Business Plan is a written document that describes the business you want to start and how to strive for profitable business. Business plans usually begin with a brief statement outlining the purpose and business objectives and further how the business owner will realize that goal, including a detailed marketing strategy. A complete Business Plan also contains BEP analysis, projected income, and cash flow analysis that is designed to show that if the business develops as expected, it will make money.
Is it necessary to make Business Plan even though we will not borrow money?
Of course. Business Plan is not just a displays to attract potential investors or simply market your business to potential lenders. Good Business Plan should sell you, the potential owners, about the financial viability and health of your business idea.
Creating a Business Plan forces you to think about the important things before you start your business - such as how you will collect the money and marketing strategy and start-up costs what you project - and will help you determine whether your idea is powerful.
If you make a business plan, complete with BEP analysis, estimates of income and cash flow projections, you can cultivate your ideas and fix them before you start a business. On the other hand, you can honestly look at the numbers of your business and may find that the expected benefits may not materialize. In this case, one of the most important purpose of writing a Business Plan is to inform you not to open bad business.
How to Write a Business Plan?
Structure, content and format of your business plan will depend on the business idea and the targeted audience. If you're trying to raise money from investors or borrow money from the bank, your business plan should present the financial data and marketing research in a professional one seamless package. On the other hand, if you're financing your own business, you may not need sales demo (and expensive the paper ), but the basic principle remains the same: Work out your duties and create a business plan that gives you a realistic picture of your proposed business.
The important points of a Business Plan
Before you can start or expand a business, you need to make sure that you or your company has been getting ready to start or expand. The first thing you need to do before you begin thinking about financing your business is to write a detailed business plan. Follow the steps below to complete a viable business plan to convey to you with your financing application to the financial institution or creditor.
STEP 1: Write a Statement of Purpose
This should be a short narrative that is usually not more than one or two paragraphs. The purpose of Statement Purpose of this is to declare an outline of your new business goals. If you are familiar with the "Mission Statement" in the corporate world, then this is the equivalent for your business.
STEP 2: Write Business Description
Business Description should exactly outline what you are selling Business Plan, which the plan operates, and to whom you plan to sell it. Business Description usually one or two pages long, and should include:
* 1. The location of your business. Here you explain where you plan to operate your business. If you have thought about a particular location, write it here. If you plan on running your business from home, or business move (to move), Describe it in detail here.
* 2. Include the hours worked. You need to register the hours and days of opening your business.
* 3. How long has your business existed. These descriptions need to be applied when you're writing a business plan is to expand your existing business. If you are starting a new business, then you can skip this step.
* 4. Include the customer profile. In this section, you need to describe as much detail as possible as to what the profile of your average customer. Try to put your customer's residence, or the reasons why they are doing business with you. Here you actually outline to potential investors about the demographics of your customers.
STEP 3: Analysis of Markets and Competition
Market and Competition Analysis is one of a portion of a longer and more complicated than the Business Plan. This section should be very detailed, and ultimately will provide you a clear view of what will be your sales projections and market your business has been run once. However, you also have to realize that this section is the most difficult to write, and will require several hours to complete. This section does not have a specific long; you just have to write as much as needed to describe this section. Please see the description below for Market Analysis and Competition Analysis, and what is included in their narratives.
Market competition:
In this section, you need to describe the market in your operating area, and the need of your business for this type are in the area of operation. You also need to describe potential market for your business. To meet this, you need to outline the number of customers that you will have. To provide this information, you need to do the following things:
* Estimate how many people live in the geographic area of your business, or
* Estimate how many people will pass through the area of your business per day
Examining this information by using the local census statistics, or actually by counting the number of people in front of a specific location, you will be able to estimate the market where your business will operate.
Analysis of the competition:
In this section, you need to formulate a concise overview of your competition in terms of numbers. To meet this need, follow these steps:
* 1. Formulate annual sales of your main competitors. You may be able to determine this by looking at local economic data, but most likely you need this estimate of the observation.
* 2. To observe this information you should actually be in the competition area to pay attention to how many customers actually enter their business area within a specified period. Once you have this number then you need to use it to determine the average number of customers per day who entered their business. To remember that you also have to estimate the peak periods and slow period throughout the day.
* 3. Taking the average number of customers per day, then the average estimate of what each customer spend. Your knowledge of business, or your experience in the business that should make you able to estimate this figure.
* 4. Count the number of business days it open.
Once you have all the information described in this section, then you need to write Analyze Your Competition. The combination of knowledge about how many customers you have per day, how much they spend money, the number of business days open per year, will allow you to get a clear picture of the annual sales from your competition.
NOTE: You may have several major competitors in your operation area. In order to really be able to develop a successful business plan, then you need to carry out this analysis on each of your competitors. Therefore, this section may be the most time-consuming among all sections of the Business Plan.
STEP 4: The Products and / or Services
In this section, you need to decide what your business will provide to your customers. Are you going to sell a product? Are you going to provide services? Are you going to provide a combination of products and services? This section should state all of the products and / or services your business will provide: therefore, there is no page limit. To write this section, please follow these steps:
* Describe and give a list of every product you will sell. Make sure you follow this steps bellow:
1. Give a brief description of each product
2. Make a list the price per unit
3. Make a list for how much each unit you will need at the beginning of your business
* Make a list of services that your business will perform. To make this list, you need to include the following:
1. Give a brief description of each service
2. Provide cost estimates for each service
3. If the services combined, give the estimated cost for the combined services
* If your business plan to combine products and services, then you also need to include a section on Your Business Plan that outlines this. Please include the following if it applies to your part:
A. Make a detailed list of all the different combinations of products and services that your business will provide. This list should also include the price structure for each combination.
NOTE: In addition to registering your product, service, and respect for all different combinations, you should briefly describe the correlation for each product or service for every type of customer that your business will serve. Also, if your business will provide a different product or service on a seasonal basis, then you also need to repeat this step for each operating season.
STEP 5: Location
This section is a bit like a replay of the list in Business description, however, have much more detail here. In this section you must provide a detailed narrative from which your business will operate. You need to rmake a list some of the things that must include:
* The advantage of the location you have chosen
* The disadvantage of the location you have chosen
* Proximity to your competitors
* The difficulties that might your customers face in reaching your business
Once you explain the four points above, you should also explain how your business plan in terms of balance or overcome the loss and / or barriers above.
STEP 6: Marketing Plan
In the next section of the Business Plan, you need to write a marketing plan. While preparing this section you should outline what is commonly known as the “4”. 4P is composed of the following:
* Price
* Products
* Place
* Promotion
Two first ‘P’of your marketing plan that you need to build is price and product. It's very simple, because you have done this in the "Products / Services".
The third P is Place. Here you write a detailed description of where you plan to get the products you will sell. (Ie the distributor). You also need to include in this section about how you plan to deliver products to consumers. For example, if you will start a furniture company, then you need to explain where you will get furniture, and how you plan to deliver to your customers.
The fourth P is Promotion. This is the most important P in this section, and this must be the longest part. In this part is your responsibility to explain how you plan to attract attention to your business and your advertising techniques plans to use. When writing this section, you need to include the following:
* Write what advertising you will use when you promote your product or services. Are you planning to make commercial a television or radio commercial? Are you planning ads on a print ad or brochure / email? Or, are you planning to buy a big ads in the Yellow Pages.
* Write for how you will advertise your business at the location of the business itself. In this section you need to discuss the logo / signage of your business. If your business is moving business, or home-based business, then you need to explain in this section how you plan to draw attention to your business. For example, if you are planning to have a web site, you need to include them here.
Finally, as the narrative of this section, you will need to explain your complete marketing strategy that will include all items listed above.
STEP 7: Important Management Team and Personnel
In the Business Plan, you need to include a description and experience of top management / owners or other key personnel. In this section you need to write narratives about their experiences in business you will do, or other related work experience. At the end of this section you should also include the curriculum vitae of all personnel matters.
HINT: Do not ignore this section by not devoting enough time to him. If you are applying for business financing, and there are other factors that are hindrances ², the experience and character of the top personnel may be the reason that you keep it funded. Positive evidence of this can be seen in some KUK program when they consider the "character". If you hire good people, with good background, then it is an additional value to your business.
STEP 8: Another Data Point
² There are other items that generally you want to put into your business plan that does not belong to the other. ² If you have such items, related to your business, please indicate here. For example, if you are starting a business relocation services, and in connection with it, you have yourself a moving truck. This section may contain any information. However, you would still want to maintain professionalism and integrity of your Business Plan. Therefore, try to only include the items in this section are:
* It's really related to the business
* Will help financing decisions (give only positive item)
STEP 9: Conclusion
In this section, you have to conclude all the textual part of the Business Plan. Make sure that you put all the pieces, giving the reader a concise and thorough description of the business as a whole. Remember, the Business Plan not only for your use, but will be read by others. The Business Plan itself should flow smoothly, and should be obvious to all who read it.
NOTE: More detailed Business Plan, the less is the question to be asked the source of financing to you, before they decide to finance. Also, the more work you do at the time of writing the Business Plan, the better is your preparation when it comes time to open or expand your business.
Finance
The first half of the Business Plan is part of the narrative, which describes how your business will be operated, and what you're up to. Half, Finance, is the number of Business Plan. This part is very important because the sources of financing like to examine these figures, because this is how they can ensure that they will be paid back. Please follow the following steps to ensure that you will list all required elements.
STEP 10: Financial Statements of the past
If you are starting a new business, you need to provide key financial documents for people to review the Business Plan. This document must include the following, and should include three (3) years:
* Tax to (the) owners or key personnel
* Summary of a personal account for (the) owners or key personnel. This should include a check, savings, and other investment accounts.
* Ownership or collateral. If (the) owner has something of great value that can be used as collateral when needed, you need to include them here.
STEP 11: Sources of Financing
Part of this Business Plan should state where you will obtain financing for any new business or expanding your business. If you are in the process to apply for financing or loan, you need to register all the place and the amount you have to ask. If you finance the project itself, or through an existing business processes, please state here. Surely here, you're telling your readers how you plan to pay for everything.
STEP 12: Capital Equipment List
In this section you must provide a detailed list of all capital equipment that you need to buy to start or expand your business. Usually the data is defined as the data cost of capital is more than $ 1,000, and have a useful life of more than one year. However, for small businesses, can also put any data that costs more than $ 100.
STEP 13: Balance (Balance Sheet)
Balance sheet normally only exists in the accounting world, but in this case you will need to provide a balance to the financial institution of your assets, liabilities and equity. It is recommended that you contact the registered public accounting firm for its part, because this is not to try for new people unless they have accounting experience. Usually, you only need to prepare the balance sheet on the day you open your business.
STEP 14: Summary of Pro Forma Profit and Loss
Proforma income statement is an overview of sales and spending projections for a certain time. When developing your business plan will usually want to develop a pro forma profit and loss summary for at least three (3) next year, with the first year is divided on a monthly basis. How long before you project it is up to you, but at minimum you need to plan for the first year. To develop an overview of pro forma income statement, you should include the following information:
A. Sales. This is the dollar amount of sales of your business.
2. Cost of sales. These are any costs associated with the sale.
3. Gross profit. This is the profit from sales minus cost of sales
4. General administration. These are usually composed of operating costs. This will include the cost of rent, salaries, etc..
5. Other expenditures. This is another expense that is not repetitive or routine.
6. Net income. This is the total when you reduce administrative costs and other expenditures of gross profits.
STEP 15: Pro Forma Cash Flow
This section is designed to give you a deep understanding of how your cash flow flowing. In this section you should include the following:
* Beginning Cash Balance. This is cash that you have in stock when the business started or expanded.
* Cash Inflow. This is the number of incoming cash during a specified period.
* Cash Available. This is the amount of the initial balance, and cash inflow.
* Cash Outflow. This is a cash out during the period specified.
* Cash Balance End. This is the amount of cash you have after you reduce the outflow of cash available.
Once again, you need to do this proforma along the same time as you do for others.
STEP 16: Pro Forma Balance Sheet
This section will be very similar to STEP 13; however, here you need to calculate your assets and liabilities on the basis of projections of the same period that you do for proforma. Again, it is recommended that you hire an accountant to develop this.
NOTE: Typically, pro forma balance sheet is broken down into quarters for each fiscal year.
Writing a Business Plan is essential for new business or expanding your business, because it provides you and others with a clear guide on where your business going. You should prepare a few hours to the development of your plan, because if it's done correctly, this will help your business succeed.
In addition to the aspects of enrolling in the Business Plan, you also need to carry out the analyzes and to be able to closely estimate the financial forecast of your business.
Financial Projections
Predicting the payment from your business might make fearful or difficult, but it is not so bad. Good planning consists of how to make academic conjecture, such as how much money you will earn and how much you'll need to spend, then use these estimates to calculate whether your business will benefit. Here are the financial projections that you have to make:
* Behind-modal analysis. Here you will use the estimated revenues and expenditures to determine whether, in theory at least, your business will generate enough money to cover costs.
* Estimated income. Next you will refine estimates of sales and expenditures that you use to back-modal analysis into a formal monthly projections, than your business income for the first year running.
* Cash flow projection. Even if your income estimate to say that your business will have higher revenue than spending in other words, that it benefits those numbers will not tell you if you'll have enough cash on hand from month to month to pay rent or purchase inventory again. Cash flow projections indicating how much money you would have - or how much you will lose money - every month. These let you know when you'll need a credit line or other arrangements to cover periodic shortfalls.
* The estimated initial cost. Simply put, this is the sum of all the shopping that you will make before your business opens. If you need to pay this fee in the first or second year of business, they should be included in the monthly cash flow projections.
Again, whoever your audience, you should carefully as possible when calculating forecasts and analysis balikmodal your business income. The last thing you want is to experience the misery of starting a business is no hope for a big profit.
Prepare break even analysis before spending time on the full Business Plan.
How can you tell if your business idea will be profitable? Honest answer is, you can not. But this uncertainty should not cancel you from researching the financial soundness of your idea. Preparing "break even analysis" or "approximate round-principal" as well as several other financial projections, can help you determine whether your business will succeed or fail.
What do you tell your Break Even Analysis
Break Even analysis shows you the amount of income you will generate to cover your spending, before you make a penny profit. If you can reach and surpass your break-even point - that is, if you can easily generate more revenue than the amount of sales you will need to achieve your expenses - then your business then there is the opportunity to make money.
Many experienced entrepreneurs use break even analysis as the primary tool for new business strain. They will not write a complete Business Plan unless they balikmodal estimates show that their projected sales revenue far exceeds the cost of doing business. Good news is that the analysis balikmodal be part of any business plan, so if you begin to analyze balikmodal now, you've started working on your Business Plan.
How to Prepare Break Even Analysis
To carry out break even analysis , you have to make guesses about shopping academic and your income. You have to do some serious research, including analysis of your market - to determine your projected sales volume and your anticipated expenditure. Books and software Business Plan can teach you how to make a decent income and budget plan.
You will need to make estimates and computes the following:
* Fixed costs. Fixed costs (sometimes called "overhead") do not vary much from month to month. They include rent, insurance, utilities, and other shopping. Good idea to set up an extra, say 10%, into your balikmodal analysis to cover a variety of shopping that you can not foresee.
* The sales income. This is the total dollars from sales activity that you bring into your business every month or year. To carry out the analysis balikmodal legitimate, you should be based on your estimate of the volume of business that you really expect - not on how much you need to make a good profit.
* Average gross profit for each sale. Average gross profit is the money left from each sales dollar after paying the direct costs of the sale. (Direct costs are what you pay to provide products or services.) For example, if Antoinette pays an average of $ 100 for goods apparel maker that he is selling for an average of $ 300, gross profit average is $ 200.
* The percentage of average gross earnings. These percentages tell you how much of each dollar of sales revenue in the form of gross income. To calculate the gross profit percentage of your average, divide the gross profit figure by the average sales price of the average. For example, if Antoinette produce an average gross profit of $ 200 on clothes that he was selling for an average of $ 300, its gross profit percentage was 66.7% ($ 200 : $ 300).
Calculating Break-Even Point
Once you have calculated the figures above, it is easy to determine your breakeven point. For only the estimated annual fixed costs by your gross profit percentage to determine the amount of sales revenue you'll need to reach balikmodal. For example, if fixed costs are $ 6,000 Antoinette per month, and he expects profit margin 66.7%, its break-even point is $ 9,000 in sales revenue per month ($ 6,000 divided by 0667). In other words, Antoinette must generate $ 9,000 every month to pay for fixed costs and its cost (products) it directly. (Note that this figure does not include any profit, or even a salary for Antoinette.)
If You Can not Break-Even
If your break-even point is higher than the income you expect, you need to decide whether certain aspects of your plan can be modified to create an affordable break-even point. For example, you might be able to:
* Find sources of cheaper supplies
* Do without employees
* Save on rent by working from your home, or
* Sell your product or service at a higher price
If you work the numbers and sales revenue balikmodal you still look like the numbers that can not be achieved, then you may need to cancel your business idea. If this happens, be thankful that you know it before you invest your money (or others) on the idea.
The next Financial Analysis
If you balikmodal estimates show that you will generate a greater income than you need to balikmodal, you can consider yourself lucky. But you still need to determine how much profit your business will generate, and whether you will have enough cash available to pay your bills when due. In summary, the estimated strain balikmodal is a great tool, but you need a more complete analysis before you start investing real money in your business.
Here are additional financial projections should also be part of your Business Plan, to complete financial picture of your business.
* Estimated income. This is a projection of a month-by-month net profit from your business operations.
* Cash flow projection. It shows you how much actual cash you'll have, month after month, to cover your expenses.
* The estimated initial cost. This is the summation of all the shopping that you will make before your business opens.
Example of Business Plan for Your Business Money
