All company plans have a tendency to follow a standard structure. This helps investors in assessing a business strategy’s quality and logic rather without having to worry about the plan’s overall construction. The next key sections ought to be addressed in each business plan:
Executive Summary: This section summarizes the entire plan and emphasizes the key points within 2 pages.
Company Analysis: This section contains the background of the business, its present status, along with the goods or services that the company will provide.
Industry Analysis: The industry analysis contains market figures and trends that can affect a company’s success, such as a summary of the industries and segments that a business will compete within.
Customer Evaluation: The customer or market evaluation should have a clear description of the consumer segments that will be targeted by a business. Different consumers have distinct needs from others. They also have varying budgets and can be reached through different forms of marketing strategies. These details about customers need to be included in the business plan.
Competitive Evaluation: This section describes the overall competitive landscape that the business will be playing in. It also contains a list of the best competitors along with their strengths and weaknesses. Further, the analysis of competition should include a company’s competitive edge over its competitors.
Marketing Plan: The marketing plan describes the branding, promotions and pricing strategies of the business. It also provides detail on the company’s marketing approaches, which clearly links to the previous customer and competitive evaluations.
Operations Plan: This section provides details regarding the internal operations of the business. It should provide details regarding the various components and functions of a business. The operations plan should also contain a company’s key milestones as well as its methods of assuring the quality of its products and services.
Management Team: The management team section contains brief biographies for a company’s management staff members, along with their key roles within the organization. This section also provides detail regarding the company’s hiring strategy as it progresses.
Financial Plan: The financial plan contains a company’s revenue and profitability model. It highlights the company’s pro forma financial statements, focusing on key sections which may be of strong value for investors. These include startup expenses, time to break-even, crucial assumptions behind earnings projections, as well as the increase in earnings and net gain.
Appendices: Appendices include the comprehensive pro forma financial statements, as well as other documents referred to in the previous sections of the business plan. These include management resumes, signed patent or trademark documents, technical drawings, client letter-of-intent, and contracts with suppliers and partners.
