Business Plan: How To Prepare Towards Success

Business Plan: How To Prepare Towards Success – Many entrepreneurs find drawing up a business plan a tedious activity. However, the benefits that can be derived from a well-prepared business plan far outweigh the pains of planning and developing one. Preparing a business plan is not that difficult. With patience and practice, one can develop his/her business planning skills in time.

The business plan is composed of several components, namely: timetable, objective, the marketing, production, organizational and financial aspects of the prospective business undertaking.

Under each component of the business plan, the several specific areas to be covered are:

I. Introduction and General Background of the Project
This component will feature the name of business, its location, nature, the name(s) of the owner(s) of the business, brief description of the business, and the objective(s) of the business.

II. Marketing Plan
Includes product range, specifications, product mix, projected demand, target market, competition, and selling strategy

III. Production Plan
Should include the location and layout of plant facility, process, equipment required with the description, power requirement, utilities requirement, plant capacity, raw material sources, and land and building requirements

IV. Organization and Implementation Schedule Plan
Should include details on staffing complement – number and required skills, place of business and form of business organization. Also it should show a timetable outlining the different points in time within which the different phases of the project are to be carried out.

V. Financial Plan
Must include calculation of initial investment requirement, operating requirements and costs, working capital estimate, projected sales and production program, total projects cost, project financing sources, profitability at 100% capacity utilization, breakeven analysis, projected Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Cash Flow Statement

The objective of each business undertaking should be set at the beginning. Would be entrepreneurs should consider setting their objective the SMART way i.e. Specific as to what it is the entrepreneur wants to achieve, Measurable in quantifiable terms, Attainable given the entrepreneur’s abilities and resources, Realistic enough to aim for, and Time bound to span fixed period.

By doing so, objectives will be expressed in explicit, definite and quantifiable terms that answers what is to be achieved, how much and how to achieve it.
When preparing a business plan, seek competent advice but write the plan yourself. This way, you would get to know your business more intimately than you would if somebody else did the planning for you. Carefully note all external factors that might affect your business and figure out how to react to them. Include in the plan all the details of how you would run your business. It should state your goals and how to achieve them, your study of the markets, strategy in dealing with competition, and the support systems you would put in place to ensure success.

There’s a saying that no customers, no business. So winning customers and be satisfied with your products and services are the games of the day. One person worth emulating in this strategy is Sam Walton, the world’s greatest merchandiser. In building Wal-Mart into the world’s biggest retail store, he visited the most number of stores and asked the most number of questions pertinent to his business than any other retailer ever did.