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A guide to writing a kick-ass business plan

A business plan maps out how your business will operate and how this will help you reach your business goals.

A guide to writing a kick-ass business plan

Monday September 25, 2017 , 4 min Read

By putting your plan in writing, you’ll get a better sense of your business, know the steps to be taken to succeed, and inspire confidence in current and potential stakeholders.

We will go over the steps you need to take and considerations during each of these steps. Treat this as a handy guide, if you will, when you sit down to pen that B-Plan. If you thinking of starting a business, or already started one and still have not drafted your Business Plan; do it Now!

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Step 1: High Level Overview

Business Name

What Products or Services you wish to sell

Who is your Target Audience

What are your success goals

What is your Industry

How does your Product or Service work

What are the different roles in your company and what would be achieved by these roles

Step 2: Industry and Competitor Analysis

Detailed Analysis of your Industry with facts & figures

Is the indutry growing or shrinking

Why do you think there is an opportunity in this industry

Trends in the industry

List down all your competitors

Who are the major players

What is their market share

What market share are you looking for

What are the barriers to entry for this industry

Step 3: Target Audience Analysis

Decribe your target audience in detail

List your audience’s Demographic & Psychographic (values, attitude, personality, opinions, hobbies etc) info

What is the volume of this Target market

Why is this TG ripe for potential sale

How are you meeting your Audience’s needs

What is your differentiating factor

What problems are you solving for them that your competitor isn’t

What techniques are you going to use for this (innovation, thinking, quality, data etc..)

Step 4: Legal

Define the ownership of the business

What is the legal structure of the company

Compliances adhered to

Step 5: Product or Service Definition

Define in detail your product or service

What are the key highlights about your product or service you want people to understand

What stage is this in

What are the differentiating factors vis-a-vis your competitors

Does it use any special technology

Is there any design elements worth mentioning

Note the R&D done on this

Are there any patents

Step 6: Marketing Starategy

Describe your Brand’s Identity

How will this identity will help in reaching your target audience

What will be the voice and tone of your marketing efforts

What colors, imagery and visuals will be used

How will your introduce your product or service to your audience

What channels wil be used (social media, search, display ads etc)

What is your strategy for each of these channels

Step 7: Sales Strategy

How will sales be approached

What modes — partnerships, distributors, online or offline staore, salespeople etc

What are the sales steps already taken, if any

What is the progress already made and how to proceed from here

How will sales strategy work in tandem with marketing startegy

Step 8: Money

State what funding you need now, how long will that last & what is needed in the future

Where will the funding be used; give detailed breakup under each head

Prepare an actual cash flow till date and projected cash flow

Prepare monthly and yearly projected P&L statements

List out what key miletones must be hit to be financially stable and when

Identify what activities might lead to a loss and what steps are to be taken to break even

There you go guys! I have personally learned these guidelines from the best and also used these for preparing B-Plans for my startups. Remember, you are making the B-Plan for yourself and not just for an investor. It is essential for You, the founder to have answers to pretty much everything about your business in your head!

Now, go forth and Get Working!

PS- I send out ocassional mails to my network sharing valuable content I come across and some which I pen down. The theme is centered around Marketing, Design Thinking & Startups. Would love to have you on board too: Sign-Up Here