Sample business plan: 5 steps to create a document

Business plan: sample and purpose of the document + reasons for drawing up + 5 stages of creation + features of writing for investors and for personal purposes + structure + 15 tips + 7 illustrative examples.

Any actions must be planned and displayed on paper. This is especially true for entrepreneurship. Without business planning, i.e. detailed optimization of resources and determination of further tasks, even an experienced entrepreneur will not be able to achieve their goals.

That's why it's so important to have sample business plan and compose it correctly. This material will help you with this.

Why and who needs a business plan?

There are several definitions of a business plan on the Internet.

Here are the most common ones:

Those. A business plan is a document that details how to implement it. Thanks to it, you can fully justify your project, evaluate the effectiveness of the decisions made from all sides, and understand the feasibility of funding for a particular activity.

The business plan shows:

business development prospects;
volumes of the sales market, potential consumers;
profitability of the project;
forthcoming expenses for the production and sale of products, their supply to the market, etc.

A business development plan is a tool that evaluates the final results of activities for a specific period of time. It can be used to attract investors and is necessary in creating a business concept, company strategy.

Drawing up a business plan is one of the important, crucial stages of planning. It is developed both for those enterprises that produce goods, and for those whose specialization is the provision of services.

Before writing a business plan, specialists or the owner of the company determine the tasks and means for their implementation. The developed document can attract creditors to implement ideas. For this reason, its importance cannot be overstated.

The purpose of the business development plan:

analysis of aspects of entrepreneurship;
competent management of finances, operations;
justification of the need to obtain investments (bank loans, equity participation of companies in the project, budget allocations, etc.);
accounting of financial opportunities and threats (risks) of the enterprise;
choice of the optimal direction of development.

Entrepreneurs write business plans for the following reasons:

Features of drawing up a plan for personal purposes and creditors

It is important to see the difference between a business plan, which is written for internal use, and a document, so to speak, "ceremonial", to be transferred to creditors.

1. Create a plan for personal goals.

If you intend to use the sample business plan and write it for yourself, please note that it will be in the form of a practical guide to further actions.

The business development plan in this case should answer the following questions:

What activities do you (will you) do?
What product/service does your company offer to the market?
Who are the consumers, clients?
What goals should you achieve?
What means are needed to achieve the goals?
Who is responsible for performing certain tasks?
How long does it take to get it done?
What capital investment will be required?
What results should the actions lead to?

You need to understand that when drawing up a working document, you need to reflect the real state of affairs in order to know in which direction to move, what to do, what to strive for.

2. Document for investors.

When developing a business plan to provide to lenders/investors, the methodology is different. The person or organization that will finance your venture should receive a document detailing the situation and the main tasks.

You have to convince depositors that their money will be used rationally, to identify benefits for them. A business plan must be drawn up logically, each action must be justified.

If you have doubts in any area, study it more carefully, because according to the program you outlined, creditors will certainly have “uncomfortable” questions. And how you answer them will depend on the amount of initial investment in opening / developing your own business.

Also of particular importance is the confidence of the serve. It’s good if you manage to display statistics in a business plan, referring to the example of another company. This will increase your chances of getting an investment.

When writing a business plan, you should adhere to the business style and follow the structure.

Sample business plan: structure

Regardless of the purpose for which you draw up a plan, working with it takes place in 5 stages:

As a business builder, you can make up the first two without any problems. But what should be the competent structure of a business plan?

We will analyze the main sections, what information they contain and how to correctly compose them.

No. 1. Title page.

It acts as such a calling card. It indicates: the name of your company, contact information, address data, phone numbers of the founders.

In addition, the title should contain the content of the entire document (chapter - page number). When composing the title, be concise, state the information concisely.

The total volume of the business plan is about 30-35 pages, including applications.

*Business plan (sample title page)

No. 2. Introductory part of a sample business development plan.

It takes approximately 2 A4 sheets. The introduction describes the main aspects of your business, its essence, what advantages it has.

It is necessary to write what is attractive for buyers of the product / service, what is the expected profit. If you intend to raise funds for the business, the introductory part indicates the amount of capital you need.

Usually the introduction is devoted to such points of the plan:

The introductory part is the last one, because. it describes the overall picture of the company's activities.
You can fully portray it only after studying all the nuances of the case.

You can study a sample of this and other parts of the plan at the end of this material - there are collected examples of this document for the main lines of business.

No. 3. The main part of the business plan.

The main section concerns the type of activity and all its key points, the cost of the project.

It consists of subsections:

production;
financial;
marketing;
organizational;
business efficiency calculation;
risks.

We will consider them separately.

At the end it follows final part. In it, you need to summarize the work done, give a clear definition of the tasks.

Subsections of the main part of business plans

No. 1. Development of the production subsection of the business plan.

The main section of the document is the largest. Its subsections describe each aspect of your case.

For example, industrial shows what equipment will be used, what premises you have, how much money will be needed to purchase and start a business.

Also, this plan is designed to allow you to calculate production capacity, determine the likely prospects for growth in production volumes.

In addition, it contains information on the full provision of raw materials, components, highlights the need for labor, temporary and fixed costs of business.

In order for the production subsection of the plan to have a clear structure and contain all the necessary information, indicate:

how well the production process is, whether there are innovative solutions;
ways of supplying resources, the degree of development of the transport system;
a full description of the technologies, why they were chosen;
Do I need to buy / rent a business premises;
the composition of the required personnel and all data about it, labor costs;
possible maximum volume of output;
information about suppliers, business subcontractors;
the cost of each product;
an estimate with a mention of current expenses, etc.

No. 2. Development of the financial subsection of the plan.

Financial plan generalizes all the above data with economic indicators for business, i.e. in value terms.

This includes business reports:

Balance plan (confirming the ability of the enterprise to timely settlement of its monetary obligations).

On financial results, profits and losses.

It highlights the sources of profit, how losses appeared, assesses the changes in business income / expenses that occurred in the reporting period, etc.

About the movement of money.

This report allows you to see operating results, long-term creditworthiness, short-term liquidity.

The financial subsection of the business plan is also characterized by the presence of:

schedules for future financial activities,
descriptions of likely investments.

Think carefully about the possibility of investing, whether it will be profitable, about the target orientation of the contribution. Write how you will return the funds attracted to the business.

Try to see the following in the financial part of your business plan:

No. 3. Development of the marketing subsection of the business plan.

The marketing subsection deals with the analysis of the sales market for your company's products. You must indicate in the plan the size, dynamics and trends of the market, its segments, conjuncture.

In addition, the subsection informs about who are the consumers of the business products, what strategy will be used to promote the product.

It calculates consumption volumes, estimated market share, describes the levers used to influence demand (advertising campaign, pricing, product improvement, etc.), business competitiveness.

It is necessary to evaluate your product from the consumer's point of view, what makes it attractive, what is its consumer value, is it safe to use, and how long does it last.

When compiling a marketing plan, rely on the following points:

To draw up a marketing plan, information is taken from the external environment, relevant research and surveys are carried out, and professional marketers are involved in order to study the market situation.

No. 4. Development of the organizational subsection of the plan.

In terms of doing business, organizational issues are considered no less important. Therefore, in this subsection, you are required to describe all the steps that will be taken to implement the project.

For example, as shown in the sample in the picture:

It is better to present information in the plan in tabular form, so that the sequence of your actions is clearly visible. It would not hurt to mention the normative and legislative acts that regulate the chosen branch of activity.

In the organizational plan, it is worth describing the managerial side, the duties of all employees, the system of subordination and incentives (remuneration), and describe the internal regime of the company.

Remember to follow the structure as in the example:

No. 5. How to issue a calculation of efficiency and possible risks?

In the penultimate sections, you need to give an objective assessment of the company's performance, show the expected prospects based on the estimate, balance sheet, profitability threshold, planned sales volume.

The developer of the business plan must write the payback period, NPV (net present value).

The best option would be to arrange this in a table, as in the example below:

Business risks should also be considered. Be sure to indicate in the plan what measures you will take if they occur to minimize them, which self-insurance program you will resort to.

Experienced business plan writers pay special attention to risks, and consider the likelihood of the worst possible outcome. By making notes on how to eliminate the expected difficulties, you will make your work easier in the future. If there are losses and financial losses, you will already know how to compensate for them.

When this section of the business plan causes difficulties, they turn to experts for help.

Often, a SWOT analysis of a business is used for this purpose:

This is a method of identifying external / internal factors that affect business development.

Thanks to it, you will be able to evaluate:

their weaknesses (suppose the need to rent a building, unrecognizable brand),
advantages (low price, high service, professional staff),
designate opportunities (these include the availability of funds for the introduction of innovations, the use of modern equipment, coverage of a larger market segment, etc.).

And, ultimately, threats that you can't undo, such as:

economic crisis,
deterioration of the demographic situation,
increase in customs duties,
growing political tension,
tough competition, etc.

If you provide a clear and justified algorithm for solving risks in the document, it is guaranteed that you can attract partners and creditors for your business.

15 tips for beginners to write a good business plan

very laborious and complex. In the process of its compilation, many questions will arise. For this reason, most beginners make mistakes.

To avoid them and make your business plan worthwhile, follow these guidelines:

Before you start writing, it is better to look at more than one example of a business plan.

It is easy to find illustrative examples on the Internet, and perhaps they will even relate to your line of work.

There is no need to “spill water”, thinking that the document is supposed to be voluminous.

The business plan should contain only important, realistic information that is of interest to investors and useful to you in doing business (as in the examples below).

Errors, corrections, misprints are strictly not allowed.
The business plan should reflect the ability of your enterprise to reach a higher level and the strengths of the management team.
When developing a business plan, one should not underestimate competition and possible difficulties.
If the information you want to display is subject to confidentiality, it should be skipped.

Don't rush the paperwork.

Such a plan would not have the desired effect on creditors. If you are compiling it for yourself, anyway, it should not look like a draft version.

Use more tables, graphs (as in the samples below).

Providing statistical data in this way makes the material more visual.

Market analysis is often inaccurate.

Therefore, responsibly approach the marketing section, collect all the necessary data.

Be sure to include competitive features in your business plan.

Throw out too abstruse expressions from the business plan, as well as those that are understood ambiguously and demonstrate your failure.

For example, “a product that has no analogues”, “under consideration”, “ease of implementation”, etc.

Keep track of all business expenses.

Lenders consider this column especially important. Therefore, they may have a lot of questions for you on such items as salaries for personnel, taxes, purchase of raw materials, etc.

Don't ignore risk considerations.

As already mentioned, this will serve as a protection against the problems encountered on the way to achieving the goals, as well as allow investors to see you as a serious, responsible entrepreneur.

Focus in the business plan not on the first profit, big earnings, but on a stable cash flow.

Don't forget to set time limits.

Any task has a deadline (quarter, year, several years).

If you are not sure that you can master the business plan on your own, even using the samples below, do not spare money on a specialist.

He understands this issue more than you, so he will draw up a document accurately, without technical, methodological and conceptual oversights that you can make without proper experience.

A detailed diagram of a quality business plan with explanations

you will find in this video:

Ready-made business plans (samples) for different areas of activity

The pharmaceutical business does not lose its relevance, because the need for medicines does not disappear. Moreover, most of the family budget, as a rule, goes to medicines.

Because of this, opening a pharmacy is a very profitable business.

Therefore, it makes sense to take a closer look at the example of designing such a business plan in this sample:.

If you want to go into another area, consider opening a cafe.

There are quite a lot of similar establishments and the competition is strong. However, the demand for them is growing. If you take into account all the points of arrangement, you offer healthy food, you will definitely succeed.

To properly draw up a document, check out a sample cafe business plan!

The male half of the population may be interested in the idea of organizing a car service.

The owner of the service station will not be left without income if the activities for the repair and maintenance of vehicles are detailed with all the ensuing factors in the business plan.

It will be more pleasant for women to open a beauty salon.

We assure you that regardless of the number of beauty care establishments available, your "enterprise" in the beauty industry will be in demand. This is due to the fact that every client wants the salon to be at hand, and did not have to get to another quarter.

Representatives of the beautiful half of humanity can delve into trading activities and create a flower shop. The main advantage of the idea is a small starting capital.

This small business also requires planning. And although flower shops are not exactly popular in Russia, who knows, maybe you will change that.

To do this, you need to draw up a well-thought-out business plan (a sample of which you can study at this link).

The hotel business is a much more complex option, which involves taking into account many factors, especially marketing ones.

If you do not know what size of the room you need, what investments are needed, get the information of interest in the standard sample:
hotel business plan.

No less time-consuming is the process of implementing a farming project. But in this case, you will have the opportunity to receive financial support and benefits from the state.

A good sample plan that can attract public investors, clearly demonstrates the goals, .

The implementation of any idea begins with a business plan. Without it, it is impossible to determine the necessary tasks, to understand the feasibility of investments and costs. Many businessmen needlessly ignore this fact and do not use this useful tool.

If you did not have experience in writing, any sample business plan given here will help you understand all the standards for drawing up, due to which you can easily set yourself a guideline for further actions.

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