Bizstartup.ie - Start Up Kit

This document should be regarded as a tool that collates all the essential elements of the business.

A business plan is needed for three reasons: to help record the research and decisions made during the planning process; to guide you through implementation; and to communicate with your bank, potential investors, support agencies and others who may help grow your business.

The plan should be clear, thorough and demonstrate viabilityusing strong projection data and effective visuals. It should explain the company’s strengths as well as discussing how weaknesses will be addressed.

Doing the business planning is of vital importance before you go to actually write the business plan. You need to sit down and decide where the business is going, how to get there and factor in what could go wrong, as well as preventative measures.

The research into the new venture will be the longest part of the process, varying from a few weeks to a couple of months, while writing the plan might only take you a couple of days or weeks.

As has often come out in Dragons’ Den, the weakest part of a lot of business plans is incredible sales projections, so you need to have researched the market properly before making those.

Components of a business plan:

Executive summary

This is the first page of the plan and represents your ‘selling document’. Tweak this according to who will be reading it. Outline the value proposition and explain the niche your product or service is going to successfully fill. Ideally it should be one page. Write it last.

Introduction/outline of the project

Here you will give the reader an overview of the business and include details such as who you are, what the business is as well as the make-up of the product.

Management section

Tell the reader who is going to own and manage the business. This is important because it will make the potential investor feel giving you money is a safe thing to do.

Marketing and marketing strategy

Make sure to expertly address the following questions: where is the market? Who are your customers going to be? What are they going to buy from you and why are they going to buy it? Who are your competitors? How do you persuade your customers to buy from you rather then from your competitors? Does anyone want this? Showing that a market for your product is already in place will make your proposal all the more attractive.

Explain your pricing plan, packaging and your company policies.

Production

This is probably the least important part of the business plan and one which entrepreneurs tend to over-emphasise because they’re so enthusiastic about their product. Try to keep it short, a photo or illustration can often illustrate it better than a lot of text.

Finance plan

This section will give a detailed financial projection on how much money you need month by month for the next three years. Getting the numbers right is critical. It will outline the cash flow and the profit and loss you will have as well as what the balance sheets will look like at the end of each year. 

Appendices

This should contain any supplementary information such as CVs of the promoters/management team, testimonials from satisfied customers or from prospective customers and details of market research.