A business plan is unquestionably one of the first things to prepare before embarking on a business adventure. This winning paper welcomes the entrepreneur into the investment process by providing a clear path forward. It will serve as a roadmap for defining and attaining your goals while increasing your chances of success. Read further to understand how to create a business plan.
If you are one of those entrepreneurs that believe the world will beat a path to their door, you’re definitely on the right track to financial disaster. But if you don’t want to get lost along the way, start by crafting a comprehensive, carefully thought-out business plan to guide you throughout this entrepreneurial journey.
Get the right support to create your Business Plan
Before digging into the best way to craft your own guidebook, ask yourself how to structure your initial idea into an exhaustive well-rooted project. Well, it might be challenging to develop this idea into an economically viable plan, right? Let’s sort this out by getting the right support to take off on the right foot.
Turbine’s Pre-Incubation program offers one-to-one support in developing your business idea into an actionable business plan and a profitable business within 12-weeks. In addition, through our Test Drive, you’ll benefit from experts’ workshops, weekly business coaching sessions, networking opportunities and business angels to whom you can pitch your idea and embrace a winning strategy for your new business venture.
Evaluate the viability of your idea today by contacting us through hello@turbine.mu and get the support you need in crafting your business plan.
Key Elements of a Business Plan
Even though a comprehensive support bundle might be the solution in this competitive business world, it is essential to have an idea of where you’re about to step in. Whether you’re in tune with your business model or not, you will never face a more challenging writing assignment than the crafting of your business plan. In this endeavour, some key elements cannot be neglected when writing this effective and bankable plan and these are:
Cover page
Any kind of plans or reports need a proper cover page with elements encompassing your vision of the future. Not only will it establish a direct connection with your investors but it will also contain your contact details for any future enquiries.
Executive Summary
It is arguably the most critical part of your business plan. Your executive summary is where you lay out all the vital information about your business in roughly two pages. This official synopsis ought to contain information about what you want to achieve and how, where you are going to find the fundings, what is your mission statement and what are the products or services your are offering. In simple terms, it is a high-level look at everything and summarises your business as a whole. Be brief and critical as it is the first impression you’ll give of your company.
Organisation Overview
A complete snapshot of your business landscape where you will give context to the bigger picture in your business plan. You may include the history of the company, the nature of the business, the number of employees who are presently there and where you want to be in the next five years.
Market and Industry Analysis
This is where you’ll have to describe your industry outlook and target market. Your business plan should enable your investors to comprehend your market conditions, the needs of your customers and why your competitors are not answering those needs, the patterns and insurgencies that may come in your industry and what sets your company apart. Document yourself and address these questions wisely to show your understanding of the industrial spectrum.
Products and Services
In this section, you’ll have to describe the benefits, production process, and life cycle of your products or services. It is also advisable to share your plans for intellectual property, such as copyright.
Explain why your company’s services are superior to those of your competitors and evaluate this statement. Provide your pricing model, sales and distribution strategy, order fulfillment plan, and other key aspects that demonstrate the nature of your company.
Financial Model
Another critical part of your business plan is your financial model where you’ll have to convince investors that your business is stable and financially viable. You’ll have to provide your business’s sales, expenses and profit estimates over a five-year period with the detailed calculations in the annex. Are you looking for a loan? An equity injection? What is the appropriate amount and under what conditions? Look up for comparable businesses that have performed quite well in the industry and provide income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements if possible.
This financial plan is a summary of your main assumptions, which is why the use of graphs and charts may be appropriate ways of telling the financial story of your business. Again, through Turbine’s incubator or accelerator programmes, you will be able to pitch your business idea in front of reliable investors and convince them that your start-up deserves their input.
An Appendix
At the end of your business plan, you may consider adding a well-organised appendix with supportings or other additional information such as relevant licences, patents, equipment leases, permits, receipts, contracts or personal and business credit history. Every piece of information should be included to support your plan.
Your business plan is critical to your success, but you must also recognize that its specific contents will vary from plan to plan. As a reference for your future plan, these main features have been incorporated in a comprehensive and broad manner. Now is the moment to create a plan that instills confidence, success, and sustainability, based on your company’s structure and goals.
