How to build a Business Plan
- Business Rescue Business Growth
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Your Business Plan is an essential document that describes your business and how it will earn money and make a profit. When building a Business Plan, you need to cover four key components. The plans kicks-off with the Executive Summary while the main body should contain details on Operations, Marketing and People. Here are some tips from the Be Rescued team on how to build a Business Plan.
How to build a Business Plan: Start with your Audience
The Business Plan is a vital tool that is often used to convince people to back a business. It’s essential that you build the Business Plan to suit your intended audience. So, with that in mind, think of getting to know the reader as the foundations of your plan.
Banks and Investors will often use Business Plans as the deciding factor on whether or not to fund a venture. Make sure that you include all the facts and figures they need to make an informed decision and demonstrate how your business will succeed today and in the future.
If you are planning to invite other businesses to collaborate with yours, then your Business Plan is a great way for a potential partner to assess whether you are a good fit for their business. Ensure that you include information that will resonate with your preferred partner and demonstrate that it will be a mutually beneficial partnership.
That said, there is so much additional value to writing a Business Plan other than using it to attract investors and partners. As a business owner, you will benefit hugely from writing a business plan as it is a great way to check your ideas make sense, helps you develop a strategy and make informed decisions.
When you build a Business Plan make sure that you include material that inspires and motivates you. Tell the story of your business. This will inspire others to back your business. The plan can be a great asset to communicate important details about your business to new employees, helping them to see the depth of your ambition and feel part of the team.
When building a Business Plan it’s crucial that you understand what you want to achieve from the get-go and knowing your audience is vital to its success.
3 top tips on how to build a Business Plan
- Granulate your plan into actionable and bitesize goals and make them SMART - specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.
- Be clear and use plain English. It’s essential that you avoid jargon and explain any technical terms clearly. We all use them at work, but don’t overdo acronyms, and if you do use them, write what they stand for in brackets.
- Show that you care about your business - that way others reading your Business Plan will care too!
Do you need a few pointers for your Business Plan? Be Rescued founder and business planning specialist Maria Pombo can help. Get in touch with Maria
How to build a business plan: 4 key components
The essential building blocks of a Business Plan are the Executive Summary followed by sections on Operations, Marketing and People.
The Business Plan opens with the Executive Summary
This is your chance to make a good first impression. The Executive Summary is in effect an elevator pitch to get people interested in the rest of your plan.
There are three vital elements in an Executive Summary: your vision, your products/services offering and your numbers. When writing an Executive Summary you should keep these in mind.
1. Your vision
This is where you clearly demonstrate what you want to achieve and what your objectives are for the business. You can also give information about you as the business owner to give potential investors more insight and help to build trust.
2. Your offering
This is your opportunity to briefly explain about your business, what products/services you offer and define your target audience. You should demonstrate the problem that you solve or the innovation you bring for customers that makes their life better and what sets your business apart from the competition.
3. Your numbers
Use this part to give key financial information about your overall numbers. If you are at the start-up stage these will be projections. If you are already in business include performance data i.e. your sales, your cost of sales, your operating costs and your earnings before tax. Also include sales forecasts for 12 months and further ahead for example 3 or 5 years.
Want to know more? See our blog on How to write an Executive Summary.
The 3 building blocks of the Business Plan
Operations
The first component in the body of your Business Plan, Operations, should give detail on the following:
- Your tools/plant/machinery/equipment.
- Your products/services/manufacturing delivery process.
- Detailed breakdown of your business Financials included but not limited to set-up costs, break-even and stress (or burn) calculations, projected cashflows, profit and loss, and balance sheet calculations.
- Your products/services descriptions.
- Your pricing against the costs of the products/services.
- Dealing with your debtors and creditors.
- Your business legal structure e.g. Ltd, Sole Trader, LLP, etc.
- Where you are trading from, is it a physical premises or online?
- Business owner personal financial statement or survival budgets if your business is a start-up or earlier stage of development.
- Your suppliers/materials.
- Licences, regulations etc.
- Your technology (computers, software, devices, etc.)
- Your environmental and carbon reduction plans and pledges
Marketing
The second component in the body of your Business Plan, Marketing, should give detail on the following:
- Your solution to a problem, need, or opportunity.
- Your products/services features and benefits.
- Your customer/s profile.
- Your competitors’ profiles.
- Testing your products/services and your market.
- Your pricing policy.
- Dealing with any complaints.
- Your sales strategy.
- Your customer care and engagement.
- Your marketing including PR, social media and advertising.
- Your market environment.
People
The third component in the body of your Business Plan, People, should give detail on the following:
- Your team. If you are a solopreneur, give details of any outsourced professionals.
- Who else do you seek outside help from (Technical, Professional, Financial, Legal)?
- Who manages the business and what is their experience?
- Who is in the sales force and what are their qualities?
- Who are the rest of your staff (Admin Support/Back Office)?
- Networking, both face-to-face and on social media such as LinkedIn.
- Who else do you connect with?
- Your people onboarding and care strategies
- How your business will get involved and serve the local or specific community and society
- Your business pledges for transparency and good governance
We will explore Operations, Marketing and People in future Be Rescued blogs so keep a look out!
Things to consider when building your Business Plan
- First impressions count! Don’t forget to make your Business Plan look professional. When you build your plan include a contents page, headers and section numbering. Put a cover on it if you will be distributing hard copies.
- Provide supporting documents. Include an appendix with products/services, expanded financial information and any literature on the business. You can also include bios for key personnel e.g. business owner and directors.
- Include as much detail as you can but be succinct. Some people are visual readers. Use visuals such as infographics to illustrate key data and essential points. This is your opportunity to tell the story of your business so use images and text to get your points across and connect with your target audience.
Key takeaways
There are four main components to building a Business Plan: the Executive Summary, Operations, Marketing and People. From the get-go, it’s crucial that you know what you want your plan to achieve and have your target audience in mind. This is your Business Plan, tell the story of your business to make valuable connections and bring your plan to life.
At Be Rescued, we specialise in Business Planning. If you need help to build a Business Plan or have any questions, get in touch with Maria.