The business plan is an essential document for anyone looking to start their own enterprise. It’s something you need for your own perception of what your next steps are going to be and to convince investors that your company has a genuine chance.
Thinking of your business in the long term is difficult – especially at the beginning. You don’t know how long you’re going to last or how you’re going to overcome immediately pressing problems. However, giving more thought to how you might overcome certain situations or what options you have can add a degree of flexibility to your efforts. With this in mind, here’s what to include in your business plan:
Executive Summary
The essence of what your business is, what it aims to do, and how it plans to succeed will all be included here. It’s a broad section when viewed like that, but the details are important – it’s about showing that you have a clear idea of what your business is going to be. The finer details of how those goals are going to be accomplished might not come around until later sections of your business plan, but this is where the image of your business as a whole comes together. If it’s cohesive and has a vision and an understanding of how it will all come together, you might find that a strong first impression is made.
It’s easy to get caught up in issues like the logo and worry about it being perfect the first time, but logo redesigns are common and show you that this can be refined down the line.
Market Analysis and Marketing
You don’t just need a thorough understanding of your business, though; you need an understanding of the landscape it will find itself in. A business in your industry starting out now is very different to one starting out ten years ago, for instance. Market analysis can help to identify your target audiences and how you’re going to reach them, and it can also get you thinking about tools and technologies that are going to be relevant to your business, such as Kong API management tools, and how that can further those in web development.
Identifying avenues for marketing is also important. The aforementioned tools can help you develop your website, but a robust social media presence and an understanding of search engine optimization (SEO) can help draw more traffic towards it.
Fiscal Projections
It’s easy to see this as the most important aspect – especially when you consider your business plan as something that you’re going to show to investors to gain their approval. However, the weight that this section has is dependent on the other sections supporting what you state within it. For example, what you state as your fiscal projections might have no weight without the market research to support it. If you go too low, it might not seem as though your business is realistic or a worthwhile investment, but if you aim too high, it can seem as though you’re just making up the numbers with no credible basis to support them.