sample business plan pdf

sample business plan pdf

Creating a Successful Business Plan

1. Introduction

Every new business needs a business plan, a blueprint of how you will develop your new business and how you will grow it. A business plan is a very specific document that often includes specific business goals, the strategy you will use to accomplish the goals, and your plan for the business’ workforce, budgeting and how you will develop and market your product or service. Creating a business plan will provide you and your stakeholders or financiers with specific information and a clear picture of your goals and how to accomplish them. This informative course will introduce you to the most important part of developing your business plan, a how-to guide for the new entrepreneur. This course is designed for an entrepreneur who has an idea for a new business and a desire to develop the business plan for the idea. Anyone who may be an investor or work for a startup company may also find this course useful. This course will provide you with a framework for developing a business plan that is targeted to an investor who may provide funding for the new company. A further objective of this course is to provide you with the knowledge to develop a business plan that can be a guide for the growth and development of your company. By following the steps of this course, you will develop a business plan that can be the blueprint and provide you with the necessary guidance for successful entrepreneurship.

2. Executive Summary

If you are writing a plan for internal use, this may only be a few paragraphs or you can make bullet points on the above areas. This probably won’t include your financials and is more just to awareness and a plan for the future. If seeking a loan/investment, you should write a much more detailed plan, possibly around 10 pages. This will include everything in the brief summary, however, go into more detail and including your financials. In this situation, you will probably involve a professional to make sure this plan is very well presented and increases your chance of success.

This is the first page of your business plan. It is very important as since this is the first section that will be read by an investor, it must be very well written and capture their interest. This section will explain your business and what you are trying to achieve. Think of this as your elevator pitch; if this does not grab them, they will not read any further. So keep it clear and concise, it should be no more than 2 pages. The different areas you should cover in your executive summary include: business name and a short description of your business, product or service and its benefits, the goal of your business, what are you trying to achieve? At the end, state what you’re after, whether it be a loan or investment. This last point is important as the reader will know what you’re seeking and will be prepared.

The executive summary is often considered the most important section of a business plan. This section briefly tells your reader where your company is, where you want to take it, and why your business idea will be successful. If you are seeking financing, the executive summary is also your first opportunity to grab a potential investor’s interest.

3. Market Analysis

3.3 Analysis of your customers Who are the customers that will be buying your product? You will need to find out their income level, age, and whether or not this product is important in their life. With this, you can determine the amount of value and customer loyalty to your product. This can be shown in the following equation: Value = E (i n) i=1 Where E is the amount of customer purchases and n is the number of units. High value will make it easier to price the product and higher customer loyalty can be the source of repeat purchases.

3.2 Market needs What is it that your customer needs? What are the factors in the market that make the consumers want to purchase this product and is this a need with the potential to grow transform into demand?

3.1 The market This can be defined in terms of the customers of your product and what they will currently be using to satisfy their needs. If it’s a similar product then how you will convince them to switch to your product; if it’s a completely different product, how you will create a need for your product.

This section will prove whether or not there is a market for your business. It will allow you to know your customer base, their needs, whether or not they need your product and are willing to purchase it. From here you will also be able to research and find out who your competitors are and develop your marketing strategy.

4. Business Strategies

The final approach is a best cost provider strategy, where a company strives to give consumers the best value for money in its products. This is achieved through features that are more appealing than those of a similar product, but at lower costs (Young, R., 2020).

A focused strategy involves a company narrowing down a segment or a niche of an industry and concentrating on catering to that area. This strategy is effective in avoiding competitors, as it is less likely that they will enter a narrow segment and compete.

The second approach is a broad differentiation strategy, in which a company seeks to differentiate itself from its competitors by providing unique products that are of value to the customer. This strategy is effective in avoiding buyer’s power, as the more unique a product, the fewer substitutes there are. However, the costs involved in differentiating a product from those of the competition are high, and initial costs may not be recouped with a price premium.

The first approach is a low price strategy, which is employed when a company sets out to be the lowest cost producer in its industry. A low price strategy can be an effective way to gain quick market share, but it often results in a price war with the competition, and it can be difficult to recoup costs incurred.

To be a successful entrepreneur, a sound business strategy must be followed. A business strategy is the road map to how a company is going to grow, achieve a competitive advantage, satisfy customers, and achieve its desired business objectives (Johnson, Scholes, & Regnaldes, 2005). Developed by Rod Young, a business strategy can take on one of five different approaches. In any given company, any one of these strategies, or a combination of them, can be employed.

5. Financial Projections

The goal in this section is to outline the financial projections for a commercial printing business with the ability to serve the southern United States. A good way to start projecting the financial future of the company is to look at the past performance of the business relative to sales and total assets. We took the financial data of the company from 2002 and applied predicted rates of inflation and interest to the old data and aggregate information relevant to how the industry is doing in the Southeast. This aggregate information came from secondary research through the use of the internet and academic journals. After aggregating the industry information, we used it to forecast sales for the next five years on a quarterly basis. We anticipate that sales will be slow to start but steadily increase over the five-year period. We are not looking to have explosive sales growth because we only wish to steadily increase the number of clients we have. This increase in sales will lead to an increase in total assets for the company because there will be demand for more equipment and possibly a second location for the company to better serve its clients. The next step is to plan the funding for the business. Since we are not expecting huge sales growth, we feel that it is safe to fund the business internally through the use of personal savings and some available credit. This means that we will not seek any external equity funding or substantial loans at any time during the next five years. This decision also reflects our personal financial situations because we are both single and have minuscule living expenses at this time. An increase in total assets while maintaining a positive cash flow throughout the next five years will enable us to phase out the more needy and time-consuming jobs that we currently hold in the service industry.