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Name: How to Prepare a Business Plan
Rating: 4 (92 reviews)
Author: Edward Blackwell

Edward Blackwell

Your Guide to Creating an Excellent Strategy, Forecasting Your Finances and Producing a Persuasive Plan

4 (92 Bewertungen)

17 Min.

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Unternehmertum Strategie

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How to Prepare a Business Plan
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What’s in it for me? Learn how to craft a successful business plan from start to finish.

A great business plan is a powerful tool for attracting potential investors. But more than that, it gives you a clear roadmap toward your company’s future and acts as a benchmark against which to measure your future progress.

That being said, writing one can feel like a daunting prospect. How can you show your readers that you and your venture are worthy of funding? And what information do you really need to include to have the best chance of success?

If these questions seem tricky then don’t worry – you’re in safe hands. These blinks will show you what to write and how to write it. Packed with helpful tips and practical insights, they lift the lid on what your investors are really thinking and reveal how you can make your business plan go straight to the top of the pile.

Whether you’re starting a small business from your bedroom or launching a large scale venture, you’ll learn how to get your audience as excited about your dreams as you are and convince them to hop on board your fledgling project.

Along the way, you’ll discover

what your business plan needs to say about the internet;
how you can wow investors with your writing style; and
why every entrepreneur needs a cash flow forecast.

A great business plan is a blend of several key ingredients.

Money doesn’t come easily. If you want to secure funding for your business, whether from a bank or a private investor, you’ll need to impress. That’s where your business plan comes in – a collection of pages with the power to set you and your ideas apart from the crowd. So just what ingredients go into the recipe for the perfect business plan?

Firstly, you’ll need to include an opening statement on what your business entails, the amount of money you want and what the funds are for. Make this brief – two sentences are enough.

Next, you’ll have to provide some insight into the market your business is aimed at. It’s a fact that most investors think business success relies on locating a sizeable market and selling to it. After all, you might have the best invention since Henry Ford’s automobile, but without any demand for your brainwave it’s still going to be a nonstarter. With that in mind, you should assume that this section will make the biggest impact on your audience.

After you’ve completed your opening statement and an analysis of your target market, you’re ready to give your reader some information about the person you know best: you. Make sure you include details of any relevant training or qualifications you have, as well as an overview of your previous achievements. Next, you’ll want to describe your product’s unique benefits for customers. Although you might have plenty you want to talk about in this part, it’s best to stick to accurate facts and precise figures.

In the final sections, you’ll need to tell the reader how you plan to establish your business and how you see it progressing over the long-term. As you get to work on this part of your plan, consider the following questions: How will I market my products or services? Who will manage the day-to-day running of my business? And where exactly will I carry out my work or produce my product? As you answer these questions, take care to make your plans sound concrete and sensible.

As well as explaining your start-up phase, it’s also important to address the longer-term prospects for your business. Potential investors need to know whether they are looking at a short-term venture or one that will keep being profitable for a long time. So ask yourself: Is this going to be a slow-growing business whose rewards will gradually accumulate, or will it burn fast and bright?

In the next blink, we’ll take a look at the financial information your business plan needs to set out.

A thorough cash flow forecast is a central part of any good plan.

Preparing a cash flow forecast strikes fear into the heart of many budding entrepreneurs. But this financial document is vital to the success of your business plan. Even if you’re hoping for a small loan of no more than a few hundred dollars, your bank will always want to see one. Luckily, with a little forethought, completing this exercise doesn’t need to be difficult.

This all-important forecast is simply a prediction of what your financial activities will look like in the future. It’s typically expressed as a spreadsheet with one column for each month. For every column, you just enter how much money you predict you’ll have coming in from sources such as sales. Then you set this incoming money against any outgoing payments you predict you’ll make for costs such as overheads, supplies and whatever salary you’ll pay yourself and any employees you might have.

Retailers will have to answer particular questions in their business plans.

Owning a little store on the main street is a dream many people have. Unfortunately, the reality of throwing yourself into the world of retail can be a nightmare. From the upper echelons of trade downward, it’s stiff competition, with ruthless corporations undercutting small shops and making it hard for the little guys to earn a crust. What does this mean for you? Well, if you’re a budding retailer you’ll need a showstopping business plan to make yourself an attractive proposition for a bank loan.

But there is some good news for would-be store owners. One benefit is that the person who reads your plan will probably have a decent idea of what your business entails. Even though the average bank manager will struggle to understand manufacturing proposals involving engineering or scientific jargon, they will have visited stores and will be familiar with buying and selling. So, you won’t need to spend too much time explaining things in your plan.

Your business plan needs to address your online presence.

Although millennials may find it tricky to remember a world without the internet, this incredible technology has only been with us for less than 30 years. This relative newness means that today’s businesses are still learning how to make the best use of it. For every online company that’s become indispensable to our daily lives, like Facebook or Amazon, there are hundreds of others that have made fatal mistakes. So when it comes to the internet, how can you avoid the hidden pitfalls and show your business-plan readers that you know your stuff?

You can start by familiarizing yourself with the most common mistakes companies make online.

Don’t forget to plan your borrowing.

For some entrepreneurs, borrowing money is a big no-no. These cautious folk want to grow their business under their own steam, gradually reinvesting profits in the company until it grows to its full potential. But for other new business owners, the scenic route is too slow. They want fast growth – and that means borrowing. If you want to steer your business into the fast lane, though, make sure you look before you leap – poor borrowing decisions have sunk many business dreams!

Luckily, you can avoid making costly financial mistakes by understanding what type of borrowing your business requires.

Write your business plan with clarity, brevity and a focus on figures.

Now that you know what’s going into your business plan, it’s time to present this information in the best way possible. When it comes to writing your ideas down, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. Get it right and you’ll have an engaged reader who’s eager to lend you money. But get it wrong and you’ll bore your audience and significantly reduce your chances of a cash injection.

You can help your business plan hit the spot by keeping certain style elements in mind as you write it.

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Worum geht es in How to Prepare a Business Plan?

How to Prepare a Business Plan (2017) explains how you can wow potential investors by making your business plan the best it can possibly be. Packed with insights into the world of entrepreneurship, these blinks give you immediately applicable advice to make your plan stand out from the crowd.

Wer How to Prepare a Business Plan lesen sollte

Business owners hoping to attract funding
Budding entrepreneurs looking for inspiration
Anyone dreaming of a career change

Über den Autor

Prior to becoming a writer, Edward Blackwell was a business consultant specializing in small enterprises. In addition to being an accountant and a business owner himself, Blackwell has authored several books about accounting and management. His book How to Prepare a Business Plan has been translated into multiple languages.

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