An assignment on business plan can be very interesting because it won’t be all theory or all calculations abut mostly, it’ll judge your strategic planning and ability to make decisions. While you’re working a business plan assignment, you’ll also learn new things about yourself: your abilities and drawbacks and this will in turn help you make improvements in the future. A business plan tests your entrepreneurial skills and will give you a clear idea about where you stand.
Now while making a successful business plan, there are certain things which must be included and other things which must be avoided. Here’s everything you’ll need to know for creating a practical and feasible business plan.
Homework before making a business plan:
Before actually starting a business plan, here are some researches which need to be conducted. Making the whole business plan can be a lengthy process.
- Zone out your potential markets:
This would require you to analyze which segments of the market would be interested in your products, the age group of the categories, their financial standings, their willingness to purchase. This should be done in a twofold manner: you must collect date yourself as well as from other sources. This is basically marking out the ideal consumers.
- Consider the size of your ideal market:
One must consider if the size of the aimed market is big enough. If a product is to cater to the needs of a certain ethnic group only, then it must be marketed only in areas which have concentrations of those groups. Similarly, if your product is expensive and is going to be affordable only by wealthy consumers, it must be marketed accordingly. One should also consider how often the product will be purchased. A shampoo will have recurring demand while a car will be a onetime investment.
- Figure out the needs of your company:
First one must decide if they are taking over an existing company with existing assets and employees or they are creating a start up. In either case, the company will need to make some investments in tangible goods – for instance, new copy machines, intercoms, files, desks, décor. Such investments must e listed up. Other concerns would involve the required amount of time and manpower to get things done.
- Create sample products:
A sample product will have a much stronger impression upon potential investors as compared to mere ideas. So if it’s possible, create sample products which can convey your ideas to investors. You might also try distributing the sample products among investors and potential buyers to get reviews and make improvements accordingly.
- Determine probable business locations:
If you are to start up a new company, you’ll require deciding upon a location. The location must be some place that has convenient transportation and communication facilities and is close to production resources and markets.
- Analyze the required investment:
Acquiring all the tangible goods and starting up a new company takes a lot of investment and if you’re planning something big, you’ll need investors. To start with, figure out the approximate cost you’d have to incur to get your business running.
- Target Investors:
Not all investors are going to be interested in your form of business. So a huge job is to identify the interested investors and to convince them that your business plan is a profitable venture. For small business plans, bank loans would be an obvious consideration.
How to write down a business plan?
Writing down the business plan is a step by step method, comprising of 7 steps to be precise. In writing down the business plan you are to illustrate the researches you’ve conducted and the conclusions which you have drawn. Once the homework or research it done, it’s time to put in down in paper.
- Start with the executive summary:
Beginning with a title page, one must lead on to the executive summary. This is what you use to create an impression on investors or on whoever is reading this business plan. In the executive summary, you describe your ideas about the business, you grand vision. You’re to explain what makes your company so special and what might make it the best among the rest. All of the big dreams and plans are to be incorporated here. This is not so much about the everyday details of the company, but more about its goals and ambitions and its apparent destination.
- Give a General Description of the Company:
Here one is to illustrate the general functioning of the company, the products it’s going to bring in the market or the services it’s going to offer. Give details about the potential markets for the said products or services as well as the factors which might positively or negatively affect the business of the company.
- Explain your Marketing strategy:
The business planner must chalk out a winning business strategy which will work for their particular products and services. There might be more than one of such strategies. The Business strategies are to be laid down in this part.
- Analyze competition:
Unless it’s a monopoly business, there’s bound to be some competition in the industry and it takes thorough research to mark out the most potent competitors. In competitive analysis, one has to gather knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of their competitors and develop strategies to have competitive advantage as well as think of barriers which can prevent new companies from entering the market.
- Define products and services:
Here the product descriptions are to be laid down in details and if the company is concerned with providing services, then everything about those services and their essential features must be explained here in this part.
- State the Organization and management plans:
A company fails without proper management and therefore, it is essential to have a management plan that will help with the continued functioning of the business organization. Under this segment, the tasks to be performed by each department, their responsibilities, and the expenditure which will be incurred by them are to be apprehended and planned.
- Consider the Financial plans:
Last but not the least, the financial factors which will be in effect, the plans which are to be put at work is to be mentioned here.
With this, a student should be able to create an excellent business plan but if they feel like they need more help. They can reach out to their teachers or seek business plan homework help online.