STEPS TO MAKE A BUSINESS PLAN

Koteswara Rao VBSS

A business plan is a living, breathing document that depicts the details of your business.  It includes all aspects like what kind of products or services your business deals with, how will you sell your products, how will it be structured, what the market looks like, how do you plan to sell the product or service, what sources of funds you need, what your financial projections are and what are the documents required for your business. A business plan gives you a clear glimpse of whether your business idea is worth pursuing or not.  A business plan must be short and flexible so that you can make minor changes as per the changing business environment.  

The following steps will help you to construct a perfect business plan. 

  1. Make an executive summary
  2. Describe your company and business model
  3. Analyze your market conditions
  4. Explain your product/services
  5. Outline of all operations and management roles
  6. Design a marketing and sales strategy
  7. Detail a financial plan with capital details and revenue projections
  8. Summarise the above with an appendix

  

  1. Make an executive summary: –   The executive summary is nothing but an overview of the entire business.  The main purpose of this executive summary is to give its readers a summary of the key points of the document. It must be clear and precise to entice the reader to continue reading the business plan.  
  2. DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY AND BUSINESS MODEL:– After making an executive summary of the business plan you need to describe what your company does, what are your vision and mission statements, what is the structure of your business and the details regards the business owner, location, products or services which you offer. 
  3. Analyze your market conditions: – Analysing market conditions will ultimately dictate how successful your business will be. In this step,  you need to analyze what’s your target market is, and why should they buy your product?
  4. Explain your products/services:– In this step, you need to give a brief description regards the products you sell and the services you provide. You need to mention your unique selling proposition and how it benefits your customers. You need to articulate these in the best manner to procure a standard position in consumers’ minds.
  5. OUTLINE OF ALL OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT ROLES: In this section, you need to outline your complete management structure and the key roles in your organization.  You need to determine the responsibilities and tasks of every person in the organization.
  6. Design a marketing and sales strategy:- A perfect marketing strategy is inevitable for every business organization.  Because efficient production alone can’t determine better profits. Before, you work on your marketing and sales strategies you need to do some market analysis to define who are your existing customers, who are your potential customers and who are your ideal customers.
  7. DETAIL A FINANCIAL PLAN WITH CAPITAL DETAILS AND REVENUE PROJECTIONS:- in this step, you need to outline your financial model in detail, including the initial investment, paid-up-capitals, start-up cost, financial projections and a funding request in case of pitching to investors.  Here you need to disclose your financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets, and funds flow statements. 
  8. Summarize the above with an appendix:- finally, you need to close your business plan with an appendix. The appendix is optional, but it will be helpful for co-founders and for meeting other legal formalities.