Writing a business plan involves creating a well-organized document that includes a description of your product or service, marketing plans defining your target market, financial projections, and the other essential elements that make up a high-quality business plan.
After you've considered the purpose of your plan and done some background preparation, it's time to consider the actual elements that you'll include in the written document.
A business plan customarily has a number of major elements or sections. Each of these elements serves a particular purpose in the overall presentation of your plan. The following list identifies and briefly describes each of the documents or document categories that will make up your plan. They are presented in the order in which they usually appear; however, this format can be deviated from if another way makes more sense because of the nature of the business. For example, the financial portion of a plan for a business with a 20-year track record is much more important (and comprehensive) than the financial portion of a startup business's plan.
The relative mix of product and services to be offered can also affect the content of a plan. Issues relating to inventory, production, storage, etc., become less significant as the product/service mix moves toward a purely service business. For example, a business that relies on the services of many professional employees would provide substantial details about acquiring and retaining these vital workers.
It is recommended that all the major issues listed below are included, even the ones that are relatively less significant to your particular business. Anyone reading your plan will be more confident about your assessment of the situation if you identify such issues and resolve them, however summarily. For example, if you plan to work alone and perform all services personally, you might note that you anticipate no need to hire employees or engage independent contractors if the business succeeds at the levels projected in the plan. You don't want to raise any questions in the mind of your audience that aren't resolved somewhere within the plan document.
Remember that there is no requirement that these items be created in the order shown. In fact, conventional wisdom suggests that the executive summary, which is preceded only by the cover sheet and table of contents, should be prepared after the rest of the plan is complete. The components of a written business plan are:
Before discussing the contents of a business plan, let's take a few moments to consider some basic issues regarding the format and presentation of the plan. Your plan should look professional and be a useful tool. There are a number of things to do to ensure that:
If you have spent any time and effort at all on a company logo, slogan, or other identifying graphic or text, highlight it on the cover page. If you haven't considered these basic marketing tools, we strongly suggest that you do. Building an identity is vital if you want people to recognize and remember your business.
In addition, the cover sheet should contain all the usual and appropriate identification information about the business. This includes business address, telephone numbers, facsimile numbers, etc. The cover sheet should state the date that the plan was prepared, and the period it covers. It should identify the person to contact regarding any questions about the plan (generally, you). If you have prepared multiple copies of your business plan, you might also put a copy number on the cover page to identify them.
The table of contents should clearly and simply lead a reader to each of the documents in the plan. Be sure that page numbers are accurately reflected. If the plan is large, consider dividing it into separately numbered sections. For smaller plans, just numbering the pages in sequence is fine. If your table of contents is more than one page long, reconsider the length of the entries, the length of your plan, and the number of documents you've included.