The procedure for drawing up a business plan

Greetings, dear readers! Alexander Berezhnov is in touch. Today we will talk about business, or rather, about business planning.

As you know, any business or project starts with a business idea. But in itself, it does not carry much value, since most people give birth to dozens of ideas every day.

Many famous entrepreneurs, outstanding people in the field of training in management, leadership and planning speak about this. These are Brian Tracy, Stephen Covey, John Maxwell, Vladimir Dovgan, Alex Yanovsky, Tony Robbins and others.

Surely you had situations when an idea was born, but there was not enough time and energy to bring it to life, and most importantly, you did not know where to start.

This article will be useful for both beginners and existing entrepreneurs, because, as you know, any prosperous company or project always has a plan to achieve its goals.

When I myself was undergoing trainings in the field of business planning, I remember well the words of one of the trainers:

A dream differs from a goal in that it does not have a clear plan to achieve it!

In other words, if you don't have a good plan for achieving your goal, it is unlikely that it will become more for you than just a dream even after many years.

In this article I will cover the issues related to business planning, as I myself have experience writing business plans for my own entrepreneurial projects. And in order to convey information in an accessible language, before writing the article, I talked with two of my friends who are professionally engaged in writing business plans for entrepreneurs to order in order to attract outside capital to the business of their clients. The guys help entrepreneurs by writing professional business plans in obtaining loans, grants and subsidies.

Dear readers, I draw your attention to the fact that in these articles we will consider a simplified model of writing a business plan for starting a small business. And if you are faced with the task of writing a business plan for a large company, then I advise you to use the services of professionals who specialize in this.

I will no longer take your precious time, let's start ...

What is a business plan

A cheat sheet for dummies on how to write a business plan.

A serious project should start with writing a competent business plan. This is a document that describes the main points of future activities, anticipated risks, financial performance and much more.

Writing a business plan from scratch is often outsourced. This entails a number of disadvantages:

extra costs - drawing up a document costs at least 50,000 rubles;
consultants create it using a standard tracing paper, without delving into the individual features of the case, which are understandable only "from the inside" ;
if the document is written in dry language, it will not attract the attention of investors.

Current or future project leaders should do the work. They see the intricacies of the case and take responsibility for implementation.

If you figure out how to write a business plan, you will not only be able to forecast future entrepreneurial activities, but also strengthen your faith in the success of the business.

How to write a business plan competently?

If written correctly, a business plan will serve three purposes:

outlines a course of action for an entrepreneur;
helps assess development prospects;
attracts investors.

The document should answer the questions: what is the value of the described project, who is the future competitor, what risks lie in wait?

In order not to miss the details, it is worth writing your document using a standard structure.

The most important point, which is necessarily disclosed in detail, is the financial side of the issue. You need to write future income and expenses, and supplement with information about the starting capital.

How to write a business plan

Formation of a business plan is a complex multi-stage process based on different areas of modern sciences. To compile it, you need knowledge of marketing, finance, management basics and advertising strategy.

Select a field of activity

Defining a niche depends a lot on personal preference. It is worth thinking about how the finished business is seen, what results are expected from it.

At the initial stage, you need to set a minimum set of criteria that will help to highlight a suitable field of activity from hundreds of others.

Choosing a niche by risk

Any business plan can be characterized by the amount of upside (the amount of profit that will appear in case of successful development). The risk is associated with the failure of the idea as a whole, or with the receipt of less income in comparison with the invested funds.

There are niches that practically do not require investments to start, for example, consulting. Such a business can be profitable in the first days after launch.
Do not forget that areas with minimal investment risk also generate limited income.
Eminent brands need more than just a well-developed strategy to create a worthy competitor. You will have to have a whole artillery of resources to deal with the constantly growing indicators of your opponent.

When choosing a niche, there are two types of risk to consider: the likelihood of failure as a result of choosing an unsuccessful business model and the risk associated with its dysfunctional implementation.

In the first case, the collapse may be due to the fact that the goods do not want to buy at a given price, or the consumer will not need it at all. The entrepreneur will not justify his expenses and will incur losses.

If the initial financial needs are not covered, then it is advisable to choose an already proven business idea, the development results of which can be tracked on the example of the activities of future competitors. The upside of such tasks is limited in advance, and there is a risk of failing the implementation itself.

In order to understand what a business plan is for and in what order it is drawn up, you should define the very concept of this commercial definition.

The correct business plan is a step-by-step instruction for opening a new commercial project with a description and listing of the methods and means used in the process of achieving the intended goal.

With its help, an entrepreneur is able to identify all the opportunities for risks, as well as ways to reduce them and reduce the impact on business development.

By drawing up a business plan, an entrepreneur can predict the total amount of capital investment and the required amount of start-up capital before starting the project. In addition, with the help of a well-designed business plan, the chances of additional project financing at the expense of third-party investors are increased.

Drawing up a business plan for opening a health center will be given as an example.

Competent design

Great importance should be given to the execution of the business plan, as it plays an important role in the investor's decision to finance the project. Making a business plan can be compared to writing a thesis in a serious state university, which means:

Content of the business plan

There is no specific template by which the content of any business plan is drawn up due to the variety of types of commercial activities and the specifics of each specific type. However, there are also points of the content of the business plan common to all types of management, which should be consecrated. These include:

Brief description of the project

In this paragraph, in a concise and laconic, however, in the most interesting form for the investor, the project of opening a specific type of business is described, the goals and objectives of the project are highlighted, production volumes and turnover are predicted, the forecasted basic economic indicators are given: <

sales volume;
project profitability;
net profit;
investment amount;
payback period and so on.

As a rule, a short description is drawn up after writing the entire business plan and carrying out the corresponding calculations, in order to accurately capture all the key points of the project and present them in a favorable light for investors. Since all experienced investors first of all read the brief description of the project.

It's not enough just to make a plan, you need to constantly adjust it in accordance with market changes.

This will allow your business to "stay afloat", generating income and conducting a clear planning of the expenditure side of the budget.

Every successful individual entrepreneur (IE) knows that a well-written business plan is the "foundation" of any activity. Using a business plan, an individual entrepreneur can attract investors or apply for a loan from a bank.

A business plan is a complete program for starting and developing a business, containing detailed information about a product, its release and distribution. The business plan reflects the planned profitability of the firm and also demonstrates the financial return on investment.

Preparing a business plan for lenders should focus on specific financial indicators. The main rule of drawing up a successful business plan is dynamic presentation of material and brevity (no more than 15-20 sheets). Consider how to write a business plan yourself?

Title page

This is the face of your business. The title page "acquaints" a potential investor with a business idea, so it is very important to learn how to correctly draw up it.

The title page should be attractive and concisely inform the investor about the essence of the business. The mandatory clauses of the title page are: