Fundamentals of a Business Plan
Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 | Business Plan
Most companies write a business plan when they need to ask an organization or a lender to help them with financing a project. There are many fundamentals of a business plan that can help with making sure that it is written properly. These things include an executive summary, market analysis, management, product line, and the funding request.
An executive summary in a business plan is a description of the organization and the project you are interested in pursuing. This will be a detailed analysis of the project, all of the steps involved in achieving the goal and everything you need to make it happen. The executive summary should be laid out professionally. This is one of the most important things about a business plan. Some lenders won’t make it past reading the executive summary to get to the entire business plan if it is not written well enough to grasp their attention and interest.
A complete market analysis is the next thing that should be in a business plan. You need to provide an entire analysis of the potential targeted customers that you intend to sell the product or service to. This needs to be convincing that you can bring in revenues and how you are going to do it. A market analysis also provides information about the competitors. You need to be clear about where you are today with the competitors, where you will be when the project has completed, and why you have the leading edge over the competitors.
Management is another part of a business plan that must be laid out. This section will discuss the different management of the organization, sales, marketing, and so on. This will show the lender or the board that you do have an actual plan of management and know how the project will be put together successfully and collaboratively with people at work.
The services or product needs to be outlined in a business plan. No one is going to lend you money to begin a product unless they believe in the product or service as much as you do. If you are asking money to start your own business selling artificial Christmas trees then you need to outline what is so special about your artificial Christmas trees that are going to make you successful. The Christmas tree product needs to sell the lender so much they want to invest in the idea and the endeavor. If they don’t like the product or the goal then they will not be willing to send you any money at all.
The final piece of a business plan must be the funding request. You need to outline your current financial situation, why you need to borrow the money, how much money you need to borrow, and your projected ability to pay the money back. You need to be convincing to the person you are presenting the business plan to that they will see the money back in the expected time frame and that the endeavor will be successful.
Article source: http://www.ozodo.com/blog/fundamentals-of-a-business-plan/
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