You have a solid business idea and a winning business strategy. But you don’t know how to bring it in front of the world?
It’s the biggest challenge a lot of business owners face.
Sad!
Presenting a powerful business idea to investors, venture capitalists and business partners to avail of the perks is essential. Isn’t it?
Besides, crafting a solid business plan creates a 30% chance of growth.
So today, we decided to bring a step-by-step guide for you to create an irresistible business plan.
Enjoy!
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Here’s what we’ll be discussing today:
- What’s a Business Plan?
- Why is a Business Plan essential?
- How to create a Business Plan?
Table of Contents
What’s Business Plan?
A business plan is an overview of how the business will operate to achieve its fundamental goals. It’s a 15-20 pages document that outlines the strategic path for the next 5 -10 years.
A business plan mainly includes company description, sales & marketing strategy, company’s vision and mission statement, product, and services, financial projections, management and operations, funding requests, etc.
A business plan helps prospects, VCs, investors, and business partners understand the Company’s purpose and long-term vision. Also, it gives a bird’s eye view of how the Company will achieve those objectives.
Why Is A Business Plan Important?
Having a plan means you have a concrete reason for starting a business venture.
Here’s why you need a business plan:
#1 It’s A Roadmap To Run Your Business
Can you imagine going to a foreign place with no Google map?
No, right?
If you don’t plan, you wouldn’t have an idea of what your business will look like or how it’ll work in the next 5 to 10 years. You need to have the structure, a specified format of how it’ll operate.
A business plan helps you brainstorm possible solutions to the problem you’re trying to solve and present it to the customers and potential investors.
If required, you can also make the necessary changes depending on the market needs.
Also, you can track your progress and goals with the help of a business plan.
#2 Helps You Get Funding
Raising funds for your business is a crucial and challenging task. You need to have highly factual data regarding your business, how you will handle it, and your financial projections.
Why do you need it?
70% of 3,640 venture capitalists perceive a written business plan to be very important.
Potential investors and venture capitalists ask questions about the uses of funds like:
- How will you use these funds?
- What is the expected salary for the founders?
- Is it okay if you don’t get the entire amount you’re asking for?
- In what assets will this capital be invested?
- My investment is prone to what risks?
- Why are you raising capital in this manner?
- What percentage of this money will be used to continue fundraising?
- What are your expenditures each month?
A great example of this can be found in Convin’s recent seed funding story.
#3 Attract Top-notch Talent
Creative minds are always searching for revolutionary ideas. They want to work with a group of enthusiastic, passionate, and driven people willing to bring change into the world.
If you show them your business plan, they’ll be able to decide if they want to invest their time and energy with you. Your business plan is enough to get the gist of the process and future adventure. So they’ll make their decisions accordingly.
If you want a team of creative, energetic, high-vibrational sales reps, you need to have a solid business plan.
Talking about Top-notch talent, Do you know these Sales experts?
#4 Look For New Opportunities
As discussed earlier, having a business plan gives you a bird’s eye view.
It means you can brainstorm new ideas to improve products and services, rework existing ideas, and work on improving the marketing and sales strategies. Not only that, you can work on each aspect of your business.
A business plan helps you to see the bigger picture of your ideas Read more: how late is the closest grocery store open
Would you like to know more about small businesses before implementing a sales plan?
How To Create A Business Plan?
Creating a business plan step-by-step strategic process. Here’s how you can do it.
- Executive Summary
The brief of the entire business plan document. Sometimes prospects won’t see the entire document, so you have to prepare the brief to get the ideas in short.
Your business executive summary should have the following details.
Define the objective: Explain why you’re undertaking this adventure. Provide mission and vision statements.
Company description: Company description consists of details like company name, location, founder and co-founder names, purpose and goals, products and services, etc.
Competitive analysis: Include answers to questions like who are your competitors? What makes you different than competitors? Why would anyone choose you?
Market research: What’s your target market? What are their pain points? Are you providing the exact solution that they need?
Financial analysis: What’s the salary range of your staff members? How are the funds distributed?
Sales and marketing strategies: How do you market your products/services? How many sales has your business generated till now?/ from the beginning ?/ In the last 5 -10 years?
Products and services: What’s your core product? What did it cost? Is it worth the cost? What solution does it provide? Is it affordable?
Management and operations: How the business operates? What are the principles based on which it works? Include details of staff members like managers, HR, content marketers, and sales representatives.
Plans: What are your aspirations? Where do you see yourself in the next 5-10 years? What difference do you want to make in the world?
Recommended read: Would you like to chase the market predictions before they happen?
2. Business Model
The value of an organization to its clients is described by its business model. It shows the skills and resources needed to produce, advertise, and deploy this value and build successful, long-term income streams.
It is critical to consider the company model because it explains how you plan to profit from your business. The following information should be included in this section:
- Company strategy
- Value proposition
- Target market
- Essential alliances
- Pricing and positioning
- Distribution model
3. Mission & Vision Statement
“There are many tools available to help write a mission or vision statement. But I think it’s often best to keep it simple – one or two sentences – and describe why the business exists. What is the core value or the daily purpose? Write it down and share it with everyone!“
– Joanna Meiseles
The mission and vision statement should include the following:
Let’s analyze the mission statement of Tesla, an American automotive and clean energy company.
“To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.“
Tesla’s mission is to maximize the use of sustainable energy in the world. Observe how the word “accelerate” resonates with their industry.
Tesla’s mission statement condenses its purpose to support the world transition with sustainable energy.
Tesla’s vision statement is,
“Accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing mass-market electric cars to market as soon as possible.“
As you can see, Tesla’s vision of bringing sustainable transport technology to the market is clearly mentioned in the vision statement.
4. Market Research
It consists of all the details of your target market, such as who’s your ideal audience, where they live, are they male or female, their likes, dislikes, choices and preferences, interests, pain points, and the kind of solution that they’re looking for.
You need to mention in-depth information about your market and whether you’re providing the exact solution your target market needs.
5. Financial Projections
The financial projection estimates your future expenses and revenues. It gives you an idea about how the business will operate, required funds and expenditure, and whether it’ll be profitable or not.
Income statement: Revenue, expenses, and profit of a particular period. It should include revenue, fees, total income, income taxes, and net income.
Balance sheet: It’s a complete picture of the Company’s net worth. The balance sheet contains 3 sections: Assets, Liability, and equity
Cash flow projections: It helps to decide whether it’s a good time to invest or not,
Or the money should be saved. It gives potential investors ideas about your credibility. It should include details like cash revenue, cash disbursements, and reconciliation of cash revenue to cash disbursement.
6. Sales And Marketing Strategies
This section will include details about the sales strategies you’re implementing to market your product or services. Mention steps you would take to generate desired revenue for your business. This section should include
A Unique value proposition: Mention what makes you unique in the sea of the market.
Budget: What’s your estimated budget for marketing your products? Calculate the estimated cost and allotted budget for each product.
Pricing strategy: What’s the value of your product? Mention your pricing strategy, and you decide it.
Marketing plan: Are you marketing your product/service online or offline? In either case, how? What methods do you plan to use?
Sales/distribution plan: As the name suggests, this section outlines how you’ll transfer the product to customers.
7. Products And Services
This section of your business plan elaborates on the product description, pricing, product features, reviews, case studies, and other information.
It’s the most critical part of the entire document because that’s what your business is all about.
Some tips for writing the product and service section:
- Explain “why”: Mention why you chose to bring this solution. What problem does it solve, and what was the need of it.
- Sell with value: Instead of presenting features, tell what value it brings to the customer’s life. How does it make their life better?
- Justify the price: While negotiating, justify the product’s price.
- Explain with simplicity: Try to simplify your solution in as simple language as possible and use layman’s terms.
8. Operation And Management
Operation and management consist primarily of the info about how the business
operates and how many hours it works shifts, a list of daily activities, etc.
Also, mention the types of equipment, and notable tech requirements, if any, can be included in operations.
Management consists of info about the staff members, including HR, managers, employees, office staff, methods of recruiting candidates, and onboarding clients.
9. Funding Requests
This section includes the requests for future funding, usually within a span of, let’s say, 5 to 10 years. It should include specific details such as the business owner’s name, target audience, location, business structure, etc.
Specify if you’re looking for a short-term loan, long-term investment, or % of stakes. Ideally, you should include the following details.
- The amount required: The number you’re expecting to get from the investors. Mention the details like do you want a loan or investment. Consider the average period for which you’ll be needing the funds and ask accordingly.
- Plans: Mention how you’ll make use of the funds. What’s the expected ROI. Try to align investors’ long-term vision with yours.
- Financial information: Your funding history, loan, debt, taxes, etc. Make sure you provide thorough information.
- Terms and conditions: Mention how you plan to return the money.
Are You Ready To Make A Shift?
Post pandemic world is a world of virtual selling. Whether it’s B2B or B2C, businesses are shifting to virtual selling methods because that’s what the market needs.
Consumers have experienced the most acceptable, affordable, and fast virtual buying experience. Now, there’s no going back.
Convin is a conversational intelligence platform that helps B2B SaaS brands with high-velocity virtual selling.
