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MindMap Gallery Business Plan Final Version
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Business Plan Final Version
Creating a comprehensive business plan is crucial for the success of any organization. It serves as a roadmap that outlines the goals, strategies, and operational details of a business, providing a clear direction for growth and development. A well-crafted business plan includes sections such as executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management, product or service line, marketing and sales strategies, funding requirements, and financial projections.
Edited at 2022-07-22 11:45:44
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- Outline
Business Plan
V. Operational Plan
Production
Describe your production methods, the equipment you’ll use and how much it will cost to produce what you sell.
Quality control
Describe the quality control procedures you’ll use.
Location
In this section, expand on that information with details such as:
The size of your location
The type of building (retail, industrial, commercial, etc.)
Zoning restrictions
Accessibility for customers, employees, suppliers and transportation if necessary
Costs including rent, maintenance, utilities, insurance and any buildout or remodeling costs
Utilities
Legal environment
What type of legal environment will your business operate in? How are you prepared to handle legal requirements? Include details such as:
Any licenses and/or permits that are needed and whether you’ve obtained them
Any trademarks, copyrights or patents that you have or are in the process of applying for
The insurance coverage your business requires and how much it costs
Any environmental, health or workplace regulations affecting your business
Any special regulations affecting your industry
Bonding requirements, if applicable
Personnel
What type of personnel will your business need? Explain details such as:
What types of employees? Are there any licensing or educational requirements?
How many employees will you need?
Will you ever hire freelancers or independent contractors?
Include job descriptions.
What is the pay structure (hourly, salaried, base plus commission, etc.)?
How do you plan to find qualified employees and contractors?
What type of training is needed and how will you train employees?
Inventory
If your business requires inventory, explain:
What kind of inventory will you keep on hand (raw materials, supplies, finished products)?
What will be the average value of inventory (in other words, how much are you investing in inventory)?
What rate of inventory turnover do you expect? How does this compare to industry averages?
Will you need more inventory than normal during certain seasons? (For instance, a retailer might need additional inventory for the holiday shopping season.)
What is your lead time for ordering inventory?
Suppliers
List your key suppliers, including:
Names, addresses, websites
Type and amount of inventory furnished
Their credit and delivery policies
History and reliability
Do you expect any supply shortages or short-term delivery problems? If so, how will you handle them?
Do you have more than one supplier for critical items (as a backup)?
Do you expect the cost of supplies to hold steady or fluctuate? If the latter, how will you deal with changing costs?
What are your suppliers’ payment terms?
Credit policies
If you plan to sell to customers on credit, explain:
Whether this is typical in your industry (do customers expect it)?
What your credit policies will be. How much credit will you extend? What are the criteria for extending credit?
How will you check new customers’ creditworthiness?
What credit terms will you offer?
Detail how much it will cost you to offer credit, and show that you’ve built these costs into your pricing structure.
How will you handle slow-paying customers? Explain your policies, such as when you will follow up on late payments, and when you will get an attorney or collections agency involved.
VI. Instructions: Management & Organization
This section should give readers an understanding of the people behind your business, their roles and responsibilities, and their prior experience. If you’re using your business plan to get financing, know that investors and lenders carefully assess whether you have a qualified management team.
Biographies
Include brief biographies of the owner/s and key employees. Include resumes in the Appendix. Here, summarize your experience and those of your key employees in a few paragraphs per person. Focus on the prior experience and skills that have prepared your team to succeed in this business. If anyone has previous experience starting and growing a business, explain this in detail.
Gaps
Explain how you plan to fill in any gaps in management and/or experience.
Advisors
List the members of your professional/advisory support team, including:
Attorney
Accountant
Board of directors
Advisory board
Insurance agent
Consultants
Banker
Mentors and other advisors
Organization Chart
Develop and include an organization chart. This should include both roles that you’ve already filled and roles you plan to fill in the future.
VII. Instructions: Startup Expenses & Capitalization (Optional)
In this section, detail the expenses involved in opening for business and how much capital you’ll need. (Do not include ongoing expenses after your business opens; those are listed in the Financial Plan.) Estimating startup expenses as accurately as possible helps you gather enough startup capital.
Start-Up Expenses
Opening Day Balance Sheet
Personal Financial Statement
VIII. Instructions: Financial Plan
Your financial plan is perhaps the most important element of your business plan. Lenders and investors will review it in detail. Developing your financial plan helps you set financial goals for your startup and assess its financing needs.
12-month profit & loss projection
Also known as an income statement or P&L, the 12-month profit and loss projection is the centerpiece of your business plan.
3-year profit & loss projection (Optional)
A three-year profit and loss projection is not essential to a business plan. However, you may want to create one if you expect your business’s financials to change substantially after the first year, or if investors or lenders require it.
Cash flow projection
The cash flow statement tracks how much cash your business has on hand at any given time.
3-year cash flow statement (Optional)
Depending on your needs and the purpose of your business plan, you may also want to include a 3-year cash flow statement.
Projected balance sheet
A balance sheet subtracts the company’s liabilities from its assets to arrive at the owner’s equity.
Break-even calculation
The break-even analysis projects the sales volume you need in order to cover your costs.
Use of capital
The break-even analysis projects the sales volume you need in order to cover your costs.
IX. Instructions: Appendices
Agreements (Leases, contracts, purchase orders, letters of intent, etc.)
Intellectual property (trademarks, licenses, patents, etc.)
Resumes of owners/key employees
Advertising/marketing materials
Public relations/publicity
Blueprints/plans
List of equipment
Market research studies
List of assets that can be used as collateral
X. Instructions: Refining the Plan
For Raising Capital from Bankers
Bankers want to know that you’ll be able to repay the loan.
How much money you’re seeking
How you’ll use the money
How that will make your business stronger
Requested repayment terms (number of years to repay)
Any collateral you have and a list of all existing liens against your collateral
For Raising Capital from Investors
Investors are looking for dramatic growth, and they expect to share in the rewards.
Investment amount you need short-term
Investment amount you’ll need in two to five years
How you’ll use the money and how that will help your business grow
Estimated return on investment
Exit strategy for investors (buyback, sale or IPO)
Percentage of ownership you will give investors
Milestones or conditions you will accept
Financial reporting you will provide to investors
How involved investors will be on the board or in management
For a Manufacturing Business
Explain the operations involved in manufacturing your product/s.
What equipment is needed? What are the production/capacity limits of the equipment?
What are the production/capacity limits of the proposed physical plant?
Is specialized labor needed?
What raw materials do you need for manufacturing? Are there any special requirements for storing these?
What quality control procedures will you use?
How will you manage inventory levels?
What is your supply chain?
Explain any new products you’re developing, or products you plan to begin developing after startup.
For a Service Business
Explain your prices and the methods used to set them.
What systems and processes will you use for ensuring consistent delivery of services?
What quality control procedures will you use?
How will you measure employee productivity?
Will you subcontract any work to other businesses? If so, what percentage of work will be subcontracted? Will you make a profit on subcontracting?
Explain your credit, payment and collections policies and procedures.
How will you maintain your client base and get long-term contracts?
Explain any new services you’re developing or services you plan to add after startup.
For a Retail Business
List specific brands you plan to carry that will give you a competitive advantage.
How will you manage inventory? What inventory management software will you use?
What forms of payment will you accept? What payment processing service will you use?
What point-of-sale software and hardware will you use?
Explain your markup policies. Your prices should be profitable, competitive and in line with your brand.
Initial inventory level: Find the industry average annual inventory turnover rate. Multiply your initial inventory investment by the average turnover rate. The result should be at least equal to your projected first year's cost of goods sold. If not, you may need to budget more for startup inventory.
What are your customer service policies?
How will you handle returns and exchanges?
Will your retail store also have an ecommerce site, or is one planned for the future?
For an Ecommerce Business
Will you sell a physical product, a service, a digital product (such as eBooks) or some combination of these?
If you’re selling physical products, how will you brand and package them?
Will you sell on your own website, online marketplaces (such as Amazon) or both?
What technology providers and platforms will you use to run your ecommerce site?
Web hosting service
Web design service
Shopping cart provider
Payment processing service
Fulfillment & shipping services
Email marketing services
Can the solutions you’ve chosen quickly scale up or down as needed?
Where will you get your products? Will you manufacture them in-house, buy them from manufacturers or use drop shippers?
How will you handle returns and exchanges?
What are your customer service policies? How will you provide customer service?
Will you use any proprietary technology of your own and if so, what advantages does that give you?
For a Software or SaaS business
What is your pricing structure? Will you use a free trial, “freemium” or paid business model?
If you offer free services or a free trial option, how will you upsell customers to a payment model? What percentage of customers are expected to become paying customers?
Have you tested your software? Are any “early adopters” already using the product?
How will you encourage long-term contracts in order to create recurring revenues?
How will you manage rapidly changing markets, technologies and costs?
How will you keep your company competitive?
Will you use in-house developers or outsource this function?
How will you provide customer support?
How will you retain key personnel?
Are you using any proprietary or exclusive software that will give you a competitive edge?
How will you protect your intellectual property?
What additional products or updates to current products are you planning after launch?
IV. Marketing Plan
Market Research
The total size of your industry
Trends in the industry – is it growing or shrinking?
The total size of your target market, and what share is realistic for you to obtain
Trends in the target market – is it growing or shrinking? How are customer needs or preferences changing?
Barriers to entry
High startup costs
High production costs
High marketing costs
Brand recognition challenges
Finding qualified employees
Need for specialized technology or patents
Tariffs and quotas
Unionization in your industry
Threats and opportunities
Explain how the following could affect your business
Changes in government regulations
Changes in technology
Changes in the economy
Changes in your industry
Conduct a SWOT analysis to identify
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
Product/service features and benefits
Describe the most important features. What is special about it?
Describe the most important benefits. What does it do for the customer?
Explain any after-sale services you plan to provide:
Product delivery
Warranty/guarantee
Service contracts
Ongoing support
Training
Refund policy
Target customer
Identify your target customer groups, and create a demographic profile for each group that includes:
For consumers:
Age
Gender
Location
Income
Occupation
Education level
For businesses:
Industry
Location
Size
Stage in business (startup, growing, mature)
Annual sales
Key competitors
Identify your major competitors
Direct competitors
Indirect competitors
Conduct a competitive analysis
Factors to consider:
Products
Price
Quality
Selection
Service
Reliability
Stability
Expertise
Company Reputation
Location
Appearance
Sales Method
Credit Policies
Advertising
Image
Positioning/Niche
Understand your business’s niche (your unique segment of the market) as well as your positioning
How you will market your product/service
Advertising may include:
Online
Radio
Cable television
Out-of-home
Which media will you advertise in, why and how often?
Marketing may include:
Business website
Social media marketing
Email marketing
Mobile marketing
Search engine optimization
Content marketing
Print marketing materials (brochures, flyers, business cards)
Public relations
Trade shows
Networking
Word-of-mouth
Referrals
What image do you want to project for your business brand?
What design elements will you use to market your business? (This includes your logo, signage and interior design.) Explain how they’ll support your brand.
Promotional budget
One-Time
Expenses
Monthly or Annual Expenses
Labor Costs
Pricing
Does your pricing strategy reflect your positioning?
Compare your prices with your competitors’. Are they higher, lower or the same? Why?
How important is price to your customers? It may not be a deciding factor.
What will your customer service and credit policies be?
Location or proposed location
Convenient location for customers
Adequate parking for employees and customers
Proximity to public transportation or major roads
Type of space (industrial, retail, etc.)
Types of businesses nearby
Distribution channels
What methods of distribution will you use to sell your products and/or services? These may include:
Retail
Direct sales
Ecommerce
Wholesale
Inside sales force
Outside sales representatives
OEMs
Conduct a distribution channel assessment
Ease of Entry
Geographic Proximity
Costs
Competitors’ Positions
Management Experience
Staffing Capabilities
Marketing Needs
12-month sales forecast
III. Products & Services
Product/Service Idea
Special Benefits
Unique Features
Limits and Liabilities
Production and Delivery
Suppliers
Intellectual Property Special Permits
Product/Service Description
II. Company Description
Business name
Company mission statement
Company Philosophy/Values
Company Vision
Goals & Milestones
Long-term goals
Short-term goals
Milestone 1
Milestone 2
Milestone 3
Target Market
Industry
Legal structure
I. Executive Summary
An overview of your business idea.
A description of your product and/or service.
Your goals for the business.
Where do you expect the business to be in one year, three years, five years?
Your proposed target market.
Your competition and what differentiates your business.
Your management team and their prior experience.
What do they bring to the table that will give your business a competitive edge?
Financial outlook for the business.
If you’re using the business plan for financing purposes, explain exactly how much money you want, how you will use it, and how that will make your business more profitable.