Entrepreneur's Business Plan

Before you are ready to start your own business you will need to create a clear and comprehensive business plan. This business plan is an overview of what you plan to do it order to set up and maintain your business and exactly how you plan to do it. A carefully worded and inspiring business plan can also be used to attract an investor and help to make sure that you stay on the right path will your business is fully operational. What follows are a few tips on how to create an entrepreneurs business plan.

Your business plan should include your main business goals as well as the strategies that you plan to implement these goals. People who want to be successful in the business world will need to take the time to consider all aspects of their business, including any potential problems that may be met along the way. By visualising these potential problems in advance and thinking of solutions it will be easier to tackle the problems if and when they do arise. Naturally, these potential problems and their solutions should also be included in the business plan.

The other important element to a successful business is ensuring that you have enough capital. It may be some time before your business starts to make a profit, so having start-up funds is absolutely essential. Your business plan should include realistic calculations of how much capital is required to launch the business, how long it will be before you start to realise a profit and the sort of income the business is expected to generate.

A comprehensive entrepreneur's business plan should consist of three main sections, namely the business concept, the marketplace section and the financial section. The business concept section should include full details of the industry that you will be working in as well as your business structure. You also need to include a detailed description of the service or product that you will be offering and full details of the tools that will be utilised to ensure the success of the business.

The marketplace section is used to analyse the client base and how they can best be served. By carefully considering the types of customers that you expect to attract by your business you can make sure that you cater to their needs. The marketplace section should also include details of the competition and the ways in which you plan to beat the competition in order to make your business a success.

Last but not least, the financial section will include details of your income, including your balance sheet and cash flow statement. It is important to present financial records in a comprehensive and realistic manner, and most entrepreneurs choose to seek the advice of an accountant in order to make sure that everything has been taken into account from the start.

While there is no strict rule regarding how long the business plan should be, the average tends to be around 20 pages. However, the length and detail of your business plan will largely depend on the scope of the business itself. Generally speaking, the more complex the business, the longer the business plan will need to be and it is not unusual for business plans to run up to 100 pages.

Take care to include all likely expenses, including salaries, utilities, any vital start up equipment and office space. It is important for this to be realistic, so many experts advise calculating as accurate a budget as possible and then adding 25% to it - you'd be surprised how many unforseen expenses can crop up.

Before finalising your business plan you will probably want to construct several drafts to ensure that everything is in place and nothing has been overlooked. It is a good idea to seek advice from successful entrepreneurs, who will be able to provide honest and useful information on the positive and negative aspects of your business plan and perhaps point out anything that you have forgotten to include.