Writing A Business Plan
Business plans may vary slightly from industry to industry, but at a minimum, your plan should include the following six elements:
- Executive Summary
- Company profile summary
- Market research summary
- Marketing summary
- Finance summary
- Company Profile
- Business overview
- Company history
- Management
- Location
- Legal structure
- Vision & mission
- Market Research
- Industry profile & outlook
- Local market
- Key competitors (SWOT analysis of each)
- Target market
- Keys to success
- Customer survey summary
- Sales & Marketing
- Pricing strategy
- Marketing strategy
- Positioning statement
- The sales process
- Strategic Alliance
- Operations
- Location(s)
- Legal issues
- Insurance issues
- Human Resources
- Process/production
- Risk Assessment
- Financials
- Start-up costs
- Break even
- Sales forecast
- Cash flow
- Income Statement
Your demographic profile should include:
- Age (generally a specific range)
- Sex (male, female or both)
- Marital Status
- Location (where they live and work)
- Income (specifically their disposable income)
- Education (are they high-school, college or university educated?)
- Occupation (what type of employment do they have?)
- Interests (what types of products and services are they interested in?)
- Cultural, ethnic and racial background