLC.

Mahalaga para sa pagsunod na ipaalam sa IRS at pangasiwaan ang anumang panghuling responsibilidad sa buwis, tulad ng paghahain ng huling Form 990 o naaangkop na dokumentasyon.

Pagrehistro ng Bagong LLC

Pagrehistro ng bagong LLC ay mahalaga sa pagtatatag ng pinagsanib na entity bilang isang legal at operational na negosyo. Ang prosesong ito ay nagsasangkot ng paghahain ng mga artikulo ng organisasyon sa Kalihim ng Estado sa hurisdiksyon kung saan ibabatay ang kumpanya.

Ang dokumento sa pagpaparehistro ay karaniwang nangangailangan ng pangunahing impormasyon, tulad ng pangalan ng LLC, pangunahing address, at mga detalye ng nakarehistrong ahente.

Binabalangkas nito ang istraktura ng pamamahala, na nagpapahiwatig kung ang LLC ay pinamamahalaan ng miyembro o pinamamahalaan ng manager. Tinitiyak ang Pangalan ng LLC ay natatangi at sumusunod sa mga kinakailangan sa pagpapangalan ng estado ay mahalaga.

Kasabay ng pagpaparehistro, pagkuha ng isang Numero ng Pagkakakilanlan ng employer (EIN) mula sa IRS ay kinakailangan para sa mga layunin ng buwis at upang magbukas ng mga account sa bangko ng negosyo.

Ang pagkumpleto sa mga hakbang na ito ay nagiging lehitimo sa bagong LLC, na nagbibigay-daan dito na makisali sa mga kontrata, magbukas ng mga account, at magsagawa ng mga aktibidad sa negosyo.

Mga Pitfalls na Dapat Iwasan Kapag Pinagsasama

Mga karaniwang pagkakamali at paano ito maiiwasan.

Ang pagsasama-sama ng dalawang LLC ay maaaring magpakita ng mga hamon kung ang mga karaniwang pagkakamali ay hindi inaasahan at natugunan. Ang isang madalas na pagkakamali ay hindi sapat na angkop na pagsusumikap, kung saan ang mga mahahalagang detalye sa pananalapi o legal ay hindi pinapansin, na posibleng humantong sa mga hindi inaasahang pananagutan.

Upang maiwasan ito, magsagawa ng masusing pagsusuri sa mga financial statement, kontrata, at talaan ng pagsunod ng parehong entity.

Ang isa pang pagkakamali ay ang mahinang komunikasyon, na lumilikha ng kalituhan at pagtutol sa mga empleyado at stakeholder.

Ang pagtiyak ng transparent, pare-parehong komunikasyon sa buong proseso ng merger ay nakakatulong na ihanay ang lahat sa bagong pananaw ng kumpanya. Bukod pa rito, ang hindi pagsasama-sama ng mga kultura sa epektibong paraan ay maaaring magresulta sa isang hating manggagawa.

Upang mabawasan ito, unahin ang pagsasama-sama ng kultura sa pamamagitan ng pagpapaunlad ng isang inklusibong kapaligiran at paghikayat sa pakikipagtulungan.

Ang sobrang pagtatantya ng pakikipagtulungan ay isa pang pitfall na maaaring humantong sa pagkawala ng ipon o kita. Magtatag ng makatotohanang mga inaasahan at patuloy na subaybayan ang pagganap pagkatapos ng pagsasama.

Mga Panganib sa Legal at Pinansyal

Ang mga legal at pinansyal na panganib ay makabuluhang pagsasaalang-alang kapag pinagsasama ang dalawang LLC. Ang isang kritikal na legal na panganib ay ang hindi pagsunod sa mga kinakailangan sa regulasyon, na maaaring magresulta sa mga multa at legal na hindi pagkakaunawaan.

Upang mabawasan ito, tiyaking ang lahat ng mga dokumento ng pagsasanib ay masusing inihanda at isinampa ayon sa mga batas ng estado, at kumunsulta sa mga legal na propesyonal para sa patnubay. Ang mga panganib sa pananalapi, tulad ng hindi tumpak na pagpapahalaga ng mga asset o pananagutan, ay maaaring humantong sa pagkapagod sa pananalapi pagkatapos ng pagsasama.

Ang pagsasagawa ng komprehensibong pag-audit sa pananalapi at paggamit ng mga eksperto sa pagpapahalaga ay maaaring magbigay ng isang malinaw na larawan sa pananalapi bago magpatuloy.

Bukod pa rito, ang pagpapalagay ng mga obligasyon sa utang nang hindi lubos na nauunawaan ang epekto nito ay maaaring mapahamak ang kalusugan ng ekonomiya ng pinagsanib na entity. Kung kinakailangan, ang pagsusuri sa lahat ng umiiral na mga utang at pakikipag-ayos sa mga tuntunin sa mga nagpapautang ay mahalaga.

Ang isa pang panganib ay hindi sapat na pagpaplano sa pananalapi para sa mga gastos sa pagsasama, na maaaring lumampas sa mga paunang pagtatantya. Ang pagtatatag ng isang detalyadong badyet at contingency plan ay nakakatulong na pamahalaan ang mga hindi inaasahang gastos.

Paano Makakatulong ang doola sa Iyong Negosyo

Nag-aalok ang doola ng komprehensibong suporta para sa mga negosyanteng naghahanap upang pagsamahin ang mga LLC at magtatag ng isang matatag na presensya sa merkado ng US.

doola Kabuuang Pagsunod pinapasimple ang kumplikadong proseso ng pagsasanib sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng ekspertong gabay sa mga legal at administratibong kinakailangan, na tinitiyak ang pagsunod sa bawat hakbang.

Bilang iyong pinagkakatiwalaang kasosyo, nilalayon naming gawing maayos at mahusay ang paglipat, tulungan kang maiwasan ang mga karaniwang pitfall at legal na panganib na nauugnay sa mga pagsasanib.

Mag-sign up sa doola upang suportahan ang pagpapalawak ng iyong negosyo at makakuha ng competitive advantage sa US market.

Ano ang mga pangunahing benepisyo ng pagsasama ng dalawang LLC?

Maaaring mapahusay ng pagsasama-sama ng dalawang LLC ang katatagan ng pananalapi, palawakin ang pag-abot sa merkado, pasimplehin ang mga operasyon, at lumikha ng mga pagkakataon sa estratehikong paglago.

Ang pagsasanib ay maaari ding bawasan ang mga gastos sa pagpapatakbo, magbigay ng access sa mga bagong merkado, lumikha ng mas matatag na talent pool, at mapabuti ang bargaining power sa mga supplier at partner.

Ano ang mga legal na hakbang na kasangkot sa pagsasama ng dalawang LLC?

Kasama sa mga legal na hakbang ang pagbalangkas ng isang komprehensibong plano ng pagsasanib, pagkuha ng pag-apruba mula sa mga miyembro o tagapamahala, paghahain ng pahayag ng pagsasanib sa Kalihim ng Estado, pag-dissolve sa mga orihinal na LLC, at pagrehistro ng bagong LLC sa naaangkop na mga awtoridad ng estado.

Paano ko maiiwasan ang mga karaniwang pagkakamali sa panahon ng proseso ng pagsasama ng LLC?

Upang maiwasan ang mga karaniwang pagkakamali, tiyakin ang masusing angkop na pagsisikap, panatilihin ang malinaw na komunikasyon sa lahat ng stakeholder, unahin ang pagsasama-sama ng kultura, at magtatag ng makatotohanang pakikipagtulungan at mga inaasahan sa pagtitipid sa pananalapi.

Ang pagkonsulta sa mga eksperto sa batas at pananalapi ay maaari ding makatulong na mabawasan ang mga panganib.

Ano ang mga panganib sa pananalapi na nauugnay sa pagsasama ng dalawang LLC?

Kasama sa mga panganib sa pananalapi ang hindi tumpak na pagtatasa ng asset o pananagutan, mga hindi inaasahang pananagutan, pag-aako sa mga obligasyon sa utang nang hindi nauunawaan ang epekto nito, at minamaliit ang mga gastos sa pagsasama.

Ang pagsasagawa ng mga detalyadong pag-audit at pagpaplano sa pananalapi ay maaaring makatulong na pamahalaan ang mga panganib na ito.

Paano makakatulong ang doola sa pagsasama ng dalawang LLC?

Nagbibigay ang doola ng ekspertong gabay sa legal, pinansyal, at administratibong aspeto ng pagsasama-sama ng mga LLC.

Tinitiyak ng kanilang serbisyo sa Total Compliance na nasusunod ang lahat ng kinakailangang hakbang, na binabawasan ang panganib ng mga legal na isyu at pinapasimple ang proseso para sa isang maayos na paglipat.

Libreng e-libro

Paano bumuo ng isang US LLC sa loob ng 5 minuto

Isang gabay para sa baguhan sa mga pangunahing kaalaman ng mga LLC. Matuto tungkol sa pagbuo, pagbabangko, at mga buwis.

Magkaroon ng mga katanungan pagbuo, pagbabangko at buwis?

Mag-iskedyul ng LIBRENG konsultasyon sa isang US CPA ngayon 📞

Patuloy na magbasa

Simulan ang iyong pangarap na negosyo at panatilihin itong 100% na sumusunod

Gawing pangarap mong negosyo ang iyong pangarap na ideya.

Isang gabay para sa baguhan sa mga pangunahing kaalaman ng mga LLC. Matuto tungkol sa pagbuo, pagbabangko, at mga buwis. Maghanda upang gawing pangarap mong negosyo sa US ang iyong pangarap na ideya.

Pahintulot ng cookie

Sa pamamagitan ng patuloy na pag-browse sa website na ito, sumasang-ayon ka sa pag-iimbak ng cookies sa iyong device upang mapahusay ang pag-navigate sa site, pag-aralan ang paggamit ng site, at tumulong sa aming mga pagsusumikap sa marketing. Dagdagan ang nalalaman.

Home » Uncategorized » Paano Bumuo ng Business Concept?

Home » Uncategorized » Paano Bumuo ng Business Concept?

Paano Bumuo ng Business Concept?

Bago ang lahat, nagsisimula ang isang business sa isang idea o konsepto.

Ano nga ba ang business concept? Ito ay isang idea para sa negosyo, kabilang ang pangunahing impormasyon tungkol dito tulad ng service o produkto, ang mga target customer, at ang tinatawag na “unique selling proposition” na magbibigay sa iyo ng advantage o kalamangan sa iyong kakumpetensya. Ang isang business concept ay maaaring isang bagong produkto, o bagong approach sa pag-deliver ng isang produkto.

Walang iisang solusyon sa pagbuo ng business concept. Minsan madami kang naiisip na idea; minsan naman ay nahihirapan kang mag-isip. Sabi nga ng ibang entrepreneur, minsan mas mahirap pa nga mag-isip ng business idea kumpara sa paggawa ng business plan.

Pero paano nga ba bumuo ng panalong business concept? Narito ang ilang mga tips para tulungan kayong makabuo ng idea para sa iyong negosyo:

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.

• NegosyoKo Loan
• NegosyoKo Lite
• Loan Application Form
• PondoKo Savings
• BanKo Mobile
• TODO Savings
• Consumer Loans
• Commercial Loans
• Press Releases
• Announcements