Archive for November 2011
A business plan’s contents are no secret. Many books, articles, and courses describe the major sections of a business plan. Although variations exist, there are key sections common to most outlines in business planning literature.
Executive Summary
An executive summary, generally one page to a few pages at most, covers all of the main points of the business plan to come.
Company Overview or Description
The next section begins with an overview of the current situation of the company. This covers who the founders are and why they started the company, what the products or services offered are or will be, and what steps have been taken toward the launch to date.
Market Analysis
Sections detailing research and analysis done on the market for the business come next. This should begin with an overview of the market or industry, including its size, breakup, and trends it is experiencing going forward. Data on the specific customer segments and competitors for the new business follow.
Marketing Plan
A marketing plan then covers what is generally called the 4 Ps of Marketing: Product (description of the products or services offered), Promotion (the promotional tactics to be used), Pricing (the pricing strategy for the business), and Place (the location for a retail facility or other means of distribution for the product or service).
Operations and Management Plans
The next section or sections detail the plan for how the company will operate and be managed. This must include details on who the managers are and their qualifications, whether they are partners or hired employees.
Financial Plan
The business plan continues with a description of the financial results the business intends to see, and the underlying cost and revenue assumptions. The financial section also details the amount of capital needed, what the funding will be used for, and the sources of funding that are being sought.
Appendices
Finally, a business plan concludes with appendices of documents which support the plan further. The appendices include full pro forma financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement) as well.
What are good online business ideas to make money from the internet? Many people have a dream to run their own business but they do not know how to get started. Some did not take any action because the high capital needed to set up a conventional business. One alternative is to start a business on the web. The best online business model that anyone can start is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing concept has been proven to work and many people are making good money from it. How can a new person set up an affiliate marketing business. This article will provide some information on the topic.
The affiliate marketing business model was created when merchants outsourced their marketing arm. Some companies are really good at creating products to meet a demand. Unfortunately, sometimes the merchant do not have the skills or enough resources to market their own product. This is where the online affiliates fill the gap. Affiliate marketers main role is to go into a particular market, create the interest and bring prospective customers to the merchant sales transaction page. When a sale is made, the merchant will pay a portion of the profit to the affiliate.
By utilizing this model, the online affiliate is free from the daily hassle of running a web business such as research and development, warehousing, logistics, customer service, finance etc. This is really good because the affiliate is not distracted from actions that do not generate money.
Affiliate marketing is really a good online business idea. Many successful internet business owners are making substantial income from it and have the option to quit their day job. Just like in any form of business, success will depend on the owner ability to acquire new skills and learn from mistakes. Luckily, there are many top internet marketers that are willing the share their knowledge and experience. All you need to do is to have a student mindset and learn from them.
The first real stage of writing your business plan concerns describing and articulating your business and what it hopes to achieve. This stage requires you to explain, as clearly as possible, what your business does.
It serves the purpose of outlining your personal vision for your business. So you will not only be explaining what it does, but also what you do and what your business is going to offer to the market.
Your first step is to put together an overview of your business. Firstly, you must be able to state when you started trading or are planning to begin trading. You also have to make sure that you include details of the progress you have made to date.
Then explain the kind of business you are running or are intending to run. This section must be as clear as possible so that your readers – whether they are potential investors or future employees or partners – can understand exactly what it is you do. If you can clarify what sector it is in – e.g. retail, manufacturing etc. – then this will make the picture clearer for the reader too.
Your next job is to outline any history that is important to the business you propose to run. For example, if you bought the business off someone else, it will obviously be important that the business plan shows some details of this transaction, as well as information on the seller of the business.
You must then outline the current legal structure of the business. This means ownership, the structure of the company as it stands in law, and so on.
Finish up the overview by articulating your vision for the future. This means thinking about the plans you have for the business as regards growth. It also means creating a picture of what your company will look like in the future.
After the overview, you then have to describe your product or service in detail. To get this section right, you must explain what makes it different to other products and services in the same sector, as well as the benefits it offers to the customer. To interest investors – or just to keep you on the right path as developments occur – you then have to outline what developments you are going to bring to your product or service. If you are going to run a cafe for example, you may plan to add another story in the future, to add value.
If you hold any patents or design rights, now is the time to declare them. And to finish up, describe the key features of your industry, in such a way that your product or service has a recognisable role in it.
At all times, make sure that you don’t throw in too much jargon, or industry specific terminology. If you are going to use the business plan as a means of acquiring investment, the last thing an investor wants is vocabulary they cannot understand.
So that is a detailed outline of the section of your business plan where you describe your business opportunity. This is often the most difficult section to complete. Be confident, follow the steps above and you will then be on your way towards completing your plan.