Posted by Today I am starting a series of articles on writing your own business plan. This will be a several-week guide on what should be included in a business plan. If you have a business idea, read the next posts.
Someone thinking about their own business needs to consider whether to operate independently or in a partnership, what to sell, for how much and to whom, and what profits the business will bring in. A business plan allows you to assess whether you will lose your invested money and valuable time.
You have an idea for a business. You dream of an online store or a coffee shop. You also used to think about a beauty establishment and an advertising agency. However, you’re drowsing over what to choose, what form of business to set up – to operate independently or maybe with your neighbor – how to promote your services and products to customers, where to look for suppliers. Besides, you don’t know how to determine whether you will be able to face the competition, and on what basis to estimate that the business will be profitable, and that the savings invested will someday pay off.
It is not easy to give a quick and sure answer to all these questions. To do so, you need to draw up a business plan. This is a tool that will allow the Novak to assess whether he will not lose the invested money and his time. In one place will be collected all the important information and data to make a decision – I’m in or I’ll do something else. A business plan is also a way to present your business idea and convince investors to invest capital in it. No bank or other serious financial institution will grant a loan or credit without a concrete plan of action and its costs.
There are many types of business plans. Depending on the purpose of the business plan, it may contain more or less detailed information about the product, finances, customers or expected market opportunities. Also, the time perspective can vary. Nowadays it is difficult to make reasonable plans for more than 2-3 years, but the complete minimum is a business plan for the next 12 months.
Read the next episode of this guide.