The Best Small Business Plan In 2019
Did you just have a realization this 2019 about starting a business? In all likelihood, you already have your startup idea but you’re gonna need a small business plan for it to make it work successfully and well, according to plan.
If you’re questioning yourself “does it really matter to have a small business plan when starting a business”, we’ve got you covered. Worry not as we explain the why’s and how’s of having the best small business plan in 2019 below.
What is a small business plan?
In the simplest sense, a small business plan is a paper that summarizes the essence of your business, products and services; the potential market(s) you are targeting; the business goals and objectives you have set and how you will reach those points.
Aside from a financial plan and a marketing plan, a business plan is one of the most important things you will have to prepare when it comes to starting a business. This is because your business plan will be the one pulling all three schemes together, integrating components from your financial plan and your marketing plan into a comprehensive outline.
A practical business plan is actually a working document that can take in different shapes and function more as a pliable action-planning tool than a structured concrete document. In other words, you can think of it as a layout or an outline that will steer your business from point to point which is from the start up period through foundation and after a period of time, business growth.
Why do you need it in starting a business?
Starting a business needs a lot of things but having a small business plan is really a must, although whatever your reasons are, these may vary by the kind of business you are kicking off and how you have the intention to utilize your business plan.
If you’re still unsure as to why you need a small business plan in starting a business, here are some reasons that may be in relation to you:
- A business plan can give important background knowledge on your business, strategy and culture to workers, including managers and staff, as your business expands.
- A business plan is necessary if you are going to make a formal application for a bank loan, offer a bid for your business to investors or accommodate in a business partner.
- A good small business plan not only traces the point of your beginning and points where you wish to be but also helps you distinguish the certain measures you ought to put into action to get there.
- The monetary segment of your business plan can be the baseline of the budget of your business and a handy tool for handling cash flow on a monthly timeline.
- You will not have the ability to be able to truly qualify your business idea without understanding the market you are targeting, analyzing the competition and running a feasibility analysis — all are parts of a small business plan.
What does a small business plan include?
There are a lot of different types of small business plans, all depending on whatever you need to focus on when starting your business as each of them have different objectives and goals set for business growth.
At a minimum, you’ll need a streamlined business plan that focuses on:
- Vision
- What are you creating?
- How will your business look in a year, in three years and in five years?
- Mission Statement
- What is the purpose of your business?
- What are your reasons in starting a business?
- Objectives
- What are your business goals?
- Are the goals you’ve set for your business considered SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-based) goals?
- What is your way of measuring success when attaining your goals?
- Strategies
- How, what and where?
- How are you going to shape up your small business?
- What product or service will you be selling? What do you think is your USP (unique selling proposition)?
- Where will you sell it? Which market are you targeting?
- Startup Capital
- How much do you need to launch?
- Expenses
- What will it cost monthly to keep your business running after launching it, in three months, in six months and in one year?
- Action Plan
- What are the particular action elements and tasks you need to finish now?
- What are your subsequent milestones?
- What will you be needing to be accomplished by those completed milestones in order to meet your goals?
- Projected Income
- What do you expect to earn? Researching will be a great help.
There are different types of templates available online when you’re searching the web to cater to anything that your small business plan needs so feel free to mix and match and basically tweak the outline we’ve given above. In the end, by focusing only on the important elements listed above, you can get down to figuring out your business much more productively from point A to point B and so on and so forth.
