Setting up a business plan
DETAIL: NOTHING SHOWS SUCCESS MORE
The financials are arguably the most important section.
Writing a business plan is like telling a story – a story that must be creative, engaging and, most of all, informative. The purpose of a business plan is to relay to yourself and interested parties the method in which you are going to operate your business.
Any storyteller worth his or her salt will tell you that a good story must have structure: an introduction, build up and so forth. The same holds true for a business plan; it must have structure.
Therefore there are key structural sections that are usually found in a business plan, starting with the executive summary. An executive summary is a concise summarisation of the entire business plan and appears at the beginning of the document. Why? Because the executive summary is a glimpse into the entire business concept and strategy and, at times, funders or other interested parties will use it to determine whether your proposition is worth their time and effort to read further.
An executive summary then becomes critical, because it has to be intriguing and enticing enough to encourage anyone to read further, to understand fully what you are attempting to create. Therefore, upon concluding the business plan, succinctly sum up all the key points of your strategy and highlight them in your executive summary in no more than two or three pages.
If the executive summary is highlighting key points, then the middle sections of a business plan are explaining your concept and strategy in detail.
In this middle section you will find topics such as organisational structure, overall strategy, the service or product offering, the marketing and sales plan, implementation strategy, industry analysis, competition, SWAT analysis and growth or expansion strategy.
In these sections attention to detail is paramount – this is where you fully explain your concept. Ensure what you write makes sense.
Do not fill these sections with big words, jargon and lengthy paragraphs copied from an online business plan, assuming that interested parties will only read the executive summary.
On the contrary, use these sections to boast your in-depth knowledge; use statistics and research you gathered to illustrate key industry and market trends. Interested parties will appreciate the effort and nothing shows intent to succeed more than attention to detail.
Last, but definitely not least, are the financials. This is arguably the most important section, because if your business venture can’t turn a profit the entire business plan is worthless. More next week on financial projections.