It’s time to start putting in the groundwork. Writing a business plan isn’t rocket science but it is something you need to get right

1. Business description and purpose You need to describe exactly what your business is and what it does. Think of it in terms of writing a mission statement, which summarises the purpose of your business. It needs to be clearly stated and easy to understand.

2. Business vision and long-term objectives Think about where you want your business to be in five years time. This will help you work out the challenges your business will need to overcome and the goals you will need to achieve. Define your goals and outline how you intend to reach them.

3. Current market situation For your business to take off you need to know your market and work out how you are going to achieve a share of it. To show you understand your market you need to describe:

  • The overall size of the market

  • Market trends (what influences your target market and how you can take advantage of it) Target customers (who are they and how many)

  • The competition (describe their products and services, and how your product will be different)

4. Target customers You need to think carefully about your target customers. Build up a picture of them in terms of gender, income, lifestyle, marital status. Is this group growing or shrinking? Now describe how your product will benefit them. Do some research and find out how many customers there are in your target group and how often they buy and spend.

5. Competition List your direct and indirect competitors, businesses who are in the same line of business as you are, and business that are similar to you. You need to analyse the following components of their businesses:

  • Their products

  • Their customers

  • Their market share

  • Growth, marketing and pricing strategies

  • Their operations and facilities

  • Their future plans

6. Marketing strategy Outline your strategy by answering the following question: How many customers do you want and by when? Now you need to break this down into specific objective and targets relating to achieving your market share. Put down how you plan to achieve these goals and by when.

7. Marketing plan Now you have a strategy you need to be clear about how exactly you are going to implement it. In your plan you need to describe your marketing methods. Detail each specific action, the people who will carry it out, the cost, how you will monitor and review progress and how you will handle response to your marketing.

8. Sales targets and objectives Decide on your sales targets and explain how you will achieve them. Break down your sales forecast by: Sales of different product types by volume and value Sales from different customer groups Sales from different distribution channels

9. Operational requirements Now you need to explain exactly how you are going to make everything happen. Work out the costs for your premises, equipment, staff, suppliers, compliance and licensing.

10. Financial requirements and forecasts Work out how much money you need and for what. You need to put together a detailed breakdown of your financial requirements, your sources of finance and any additional finance you might need. Include: The cost of starting your business

  • Your personal budget

  • Any money you intend to invest

  • Any additional finance you may have secured

  • A break-even analysis detailing how much you will need to make to cover your costs and make profit

  • A cash flow forecast to estimate how much cash you will have each month

  • A profit-and-loss forecast to estimate when your business will start to make a profit

  • A balance sheet forecast to show what your business will owe, what it will own and how financially strong it will be in the future.

11. Management process To show how you are going to manage your business you need to outline the key skills, responsibilities of yourself and your team. Describe how each member of staff will contribute to the business and summarise their job role. Make sure you cover marketing and sales, finance, recruitment, product development, general management and administration.

12. Business risks Last of all you need to think about business risks. Be honest and describe what could go wrong and what you would do if the worst happened. Consider things like over-reliance on key staff, partnership difficulties, sudden increase in competition and lack of resources.

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