How to Write a Business Plan

A good business plan cannot be understated as, in many cases, is the one thing that either makes or breaks a new business funding venture. The business plan is what the lender will be referring to as they meet with you in order to analyze whether they would like to invest in your business or not. It is of extreme importance to have an excellent business plan and here we will discuss how to write a business plan and the structuring thereof.

First, there are four main sections in how to write a business plan which consist of the business description, the marketing plan, financial analysis, and your management team.

In addition to these important elements you will need the executive summary which is usually near the very beginning of the business plan as well as any documentation or filings that may help in your venture in addition to your projections, financially.

There are many forms of business plans, many of which are available through business plan software and the templates provided by them if you don’t know exactly how to write a business plan.
If you do decide to write one on your own be sure to do plenty of research on how to properly prepare one as the upcoming meeting with a lender or investor may be the only shot one gets. It is important to put your best foot forward right off the bat.

Elements of a Business Plan

1. First, on the top, you will need to provide a cover sheet for your business plan, 2. Your Statement of purpose and/or executive summary 3. Table of contents.

Once you have prepared the beginning of the business plan it is important to include the following items in your first section on “The Business”.
For the Business section of your business plan, start with a description of your business, then follow up with your marketing plans and goals.
The next thing you will need is a description of what the real competition is like and even what you may project it to be like in the future.
After this, you will need to provide evidence that you will have a procedure of operation which can be an overall description of how the business will be run.
The next step will be what your management team will be like and who will be running the business in order for your organization to reach your overall goals.
After this, include any additional items such as bonding, business insurance and more which you will have or be obtaining for your business.

The next section in how to write a business plan is figuring out how exactly you want to present your “Financial Data/Analysis.”
Here you will need to include all supplies and equipment needed, any loan applications in addition to your detailed financial analysis including your balance sheet, breakeven analysis, profit and loss statement(s), 3 year summary, your first year of operation projection (by the month) in addition to a separate sheet including the same information by quarter for the second and third years, cash flow (pro forma) and any additional information such as that of where your projections are coming from and what you have used to gather that data.

In the third section it is important to be sure that all supporting documentation is included in order to back up all of your statements.
Documentation for the third section includes letters of intent from suppliers, franchise contracts, tax returns for prior years of the principal in addition to personal financial statements, any licenses, permits or leases already established that can help support your case.
In addition, it is important to include any references and/or resumes for others involved with the company.
It is very important to know how to write a business plan and this section should have given you a basic overview on what one can expect when they get into putting the business plan together.
It is very important to keep researching how to write a business plan as well as different types of business plan software which can also help solidify one’s business plan goals overall.