A business plan is an important document or road map for business success. You need to understand that not all business ideas are good ones so if you actually want to build a business from your idea or passion, it will be helpful to write up a business plan. The plan will help you to get detail information about the idea and prove that it can actually work in the market. Therefore basically, a business plan is a document that maps out the details of your business. Your business plan must not necessary be long, business plans are more short and concise nowadays than they used to be but should contain the following basic sections
1. Executive Summary
The executive summary is a snapshot of your idea or business plan as a whole and touches the business profile and goals. You can also talk bout your future here, this covers your plans for the future and can include a vision statement, business goals and key business milestones.
2. Idea or business description
Your idea description provides information on what you do, what differentiates your idea from others and the target market
3. Market Analysis
This section will show that you have carried out research about your business industry, market and competitors
4. Organization
Every business idea is structured differently. Find out the best organization and management structure for your business idea
5. Service or product
In this section you depict what you are selling, how does it benefit your target market, what is the product life cycle.
6. Marketing & Sales.
Marketing is very important and in this section you will show how you plan to market the business, what is the sales strategy?
7. Competitive Analysis
The purpose of this section is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors within your industry or market, strategies that will make you standout, any weaknesses that can be exploited within the product development cycle.
8. Financial projections
If you are looking for an investor to invest in your idea you need to provide financial projections to back up the funding request critically. Include your start up cost, and ensure you in details show your financial projections
9. Funding Request
If you are seeking funding for your business idea, find out about the necessary information you should include in your plan to attract the investors attention.