Do you have a business plan?
Think about your project as of a journey. You need to know where you are going, and how you will reach the destination. You are not the only one going for the trip, as many people did it before you, do it with you, and will do it in the future. While not everyone makes it to the end of the road, some individuals do, and that is great, as you can learn from their experience, and not repeat the mistakes they did. Their projects are the perfect opportunity to polish yours and aim it for success.
Business plan writing triples your chance of finding the investor who will agree to help you financially. And if your plan is good enough, it will also guide you during the project execution. How to make it great and attract enough funds? Here are all the answers you were looking for.
- To the core, and nothing more
It is impossible to create an ideal business plan. While you should aim to make it good, you cannot allow yourself to spend too much time perfecting it. Include the most significant details, and keep going.
- Do not forget about basics
There are three main sections you have to present. They are encompassing a lot of important elements you can learn more about in from any sample. These sections are the market analysis, operations/procedures, and finances.
- Research and process
As you do not have the company yet, you have enough time to research the market, the competitors, potential clients, etc. The more you know, the more confident you will feel while writing the plan, presenting it to investors, and implementing it.
- Focus
Know exactly what you will sell and who will buy it. You need to understand who your customers are and why they would buy your product/service.
- Study the field
Know how the market works and what makes it work. Search for the links, model, dependencies, and any details that can help you understand what you are getting yourself into. This tip is useful even if you have been in the industry for a while, so do not ignore it even if you are a pro.
- Understand what you will do and how you will do it
Think about the way your company will function. Write down the daily operations that every member of your team will have to take. You need to think about everything from cleaning the office and supplying it with water and coffee to reaching the customers and managing the small projects.
- Do not forget to update
When you start bringing the plan to life, not everything goes as expected. You may see the things you have failed to consider, so be prepared to change some parts of the plan, reconsider strategies, etc.
- Make it polished
While the content of the plan is what matters the most, looks matter too. Be sure to make the paper look structured and well-formatted. Use readable typefaces and font sizes. Proofread and edit the mistakes and typos, and consider using the help of the professional editor if necessary.
- Use visual materials
Although your plan will most likely be about 20 pages long, it does not have to be the plain text. Try to insert tables and graphs instead of textual data piles, and your plan will surely look more appealing.
- Facts or assumptions?
You have researched the market, described the project, and did your best to back the claims up with the factual data. However, you certainly were not always objective. Take a critical look at the plan and try to find the parts where you have “guessed” how the customers will react to the product or how many of them will buy it, and similar sections where you were clearly biased and blinded by the significance of own idea.