CREATING A WINNING BUSINESS PLANPreamble What is a business plan? Creating a winning business plan to execute your money-making-idea and achieve your on-line success could be tasking. Learn the way out? >>Simply stated, a winning business plan conveys your business goals, the strategies you’ ll use to meet them, potential problems that may confront your business and ways to solve them, the organizational structure of your business(including titles and responsibilities), and, finally, the amount of capital required to finance your venture and keep it going until it breaks even. No matter the area of your business specialty whether online or offline, you certainly need a business plan to succeed. Business plan is not develop when you are to seek finance or to approach a banker. It is more than a pitch for financing; it’s a guide to help you define and meet your winning business plan goals . As you research and prepare in creating a winning business plan, you will find weak spots in your business idea that you will be able to repair. You will also discover areas with potential you may not have thought about before-and ways to profit from them. Only by putting together a business plan can you decide whether your great idea is really worth your time and investment.For Better Understanding of the topic—creating a winning business plan, we shall consider it under these two sub-headings: A. Parts of A Winning Business of Plan. B. Major Components of A Winning Business plan.A. Parts Of A Business A Winning Business Plan: There are three primary parts to a business plan. The first is business concept, where you discuss the industry, your business structure, your product or service and how you plan to make your business a success. The second is the marketplace section, in which you describe and analyze potential customers: who and where they are, what makes them buy and so on. Here, you also describe the competition and how you will position yourself to beat it. Finally, the financial section contains your income and cash-flow statement, balance sheet and other financial rations, such as break-even analysis. This part may require help from your accountant and a good spreadsheet software program. B. A. Major Components Of A Winning Business Plan: A business plan consists of seven major components:1. Executive summary.2. Business description.3. Market strategies.4. Competitive analysis.5. Design and development plan.6. Operations and management plan.7. Financial factors.<<>> 1. Executive Summary. This is the first of call. It summarizes your business. The executive summary describes the business, its legal form of operation (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation or limited liability company), the amount and purpose of the loan requested, the repayment schedule, the borrower’s equity share, and the debt-to-equity ratio after the loan, security or collateral is offered. Also listed are the market value, estimated value or price quotes for any equipment you plan to purchase with the loan proceeds. Your Winning business Plan summary should be short and businesslike—generally between half a page and one page, depending on how complicated the use of funds is. Business Description. This section expands on the executive summary,describing your business in much greater detail. It usually starts with a description of your industry. Is the business retail, wholesale, food service, manufacturing or service-oriented? How big is the industry? Why has it become so popular? What kind of trends is responsible for the industry’s growth?Explain the target market for your product or service, how the product will be distributed, and the business’ support systems-that is, its advertising, promotions and customer service strategies. Next, describe your product or service. Discuss the product’s applications and end users. Emphasize any unique features or variations that set your product or service apart from others in your industry. If are using your winning business plan for financing purposes, explain why the money you seek will make your business more profitable. Will you use the money to expand, to create a new product or to buy new equipment? 1.Market Strategies in your winning business plan. Here’s where you define your market—its size, structure,growth prospects, trends and sales potential. How much of the market will your product or service be able to capture? Write down the who, what, when, where and why of your customers? Once you have clearly defined your market and established your sales goals, present the strategies you will use to fulfill those objectives.Price: Thoroughly explain your pricing strategy and how it will affect the success of your product or service. Describe your projected costs and then determine pricing based on the profit percentage you expect. Costs include materials, distribution, advertising and overhead. Distribution: This includes the entire process of moving the product from the factory to the end user. The type of distribution network you choose depends on your industry and the size of the market. Study your competitors to see what channels they use. Will you use the same channels or a different method that may give you a strategic advantage? Sales: Explain how your sales force (if you have one) will meet its goal, including elements such as pricing flexibility, sales presentations, lead generation and compensation policies. 1. Competitive Analysis: How does your business relate to the competition? TheCompetitive analysis section answers this question. Using what you have learned from your market research, detail the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, the strategies that give you a distinct advantage, any barriers you can develop to prevent new competition from entering the market and any weaknesses in your competitors’ service or product development cycle that you can take advantage of. Your plan must show that you recognize this and have a strategy to deal with the competition. 2. Design And Development Plan: This section describes a product’s design and charts its development within the context of production, marketing and the company itself in your winning business plan. If you have an idea but have not yet developed the product or service, if you plan to improve an exiting product or service, or if you own an existing company and plan to introduce a new product or service, this section is extremely important.The design section should thoroughly describe the product’s design and the materials used; include any diagrams if applicable. The development plan generally covers these three areas: 1) product development, 2).market development and 3)organizational development. Create a schedule that shows how the product, marketing strategies and organization will develop over time. Let the schedule be tired to a development budget so expenses can be tracked throughout the design and development process of your winning business plan. 1. Operations And Management of Your Winning Business Plan. Here, you describe hoe your business will function on a daily basis. This section explains logistics such as the responsibilities of each member of the management team, the tasks assigned to each division of the company and the capital and expense requirement for operating the business. Describe the business managers and their qualifications, and specify what type of support staff will be needed for the business to run efficiently. Any potential benefits or pitfalls to the community should also be presented, such as new job creation, economic growth, and possible effects on the environment from manufacturing and how they will be handled to conform to local, state and federal regulations. 2. Financial Factors: The financial statement are the backbone of your business Plan. They show how profitable your business will be in the short and long term, and should include the following: The income statement details of projects such as revenue, expenses, capital (in form of depreciation) and cost of goods. The cash-flow statement details the money coming into and going out of the business—monthly for the first year and quarterly for each year thereafter. The balance sheet paints a picture of the business’s financial strength in terms of assets, liabilities and equity over a set period. However, if plan to use your winning business plan for finding funding, here are the three tips to consider: 1. AVOID HYPE: If your winning business plan praises your idea with superlatives like “one of a kind,” “unique” or “unprecedented,” your readers are likely to be turned off. Wild, unsubstantiated promises or unfounded conclusions tell financial sources you are inexperienced, naïve and reckless.2. POLISH THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF YOUR WINNING BUSINESS PLAN:Potential receives so many business plans; they cannot afford to spend more than a few minutes evaluating each one. If at first glance your proposal looks dull, poorly written or confusing, investors will toss it aside without a second. In other words, if your executive summary doesn’t grab them, you won’t get a second chance. 3. MAKE SURE YOUR A WINNING BUSINESS PLAN IS COMPLETE. Even if your executive summary sparkles, you need to make sure the rest of your plan is just as good and that all the necessary information is included. HOT LINK: Looking for inspiration? The hot link is BusinessPlan.org... which offers research resources and an interactive business strategy analysis. The SBA winning business plan tools at www.sbaonline.sba.gov/starting/indexbusplans.html offers clear, concise winning business plan outlines and tutorials. Finally, think your winning business plan as a living document that should not gather dust in a drawer. Let your plan define activities and responsibilities within your business as well as identify and achieve your goals. Making it a practice to review your winning business plan annually is a great way to start the year fresh and reinvigorated. It lets you catch any problems before they become too large to solve. It also ensures that if the possibility of getting financing, participating in a joint venture or other such occasion arises, you will have an updated plan ready to go so you don’t miss out on a good opportunity. Stop here now and shop on Amazon. The largest shopping center on Internet. Cheers!
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