Are you planning to venture into business? Do you have an idea that you are convinced can solve existing problems in the society and transform an industry? One way of ensuring that your business will survive and thrive is to have a business plan. This is a guide for your business. It is a roadmap which you can follow to ensure entrepreneurial success. It indicates your goals and your plan to accomplish them. Today, you can write a short, concise and effective business plan. Unlike the olden days, your business plan can be as short as one page and still be highly effective. Not only does it save you time, a short business plan allows you to quickly refer to any part of the plan without flipping through pages of material. Traditional business plans were between 75 and 100 pages long. They were tedious to read and even harder to refer to. Thankfully, short business plans are accepted in the industry. Here is how to properly write a short but effective business plan.
Begin with a business description
This should always be the first section of your business plan. It describes the objective of your business. It also indicates the developments which you have made so far. In this section, indicate what you do in your business on a day to day basis as well as what you hope to do in future. Describe your products or services and the element which you believe is your competitive advantage in your niche industry. Strive to be as direct as possible as you write this section of your business plan. It informs the reader about your business. It also sets a brief but comprehensive tone for the rest of the document.
Suggested Reading : 15 Things You Need to Know Before Launching Any Successful Business
Market analysis section
Every business owner should always perform some market analysis before they launch their enterprise. This analysis can also be referred to as market research. It requires you to identify the types of people who could buy your products. Proper market research contains details such as their age, location, profession, association and other details of that nature. When you perform a market analysis, you get a clearer picture of what your target customers look like and also how you can approach and convince them to buy your your product or service.
The competitor analysis
Every business has some competition. These are the other businesspeople in your niche. Many people don't like to acknowledge competition. However, it is very important to study your potential rivals. Identify who you could be up against when you enter the market. Look at the various characteristics of your competition and observe how they could affect your business. A winning strategy of performing competitor analysis is by posing as their customer. Get their product and judge it yourself. Identify its weaknesses and its strengths. You can find some weaknesses that will be easy for you to exploit and emerge more successful than your competitor. In addition to that, you will be able to compare your business to your competition and possibly identify some of the qualities that could give you some competitive advantage over your rivals.
The financial analysis
Last but not least, you should indicate a financial analysis of your business. This is a very important section of your business plan. It examines the current flow of money in your business or in its perceived future. Many business owners are terribly intimidated by performing a financial analysis. Stand out from the rest and take the plunge. This particular section indicates if your business is profitable or not. Moreover, it shows you how much money you need to start your business or keep it running. Its significance allows it to be the conclusive factor in your plan.
Suggested Reading : 9 Simple but Powerful Ways to Effectively Market Your Business Online
Why is a shorter business plan preferred today?
There are number of reasons why businesspeople are encouraged to have shorter business plans. Firstly, these short documents make it easier for a business to launch faster. A short business plan requires that all the information about your business be compressed into an easily readable format. This is in contrast to the traditional business plans which were quite lengthy and took a long time to review.
A short business plan is good because your business idea can transform quite rapidly in the first few months after launch. As such, a short one is easy to update in real time. Its reader will be able to see the changes which you have performed as they read it. Moreover, a short business plan is perfect for your business pitch. You can actually hand it to each one of your investors and they will follow your logic easily.
A short business plan is easy for your team to read and understand. It allows them to comprehend the vision and goals which you have for your company and get on board with no hesitation. For you to achieve a short business plan, you need to have very specific goals. Each one has a strategy supporting it. Thus, your team can easily note these specifics and know their roles quickly. This contributes siginficantly to a quick launch of your business.
A short business plan can generate the interest around your business much faster than a long one. This is due to the straightforward points and easily understandable content. In addition to that, when you are performing your product testing and development, a short business plan allows you to keep your costs low. This is because every aspect in it has been economized and reduced to the bare minimum. This promotes cost effective testing and further development. A sensible advantage of this type of business plan is that its short nature prevents you from claiming the length of the document as an excuse to not to implement it and hit the ground running.
The Important Take Away
One of the main initial steps of starting a business is writing a business plan. It is a compass which guides your business forward into the future you aspire for it. Traditionally, business plans were long and tedious documents. Today, you can write a short but effective one. The instructions above show you how to write one. They are ideal guidelines on how to come up with a business plan that is short and highly effective in getting your business to the next level.
