Money and Personal Finance

Creating a dynamic small business plan is a critical step to understanding your business and developing successful strategies and goals / objectives. One essential feature of business plans that guides entrepreneurs to growth and profits is an effective business plan layout. After all, if the plan doesn’t cover the essential components of your business clearly and correctly, it will probably not be very relevant.

Here is a general outline for a success small business plan that covers all of the areas financial institutions and angel investors look for when lending capital and also provides an excellent roadmap for owners in tracking business milestones.
• Executive Summary – This needs to be a concise, hard-hitting overview of your business’ information, priorities, and projects. Keep it to 1-3 pages and write this section last so that the narrative accurately reflects the rest of the document. Remember, if this section must grab the reader–making her want to read more–or the entire business plan will be compromised.
• Mission Statement – Mission statements are ridiculed but it is always a good idea to document what your small business is going to do and why it is so important. The mission statement should not be any more than 1-2 sentences and should reflect the primary purpose for opening the business and why it is so important.
• Company Description – This is where you describe the nature of the business-does it sell a product or service, what target audience will it serve, what is the general territory it will cover, and what is the staffing arrangement.
• Risk Assessment – This allows you to do an honest evaluation of your business, its industry, and what pitfalls may affect you when you least expect them. It is very important to show that you have spent time to anticipate problems and identify potential solutions.
• Operations – This reflects the nuts and bolts of the business including location, staffing, employee recruiting, hiring, training, and evaluating processes, building / equipment lease or purchase, etc.
• Marketing – It is essential to have a strong understanding of target audiences or types of people who will be most likely to purchase your product or service. This is also the opportunity to discuss primary competitors and how you plan to optimize your business in a particular market or niche.
• Products / Services – Provide a detailed description of the product and / service your business will promote and other relevant information such as production / distribution methods, pricing, etc.
• Sales – Products and services rarely sell themselves so you need to describe how you plan on generating revenues and profits. Are you going to use advertising and, if so, what type (print, radio, TV, etc)? How will you measure the success or failure of your chosen method(s) to generate revenue?
• Financial Projections – This is another “nuts and bolts” section of the plan. It is essential to document overhead costs, product pricing, and anticipated profits from your business. Create a spreadsheet that shows each line item and tracks projected figures as well as actual.
• Appendix – Pull together all relevant documents for your business such as insurance policies, leases, and industry-created information about your product or service. Most investors will want proof or evidence to show that you have complied with all regulatory / professional standards and to justify your optimism in your business model.

Reaching the decision to write a small business plan is certainly an important step in attaining success and profits. However, careful attention needs to be given to the business plan layout to ensure that you include all essential elements needed to guide your actions / decisions and attract financial institutions or angel investors.

Business Plans
A Business Plan is a document that describes in detail how your business is set up. Business plans cover your business structure, your products and services, your market research and marketing strategy, and your complete budget and financial projections for up to five years. Both startups and existing businesses require business plans. Developing these documents requires a lot of research and number-crunching.

You need a business plan for two primary reasons. First, spending the time to do this work clarifies your thinking, provides you with information previously not considered, and gives you a workable strategy to follow for the period covered by the plan. Your business plan is your blueprint to success — it outlines the steps to move from business idea to business success. And if your research reveals that your idea isn’t destined for success, then better to know it now then a year from now when you have lost thousands of dollars. You can spend your time planning another idea that could have a better future.

Secondly, if you are hoping to raise funds through a business loan, a venture capitalist, an angel or an incubator, don’t even consider approaching these moneylenders unless you have a thoroughly researched business plan in your hand. Experts estimate that it takes approximately six weeks to develop a business plan, so whipping one up the day before your appointment with the banker won’t work.

Business Proposals
A business proposal is a document that you submit to another enterprise proposing a business arrangement.

There are two main categories of business proposals: invited and non-invited.

As an example of an invited proposal, government and large corporations wanting to purchase services or products from private suppliers often post public tenders inviting contractors to bid. You will be competing against all bidders that noticed the posting and responded. Similarly, some businesses will send Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to a selection of businesses that they are willing to consider as a potential supplier. In this case, you will be competing against perhaps five businesses that the client has already handpicked as suitable.

Both of these examples require a business proposal. In some cases, the client will provide a Bidder’s Document that stipulates the style of proposal that they want to receive and the categories of information to be covered. If no Bidder’s Document is available, the style and categories of the proposal will be up to you to decide.

If you are responding to an RFP or a call for tender, you will know that the service/product is wanted, but you will be competing against the other people who bid. You must sell your company as the best possible choice of all the bidders.

In a non-invited proposal, you might have an idea for a product or service that would be of benefit to Company X. You submit a proposal to Company X suggesting that you provide this service or develop this product in exchange for funding or some other consideration. Although the nature of the proposal could differ from the example given, essentially you are proposing some type of business relationship (something more complex than let’s exchange weblinks).

In this case, you don’t know if the company is open to your proposal or whether they will like your proposed idea. However, if they do like the idea, you won’t be competing against numerous other bidders. Your proposal has to sell not only your concept but also your company. It must convince the client that not only is the service/product potentially valuable to them, but you and your company are credible and stable.

Whether invited or non-invited, your proposal must be well researched, well written and contain a reasonable budget. Spend time on this document and you’ll be ahead of the people who threw something together on the bus riding to work

You’re a small business. You want to be successful. To be successful you need a business plan, right? We have all heard the stories about writing business plans. So, we assume that we have to do the same thing; spend countless hours writing our plan, with mind numbing detail, excruciating spreadsheets and tons of minutia that we all know is either made up, or useless. And the end result for the vast majority of business plans? They end up sitting on a shelf, never reviewed, never updated. When it comes to small business planning, traditional business plans are a complete and total waste of time, and energy.

First let’s clarify something that is critical to the success of your business. There is a vast difference between a traditional business plan, and business planning, especially when it comes to small business. Traditional business plans were typically used to get a business funded, or by larger companies to acquire an existing business. They were not designed to run a business.

Business planning is about creating a plan or road map for your business. In the cases of most small businesses, planning is something that is usually just put off or avoided altogether. Why? Because they think that planning for your business is the same as writing a traditional business plan!

What’s the alternative to writing a traditional business plan? The best thing you can do is write a plan that can fit on a single page!

How is that possible, especially when we have been convinced that when it comes to business planning, that “length is strength”? Simple, bring everything down to its core. Focus on the key success factors for your business. Again, this is about running your business and creating plan for how you will get there, not impressing anyone with extensive data..

Here are 3 key questions that your plan should answer.
• What is your realistic vision for your company? What will it look like in terms of revenues, markets or regions served and your primary products and services within a manageable time frame, say 1-3 years?
• What is your point of differentiation or what makes you unique?
• What will you measure to know if what you are doing is working?

By keeping your plan to a single page, you will also be able to keep your plan current and relevant to your business. If there is one thing that you do, it would be to make your plan a dynamic tool for your business. If things change in your business, and they will, update your plan. Commit to keeping it updated, and if you have a new idea, or you decide to go another direction, update your plan.

Paul “Bear” Bryant, the famous coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, has a famous quote that really sums up the need for you to plan for your business.

“Have a plan. Follow the plan, and you’ll be surprised how successful you can be. Most people don’t have a plan. That’s why it’s easy to beat most folks.”

If you want to be successful, you need to have a plan. And when it comes to small business planning, that plan should be as focused as possible. And if you do that, like Coach Bryant said, you’ll find it easy to beat most folks. Plan your work. Work your plan.

Writing a business plan is very important for a small business. You have to explain your background, qualifications, experience and your capacity to implement the project. A good business plan is absolutely essential to convince the banks and financial institutions to lend you money for the project

Your business plan should explain who is starting the project. What is the project? When are you starting the project? Why are you starting the project? How are you going about it? The results expected from the project, should also be mentioned.

Your background and qualifications have to be explained in detail. You have to explain what projects you have done before. You should give a detailed explanation of the product or service you are going to launch. And also the competition you might face. If you are already in business, you should also give details of the activities of the company or business. The revenue expected should be mentioned in detail.

If it is new business the details of how you are setting up the business. How long it would take to set it up? Your production and sales targets should also be mentioned. How you are meeting these targets should also be explained.

Where are you going to set up the business? Whether it is a shop or a factory? How are you acquiring the land? The details of construction of the building and the costs involved should be mentioned.

Your marketing plans will have to be explained. Who are your customers and how are you going to reach them should be explained. Whether you are hiring a marketing company to market your product or marketing it on your own has to be explained. If you are planning an expansion, the details of how it would be financed should be mentioned.

You have to do quite a bit of ground work and research before starting any new project. It is always better to have contingency plans to get over any unforeseen problems. I have seen people visualizing various scenarios, and making plans to face them. It is always better to look before you jump.

There are two main kinds of business plans that can be created for the clients. Both of these are planned in a way that it helps in developing new businesses through conceptualization.

These business plans will have achieved their purpose only after the organization has started operating actively.

A Concept Presentation Plan is the first kind.

Concept Presentation Plans typically range between 10-24-pages in length; these basically give a picture of the organization’s business concept, goals, principals, market trends etc. This plan includes no financial statements. The main purpose of this is to make the landlords and managers believe in this that your organization has a very appealing concept of business, and yours is the company that they should be interested in for leasing the available space.

The Full Financial Business Plan is the second kind of business plan.

Companies generally need Full Financial Business Plans to take loans from banks, and also to lure investors to lend them money. It all depends on what it contains; it could be anything from 25 to 100 pages of data long. This includes the essence of the concept presentation plan, though mainly this explores the total costs of the project, also around when the project will begin bringing in profit.

A full financial business plan is essential for any organization that is opening a retail business. This business plan is perhaps more important to the company making it more important than any one else as it helps to visualize the profit and the loss.

It is extremely important for the company to identify the individuals who don’t need a peek into your finances. It is in fact advantageous if they don’t. All realtors and also the property managers fall under this group.

The Concept Presentation Plan must include a cover page, a statement of the mission, the products, a market trend analysis, the principals, the marketing techniques, the service philosophy, the target market locations, the target market and a sample menu.

For more on this please visit: Simple Business Strategies and Writing a Business plan for any business