If you are an entrepreneur, or you want to be one, one of the most important documents that you should prepare before getting down to work is the business plan. But, What is a business plan? Is it the same as the business plan?
If you want to know this concept in depth and know what elements it contains, its structure and how to do it, then we leave you a guide with all that content. Go for it?
What is a business plan
The first thing you need to clarify is what a business plan is. This is a document that shows how your new business or project will be, whether for a product, for a service or for a company in general.
In other words, This document houses the objectives and plans you have to market, finance, your mission, a schedule to start it up, etc..
In addition, this document also analyzes the current situation of the market, the environment and the sector. That is not only focuses on the idea that you have in mind but it is more critical and also gives you a vision of how the sector and the competition are doing to know if it is viable.
In addition, you must bear in mind that it is not a closed document, but that it will be modified several times, updating itself based on the changes you make, the investigations, etc.
Business Plan vs Company Plan
It is common to think that a business plan is a business plan. But really it's not so. They are two totally different documents, but they are often confused.
Thus, the business plan would be a document in which to analyze the market and the competition to present the business that has been thought of and thus establish how it is going to start and what the first steps will be like.
On the other hand, the business plan, although it also talks about the market, what it analyzes is not so much the current situation, but the opportunities that can be taken from that moment and how to take advantage of them to create a company. Besides, goals and objectives are established in the short, medium and long term and also the different strategies that are going to be followed.
What elements does a business plan have?
Do you need to prepare a business plan but you don't know what you should put in it? Although we cannot tell you that there is an exact guide, because each one can do it as they see fit, the truth is that there are some important elements that must be reflected yes or yes. These are the following:
market research
In this section you have to focus on doing market, competition and sector research. We must try to collect as much information as possible and capture it, being as objective as possible. because you have to give a context to the business that you are going to set up.
In this case, the SWOT and CAME analyzes can come in handy to know what you will contribute to the market and the weaknesses that you may have with respect to competitors.
As a suggestion, We recommend that at the end of this section you make a kind of summary so that the situation is better clarified and why your business can get ahead even when there is a lot of competition.
Business description
Once in a situation, it is time to present your business. ANDIn this case, you should talk about the company, its values, why it is different from other businesses or the competition... In other words, we are talking about making a value proposition to present the plan that you plan to do a priori so that your company fits into the sector and is viable.
Business model
In addition to describing and presenting the business, or the idea that you have, it is important to detail what your business model will be. If what you are going to sell is products, you will have to put which ones, when will you take them out, how will they be, etc.
If you sell services, you will establish the first ones you will start with, what each one will include and a little more (we are talking about a presentation model for that business, without going too deep, since you will do that in the next section).
Strategies and marketing mix plan
This is another of the points with which you should be more careful, because it is the true essence of your business. In it you will not only delve into the business model, but you will also talk about the strategies that you will carry out for each product or service, communication, prices, distribution, etc.
Even here you can establish ideas that, although they will not be carried out at that moment, they may be interesting for the future.
Financial plan
The financial plan is one of the most important that many investors look at, banks, etc And it is not for less because in it you must establish all the possible income and all the expenses that you will have in a year.
If right now you are wondering how you are going to have control over this aspect, the truth is that you do not have it. That is, it may be that you say to hire a cleaning company for the office, but it turns out that after two months you leave it and hire a cheaper one. Or you just don't. So that money allocated would not really be an expense. But, for that very reason, we are talking about a living document.
What it should be is as realistic as possible. With all the expenses that have to be made for the proper functioning of the company, as well as the income that is expected to be obtained in the period of 12 months.
Team
Finally, it would be necessary to outline who will be the people who will be part of the business, of what you want to achieve. You do not have to put "first and last names", but talk about the functions of each person and thus know what the minimum positions are What you will need to start the project.
Summary
Finally, the last document, which we would actually tell you to put first, It is a summary of all the previous points. It is by way of conclusion, but making clear the most important parts.
And why do we tell you to put it first? Because the business plan is not a document of a few pages; it can actually be very long and investors don't always take the time to read it. Thus, by presenting a summary, you can take a quick look and know if you are interested or not, and then go deeper into your reading.
Now you know what a business plan is, the elements, structure and how to do it. Would you dare to present a project?