Filling out a business plan template can be a useful exercise. You can feel confident that you understand your business completely if you can fill out the critical parts. Then, you can adapt each section to suit the specific needs of your business and your investors. Here are the elements you should have in a new business plan before you get started.
Executive Summary and Mission Statement
The executive summary gives investors a broad overview of what your small business will do. The mission statement may be the most critical part of the entire business plan, as it boils down your company's rationale into a few sentences.
Your Product or Service
If you are passionate about your product or service, you can go into detail about what you are hoping to sell.
Description of How Your Business Will Work
Explain how you will make your product or service and get it out to the public.
Market Analysis and Plan
Investors want to find out if you know enough about your potential clients or customers. Likewise, you must research your competitors-and every business has a competitor-and show how you can top them.
Future Business Strategy
Say you get your business on the ground. What then? Try to project three years ahead.
Business Organization and Players
Who is your management team? Just you? Have you already hired your execs? Now is the time to show off the talent you have on board or the talent you plan on bringing to the team.
Request for Funding
One of the major purposes of a business plan is to prove that you have something worth investing in. After that, you tell potential investors how much you need.
Financial Outlook
Explain what you have now, what you hope to have in the future and how much investors might make over the next three years.
Appendix
This section features any extra data that bolsters arguments in the business plan. It can be bigger or smaller depending on your business and the technical expertise of potential investors and employees.
As you work on your business plan, run drafts of it by a lawyer and an accountant. They can help you present more accurate information, and having a lawyer and an accountant on board can be a huge help later on.
This is not a rigid or detailed model, as what you wind up with will depend on your business. You can also invest in business plan software, look at business plan examples or get inspiration from the business plan template available at the SCORE Web site.
 | Writing small business plans helps you define your business strategy, provides you with a point of reference to measure your success and presents lenders or other investors with the information they need to make a loan decision. |
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 | What is a business plan? A business plan details your company's mission and shows where you've been and where you are going. It is often used in presentations to potential investors, but you will be relying on it for a long time. |
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