The essentials of a Business Plan

Before starting to write a business plan you should have asked, and answered there questions:

• Where are we going?
• What are our key objectives?
• How will we achieve them?
• How will we know if we are succeeding?

Armed with that information you can then begin to create the outline structure.

A Business Plan should be a useful summary of

• why you are in business,
• what you will achieve over the period of the plan,
• how you will do so and
• the risks you foresee and your plans to handle them

A good Business Plan has a clear structure, is easy to follow and puts each key subject in a separate, numbered chapter.

Most Business plans have the following chapters, usually in this order:

• Exec Summary
• Vision and Mission
• Company Description
• Our products/services
• Industry and competition analyses (market share)
• Target market
• Marketing plan
• Operations plan
• Financial plan and reports
  
• Management plan
  
• Critical risks

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