9 Steps to Writing a Business Plan

Starting any successful business requires taking the time to write a well thought out and professional business plan. Think of a business plan as a roadmap for the start-up and success of your business. This roadmap will guide your business in its start-up phase and then on to its success and longevity. By taking the time to create a professional business plan you can help to insure your business gets started off on the right foot and has a plan in place to grow and prosper.

I have put together nine easy steps to creating your business plan. Follow these steps and you will be well on your way to a good solid business plan and a successful business.

Step 1 - Concept of Your Business. What is the concept for your business? Who are you? What will your business sell or provide? Why do people need your business or its products? This section of your business plan should be an overview of your plan and an overview of your business itself.

Step 2 - Vision or Mission Statement. Take the time to think about your business and form a vision or mission statement. This statement should focus on your business and the goals it has. You want a vision and mission statement which you can share with others to convey your business goals and beliefs. You will want to take the time to complete this step and will want to use your vision or mission statement on your business website and other promotional materials. All successful businesses have a strong vision or mission statement.

Step 3 - Market Analysis. For this step you will want to consider the target market for your business and what that market currently looks like. You also will want to consider what your target market may like in the future. Who will you market to? How stable is that market? How will your market change over time? Will your business be able to change with your market? The market analysis step is vital. You have to know who your market is and that they are interested in what you will provide.

Step 4 - Competitive Analysis. Competitive analysis is conducting research into your competitors businesses and seeing what they offer versus what you will offer. You will want to take the time to discover their price structure and how your prices will compare. You will want to look at where their businesses operate and how they conduct their business. How will you compete? Where will you compete? What will you do differently? What will you do that is similar? Can your prices compete? This step in your business plan is very important.

Step 5 - Strategy. For this step in your business plan creation you will want to evaluate the strategy your business will use to start-up, market and grow as a business.

Step 6 - Products and Services. What products will your business sell? What services will your business sell or provide to its clients? What will they cost? Where will you sell them? How will you sell and support them? This step is all about the "meat" of your business - your products or services for sale.

Step 7 - Marketing and Sales. For the marketing and sales section of your business plan you want to show how you will market your product. Where will you advertise? How will you advertise? Who is your target market and where can you expose your business to them? Will your business have a website and market online? Consider all of your marketing options. Think outside the box a bit as well.

Step 8 - Business Operations. The business operations step in your business plan is to outline the parties involved in your business, where your business takes place, your address, your phone number, your website, etc...

Step 9 - Creating the Financials of Your Business Plan. Step 9 is probably the most important step in your business plan. This step will include the following documents: a cash flow projection, a profit and loss projection, a balance sheet and general statement of your business's financial affairs.

Taking the time to complete your business plan using the steps above is a good start to the success of your business.