Business Startup Guide: How to Write a Business Plan

Writing a business plan is an important part of setting up a business. A good business plan can show potential investors, banks or suppliers that your ideas will work, while also helping you decide what your own expectations are and shaping these into plans of action. It can be intimidating getting all the information together, but this brief simple-to-follow guide will provide you with an overview to help you create a strategy for success.

A good business plan should set out short-term and long-term objectives, with a clear pathway of how to achieve these. Typically, a business plan will provide information about the first three years of trading, with particular emphasis on the expenses and expected revenues from the first year. If you are going to ask for financial investment or support from a bank, supplier or independent investor, then you will need to have a business plan as part of their requirements.

The book contains a brief overview of the six key sections that you should think about putting in your business plan, Executive Summary, Business Description, Market Strategy, Sales and Promotion, and Operation and Management. If you download The Ultimate Business Plan Template for free from the Business Resources section on my website, or Smashwords Publishers, you can use it in conjunction with this guide to complete your business plan.