Welcome to How To Write a Business Plan
To Start Your Own businessif you're thinking of starting a
business you should know how to write abusiness planit is usually observed that despite
having a great startup ideamost businesses are not successful
according to common statistics withinthe first five years of operationsninety percent of businesses fail and of
the remaining ten percent only one ofthe ten businesses last past the first
five yearsso what makes some businesses fail while
others prosperthere may be several reasons including
but not limited to or customer servicepoor logistics and cost management and
inadequate product but the major reasonis the lack of a business plan business
plans help define goals and achieve themif you take out time to set concrete but
achievable goals and chart a plan tosuccessit can help you realize your dream and
make your business flourishI have compiled an all-inclusive list of
areas that need to be considered whilewriting a business planthese will help you in defining your
goals and the path your business needsto take to achieve them.
step 1 defying your vision when you
start a business you have a clear goalin mindyou know exactly what you wish to
achieve with your businesshowever after some time the clarity of
your vision will become blurred andyou'll forget some of your brilliant
ideas writing down your vision for thecompany will help you to define itand moreover it will help your staff
identify with the missionall daily activities of the business can
then be aligned with your vision for thebusinessthis should be the first step of writing
a business planstep 2 set your goals and objectives for
the businessnever assume that your goals need to be
small to accommodate your limitationsthink big clearly define your short-term
goalsthe ones that you wish to achieve within
12 months mid term goalsthose that will take between two to
three years and long-term goals considerall aspects such as the revenue you wish
to generate number of i'll let you onthe number of customers you need in your
database the target population and agegroups as well as the amount of passive
income that needs to be generated infuturestep 3 define your unique selling
propositionwhat is it about you that is different
from the crowdyour unique selling point or USP will
make you more attractive to potentialcustomersI was your product or service different
from others in the parkin it could beanything from additional services to
personalized customer service you caneven offer them better after sales
warranty and support while writing abusiness planyou just need to highlight the extras
that your customers are getting from youto make your business stand outstep 4 know your marketit often happens that you have a
brilliant idea but someone else hasalready started a business with a
similar planthis is a very common occurs but you
should not let this start - how manypetrol stations are there several
businesses can provide the same serviceand still survive as the market place is
huge and it can sustain multiplebusinesses but for this you should know
your market like the back of your handresearch and find out how many
competitors you have what services theyofferwhat are the current and future trends
of the industryno the larger picture are there certain
benchmarks that can be used to gaugeyour business performance such as gross
turnover profit margins etc once youknow the inner workings of the market
you can manipulate them in your favorthis is an important part of learning
how to write a business planstep 5 know your customerthis goes without saying customers are
the most important part of any businessand you should know the customers your
business caters to todaycustomers are spoiled for choice and
they have thousands of options
for everyproduct so if you want them to buy your
productyou should know what your ideal customer
ones this is the reason why you need todefine your target populations and
research their habits while writing abusiness planunderstanding the motivation behind
customers actions can make your businesssuccessfulyou can focus on the areas that grab
your customers interests and stopwasting energy on the restput yourself in their shoes and then
think what would make them choose youeach time write down the ideas and
implement themstep 6 research the demand for your
businessyou must have studied the demand and
supply curveeven if you have it it stands to logic
that there should be ample demand foryour product find out the demands before
investing in a new businessthe basic rule is the man should be more
than supply if this holds true for yourmarket your business will thrive but if
the demand is less than the supply yourbusiness will eventually die outso do your homework and gather as much
information as you canyou can do a secondary search right from
your home over the internet or yourPublic Libraryyou can even visit government offices
for this information but by far the bestoption is primary research for you
directly interact with your targetaudience to know their preferences and
how ready they are to buy your productso hit the road and note down all the
interesting ideas you get to increasethe demand be smart and invest your life
savingsonly after ascertaining that there is a
demand for your productstep 7set your marketing goals so you have
finished the research and define yourbusiness visionthe next step in writing a business plan
is setting out marketing goals these forthose goals that define how your product
would look like what it will cost howyou distribute it and the ways in which
you can promote itmost businesses do plan this but they
neglect the most important areasyou should set up measurable marketing
goals that will help achieve yourprimary business objectives questions
like the number of products yourselfwhat will be your product development
strategy your price margins deliverymethods and promotion plan should be
duly considered when you ask yourselfthese questions they will help to find
the goals for marketing your businessstep 8 define your marketing strategynow that you have your marketing goals
you need a plan to achieve themhow many products you need to produce
himself and at what profit margin so asto get your desired revenuewhat will be your system of delivery and
your coverage areawhat will be the strategies to promote
your business the media that you willuse be very specific as these will
translate to action and your ultimatesuccess or failure plan for every
venture ality while writing a businessplanthis is a very vital step of writing a
business plan so acquaint yourself withit so that you can easily navigate
through each step 9 take actionand of course without action all else is
a wastethis is the most important part of
writing a business plan you can plan allyou want but unless you do the actual
work and bring customers to yourstorefront you won't earn anything even
if you find that according to thebusiness plan your idea isn't viabledon't give up there are thousands of
other ideas out there and you canultimately find one that suits youif you wish to be wealthy healthy and
happythere is a business waiting for you to
grab your business plan will provide thedirection and focus but you will need to
take the first stepwriting a business plan isn't difficult
if you know what you should focus on younow have an idea of what is important
and how you should tackle the task ofwriting a business plan and you are now
better equipped to start a successfulbusiness start your research todayjot down all those brilliant ideas set
your goalsthe find a path and don't let anyone
stop younow you know how to write a business
plan and the manager for success is inyour handsmake the best of ityeahyeahyeah