In this article, we will help you understand what a business plan is, how to write a business plan, and also give you samples.
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₦1,000.00Knowing what a business plan is will lead you to know what it entails. Now, a business plan simply put can be said to be a well-detailed guide for your business growth and development.
It helps explain what your business is about, and what the objectives are. It gives insight into possibilities and impossibilities, as well as a clear and structure challenges and how best to tackle them.
Why a business plan?
Here are some reasons why you need to write a business plan:
- Need for funding
- Need for a partner
- Recruiting a team.
- Restructuring, etc
How to write business plan
The following steps guide you on how to write a business plan
Executive Summary
This is the first step when you want to write business plan, an executive summary is a short, simple, and explanatory introduction to your business. It could just be about one or two pages, but it is very important.
It helps tell the bits of your business, helping your audience understand what your business is all about, it gives answers to questions like why an investor should invest in your business, how you will make sure that their investment is worth it, why a lender should lend you e.t.c.
An executive summary helps draw others’ interest in your business, letting them see a reason why being a part of your business is important. It will help provide a clear understanding of what your business entails and how it would run.
Description of your Company
This is the next line of action in the process of writing a business plan, this will include information like your business name, the address of your business, and names of important people including major stakeholders and partners.
This help to give basic information about your business, providing your investors or audience with an understanding of what you are into or what you are pulling them into.
State your business goal and objective
This part helps state the purpose and goal. At the stage of searching for a business loan or investment, this part of your plan would help buttress your need for funding.
Describe your Products or Services
Here is another step in writing a business plan; where you give important information about the product or service you are offering. In this part, you will explain:
- How your product works
- Price tags
- The target consumers
- The supply method
- Your sales funnel
- Your distribution channels
Business financial analysis
As a beginner in this field, you probably wouldn’t have as much information as that, especially in the financial section of your business. Yet, you are going to include your income, a list of your assets and debts, and lastly a cash flow statement that indicated the coming in and going out of cash. You can give dummy figures as long as they are well calculated, realistic and thought through.
Make Financial Projections
Here, you will state how your business will generate profits. You will also provide your business’s monthly or yearly sales, expenses, and also profit calculation over the period of about 3 years.
This should be accurate and/or realistic, and make sure that your financial statement analysis is well written. Also, keep in mind that as much as you decide to describe and state your goals, they should also always be realistic.
Additional information in the Appendix
This is the last step in the process of writing a business plan. There could have been some important information that was skipped when writing through the previous steps, you can include those in this section. You could also include iinformation like,
- Resume of employees
- Credit history
- Bank statement
- Contracts
- Personal and business credit history
- Equipment leases
- Permits
- Receipts
- Licenses
Business plan samples
Here are sample links for different business plans:
- Accounting, insurance, and compliance business plans
- Clothing and fashion business plans
- Cleaning and maintainable plans
- Construction, architecture, and engineering business plans
- Education Business plans
- Entertainment & recreation business plan
- Farm and Agriculture business plans
- Finance and investing business plans
- Events business plans
- Fine art and crafts business plans
- Fitness and beauty business plans
- Hotels and lodging business plans
- IT, staffing, and customer services business plans
- Manufacturing and wholesales plan
- Retail and E-commerce business plan
- Technology business plan
- Nonprofit business plan
- Transportation, travel, and logistics business plan
- Medical and health business plan
- Real estate and rentals business plans
Conclusion
In this article, we have shown you the important steps in the process of writing a perfect business plan. We have also given you access to samples of different business plans, making it easy for you to create the perfect one for your business.
