Elements of a Business Plan

A good business empire will flourish when properly and adequately planned. After considering the fact that you need a good business plan, then you will need to spend sometime doing a business survey and research. To be successful in your business, you must have useful information and all key information written down on paper. Although, writing a good business plan without knowing the basic elements can be quite nerve- racking, exhilarating and challenging. It must be well structured in a mind blowing way so as to persuades potential lending institutions and investors to finance your business. However, you will find out that it is positively trilling to work through all those obstacles, concerns and problems and to find out some useful basic elements of a good business plan.

Believe it or not, your business plan does not need to be a novel although some business plan writers for hire will tell you it does. There are no strict rules guiding a business plan, but I will highlight ten basic key elements in a standard business plan.

Transmittal Letter

The transmittal letter for a business plan has similarities to a cover letter that accompanies a resume or cv. Potential lending institution and potential inventors read a well- constructed transmittal letter as a brief introduction to the business plan. It contains all the components to attract investors and to seek funding.

Business Vision and Philosophy

The business vision and philosophy can also address the industry knowledge, mission statement, visions and what distinct you from other competitors in the same line of business. The business philosophy and vision must be short, concise and a strong statement describing your visions, goals, aspiration and purpose.

Executive Summary

This is the strong part that must be kept brief and concise and must be mind blowing and not to bore the reader. It is meant to give a brief insight about the business and summary of the business. In this section you must put into consideration the intended purpose of the business and brief statement on how you intend to achieve the purpose.

Basic Company Information

List out all contact detailed information for your business i.e. business name, address, phone number and fax, email and website address.

Product or Services Offered

Try and highlight your services or product uniqueness, for example you are into furniture’s and you do produce a unique product with technological and innovative ideas. This section must contain all detail description on what makes your product unique and the type of woods used, the components, the technological innovations, technique used and other international certifications obtained to back up your claims for your products.

Company description, competitors and market

This shows what information you have gathered on your market analysis and research, you can include more about your product and service you want to offer. Be sure to include the cities, towns and countries you plan to cover and also discuss if you plan to operate online, location/venue and your market target and expectation.

Management, Organization and Ownership

 In this section you have to specify if you a re running a sole proprietorship, limited liability company. It must clearly state the officers/owners of the company and alongside with the entity you have formed (BN, LLC, LTD). You will need to provide bios of each officers/owners and key personnel, decision makers or management teams. If need be for you to be more elaborate you can prepare a flowchart showing managers and employees reporting to each manager and their role.

Marketing Plans

 This is the area you have to elaborate your marketing plans and how you are going to reach out to your prospects. The research analysis and survey, how you are going to win prospects over to your company, you have to include the SWOT analysis.

Plan of Operations

 This will be a well listed detailed plan on how you intend to run your business. The operational ethics must be highlighted and safety standards that will be put in place.

Financial Projections

 It will be difficult to give an accurate record if your business is new, the best you can do is forecast. The need to take all previously discussed information and research done seriously is that so that you can give a proper projection for three years.

After you have taken into consideration all the ten key elements and writing it down, you can now call a close friend or family member to read and make corrections before printing and binding.