Preparing a project work plan is one of the first and necessary steps when starting any business or startup project. More than choosing a service or product to sell, finance, marketing, and growth acceleration techniques are all vital to a business plan.
It is more than copying ready-made templates or available examples and filling in the blanks. The business plan writing service may consist of one page or extend to forty pages explaining everything related to your company and its services in detail.
Preparing an effective action plan depends mainly on the research and data collection necessary to draw up the plan. And take the necessary decisions regarding:
- Marketing Strategies
- Funding requirements
- appropriate profit models
- Risks
- The competition
The business plan is the map the company will work on to succeed and start making big profits. But before that, you will need real and accurate information about the size of the industry. The size of the competitors, the product, and the customers. And you can get all of this through serious market research.
The answer to the question of how to write a business plan for your startup depends on the type of project. And your purpose for writing the business plan. Most entrepreneurs believe a business plan is simply to convince investors or banks to raise investments.
This is not their only purpose of them. The business plan comes in all shapes and sizes depending on the size of the target market. And the stage of the project. For example, the startup needs a business plan that includes all expenses. And how to reduce them. In addition to all the techniques and opportunities available to increase growth in a short period.
Types of Action Plans
The well-known type of business plan is the one that is written based on the target audience, and there is another type to facilitate the management of the company from the inside and ease of dealing between team members and each other. Therefore, it is called an internal business plan.
An internal business plan can be written for a specific project so that managers and executives can estimate the size of profits and study the feasibility of a particular project. The former two may include forecasts of profitability and growth 5 or 10 years into the future.
The third type is external plans that target investors and banks for borrowing or attracting investment. The investor wants a business plan that shows growth and profitability to calculate the return on investment for the amounts he will pay to the company.
How to prepare a business plan for your project or startup company?
What you write in the plan depends on the audience, the questions they want answers to, or the problems they are trying to solve. So, the most popular sections of a business plan are:
Executive Summary
Regardless of which business plan format is used, the executive summary is the first section of the business plan. It is a section that summarizes for the reader what the company is, where it is now, where it is heading, and its plan for success to reach its goals. With business plans prepared for investors, this section is one of the most important sections that may attract the investor’s attention.
Although this section appears at the beginning of the business plan, it must be written at the end. It is by no means a summary of the whole action plan. So when you write it at the end, all the threads and points on your mind will make you write it distinctly and clearly for the reader.
The summary should include the following:
- Mission: It explains the answer to the question “Why?” Why is your company in the market? All activities of your company must stem from the mission.
- Company information: a brief sentence on the company’s history, and it must include the date and location of the company, in addition to the names of the founders and the number of employees.
- Products and Services: Briefly describe your company’s services and products to its customers.
- Financial information: If your company is seeking financing, you can refer to existing investors at this point.
- Forecasts: Briefly explain the company’s growth and profit expectations according to a certain time rate. And according to what I have prepared in the plan in the other sections.
Company Description
Describing the company isn’t just telling people that we “sell stuff.” This section overviews the company, including its structure, owners, and management. A simple historical summary.
The markets in which the company is located and the markets it plans to enter. The purpose of describing the company is for the reader to understand its goals and how it intends to achieve them. After completing this section, the reader should have clearly understood the nature of the company’s work, its structures, objectives, advantages, and strengths.
For more info visit https://www.mbplans.com/
Work environment analysis
Planning for a company or an emerging project is a process that does not stop when preparing a work plan. There must be a clear and effective system for measuring the company’s performance to ensure that things are going in the right direction. The business plan should include the tools and techniques necessary to periodically evaluate the company’s performance compared to other companies.
The work environment includes external and internal factors that affect the company’s work. Internal factors may include the company’s culture, organizational structure, and approved management methods.
External factors may include social activities, market changes, and developments that affect customer behavior. It also includes innovation and new technologies that may help or destroy a company’s profitability or productivity.
Analyzing these factors and their impact on the company will help you develop strategies and techniques for action that will help you face any risks or take advantage of them as much as possible.
Industry
When preparing a business plan for your company or your startup project, you must have the necessary information about the industry in which you work. This information will help you to significantly develop the working mechanism and keep abreast of any developments that occur in the industry that may negatively or positively affect the company.
When writing the industry study section, you can do so in four steps:
- Introduction to the industry and its spread areas and simple history of this expansion.
- Review the most important developments and growth patterns that occurred in the industry.
- The most important factors that affect the industry are, for example, the political conditions and government support for some related services.
- What is your company’s current position in the industry, and how do you plan to advance by taking advantage of the advantages and factors you have identified.
Competition analysis
The business plan includes a competitor section explaining your current situation compared to theirs. However, it is difficult to decide your company’s performance if you do not know the size and performance of the competitors.
After gathering the necessary information from your market research, you can write this section in four steps.
- A list of competitors includes the name and location of each competitor and the products it offers. And the pricing system used.
- Strengths and weaknesses of each competitor.
- Analyze your company’s strengths and weaknesses, and focus on how to reduce weaknesses and increase strengths.
- Clear information and numbers will describe your company’s role in the market and how it can compete for a large market share.
Market analysis
The market analysis section should include a summary of the market you focus on and the most important facts and information that may help you with your marketing and production methods.
The most important thing that should be included in this section is the following.
- Description of the industry, market, and growth opportunities.
- A target audience description with accurate ratings and a clear profile for each category.
- The size of the market, its current status, is it increasing or decreasing, and expectations that it will continue or stop.
- The company’s pricing system and its comparison with competitors. And features of the system that your company follows.
Marketing plan
One of the most important sections in the business plan is the marketing plan and the strategies and techniques used.
- Ways to penetrate the market show the company’s plans to enter this market.
- Growth strategies by introducing products and services to new markets and new users.
- A strategy analyzes alternatives and new ways to distribute a product or service to increase sales, such as hiring sales staff or opening new stores.
- The fourth strategy controls how to communicate with customers, such as advertising methods, types of customers, and how to communicate with each category.
Operations and management plan
This section is for the work team and management. The operations plan is the engine that runs the company’s machine. Without a plan of operations, none of the above can be implemented. This section should include all the details and roles each team member will play in their day. Through this section, any team member can learn about his exact role and duties.
It also includes the job hierarchy for each person in the company and the structure followed, through which each person knows who is responsible and his management role. What makes matters clear to every employee in case of any problem and refer to the competent official.
Finance
Financial data should be written in the business plan, such as income, financial liquidity, profitability system, pricing systems, opportunities to increase sales, and the expenses made by the company. The most important thing that should be included in this section is the future expectations of the company’s financial conditions supported by the necessary data and information during previous years and the patterns followed.
Click to read more articles.