How to create a successful one
Any time you want to start, expand, or fund a business venture, you should start with a business plan. This plan is a formal written document that lays out the nature, purpose, and structure of your business in a way that allows everyone involved to understand what you intend to do. When you plan carefully, you give yourself a path to success that allows you, your partners, and your lenders to come together on a common vision.
What You Want
Every business plan should begin with an executive summary that lays out clearly what you want. If you are looking for funding, you should describe how much money you need and what you intend to accomplish when you receive it. The summary should include your basic needs to start or grow, and the path you will take to get there. Be precise and concise.
Know Yourself
When you describe your business, you should identify the corporate form you will use. An LLC, a partnership, and a corporation are corporate forms with different obligations and advantages. The right form will depend on your needs and your plans; you should create the form before you begin and be able to explain your place in the overall market and industry in which you will operate.
Beyond the form, you need an operational structure in place. Who are the key decision makers on a day to day basis? What is your leadership structure, and what cost and revenue centers will you maintain? Laying out your business structure helps you plan out how you will function, and holds everyone involved to a common vision that you can implement effectively.
Know Your Competition
Your business plan must also describe your competitive landscape. Who represents your key competitor in the market? And is the market in which you are operating local, regional, national, or international? You need to outline a strategy to succeed, and to do so you must clarify what success actually means. Selling widgets may be your goal, but if you are competing against a dozen better-known widget makers, you must be able to articulate in your business plan how you will emerge from the crowd.
Maintain Flexibility
Your business plan works as a balancing act. On the one hand, you need detailed thought processes that lay out the structures you will use to succeed in the market as you define it. That said, you should never get so granular that you lock your business into a rigid way of working. If you identify people by name or set requirements and goals too specific, you may find yourself unable to make the midstream changes all successful companies must make. The plan should include enough detail to lay the groundwork to achieve your goals, but maintain a fluidity that lets you develop and grow.
Your business plan tells the story of who you are, what you expect, and how you will use your resources to achieve your vision. But it should never lock you into a pattern that removes your entrepreneurial spirit. The best plans strike a middle ground that outlines clearly who you are, but leaves room to adjust and grow over time.
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