How to Write a Basic Business Plan

culled from:wikihow.com

Writing Your Own Business Plan

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   Determine why you want to write a business plan. What do you wish to determine about your business? Here are some common purposes and goals for business plans.
   • To evaluate initial startup costs.
   • To establish the fundamental viability of a project.
   • To define your products, services and customers and assess competitors.
   • To map out the business model, the goals and the strategy used to achieve them.
   • To communicate to others (banks, investors, partners, etc.) the business idea.
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      Begin writing, or brainstorm first and then write, according to the template that follows.
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      Introduce yourself. Tell the reader who you are, your background, education, professional experience, your successes to date.
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      Explain your product or service. What does it do for the customer? Does it have any unique features or facets? How it is produced?
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      Describe your target customers. Why you have chosen to market to these customers?
      • Back up your argument with evidence from your experience, reports, white papers, and market research.
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      Describe any unique selling points or advantages you have. Why will your customers buy from your business? Are you providing better value, guarantees, superior quality, reduced risk, or better location?
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      Explain how much your customers will pay for each of the products or services you will provide. Describe any up-selling or cross-selling opportunities and how many times a customer will buy from you in a typical year. Again, use any market research or other evidence you can bring to support your argument.
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      Explain how many products you can produce or how much service you can provide in a typical year. Back this up with whatever supporting evidence you have.
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      Examine how much each unit of product costs to produce. If your business is a service business, describe how much it costs to provide the service. Don't forget overhead expenses, such as keeping the lights on or paying somebody to staff the front desk.
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      Detail how much start-up investment the business will require and what you require it for.
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       Explain why your business is viable and what evidence you have to support this claim.
       • This will require some market research to demonstrate that there is a viable market for your product or service.
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       Summarize. On a single page at the beginning, list the main points of you plan in bullet point form. This is single most important part of your business plan. It will be read first by all readers of your business plan and will determine if they will read further and ultimately support you business idea or not. Write this summary last, but put it at the front of your plan.