Is there a viable market for the product or service you want to sell? How old are your potential customers? What do they do for a living? Is your product or service attractive to a particular ethnic or economic population? Will only wealthy people be able to afford it? Does your ideal customer live in a certain type of neighborhood or area?
How many car mechanics are in need of soap in any given community? How many children in the United States are currently under the age of eight? How much soap will they use in a month or a year? How many other soap manufacturers already have a share of the market? How big are your potential competitors?
Don’t aim for the best of everything at the beginning. You can forgo the expensive trimmings of an office of a more well-established company and stick to the basics at the beginning. Get what is affordable, works and is actually needed and don’t buy frills.
Don’t lose heart if you discover some, or even all, of your ideas have been adequately covered by the market. Don’t ignore this reality; instead, work with it. Can you still do a better job or provide a better widget than your competitors? In many cases, it’s likely that you can provided you know the market well and how to add value in ways your competitors are not doing. In other cases, it may be a case of focusing more narrowly or more broadly than your competitors are doing.
What will your product or service enable people to do better, more cheaply, more safely, or more efficiently? Will your restaurant make people’s palates delirious with new taste sensations? Will your new mousetrap help people capture mice without feeling sick to their stomachs? Will your new bubblegum scented bubble bath revolutionize the way children agree to take nightly baths?
Your competitive advantage may include designing special features not found in rival products. It may entail superior service characteristics such as speedier delivery, a lower price, or more attentive sales people––these are never to be sniffed at as possible winning ways, as many companies grow complacent and can be overtaken by giving customers experiences that are better than the average expectations. Even where your product or service is already well established, perhaps you’re establishing an image or brand of exceptional quality or reputation.
Keep in mind that your initial plans will undoubtedly change as your business grows. You may need to hire more managers to supervise your expanding staff or to set up new departments to meet new customer demands. Projected growth and expansion for your company should be mentioned in your business plan, but it’s not the primary focus. For now, you want to secure help in getting started and convince your funding sources that you will become profitable.
Investors will want to know if you’re capable of running the business. Do you need to bring in experienced managers right away? Will you keep some of the existing employees or hire all new people? And where do you find these potential employees? Funding sources will also want to know if any of your partners expect to work alongside you or if their obligations are only financial. Your plan will need to specify the key management jobs and roles. Positions such as president, vice presidents, chief financial officer, and managers of departments will need to be defined along with stating who reports to whom.
Consider how will you reach your customers. [14] X Research source What will you say to persuade and convince customers that your product or service is better value, more timely, more useful, etc. to the consumer than the rival product or service? If it currently has no rival, how will you properly explain the purpose of and the consumer’s need for the product? What advertising and promotional efforts will you employ? For example, two for the price of one specials or free coupons inside those same kid-oriented cereal boxes? Where can you locate lists of the greatest concentrations of children under the age of eight or whatever group constitutes your market?
What will your basic sales philosophy be? Building long-term relationships with a few major clients or developing a clientele of many short-term customers?
Title Page and Table of Contents Executive Summary, in which you summarize your vision for the company General Company Description, in which you provide an overview of your company and the service it provides to its market Products and Services, in which you describe, in detail, your unique product or service Marketing Plan, in which you describe how you’ll bring your product to its consumers Operational Plan, in which you describe how the business will be operated on a day-to-day basis Management and Organization, in which you describe the structure of your organization and the philosophy that governs it Financial Plan, in which you illustrate your working model for finances and your need from investors Sustainability Plan, in which you consider how your business’s operations in the ecological, social, and economic context will create long-term value for society. [16] X Research source
At first, do not worry about capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. All you need to worry about is putting your ideas down on paper. Once you have a general form, you can spend time proofreading your plan and correcting mistakes. Have someone else read over it for you and take heed of their comments.
Your resume will be included in the separate appendix of exhibits at the end of the plan, so this is not the place to list every job you’ve ever had or the fact that you were an art history major in college. But don’t overlook the impact of some part of your background that might even seem unrelated to your new venture. Focus on group experiences, leadership opportunities, and successes at all levels. [18] X Expert Source Keila Hill-Trawick, CPACertified Public Accountant Expert Interview. 30 July 2020.
The accuracy of your financial figures and projections is absolutely critical in convincing investors, loan sources, and partners that your business concept is worthy of support. The data must also be scrupulously honest and extremely clear. Since banks and many other funding sources will compare your projections to industry averages in the R. M. A data, in the United States you can use the R. M. A figures to test your projections before the bank does.
