A business plan is the final development of your business idea, and therefore one of the most important factors.
To sum up why a well-prepared business plan matters, two things stand out:
- It lets us judge for ourselves whether our business project is viable.
- It helps us get financing for our business, whether from public bodies, private institutions or investors.
It doesn’t matter whether the business or company you’re going to set up is big or small. If you don’t take the time to prepare and develop a good business plan, you may not get the financing you want. It doesn’t matter whether you plan to open a café, a clothing store or a distribution company: the points you need to put in writing in your business plan are exactly the same. That’s why we’re presenting the universal business plan.
The structure you should follow is basically this:
- Business description
- Market research
- Sales and marketing description
- Technical description
- Purchasing plan
- Organization and human resources
- Legal form
- Economic and financial study
- Risk assessment
- Final summary
To show you what to include in each of these sections, we’ve prepared a description of what you need to study and put into the business plan. We prepared it carefully and in some depth, and we hope you find it useful: The structure and content of a good business plan.
Remember: the type and size of the business don’t matter. When a business plan is being assessed, the presentation, the structure and complete content are everything.
Further reading
- Tips for choosing the legal form of your business
- How to run your company well
- Five ways to grow your business
- The advantages of starting a business in a crisis
- How to become a successful entrepreneur
Featured image: Nenad Stojković, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
