A business plan is an essential tool for any business owner. It gives you a blueprint for your future and helps you think through the best way to achieve your goals. You can use a free template to get started, but it’s important that you don’t stop there! Your plan should be tailored just for your company and updated regularly as things change.

Executive Summary

The executive summary is a short overview of your business that includes the following:

• A brief description of your company and its purpose
• An overview of the problem you plan to solve for customers
• Your solution to this problem (product or service)
• Benefits for customers, i.e., how they’ll benefit from your product/service.

Company Description

• Company Name
• Address
• Contact Details
• Phone number
• Fax number
• Email address
• Website address
• Social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn)

Market Analysis

The market analysis section is where you will analyze the market and the competition. It is also a good place to include information about your target market, trends in the market, and a SWOT analysis.

You should include:

• A description of your target audience (customers). This includes who they are, what they do, how many of them there are, their demographics (age/gender), social characteristics like income level or education level; and psychographics like personality type or lifestyle preferences.
• An overview of your competitors’ products/services and how yours differ from theirs. For example: “Our service offers more flexibility than competitor X” or “competitor Y’s products are too expensive for our target customers.”
• A list of key growth drivers (things that will help grow your business) and inhibitors (things that might slow down growth). You can do this with a table showing each item under each category – see below!

Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis is a great way to determine if your product or service is unique and different from what’s already being offered in the market. You may have an idea for a business, but it could be similar to an existing business model that already exists. It’s important that you do some research on your competitors before you invest money into your new business plan or launch it publicly. You want to make sure there isn’t anything out there like what you’re offering, so doing this analysis will help you understand if there are any competitors who are already doing something similar.

Once you’ve done some research on other businesses in the industry that sell similar products/services as yours, ask yourself:

• How much does their product cost?
• How long has this company been around?
• What makes them stand out compared to others in their field?

Strategy and Implementation

A business plan is a roadmap for your business, and it’s important to be as specific as possible. In order to get the most out of one, you’ll want to map out your company’s goals and strategies in a way that helps you keep on track. Since there are numerous components involved in this process, let’s take a look at some of the main areas you should consider when creating or updating your plan:

• Marketing plan – This section should discuss how you intend market your product or service. What is its target audience? How will word about it spread? Who will be responsible for monitoring sales levels and customer feedback?
• Operations plan – This section should include details about how operations will run once the project gets off the ground (or even before it does). What are key metrics in terms of internal processes? How many employees will be needed at various stages during startup mode versus later on down the line? Who would benefit from training programs before taking their respective roles within this new venture? Are there any safety hazards associated with working conditions that need addressing immediately upon launch day (e.g., heavy machinery)?

Web Plan Summary

The following is a summary of the web plan.

The plan includes:

• A full detailed business and marketing strategy for your website
• A list of all current and potential customers, along with contact details
• An overview of competitor sites, along with their traffic statistics and SEO rankings (if available)

Management Summary

The management summary is a good place to tie all your content together. It’s also the place where you can reflect on what you’ve learned and share how it will help you grow your business.

Your goal is to show investors that you know exactly what direction your business will take, so they can be confident in investing in it.

Takeaway:

• The takeaway from this article is that a business plan will help you to create a more solid foundation for your new business. It helps you to think about what the business idea is and how it will work, as well as help in the planning of future operations.
• There are different types of business plans that can be used for different purposes (i.e., start-up vs existing businesses).
• A good way to find out if you need a plan would be by talking with an accountant or lawyer specializing in these areas, who can then tell you whether or not it’s worth getting one written up before moving forward with your new venture.

Conclusion

The cost of business plans varies from company to company. You can get a plan for as little as $250 or as much as $15,000 depending on what you need and how much research you want done.