How To Write a Business Plan

Many entrepreneurs write a business plan only when they need to secure start-up financing. However, your plan is far more than a document for banks and investors to read; it is an invaluable* roadmap for launching and growing your business. In order to put your business concept on paper, you need to think through and research the many factors that are needed to make sure your business is a success. With a plan, not only can you spot potential weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, your plan can help you make informed decisions about your venture before you commit yourself legally or financially.
1. Executive summary

Your executive summary should be 12 pages long, and provide an overview of your business concept, key objectives of your business and your plan, ownership structure, management team, the product or service you are offering, target market(s), competitive advantages, marketing strategy, and a summary of your financial projections. Your executive summary should be written last, after you've written the rest of the plan; each paragraph should be a summary of the more detailed, related section of the plan.
2. Business Overview

In your overview, include details regarding your businesss history, vision and/or mission, objectives, and your ownership structure.
3. Products and Services

Expand upon your products and services, including features and benefits, competitive advantages, and, if marketing a product, how and where your products will be produced.
4. Industry overview

The industry overview is your opportunity to demonstrate the viability of your business by discussing the size and growth of your industry, the key markets within your industry, how your customers will buy your products or services, and which markets youll be targeting.
5. Marketing Strategy

Here you describe your target market segments, your competition, how you will differentiate your products or services, and your products or services unique selling proposition (USP). Discuss product or service pricing and promotion, including how your promotional programs will appeal to each of your target market segments. Provide a plan of marketing tactics, such as trade shows, press-magnet events, social media marketing (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.), networking, and print, media, or online advertising. Include the cost associated with each tactic. Describe how your products or services will be sold (e.g. storefront, online, wholesalers), and your target markets buying cycle.
6. Operations Plan

Provide a profile of your management team, your human resources plan, your business location(s) and facilities, your production plan (if selling a product), and an overview of day-to-day operations.
7. Financial plan

Some believe this is the most important part of a plan so much so, its worth dedicating up to 80% of your time to writing this section. You'll need to show three years worth of projected financial statements, including income statements, pro-forma balance sheets, and monthly cash flow and annual cash flow statements. Summarize each statement into a few easy-to-understand sentences and put these in a cover page for the statements. Be sure to document all of the assumptions you used in forecasting your revenues and expenses. *Note: invaluable is NOT the opposite of valuable. It means too valuable to put a price on it.

A.

entrepreneur projection

investor growth

legally target (v.)

competitive tactics

strategy location

Match the words in the box with their definitions below.

1. competitive: able to be as successful or more successful than others, for example by selling their goods or services more cheaply than others. 2. location: the specific place or position of something.

3. entrepreneur: someone who starts a new business or arranges business deals in order to make money, often in a way that involves financial risks. 4. target: 5. growth: 6. investor: to do something with the intention of having a specific effect or direct actions towards a specific market. An increase in the size or value of something. someone who puts money into a company, business, or bank in order to make a profit.

7. projection: A statement or calculation about what you think will happen in the future, based on the information that you have available now. 8. legally: 9. strategy: 10. tactics: according to or not against the law. a planned series of actions for achieving something or skilful planning in general. steps that you take in order to achieve something.

B. Complete the table below with the correct forms of the words in each row. Where there is a forward slash (/), there is more than one possible answer. Noun Verb Adjective Adverb Person

entrepreneurship investment law/legality competition strategy projection(s) growth tactic(s) target location

---------invest legislate compete strategise*** project grow ----------target locate

entrepreneurial investible/ investable** legal competitive strategic projected growing tactical targeted located

--------------------------legally competitively strategically --------------------------tactically ---------------------------

entrepreneur investor lawyer competitor strategist ----------------------------tactician ---------------------------

** investible/ investable both forms of the spelling are commonly used. There is no general agreement as to which is correct. (The Financial Times favours investible.) *** strategise is increasingly common in business English but is not always listed in dictionaries.