These five tips can steer you to a more powerful business plan which will be more likely to be financed by lenders or investors.
Research Before Writing
Before writing about the company, a substantial amount of research should first be conducted regarding the various aspects of the business. The study may uncover challenges that your business needs to address through their primary strategy. The research might also bring to light opportunities that you may not be aware of. As a result, these challenges and opportunities can radically change the company’s overall structure and strategy. These factors need to be addressed before you channel significant amounts of time and effort into a business plan.
Clear Market Prospect
Showing a clear market opportunity on your strategy requires a description of customers who will become the primary targets of your products and services. It should also include key competitors that you will aim to outperform through your company’s competitive edge and overall value proposition. Additionally, you have to demonstrate that the industry you are competing in is large enough to sustain expansion despite the introduction of new competitors. You need to show your company’s strengths and how it will exploit the weaknesses of the competition, letting you compete on attributes beyond cost whenever possible.
Filling Logical Holes
The business plan is really a logical argument show your company’s opportunity, its tools and available resources (this may include factors such as your company’s management team, intellectual property, monetary resources, location and more), its methods (marketing and operations strategies), as well as the outcomes that you expect to see (financials and expansion plan), which investors can get involved in. These four key elements have to work in synergy with each other and openings in logic have to be filled rather than dismissed. As an example, the overall rewards or results have to be suitable for the inherent danger you face in taking the opportunity.
Explaining Financial Assumptions
A professional business plan should contain the financial assumptions, which provide details regarding the projected earnings and expenses of your company. Having a concrete financial structure and strategy will help investors visualize the potential value of a business, as opposed to relying on optimistic assumptions or the entrepreneur’s instinct.
Standard Format and Construction
The structure and format of the company plan has to be clean, professional and near the criteria employed by business plan writers. This means strictly following the standard business plan structure rather than utilizing creative or unconventional methods of writing. Creativity can surely be used to improve the marketing and operations segments but should not have a distracting format that can divert attention from the core structure and arrangement of the business plan.
