SolveYourProblem
Article Series: Business Planning
Business Planning & Tips For Getting Started
The
Importance of Creating a Business Plan
Business success is as unpredictable as the
waves in the sea. However, if you have a plan, you will be able to prepare yourself for the ups and downs
of running a business.
Business plans are for both sole proprietorships as well as
for partnerships and corporations. You need a plan of action
to help you communicate to others who will join you to know
what the purpose of the business is. Your business plan will
also serve as a tool in which you will convince lenders that
your business idea is a feasible and marketable one.
Business plans can help save you the trouble of pursuing a
futile venture because they are designed to help you
analyze your business idea. In order to complete your business plan
you will be conducting quite a bit of research.
The type of research you will be participating in during the
planning stages of starting a business include examining annual
reports of other companies that sell similar products or services,
conducting surveys on various consumer groups, and establishing
test markets.
Writing a business plan will also help you consider the costs of running a business as well. This will help you determine
whether or not you could acquire enough capital for start-up
and whether or not you could afford to run your business year
after year. Not only that, but if you find out if you are short
funds writing a plan for raising those funds could be of great
benefit to you.
Another aspect of writing a business plan is to establish
company goals and to define the purpose of your company. In
addition, you will have to decide what type of company you
are. For instance, you may plan to start a new chain pet store,
or market a brand new bicycle with features that other bikes
do not have. It is important to remember that
if you have a business plan, your company's management and
production goals will have a greater chance of being carried
out.
If you are writing a plan for an already existing business
that you would like to expand you can also add charts, graphs,
and tables representing various figures. Some statistics you
would want to include in business plans would be revenue that
you have made for the first year, or more if you have been
in business longer. You will also want to include figures related
to profits and losses, and percentage of revenue increase from
year to year.
Drawing up a detailed business plan has other
benefits as well. For example, you will attract investors
who may show
interest in your products or services. Presenting a well-thought-out
plan can increase the chance that potential investors will
be willing to say, "yes" to your idea, whether it
is an existing or new idea.
You
can purchase books at bookstores, visit employment agencies,
or visit business-planning websites to find sample business
plans. These templates can be easily downloaded sometimes for
free and you can save it into a word processing document file
format for easy editing and personalizing.
The length of a completed business plan depends upon the nature
of the company and how much detail is required for lenders
and fellow corporate partners to understand the purpose of
your business. Usually it has a format of the introduction
first, name of owner or owners of the company, and basic personal
and business contact information. Then, the mission statement
of a company would go on the next page, and then statistics
regarding previous year's growth, unless it is a new business.
If you are starting up a new business for the first time you
may be able to include statistics from sales from another company,
if you are allowed access to that information. Any evidence
that you can provide that your idea is a lucrative one the
better. If you cannot find written documentation of the success
of a product or service, you may include in your business plan
the results of any test marketing that your company may have
done.
After you indicate in your plan for your business some evidence
of potential or existing profit, the next step would be to
include the earlier mentioned profit and loss projections.
Also, this would be the place you would indicate the goals
of your business. Your business plan does not have to follow
this exact order, but this is one of the preferred formats
of the experts.
Also, if you would like consultants or market research experts
to help you create your business plan you can hire one to do
that work for you. Professional business plan software is also
available for you to use as well. Whether you aspire to become
a fortune 500 company or you just want to increase your monthly
income by 500 dollars creating a business plan is extremely
important.
# # # # # SolveYourProblem.com
: 2008
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