02: Your business plan
The next stage is to prepare a business plan. This should describe the business, its objectives, its strategies and its financial forecasts. Every business should have a business plan but it is especially important at the beginning. It is essential if your business will need external funding, but equally importantly it will allow you to measure how well your business is doing. The business plan should include:
- An executive summary. This is an overview of the business you want to start and will give lenders the all-important first impression of your ideas.
- A description of the business – what you plan to sell, why customers will buy it and how you plan to develop.
- Your marketing and sales strategy.
- Your management team and personnel.
- Your operations – premises and facilities, book-keeping and management information systems.
- Financial projections – pricing and costs, sales and profit forecasts, how much capital you will need and projected cashflow statements for three to five years.
