How do you go about creating a business plan?
I am working on web project. I need to create business plan for it. What are the factors I should consider while writing it? Is there a template that I can refer to?
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Jan 21, 2015
There are many websites that are available for learning how to write a business plan as well as templates. For a web project you should consider the goals, product, audience, and industry.
Here is a great link to a template that is very in depth. Not all of this may apply for your current project but this is a excellent template and model structure to follow.
http://www.bplans.co.uk/web_design_business_plan/executive_summary_fc.cfm
Jan 18, 2015
You have gotten some good advice from the respondents.
I have a template I can send you that I know works with investors. I also have a template for an investor presentation.
Go to http://www.paladinandassociates.com/articles/the-ten-keys-to-a-successful-business-plan/ to see the 10 basics for a good business plan.
Bill Warner
Jan 15, 2015
Understand the business need and focus area, identify the Target customer and their level of understanding first before you lay out your plan
Jan 15, 2015
Richard Stern- A Business Plan provides an understanding of the business. The Plan discusse the product, or service, the management who will run the company, the Sales and marketing, the finances and all the specifics of your business. While writing the Plan you will come across sections that will require research as competition. Once done anyone who rads the Plaqn wil understand your journey.
Jan 15, 2015
There are many things that go in preparing a Business plan. It needs to show what are your goals and how you wish to achieve them. It should essentially contain a brief summary, information on company, Management Team, information on Product or service you wish to offer, Demand analysis of the same, How you wish to arrange funds for your company and a financial metrics it needs to have details based on the Target audience. There are lot of templates available on the web which can help you in preparing a generic Business plan but an expert can help you preparing a Business plan as per the Target audience which would be more defined and useful.
Jan 15, 2015
I'm a fan of LeanStack. It helped me visualize and organize my plan, which then helped me indentify areas in which I needed to seek outside expertise. https://leanstack.com/
Jan 15, 2015
I dont have a lot of experience in web projects but basic things to look out can be revenue model, costs expected, expertise required to execute and maintain the project( figure out if expertise can be hired), marketing strateg etc
Jan 14, 2015
In my experience, prior to writing a business plan,I would recommand going through the Business Model exercise. The guidelines can be found in the book Business Model Generation (available on Amazon) and find useful opensource Maps on the net. It's an easy to follow process that will allow you to cover all the required steps for building your business plan.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Sandrine
Jan 14, 2015
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Jan 14, 2015
1. Assess project/product offering
a. Is this for a start-up? Flexibility and optimism are key elements here and of course (lack of) available resources. Project approval signature level resides with President/owner, perhaps a briefing to community board members.
b. Existing Small Business? Wanting to move/grow to next level. Cautiously flexible. Project approval signature levels may not be that tedious; just beginning to look at business unit separations.
c. Existing Large/Multinational Business? Cut in stone Corporate Procedures. Minimal room for innovation. Follow the processes, they may even have corporate business plan templates complete with Corporate Logo and Letterhead; which will include departmental signatory authority and project monetary levels
2. Determine target market of project
3. Evaluate company's ability to meet/exceed customers' requirements
4. Establish project's pro forma (projected/expected) Revenues/Return on Investment
a. Develop budget for phased/key implementation points
b. Incorporate graphs/charts
5. Develop project timeline from concept to completion
a. Identify key milestones for periodic project reviews
b. Is there a planned duration for project once implemented/stood up?
c. Incorporate timeline, if complex, large project, include only headers within business plan schedule graph/discussion
6. Obtain 3rd party objective review of your offering
a. Do not forget Non-disclosure/confidentiality agreement
7. Obtain corporate buy-in/acceptance of your creation
a. Validate and verify all tweaks/agendas have been incorporated
b. Remind and follow project timeline with cutoff dates for revisions (to the left of milestones).
c. Major revisions or no value added revisions will impact project implementation date and project resources.
d. Attempt to avoid project scope creep or 'soft' implementation date; understanding you are working for somebody else.
8. Implement
9. Get paid. Perhaps percentage aligned with project percentage completion/acceptance.
10. Project close-out/turnover.
Some of these steps may occur concurrently and you are incorporating them within your business plan. Try to avoid over-thinking or analysis paralysis. "if you wait until everything is perfect, you will never get started...".
There are plenty of templates on the internet (some are 'free' and others will require money). Business plan templates are also available within whatever office software you may be currently using.
Jan 14, 2015
You can spend months writing a good plan. The good part of this is that by the time you are done with it, you should know if you have a good concept for your business. The down side is that you can burn a lot of time you should be spending on your business.
I have written several. One was a huge whooping, everything in it, research market analysis. I thought it was amazing. Then I started to take it around to investors. A couple of them said, "89 pages? You are a start-up, what are you spending your valuable time on?" Another said, "do you really think an investor has time to read an 89 page plan? I get 10 a day!"
Here's another perspective https://www.sequoiacap.com/grove/posts/gw9u/start-first-plan-later
Short sweet and to the point. The investors will pepper you with tons of questions, IF they are compelled. Some will only read the executive summary. It a balance between validating your own idea and spending your time where it is the most valuable.
Jan 13, 2015
First of all do your research. A business plan is basically your projected budget. Think about Why/and how are you running your business. Consider every single possible penny you might have to account for. Figure out what your demographic is and why. Factor in everything! What do you expect to make tomorrow? Next week>? Next month/year five years etc...You also can do it qarterly if that makes more sense to your business.
Theres a ton of free outlets for what /what does not go into a business plan. Google some resources, theres even platforms that will generate you for you.
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Jan 13, 2015
Hi Suraj,
When writing your business plan you need to consider your industry you are involved in. Every business plan is different and keep in mind your business goals. There are templates that you can refer to, however, remember that is only a template and that the format may change. I have attached a link that may help you with your business plan and also it has links to templates as well. Hope this helps, if there is any other information I may help you with please let me know.
Regards,
Jimmy Phimsavanh
Jan 13, 2015
The first question to ask is whether you really need a business plan. You mention that this is for a project, so maybe you really need a project plan, which is a very different document.
I'll assume you still need a business plan. There are plenty of good recommendations here and numerous other examples of business plan templates out there. In general, you will need to cover the following:
The Company, Technology, and Products
Industry and Markets
Customers
Competition
Potential Risks and Risk Mitigation
Financials
I recommend working out the business plan not just from a template though. Get advice from others you can trust to help build the plan. While others such as investors may want to see a business plan, the main goal of the business plan is to guide you, the business owner. In my opinion, the process is more important than the plan. Going through the business planning process will make you think in detail about your company ...just don't get stuck in planning paralysis.
Some other good resources are the Lean Startup (http://amzn.to/1xXjCqw) and The Startup Owner's Manual (http://amzn.to/1z6zatH). You may also want to check out the free online course on How to Build a Startup - https://www.udacity.com/course/ep245
Good luck!
Jan 13, 2015
Hey Suraj
Business plan is a Blue print of what you intend to do.. the plan is in your head and you have to put it in a simple term to your potential investor.. That's as simple as it
First size up the Market you are trying to address
List all the elements involved in your business
1. Revenue ( All the streams of Revenue that you have identified).. eg : Revenue from Ads , Revenue from Sales, Revenue from Service.. Get as micro as possible in these streams
2. Initial capital expense ( i.e Office advance, Chairs, Computers/Laptops etc.. all the elements which get depreciated and will be part of assets)
3. Working Expense : All expenses to be listed.. ie. office rent, telephone bills, salary expense, since its a web project then Hosting cost, Payment gateway charges etc etc
4. Now put the nos to it.. i.e how much revenue are you targeting Month on Month for the 1st year and subsequent yearly projections and what is the expenses that you would incur to do this Target..
5. Your Gross Revenue - Working Capital = EBITDA - Your P&L sheet is done
6. Then comes your Financial Planning.. i.e Cashflow and Balance Sheet - Recommend that you get this done by a CA ...Cash Flows.. i.e how many days of credit to you give your customers and how many days of credit your vendors give you.. Note : If your credit period is longer to the customers compared to the credit period that you get from vendors then you will have Cashflow issues ..
Investors see the following things
1. Team
2. Is the idea disruptive - Would it change the way people live or buy stuff etc
3. How tough is this idea to execute by others or does this have any barriers for new entrants.. if its simple then anyone would replicate
4. Then the last whether its financial feasible.. i.e if i were to transport to people to Moon and it costs $ 20Billion per trip and can accommodate only 20 people per trip.. my cost per person is $1 Billion.. the market size of people having $1 billion to spend is very few and out of these how many would have the interest to go for a trip to moon etc etc
Jan 12, 2015
This could help at a start up level
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xUhsZiTymo
Jan 12, 2015
Well, there are many free business plan templates out there. One of the big issues I have found is that it looks daunting and too comprehensive. How would a first timer know what really matters. There is a great product out there the 5 Minute Business Plan. A must have. And if you want to dig deeper and need a more comprehensive plan I suggest the course I created for CreativeLive: https://www.creativelive.com/courses/turn-your-talent-business-12-steps-beate-chelette
Hope this helps.
Beate
Jan 12, 2015
Please study and fill Sagheer Business plan :
STEPS:
(0) Market re-search………………………….why?
(1) Market re-search……………………………what?
(2) Market re-search…………………………..How?
(3) Title or name …with respect to name, with respect to business, with respect to location, with respect to era.
(4) Motto…with respect to business.
(5) Dimensions.
(6) Competitor.
(7) Mission Statement.
(8) Vision Statement.
(9) Location……with respect to positive and negative aspects.
(10)Team…………..with portfolio.
(11)Finance……..Fix and Running.
(12)Finance Management……with feasibility report in the form of chart.
(13)Business Formula.
(14)Business Flow…with the help of flow chart.
(15)Mathematical Model of Production…with cost estimation method.
(16)Promotion Strategy ……..with Probability or regression model.
(17)Risk factor…with your weak points (S (strengths) W (weaknesses) O (opportunities) T (threats) Analysis).
(18)Role of Technology.
(19)Growth Graph.
(20)Break Even.
Jan 12, 2015
The purpose of the business plan is very important because there are different types for different purposes. For example, if you are trying to raise funds or get a loan, your plan would definitely need to highlight financial successes and strategies. Or, you might develop a plan to attract key personnel, whereby you might discuss the available project collaboration opportunities. Regardless of the purpose, the plan is basically a road map to achieve specific goals. One free resource that you might use to build a business plan that also gives step-by-step instructions (written and video) is on the SBA.gov website. If you need more free hands on help, also consider making an appointment with a SCORE or Small Business Development Center in your area. Good luck!
Thanks for suggestion. I am reading Business Model Generation book and that is helping out to plan my product strategy.