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Zusammenfassung von The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan

Name: The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan
Rating: 4.1 (37 reviews)
Author: Hal Shelton

Hal Shelton

A Pro Shares a Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Plan That Gets Results

4.1 (37 Bewertungen)

17 Min.

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Entrepreneurship

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The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan
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What’s in it for me? Become the best of business plan builders.

Do you instantly get sweaty hands when someone says that you have to create a business plan before you can realize your entrepreneurial dreams and endeavors? Maybe for some, who associate them with too much wasted effort and frustration, they’re even a deal-breaker.

But it’s really no biggy if you know how to go about it.

These blinks of The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan take you right to the core of the issue – that is, why business plans are so damn important, how to avoid common mistakes in both style and content, and how to craft them successfully.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

when it makes sense to make your business plan a 30-page roadmap – and when it doesn’t;
why you should pay extra attention to the executive summary; and
which three basic financial statements you simply must include in your business plan.

A business plan is a multi-purpose tool for refining any idea.

Most people have heard of business plans but don’t know a ton about them. So, what exactly are these tools of entrepreneurship?

Well, a business plan is basically a brief write-up that lays out the basic elements of a soon-to-be company. There are a few things to keep in mind before you sit down to write a business plan, and the first is knowing when you need one.

For instance, say you’re forming a new business – like opening a hair salon, buying an existing motorcycle shop or launching a start-up based on your own unique idea. Every one of these actions requires a business plan that details how operations will take place.

But what does a business plan really do?

Essentially it helps structure your project, confirm its feasibility and crunch the numbers on its projected profits. So a business plan is more than a mere formal, administrative document. In fact, writing one should be a creative process that helps you flesh out your business idea.

It’s this process of thinking that will help you determine how likely your chances of success are and whether your idea is financially sound. Not just that, but in your business plan you’ll set reasonable goals, go over your benchmarks and put the finishing touches to your concept. This exercise is necessary because the time you invest here will help you identify and avoid any potential errors, thereby boosting your chances of success.

And finally, it’s important that you clearly state your value proposition. You can think of this as your elevator pitch. That is, imagine you step into an elevator only to find Mark Zuckerberg. Now you’ve got 15 seconds to win him over to your idea by answering the questions, “which problems are you solving?”, “how are you better than the competition?” and “why will you succeed where others have failed?”

Avoid common mistakes to draft an appealing business plan.

Before we get to the real meat of writing a business plan, it helps to go over potentially deal-breaking mistakes and learn how to avoid them, specifically when it comes to seeking funding.

First of all, precision is everything, especially when identifying your competition. That means you need to be accurate and state exactly what you intend to do. So, while it’s nice to share your dreams with people, your business plan should deal with concrete issues like financing, product development, distribution and branding among others.

First things first: feasibility plan, feedback, family finances.

OK, now that you know about common pitfalls, let’s have a look at strategies for writing a strong business plan. The first thing to do is to put together a feasibility plan, a tool for challenging your assumptions.

This document, about five pages in total, should cover the key elements of your plan: the business idea, your main advantage over competitors, a profile of your target customer and a few snippets about daily operations. You should also include some figures that approximate your potential cash flows.

The first part of your business plan is also the most important.

We all know not to judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to business plans, the opening section can make or break the deal: it’s called the executive summary and it’s absolutely essential.

That’s because this section might be the only one your readers even look at. After all, bankers and investors are busy people, often mired in piles of business plans. Since they’ve got limited time to review them all, it’s unlikely that they’ll get past the first two pages of your plan if the story you tell doesn’t grab their attention.

A strong business plan gives detailed descriptions of the concept, operations and team.

You might have been working on a project for years and take things about it for granted, but it’s all new to those reading your business plan, which means you’ll need to present your ideas clearly.

For starters, you should detail your product or service, the channels through which it will be distributed and any competitors. When it comes to the product, naturally your readers will want you to paint a clear image of how it works. If you invented a new type of electric engine, investors would want to see the technical details of the device.

You must detail your strategy and path to success.

Once you’ve got this information laid out you’ll need to communicate your business strategy and your plan for reaching your goal. To do so you should break it down into three parts.

First, include a market analysis that details the size of your market and potential customers or business clients. By beginning this analysis with the size of the market, you’ll show that there are enough customers to make your idea profitable.

Forecasted financial statements are invaluable tools to prove that your business is profitable.

There’s another aspect of your business plan that’s absolutely essential to investors and that’s the financial statements. Most of us don’t know much about this, so it’s helpful to start with the basics.

Financial statements are basically charts that detail key financial figures regarding your business activity, and drafting them is the last step before you tackle the executive summary. In fact, these tables are a kind of summary that uses numbers to wrap up everything you’ve previously described.

Different types of funding work for different financial needs.

Congratulations, you’ve got everything you need to craft a stellar business plan! But now it’s time to talk about investors. Because knowing how to approach them is essential to your plan’s success.

First off, if you are going to apply for a bank loan, don’t go in assuming they’ll fully fund your business. In fact, bankers tend not to consider themselves the sole source of funding. That means you can’t expect to get more than 80 percent of your funding from a bank and, before you even apply for a bank loan, you should have secured some other funding. Not just that, but a bank will also want you to commit your own money, bringing in collateral of about 125 percent of the loan.

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Worum geht es in The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan?

The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan (2014) is an expert’s guide to crafting a strategy that works. These blinks explain everything you need to know about this process in a detailed, easy-to-follow structure.

Wer The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan lesen sollte

Business students eager to learn the secrets of a successful business plan
Anyone who’s thinking about going into business for themselves
Established entrepreneurs who are struggling to get the financing they need

Über den Autor

Hal Shelton’s 45-year track record with corporations and investment groups has made him the business expert he is today. Through his work with the SCORE Association, an organization that assists and trains small businesses, he has counseled over a thousand entrepreneurs.

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