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Expertise: Our team of seasoned professionals brings years of hands-on experience in the ecommerce industry, ensuring you receive expert guidance at every step.

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Proven Results: Our track record of driving growth and boosting profitability for diverse ecommerce businesses speaks for itself. Your success is our top priority.

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Maximizing Your Business Potential with the 8NV Business Model

By knbbs-sharer

When it comes to running a successful business, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Every organization has its unique set of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Therefore, a business strategy must align with the company’s goals and vision. One approach that has gained popularity over the years is the 8NV business model. In this article, we’ll explore what the 8NV business model is and how it can help maximize your business potential.

What is the 8NV Business Model?

The 8NV model, also known as the Eight New Ventures Model, is a framework for entrepreneurial success developed by William D. Bygrave and Andrew Zacharakis. The model comprises eight key building blocks that a company needs to focus on to achieve sustainable growth and competitive advantage. Here are the eight elements of the 8NV model:

1. Market Niches: This refers to identifying profitable target market segments that the organization can serve effectively. By focusing on niche markets, the company can differentiate itself from its competitors and increase its chances of success.

2. Core Strategy: This is the plan that outlines how the company can create distinctive value for its target market. It’s the foundation for all other business activities and describes the company’s competitive advantage.

3. Continuous Improvement: To remain competitive, companies need to constantly improve their processes, products, and services. This element emphasizes the need for ongoing improvement to stay ahead of the competition.

4. Resource Leveraging: This element involves assessing the company’s resources and identifying ways to use them efficiently. This includes both tangible and intangible resources such as people, technology, and intellectual property.

5. Competitive Advantage: This refers to the unique advantage that a company has over its rivals. Businesses need to identify their competitive advantage and reinforce it continuously to maintain their uniqueness.

6. Critical Mass: This involves achieving a sufficient size to achieve economies of scale and sustainability. Critical mass is the point at which it’s no longer feasible for competitors to enter the market.

7. Market Timing: This element refers to the time when a company brings its products and services to market. Getting the timing right is crucial as it can make the difference between success and failure.

8. Management Quality: Finally, management quality refers to the competencies and skills of the company’s leadership. Effective leadership is essential for success as it drives the company’s strategy and decision-making.

How can the 8NV Business Model help Maximize Your Business Potential?

The 8NV business model provides a comprehensive framework for analyzing a business’s performance and identifying areas for improvement. By focusing on the eight key elements, businesses can develop a strategic plan that maximizes their potential. Here are some ways the 8NV model can help businesses:

1. Identify new markets and opportunities: By focusing on market niches, companies can identify untapped market opportunities that they can exploit. This can lead to new revenue streams and increased profits.

2. Streamline business operations: The resource leveraging element helps companies optimize their use of resources, leading to cost savings and more efficient business operations.

3. Build a competitive advantage: Companies can leverage their unique strengths to gain a competitive advantage and stand out in the marketplace.

4. Foster innovation: Continuous improvement and critical mass elements encourage businesses to innovate and develop new products and services to stay ahead of the competition.

5. Improve leadership: By focusing on management quality, businesses can improve their leadership and decision-making capabilities, which can have a profound impact on the company’s success.

In summary, the 8NV business model is an excellent tool for maximizing your business potential. By focusing on the eight key elements, companies can develop a strategic plan that aligns with their goals and vision. By identifying new markets, building a competitive advantage, streamlining operations, fostering innovation, and improving leadership, businesses can achieve sustainable growth and success. The 8NV model provides a comprehensive guide for entrepreneurs to achieve entrepreneurial success.

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How to Write a Business Plan: Beginner’s Guide (& Templates)

Written by: Chloe West

Thinking about starting a business? One of the first steps you’ll need to take is to write a business plan. A business plan can help guide you through your financial planning, marketing strategy, unique selling point and more.

Making sure you start your new business off on the right foot is key, and we’re here to help. We’ve put together this guide to help you write your first business plan. Or, you can skip the guide and dive right into a business plan template .

Ready to get started?

Here’s a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit business plan templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:

8-Step Process for Writing a Business Plan

What is a business plan, why is a business plan important, step #1: write your executive summary, step #2: put together your company description, step #3: conduct your market analysis, step #4: research your competition, step #5: outline your products or services, step #6: summarize your financial plan, step #7: determine your marketing strategy, step #8: showcase your organizational chart, 14 business plan templates to help you get started.

A business plan is a document that helps potential new business owners flesh out their business idea and put together a bird’s eye view of their business. Writing a business plan is an essential step in any startup’s ideation process.

Business plans help determine demographics, market analysis, competitive analysis, financial projections, new products or services, and so much more.

Each of these bits of information are important to have on hand when you’re trying to start a business or pitching investors for funds.

Here’s an example of a business plan that you can customize to incorporate your own business information.

We’re going to walk you through some of the most important parts of your business plan as well as how to write your own business plan in 8 easy steps.

If you’re in the beginning stages of starting a business , you might be wondering if it’s really worth your time to write out your business plan. 

We’re here to tell you that it is.

A business plan is important for a number of reasons, but mostly because it helps to set you up for success right from the start.

Here are four reasons to prove to you why you need to start your business off on the right foot with a plan.

Reason #1: Set Realistic Goals and Milestones

Putting together a business plan helps you to set your objectives for growth and make realistic goals while you begin your business. 

By laying out each of the steps you need to take in order to build a successful business, you’re able to be more reasonable about what your timeline is for achieving everything as well as what your financial projections are.

The best way to set goals is using the SMART goals guidelines, outlined below.

Reason #2: Grow Your Business Faster

Having a business plan helps you be more organized and strategic, improving the overall performance of your business as you start out. In fact, one study found that businesses with a plan grow 30% faster than businesses that don’t.

Doesn’t that sound reason enough alone to start out your business venture with a solidified plan? We thought so too, but we’ve still got two more reasons.

Reason #3: Minimize Risk

Starting a new business is uncharted territory. However, when you start with a roadmap for your journey, it makes it easier to see success and minimize the risks that come with startups.

Minimize risk and maximize profitability by documenting the most important parts of your business planning.

Reason #4: Secure Funding

And finally, our last reason that business plans are so important is that if you plan to pitch investors for funding for your new venture, they’re almost always going to want to see a detailed business plan before deciding whether or not to invest.

You can easily create your business plan and investor pitch deck right here with Visme. Just sign up for a free account below to get started. 

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The executive summary is a brief overview of your entire business plan, giving anyone who reads through your document a quick understanding of what they’re going to learn about your business idea.

However, you need to remember that some of the people who are going to read your business plan don’t want to or have time to read the entire thing. So your executive summary needs to incorporate all of the most important aspects of your plan.

Here’s an example of an executive summary from a business plan template you can customize and turn into your own.

Your executive summary should include:

• Key objective(s)
• Market research
• Competitor information
• Products/services
• Value proposition
• Overview of your financial plan
• How you’re going to actually start your business

One thing to note is that you should actually write your executive summary after the rest of your business plan so that you can properly summarize everything you’ve already created.

So at this point, simply leave a page blank for your executive summary so you can come back to it at the end of your business plan.

The next step is to write out a full description of your business and its core offerings. This section of your business plan should include your mission statement and objectives, along with your company history or overview.

In this section, you may also briefly describe your business formation details from a legal perspective.

Mission Statement

Don’t spend too much time trying to craft this. Your mission statement is a simple “why” you started this business. What are you trying to achieve? Or what does your business solve?

This can be anything from one single quote or a paragraph, but it doesn’t need to be much longer than that. In fact, this could be very similar to your value proposition.

What are your goals? What do you plan to achieve in the first 90 days or one year of your business? What kind of impact do you hope to make on the market?

These are all good points to include in your objectives section so anyone reading your business plan knows upfront what you hope to achieve.

History or Overview

If you’re not launching a brand new business or if you’ve previously worked on another iteration of this business, let potential investors know the history of your company.

If not, simply provide an overview of your business, sharing what it does or what it will do.

Your third step is to conduct a market analysis so you know how your business will fit into its target market. This page in your business plan is simply meant to summarize your findings. Most of your time should be spent actually doing the research.

Your market analysis needs to look at things like:

• Market size, and if it’s grown in recent years or shrinking
• The segment of the market you plan to target
• Demographics and behavior of your target audience
• The demand for your product or service
• Your competitive advantage or differentiation strategy
• The average price of your product or service

Put together a summary of your market analysis and industry research in a 1-2 page format, like we see below.

Your next step is to conduct a competitive analysis. While you likely touched on this briefly during your market analysis, now is the time to do a deep dive so that you have a good grasp on what your competitors are doing and how they are generating customers.

Start by creating a profile of all your existing competitors, or at the very least, your closest competitors – the ones who are offering very similar products or services to you, or are in a similar vicinity (if you’re opening a brick and mortar store).

Focus on their strengths and what they’re doing really well so that you can emulate their best qualities in your own way. Then, look at their weaknesses and what your business can do better.

Take note of their current marketing strategy, including the outlets you see a presence, whether it’s on social media, you hear a radio ad, you see a TV ad, etc. You won’t always find all of their marketing channels, but see what you can find online and on their website.

After this, take a minute to identify potential competitors based on markets you might try out in the future, products or services you plan to add to your offerings, and more.

Then put together a page or two in your business plan that highlights your competitive advantage and how you’ll be successful breaking into the market.

Step five is to dedicate a page to the products or services that your business plans to offer.

Put together a quick list and explanation of what each of the initial product or service offerings will be, but steer clear of industry jargon or buzzwords. This should be written in plain language so anyone reading has a full understanding of what your business will do.

You can have a simple list like we see in the sample page above, or you can dive a little deeper. Depending on your type of business, it might be a good idea to provide additional information about what each product or service entails.

The next step is to work on the financial data of your new business. What will your overhead be? How will your business make money? What are your estimated expenses and profits over the first few months to a year? The expenses should cover all the spending whether they are recurring costs or just one-time LLC filing fees .

There is so much that goes into your financial plan for a new business, so this is going to take some time to compile. Especially because this section of your business plan helps potential cofounders or investors understand if the idea is even viable.

Your financial plan should include at least five major sections:

• Sales Forecast: The first thing you want to include is a forecast or financial projection of how much you think your business can sell over the next year or so. Break this down into the different products, services or facets of your business.
• Balance Sheet: This section is essentially a statement of your company’s financial position. It includes existing assets, liabilities and equity to demonstrate the company’s overall financial health.
• Income Statement: Also known as a profit and loss statement (P&L), this covers your projected expenses and revenue, showcasing whether your business will be profitable or not.
• Operating Budget: A detailed outline of your business’s income and expenses. This should showcase that your business is bringing in more than it’s spending.
• Cash Flow Statements: This tracks how much cash your business has at any given point, regardless of whether customers or clients have paid their bills or have 30-60+ days to do so.

While these are the most common financial statements, you may discover that there are other sections that you want to include or that lenders may want to see from you.

You can automate the process of looking through your documents with an OCR API , which will collect the data from all your financial statements and invoices.

The next step is coming up with a successful marketing plan so that you can actually get the word out about your business. 

Throughout your business plan, you’ve already researched your competitors and your target market, both of which are major components of a good marketing strategy. You need to know who you’re marketing to, and you want to do it better than your competition.

On this page or throughout this section of your business plan, you need to focus on your chosen marketing channels and the types of marketing content you plan to create.

Start by taking a look at the channels that your competitors are on and make sure you have a good understanding of the demographics of each channel as well. You don’t want to waste time on a marketing channel that your target audience doesn’t use.

Then, create a list of each of your planned marketing avenues. It might look something like:

• Social media ( Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest)
• Email newsletter
• Digital ads

Depending on the type of business you’re starting, this list could change quite a bit — and that’s okay. There is no one-size-fits-all marketing strategy, and you need to find the one that brings in the highest number of potential customers.

Your last section will be all about your leadership and management team members. Showcasing that you have a solid team right from the start can make potential investors feel better about funding your venture.

You can easily put together an organizational chart like the one below, with the founder/CEO at the top and each of your team leaders underneath alongside the department they’re in charge of.

Simply add an organizational chart like this as a page into your overall business plan and make sure it matches the rest of your design to create a cohesive document.

If you want to create a good business plan that sets your new business up for success and attracts new investors, it’s a good idea to start with a template. 

We’ve got 14 options below from a variety of different industries for you to choose from. You can customize every aspect of each template to fit your business branding and design preferences.

If you're pressed for time, Visme's AI business plan generator can churn out compelling business plans in minutes. Just input a detailed prompt, choose the design, and watch the tool generate your plan in a few seconds.

Template #1: Photography Business Plan Template

This feminine and minimalistic business plan template is perfect for getting started with any kind of creative business. Utilize this template to help outline the step-by-step process of getting your new business idea up and running.

Template #2: Real Estate Business Plan Template

Looking for a more modern business plan design? This template is perfect for plainly laying out each of your business plans in an easy-to-understand format. Adjust the red accents with your business’s colors to personalize this template.

Template #3: Nonprofit Business Plan Template

Creating a business and marketing plan for your nonprofit is still an essential step when you’re just starting out. You need to get the word out to increase donations and awareness for your cause.

Template #4: Restaurant Business Plan Template

If your business plan needs to rely heavily on showcasing photos of your products (like food), this template is perfect for you. Get potential investors salivating at the sight of your business plan, and they’re sure to provide the capital you need.

Template #5: Fashion Business Plan Template

Serifs are in. Utilize this template with stunning serif as all the headers to create a contemporary and trendy business plan design that fits your business. Adjust the colors to match your brand and easily input your own content.

Template #6: Daycare Business Plan Template

Creating a more kid-friendly or playful business? This business plan template has bold colors and design elements that will perfectly represent your business and its mission. 

Use the pages you need, and remove any that you don’t. You can also duplicate pages and move the elements around to add even more content to your business plan.

Template #7: Consulting Business Plan Template

This classic business plan template is perfect for a consulting business that wants to use a stunning visual design to talk about its services.

Template #8: Coffee Shop Business Plan Template

Customize this coffee shop business plan template to match your own business idea. Adjust the colors to fit your brand or industry, replace photos with your own photography or stock photos that represent your business, and insert your own logo, fonts and colors throughout.

Template #9: SaaS Business Plan Template

A SaaS or service-based company also needs a solid business plan that lays out its financials, list of services, target market and more. This template is the perfect starting point.

Template #10: Small Business Plan Template

Every startup or small business needs to start out with a strong business plan in order to start off on the right foot and set yourself up for success. This template is an excellent starting point for any small business.

Template #11: Ecommerce Business Plan Template

An ecommerce business plan is ideal for planning out your pricing strategy of all of your online products, as well as the site you plan to use for setting up your store, whether WordPress, Shopify, Wix or something else.

Template #12: Startup Business Plan Template

Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download  

This is another generic business plan template for any type of startup to customize. Switch out the content, fonts and colors to match your startup branding and increase brand equity.

Template #13: One-Page Business Plan Template

Want just a quick business plan to get your idea going before you bite the bullet and map out your entire plan? This one-page template is perfect for those just starting to flesh out a new business idea.

Template #14: Salon Business Plan Template

This salon business plan template is easy on the design and utilizes a light color scheme to put more focus on the actual content. You can use the design as is or keep it as a basis for your own design elements.

Create Your Own Business Plan Today

Ready to write your business plan? Once you’ve created all of the most important sections, get started with a business plan template to really wow your investors and organize your startup plan.

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About the Author

Chloe West is the content marketing manager at Visme. Her experience in digital marketing includes everything from social media, blogging, email marketing to graphic design, strategy creation and implementation, and more. During her spare time, she enjoys exploring her home city of Charleston with her son.

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7 Business Plan Examples to Inspire Your Own (2024)

Need support creating your business plan? Check out these business plan examples for inspiration.

Any aspiring entrepreneur researching how to start a business will likely be advised to write a business plan. But few resources provide business plan examples to really guide you through writing one of your own.

Here are some real-world and illustrative business plan examples to help you craft your business plan .

7 business plan examples: section by section

The business plan examples in this article follow this template:

• Executive summary.  An introductory overview of your business.
• Company description.  A more in-depth and detailed description of your business and why it exists.
• Market analysis.  Research-based information about the industry and your target market.
• Products and services.  What you plan to offer in exchange for money.
• Marketing plan.   The promotional strategy to introduce your business to the world and drive sales.
• Logistics and operations plan.  Everything that happens in the background to make your business function properly.
• Financial plan.  A breakdown of your numbers to show what you need to get started as well as to prove viability of profitability.
• Executive summary

Your  executive summary  is a page that gives a high-level overview of the rest of your business plan. It’s easiest to save this section for last.

In this  free business plan template , the executive summary is four paragraphs and takes a little over half a page:

• Company description

You might repurpose your company description elsewhere, like on your About page, social media profile pages, or other properties that require a boilerplate description of your small business.

Soap brand ORRIS  has a blurb on its About page that could easily be repurposed for the company description section of its business plan.

You can also go more in-depth with your company overview and include the following sections, like in the example for Paw Print Post:

• Business structure.  This section outlines how you  registered your business —as an  LLC , sole proprietorship, corporation, or other  business type . “Paw Print Post will operate as a sole proprietorship run by the owner, Jane Matthews.”
• Nature of the business.  “Paw Print Post sells unique, one-of-a-kind digitally printed cards that are customized with a pet’s unique paw prints.”
• Industry.  “Paw Print Post operates primarily in the pet industry and sells goods that could also be categorized as part of the greeting card industry.”
• Background information.  “Jane Matthews, the founder of Paw Print Post, has a long history in the pet industry and working with animals, and was recently trained as a graphic designer. She’s combining those two loves to capture a niche in the market: unique greeting cards customized with a pet’s paw prints, without needing to resort to the traditional (and messy) options of casting your pet’s prints in plaster or using pet-safe ink to have them stamp their ‘signature.’”
• Business objectives.  “Jane will have Paw Print Post ready to launch at the Big Important Pet Expo in Toronto to get the word out among industry players and consumers alike. After two years in business, Jane aims to drive $150,000 in annual revenue from the sale of Paw Print Post’s signature greeting cards and have expanded into two new product categories.”
• Team.  “Jane Matthews is the sole full-time employee of Paw Print Post but hires contractors as needed to support her workflow and fill gaps in her skill set. Notably, Paw Print Post has a standing contract for five hours a week of virtual assistant support with Virtual Assistants Pro.”

Your  mission statement  may also make an appearance here.  Passionfruit  shares its mission statement on its company website, and it would also work well in its example business plan.

• Market analysis

The market analysis consists of research about supply and demand, your target demographics, industry trends, and the competitive landscape. You might run a SWOT analysis and include that in your business plan. 

Here’s an example  SWOT analysis  for an online tailored-shirt business:

You’ll also want to do a  competitive analysis  as part of the market research component of your business plan. This will tell you who you’re up against and give you ideas on how to differentiate your brand. A broad competitive analysis might include:

• Target customers
• Unique value add  or what sets their products apart
• Sales pitch
• Price points  for products
• Shipping  policy
• Products and services

This section of your business plan describes your offerings—which products and services do you sell to your customers? Here’s an example for Paw Print Post:

• Marketing plan

It’s always a good idea to develop a marketing plan  before you launch your business. Your marketing plan shows how you’ll get the word out about your business, and it’s an essential component of your business plan as well.

The Paw Print Post focuses on four Ps: price, product, promotion, and place. However, you can take a different approach with your marketing plan. Maybe you can pull from your existing  marketing strategy , or maybe you break it down by the different marketing channels. Whatever approach you take, your marketing plan should describe how you intend to promote your business and offerings to potential customers.

• Logistics and operations plan

The Paw Print Post example considered suppliers, production, facilities, equipment, shipping and fulfillment, and inventory.

Financial plan

The financial plan provides a breakdown of sales, revenue, profit, expenses, and other relevant financial metrics related to funding and profiting from your business.

Ecommerce brand  Nature’s Candy’s financial plan  breaks down predicted revenue, expenses, and net profit in graphs.

It then dives deeper into the financials to include:

• Funding needs
• Projected profit-and-loss statement
• Projected balance sheet
• Projected cash-flow statement

You can use this financial plan spreadsheet to build your own financial statements, including income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement.

Types of business plans, and what to include for each

A one-page business plan is meant to be high level and easy to understand at a glance. You’ll want to include all of the sections, but make sure they’re truncated and summarized:

• Executive summary: truncated
• Market analysis: summarized
• Products and services: summarized
• Marketing plan: summarized
• Logistics and operations plan: summarized
• Financials: summarized

A startup business plan is for a new business. Typically, these plans are developed and shared to secure  outside funding . As such, there’s a bigger focus on the financials, as well as on other sections that determine viability of your business idea—market research, for example.

• Market analysis: in-depth
• Financials: in-depth

Your internal business plan is meant to keep your team on the same page and aligned toward the same goal.

A strategic, or growth, business plan is a bigger picture, more-long-term look at your business. As such, the forecasts tend to look further into the future, and growth and revenue goals may be higher. Essentially, you want to use all the sections you would in a normal business plan and build upon each.

• Market analysis: comprehensive outlook
• Products and services: for launch and expansion
• Marketing plan: comprehensive outlook
• Logistics and operations plan: comprehensive outlook
• Financials: comprehensive outlook

Feasibility

Your feasibility business plan is sort of a pre-business plan—many refer to it as simply a feasibility study. This plan essentially lays the groundwork and validates that it’s worth the effort to make a full business plan for your idea. As such, it’s mostly centered around research.

Set yourself up for success as a business owner

Building a good business plan serves as a roadmap you can use for your ecommerce business at launch and as you reach each of your business goals. Business plans create accountability for entrepreneurs and synergy among teams, regardless of your  business model .

Kickstart your ecommerce business and set yourself up for success with an intentional business planning process—and with the sample business plans above to guide your own path.

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Business plan examples FAQ

How do i write a simple business plan, what is the best format to write a business plan, what are the 4 key elements of a business plan.

• Executive summary: A concise overview of the company's mission, goals, target audience, and financial objectives.
• Business description: A description of the company's purpose, operations, products and services, target markets, and competitive landscape.
• Market analysis: An analysis of the industry, market trends, potential customers, and competitors.
• Financial plan: A detailed description of the company's financial forecasts and strategies.

What are the 3 main points of a business plan?

• Concept: Your concept should explain the purpose of your business and provide an overall summary of what you intend to accomplish.
• Contents: Your content should include details about the products and services you provide, your target market, and your competition.
• Cashflow: Your cash flow section should include information about your expected cash inflows and outflows, such as capital investments, operating costs, and revenue projections.

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Simple Business Plan Template (2024)

Updated: May 4, 2024, 4:37pm

Table of Contents

Why business plans are vital, get your free simple business plan template, how to write an effective business plan in 6 steps, frequently asked questions.

While taking many forms and serving many purposes, they all have one thing in common: business plans help you establish your goals and define the means for achieving them. Our simple business plan template covers everything you need to consider when launching a side gig, solo operation or small business. By following this step-by-step process, you might even uncover a few alternate routes to success.

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Whether you’re a first-time solopreneur or a seasoned business owner, the planning process challenges you to examine the costs and tasks involved in bringing a product or service to market. The process can also help you spot new income opportunities and hone in on the most profitable business models.

Though vital, business planning doesn’t have to be a chore. Business plans for lean startups and solopreneurs can simply outline the business concept, sales proposition, target customers and sketch out a plan of action to bring the product or service to market. However, if you’re seeking startup funding or partnership opportunities, you’ll need a write a business plan that details market research, operating costs and revenue forecasting. Whichever startup category you fall into, if you’re at square one, our simple business plan template will point you down the right path.

Copy our free simple business plan template so you can fill in the blanks as we explore each element of your business plan. Need help getting your ideas flowing? You’ll also find several startup scenario examples below.

Download free template as .docx

Whether you need a quick-launch overview or an in-depth plan for investors, any business plan should cover the six key elements outlined in our free template and explained below. The main difference in starting a small business versus an investor-funded business is the market research and operational and financial details needed to support the concept.

1. Your Mission or Vision

Start by declaring a “dream statement” for your business. You can call this your executive summary, vision statement or mission. Whatever the name, the first part of your business plan summarizes your idea by answering five questions. Keep it brief, such as an elevator pitch. You’ll expand these answers in the following sections of the simple business plan template.

• What does your business do? Are you selling products, services, information or a combination?
• Where does this happen? Will you conduct business online, in-store, via mobile means or in a specific location or environment?
• Who does your business benefit? Who is your target market and ideal customer for your concept?
• Why would potential customers care? What would make your ideal customers take notice of your business?
• How do your products and/or services outshine the competition? What would make your ideal customers choose you over a competitor?

These answers come easily if you have a solid concept for your business, but don’t worry if you get stuck. Use the rest of your plan template to brainstorm ideas and tactics. You’ll quickly find these answers and possibly new directions as you explore your ideas and options.

2. Offer and Value Proposition

This is where you detail your offer, such as selling products, providing services or both, and why anyone would care. That’s the value proposition. Specifically, you’ll expand on your answers to the first and fourth bullets from your mission/vision.

As you complete this section, you might find that exploring value propositions uncovers marketable business opportunities that you hadn’t yet considered. So spend some time brainstorming the possibilities in this section.

For example, a cottage baker startup specializing in gluten-free or keto-friendly products might be a value proposition that certain audiences care deeply about. Plus, you could expand on that value proposition by offering wedding and other special-occasion cakes that incorporate gluten-free, keto-friendly and traditional cake elements that all guests can enjoy.

3. Audience and Ideal Customer

Here is where you explore bullet point number three, who your business will benefit. Identifying your ideal customer and exploring a broader audience for your goods or services is essential in defining your sales and marketing strategies, plus it helps fine-tune what you offer.

There are many ways to research potential audiences, but a shortcut is to simply identify a problem that people have that your product or service can solve. If you start from the position of being a problem solver, it’s easy to define your audience and describe the wants and needs of your ideal customer for marketing efforts.

Using the cottage baker startup example, a problem people might have is finding fresh-baked gluten-free or keto-friendly sweets. Examining the wants and needs of these people might reveal a target audience that is health-conscious or possibly dealing with health issues and willing to spend more for hard-to-find items.

However, it’s essential to have a customer base that can support your business. You can be too specialized. For example, our baker startup can attract a broader audience and boost revenue by offering a wider selection of traditional baked goods alongside its gluten-free and keto-focused specialties.

4. Revenue Streams, Sales Channels and Marketing

Thanks to our internet-driven economy, startups have many revenue opportunities and can connect with target audiences through various channels. Revenue streams and sales channels also serve as marketing vehicles, so you can cover all three in this section.

Revenue Streams

Revenue streams are the many ways you can make money in your business. In your plan template, list how you’ll make money upon launch, plus include ideas for future expansion. The income possibilities just might surprise you.

For example, our cottage baker startup might consider these revenue streams:

• Product sales : Online, pop-up shops , wholesale and (future) in-store sales
• Affiliate income : Monetize blog and social media posts with affiliate links
• Advertising income : Reserve website space for advertising
• E-book sales : (future) Publish recipe e-books targeting gluten-free and keto-friendly dessert niches
• Video income : (future) Monetize a YouTube channel featuring how-to videos for the gluten-free and keto-friendly dessert niches
• Webinars and online classes : (future) Monetize coaching-style webinars and online classes covering specialty baking tips and techniques
• Members-only content : (future) Monetize a members-only section of the website for specialty content to complement webinars and online classes
• Franchise : (future) Monetize a specialty cottage bakery concept and sell to franchise entrepreneurs

Sales Channels

Sales channels put your revenue streams into action. This section also answers the “where will this happen” question in the second bullet of your vision.

The product sales channels for our cottage bakery example can include:

• Mobile point-of-sale (POS) : A mobile platform such as Shopify or Square POS for managing in-person sales at local farmers’ markets, fairs and festivals
• E-commerce platform : An online store such as Shopify, Square or WooCommerce for online retail sales and wholesale sales orders
• Social media channels : Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest shoppable posts and pins for online sales via social media channels
• Brick-and-mortar location : For in-store sales , once the business has grown to a point that it can support a physical location

Channels that support other income streams might include:

• Affiliate income : Blog section on the e-commerce website and affiliate partner accounts
• Advertising income : Reserved advertising spaces on the e-commerce website
• E-book sales : Amazon e-book sales via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
• Video income : YouTube channel with ad monetization
• Webinars and online classes : Online class and webinar platforms that support member accounts, recordings and playback
• Members-only content : Password-protected website content using membership apps such as MemberPress

Nowadays, the line between marketing and sales channels is blurred. Social media outlets, e-books, websites, blogs and videos serve as both marketing tools and income opportunities. Since most are free and those with advertising options are extremely economical, these are ideal marketing outlets for lean startups.

However, many businesses still find value in traditional advertising such as local radio, television, direct mail, newspapers and magazines. You can include these advertising costs in your simple business plan template to help build a marketing plan and budget.

5. Structure, Suppliers and Operations

This section of your simple business plan template explores how to structure and operate your business. Details include the type of business organization your startup will take, roles and responsibilities, supplier logistics and day-to-day operations. Also, include any certifications or permits needed to launch your enterprise in this section.

Our cottage baker example might use a structure and startup plan such as this:

• Business structure : Sole proprietorship with a “doing business as” (DBA) .
• Permits and certifications : County-issued food handling permit and state cottage food certification for home-based food production. Option, check into certified commercial kitchen rentals.
• Roles and responsibilities : Solopreneur, all roles and responsibilities with the owner.
• Supply chain : Bulk ingredients and food packaging via Sam’s Club, Costco, Amazon Prime with annual membership costs. Uline for shipping supplies; no membership needed.
• Day-to-day operations : Source ingredients and bake three days per week to fulfill local and online orders. Reserve time for specialty sales, wholesale partner orders and market events as needed. Ship online orders on alternating days. Update website and create marketing and affiliate blog posts on non-shipping days.

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6. Financial Forecasts

Your final task is to list forecasted business startup and ongoing costs and profit projections in your simple business plan template. Thanks to free business tools such as Square and free marketing on social media, lean startups can launch with few upfront costs. In many cases, cost of goods, shipping and packaging, business permits and printing for business cards are your only out-of-pocket expenses.

Cost Forecast

Our cottage baker’s forecasted lean startup costs might include:

Gross Profit Projections

This helps you determine the retail prices and sales volume required to keep your business running and, hopefully, earn income for yourself. Use product research to spot target retail prices for your goods, then subtract your cost of goods, such as hourly rate, raw goods and supplier costs. The total amount is your gross profit per item or service.

Here are some examples of projected gross profits for our cottage baker:

Bottom Line

Putting careful thought and detail in a business plan is always beneficial, but don’t get so bogged down in planning that you never hit the start button to launch your business . Also, remember that business plans aren’t set in stone. Markets, audiences and technologies change, and so will your goals and means of achieving them. Think of your business plan as a living document and regularly revisit, expand and restructure it as market opportunities and business growth demand.

Is there a template for a business plan?

You can copy our free business plan template and fill in the blanks or customize it in Google Docs, Microsoft Word or another word processing app. This free business plan template includes the six key elements that any entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a new business.

What does a simple business plan include?

A simple business plan is a one- to two-page overview covering six key elements that any budding entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a startup. These include your vision or mission, product or service offering, target audience, revenue streams and sales channels, structure and operations, and financial forecasts.

How can I create a free business plan template?

Start with our free business plan template that covers the six essential elements of a startup. Once downloaded, you can edit this document in Google Docs or another word processing app and add new sections or subsections to your plan template to meet your specific business plan needs.

What basic items should be included in a business plan?

When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business,  an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.

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Krista Fabregas is a seasoned eCommerce and online content pro sharing more than 20 years of hands-on know-how with those looking to launch and grow tech-forward businesses. Her expertise includes eCommerce startups and growth, SMB operations and logistics, website platforms, payment systems, side-gig and affiliate income, and multichannel marketing. Krista holds a bachelor's degree in English from The University of Texas at Austin and held senior positions at NASA, a Fortune 100 company, and several online startups.

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How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Steps (+ Template and Examples)

Every successful business has one thing in common, a good and well-executed business plan. A business plan is more than a document, it is a complete guide that outlines the goals your business wants to achieve, including its financial goals . It helps you analyze results, make strategic decisions, show your business operations and growth.

If you want to start a business or already have one and need to pitch it to investors for funding, writing a good business plan improves your chances of attracting financiers. As a startup, if you want to secure loans from financial institutions, part of the requirements involve submitting your business plan.

Writing a business plan does not have to be a complicated or time-consuming process. In this article, you will learn the step-by-step process for writing a successful business plan.

You will also learn what you need a business plan for, tips and strategies for writing a convincing business plan, business plan examples and templates that will save you tons of time, and the alternatives to the traditional business plan.

Let’s get started.

What Do You Need A Business Plan For?

Businesses create business plans for different purposes such as to secure funds, monitor business growth, measure your marketing strategies, and measure your business success.

1. Secure Funds

One of the primary reasons for writing a business plan is to secure funds, either from financial institutions/agencies or investors.

For you to effectively acquire funds, your business plan must contain the key elements of your business plan . For example, your business plan should include your growth plans, goals you want to achieve, and milestones you have recorded.

A business plan can also attract new business partners that are willing to contribute financially and intellectually. If you are writing a business plan to a bank, your project must show your traction , that is, the proof that you can pay back any loan borrowed.

Also, if you are writing to an investor, your plan must contain evidence that you can effectively utilize the funds you want them to invest in your business. Here, you are using your business plan to persuade a group or an individual that your business is a source of a good investment.

2. Monitor Business Growth

A business plan can help you track cash flows in your business. It steers your business to greater heights. A business plan capable of tracking business growth should contain:

• The business goals
• Methods to achieve the goals
• Time-frame for attaining those goals

A good business plan should guide you through every step in achieving your goals. It can also track the allocation of assets to every aspect of the business. You can tell when you are spending more than you should on a project.

You can compare a business plan to a written GPS. It helps you manage your business and hints at the right time to expand your business.

3. Measure Business Success

A business plan can help you measure your business success rate. Some small-scale businesses are thriving better than more prominent companies because of their track record of success.

Right from the onset of your business operation, set goals and work towards them. Write a plan to guide you through your procedures. Use your plan to measure how much you have achieved and how much is left to attain.

You can also weigh your success by monitoring the position of your brand relative to competitors. On the other hand, a business plan can also show you why you have not achieved a goal. It can tell if you have elapsed the time frame you set to attain a goal.

4. Document Your Marketing Strategies

You can use a business plan to document your marketing plans. Every business should have an effective marketing plan.

Competition mandates every business owner to go the extraordinary mile to remain relevant in the market. Your business plan should contain your marketing strategies that work. You can measure the success rate of your marketing plans.

In your business plan, your marketing strategy must answer the questions:

• How do you want to reach your target audience?
• How do you plan to retain your customers?
• What is/are your pricing plans?
• What is your budget for marketing?

How to Write a Business Plan Step-by-Step

1. create your executive summary.

The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans . Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.

Generally, there are nine sections in a business plan, the executive summary should condense essential ideas from the other eight sections.

A good executive summary should do the following:

• A Snapshot of Growth Potential. Briefly inform the reader about your company and why it will be successful)
• Contain your Mission Statement which explains what the main objective or focus of your business is.
• Product Description and Differentiation. Brief description of your products or services and why it is different from other solutions in the market.
• The Team. Basic information about your company’s leadership team and employees
• Business Concept. A solid description of what your business does.
• Target Market. The customers you plan to sell to.
• Marketing Strategy. Your plans on reaching and selling to your customers
• Current Financial State. Brief information about what revenue your business currently generates.
• Projected Financial State. Brief information about what you foresee your business revenue to be in the future.

The executive summary is the make-or-break section of your business plan. If your summary cannot in less than two pages cannot clearly describe how your business will solve a particular problem of your target audience and make a profit, your business plan is set on a faulty foundation.

Avoid using the executive summary to hype your business, instead, focus on helping the reader understand the what and how of your plan.

View the executive summary as an opportunity to introduce your vision for your company. You know your executive summary is powerful when it can answer these key questions:

• Who is your target audience?
• What sector or industry are you in?
• What are your products and services?
• What is the future of your industry?
• Is your company scaleable?
• Who are the owners and leaders of your company? What are their backgrounds and experience levels?
• What is the motivation for starting your company?
• What are the next steps?

Writing the executive summary last although it is the most important section of your business plan is an excellent idea. The reason why is because it is a high-level overview of your business plan. It is the section that determines whether potential investors and lenders will read further or not.

The executive summary can be a stand-alone document that covers everything in your business plan. It is not uncommon for investors to request only the executive summary when evaluating your business. If the information in the executive summary impresses them, they will ask for the complete business plan.

If you are writing your business plan for your planning purposes, you do not need to write the executive summary.

2. Add Your Company Overview

The company overview or description is the next section in your business plan after the executive summary. It describes what your business does.

Adding your company overview can be tricky especially when your business is still in the planning stages. Existing businesses can easily summarize their current operations but may encounter difficulties trying to explain what they plan to become.

Your company overview should contain the following:

• What products and services you will provide
• Geographical markets and locations your company have a presence
• What you need to run your business
• Who your target audience or customers are
• Who will service your customers
• Your company’s purpose, mission, and vision
• Information about your company’s founders
• Who the founders are
• Notable achievements of your company so far

When creating a company overview, you have to focus on three basics: identifying your industry, identifying your customer, and explaining the problem you solve.

If you are stuck when creating your company overview, try to answer some of these questions that pertain to you.

• Who are you targeting? (The answer is not everyone)
• What pain point does your product or service solve for your customers that they will be willing to spend money on resolving?
• How does your product or service overcome that pain point?
• Where is the location of your business?
• What products, equipment, and services do you need to run your business?
• How is your company’s product or service different from your competition in the eyes of your customers?
• How many employees do you need and what skills do you require them to have?

After answering some or all of these questions, you will get more than enough information you need to write your company overview or description section. When writing this section, describe what your company does for your customers.

The company description or overview section contains three elements: mission statement, history, and objectives.

• Mission Statement

The mission statement refers to the reason why your business or company is existing. It goes beyond what you do or sell, it is about the ‘why’. A good mission statement should be emotional and inspirational.

Your mission statement should follow the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). For example, Shopify’s mission statement is “Make commerce better for everyone.”

When describing your company’s history, make it simple and avoid the temptation of tying it to a defensive narrative. Write it in the manner you would a profile. Your company’s history should include the following information:

• Founding Date
• Major Milestones
• Location(s)
• Flagship Products or Services
• Number of Employees
• Executive Leadership Roles

When you fill in this information, you use it to write one or two paragraphs about your company’s history.

Business Objectives

Your business objective must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.) Failure to clearly identify your business objectives does not inspire confidence and makes it hard for your team members to work towards a common purpose.

3. Perform Market and Competitive Analyses to Proof a Big Enough Business Opportunity

The third step in writing a business plan is the market and competitive analysis section. Every business, no matter the size, needs to perform comprehensive market and competitive analyses before it enters into a market.

Performing market and competitive analyses are critical for the success of your business. It helps you avoid entering the right market with the wrong product, or vice versa. Anyone reading your business plans, especially financiers and financial institutions will want to see proof that there is a big enough business opportunity you are targeting.

This section is where you describe the market and industry you want to operate in and show the big opportunities in the market that your business can leverage to make a profit. If you noticed any unique trends when doing your research, show them in this section.

Market analysis alone is not enough, you have to add competitive analysis to strengthen this section. There are already businesses in the industry or market, how do you plan to take a share of the market from them?

You have to clearly illustrate the competitive landscape in your business plan. Are there areas your competitors are doing well? Are there areas where they are not doing so well? Show it.

Make it clear in this section why you are moving into the industry and what weaknesses are present there that you plan to explain. How are your competitors going to react to your market entry? How do you plan to get customers? Do you plan on taking your competitors' competitors, tap into other sources for customers, or both?

Illustrate the competitive landscape as well. What are your competitors doing well and not so well?

Answering these questions and thoughts will aid your market and competitive analysis of the opportunities in your space. Depending on how sophisticated your industry is, or the expectations of your financiers, you may need to carry out a more comprehensive market and competitive analysis to prove that big business opportunity.

Instead of looking at the market and competitive analyses as one entity, separating them will make the research even more comprehensive.

Market Analysis

Market analysis, boarding speaking, refers to research a business carried out on its industry, market, and competitors. It helps businesses gain a good understanding of their target market and the outlook of their industry. Before starting a company, it is vital to carry out market research to find out if the market is viable.

The market analysis section is a key part of the business plan. It is the section where you identify who your best clients or customers are. You cannot omit this section, without it your business plan is incomplete.

A good market analysis will tell your readers how you fit into the existing market and what makes you stand out. This section requires in-depth research, it will probably be the most time-consuming part of the business plan to write.

• Market Research

To create a compelling market analysis that will win over investors and financial institutions, you have to carry out thorough market research . Your market research should be targeted at your primary target market for your products or services. Here is what you want to find out about your target market.

• Your target market’s needs or pain points
• The existing solutions for their pain points
• Geographic Location
• Demographics

The purpose of carrying out a marketing analysis is to get all the information you need to show that you have a solid and thorough understanding of your target audience.

Only after you have fully understood the people you plan to sell your products or services to, can you evaluate correctly if your target market will be interested in your products or services.

You can easily convince interested parties to invest in your business if you can show them you thoroughly understand the market and show them that there is a market for your products or services.

How to Quantify Your Target Market

One of the goals of your marketing research is to understand who your ideal customers are and their purchasing power. To quantify your target market, you have to determine the following:

• Your Potential Customers: They are the people you plan to target. For example, if you sell accounting software for small businesses , then anyone who runs an enterprise or large business is unlikely to be your customers. Also, individuals who do not have a business will most likely not be interested in your product.
• Total Households: If you are selling household products such as heating and air conditioning systems, determining the number of total households is more important than finding out the total population in the area you want to sell to. The logic is simple, people buy the product but it is the household that uses it.
• Median Income: You need to know the median income of your target market. If you target a market that cannot afford to buy your products and services, your business will not last long.
• Income by Demographics: If your potential customers belong to a certain age group or gender, determining income levels by demographics is necessary. For example, if you sell men's clothes, your target audience is men.

What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?

Your business does not exist on its own, it can only flourish within an industry and alongside competitors. Market analysis takes into consideration your industry, target market, and competitors. Understanding these three entities will drastically improve your company’s chances of success.

You can view your market analysis as an examination of the market you want to break into and an education on the emerging trends and themes in that market. Good market analyses include the following:

• Industry Description. You find out about the history of your industry, the current and future market size, and who the largest players/companies are in your industry.
• Overview of Target Market. You research your target market and its characteristics. Who are you targeting? Note, it cannot be everyone, it has to be a specific group. You also have to find out all information possible about your customers that can help you understand how and why they make buying decisions.
• Size of Target Market: You need to know the size of your target market, how frequently they buy, and the expected quantity they buy so you do not risk overproducing and having lots of bad inventory. Researching the size of your target market will help you determine if it is big enough for sustained business or not.
• Growth Potential: Before picking a target market, you want to be sure there are lots of potential for future growth. You want to avoid going for an industry that is declining slowly or rapidly with almost zero growth potential.
• Market Share Potential: Does your business stand a good chance of taking a good share of the market?
• Market Pricing and Promotional Strategies: Your market analysis should give you an idea of the price point you can expect to charge for your products and services. Researching your target market will also give you ideas of pricing strategies you can implement to break into the market or to enjoy maximum profits.
• Potential Barriers to Entry: One of the biggest benefits of conducting market analysis is that it shows you every potential barrier to entry your business will likely encounter. It is a good idea to discuss potential barriers to entry such as changing technology. It informs readers of your business plan that you understand the market.
• Research on Competitors: You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and how you can exploit them for the benefit of your business. Find patterns and trends among your competitors that make them successful, discover what works and what doesn’t, and see what you can do better.

The market analysis section is not just for talking about your target market, industry, and competitors. You also have to explain how your company can fill the hole you have identified in the market.

Here are some questions you can answer that can help you position your product or service in a positive light to your readers.

• Is your product or service of superior quality?
• What additional features do you offer that your competitors do not offer?
• Are you targeting a ‘new’ market?

Basically, your market analysis should include an analysis of what already exists in the market and an explanation of how your company fits into the market.

Competitive Analysis

In the competitive analysis section, y ou have to understand who your direct and indirect competitions are, and how successful they are in the marketplace. It is the section where you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, the advantage(s) they possess in the market and show the unique features or qualities that make you different from your competitors.

Many businesses do market analysis and competitive analysis together. However, to fully understand what the competitive analysis entails, it is essential to separate it from the market analysis.

Competitive analysis for your business can also include analysis on how to overcome barriers to entry in your target market.

The primary goal of conducting a competitive analysis is to distinguish your business from your competitors. A strong competitive analysis is essential if you want to convince potential funding sources to invest in your business. You have to show potential investors and lenders that your business has what it takes to compete in the marketplace successfully.

Competitive analysis will s how you what the strengths of your competition are and what they are doing to maintain that advantage.

When doing your competitive research, you first have to identify your competitor and then get all the information you can about them. The idea of spending time to identify your competitor and learn everything about them may seem daunting but it is well worth it.

Find answers to the following questions after you have identified who your competitors are.

• What are your successful competitors doing?
• Why is what they are doing working?
• Can your business do it better?
• What are the weaknesses of your successful competitors?
• What are they not doing well?
• Can your business turn its weaknesses into strengths?
• How good is your competitors’ customer service?
• Where do your competitors invest in advertising?
• What sales and pricing strategies are they using?
• What marketing strategies are they using?
• What kind of press coverage do they get?
• What are their customers saying about your competitors (both the positive and negative)?

If your competitors have a website, it is a good idea to visit their websites for more competitors’ research. Check their “About Us” page for more information.

If you are presenting your business plan to investors, you need to clearly distinguish yourself from your competitors. Investors can easily tell when you have not properly researched your competitors.

Take time to think about what unique qualities or features set you apart from your competitors. If you do not have any direct competition offering your product to the market, it does not mean you leave out the competitor analysis section blank. Instead research on other companies that are providing a similar product, or whose product is solving the problem your product solves.

The next step is to create a table listing the top competitors you want to include in your business plan. Ensure you list your business as the last and on the right. What you just created is known as the competitor analysis table.

Direct vs Indirect Competition

You cannot know if your product or service will be a fit for your target market if you have not understood your business and the competitive landscape.

There is no market you want to target where you will not encounter competition, even if your product is innovative. Including competitive analysis in your business plan is essential.

If you are entering an established market, you need to explain how you plan to differentiate your products from the available options in the market. Also, include a list of few companies that you view as your direct competitors The competition you face in an established market is your direct competition.

In situations where you are entering a market with no direct competition, it does not mean there is no competition there. Consider your indirect competition that offers substitutes for the products or services you offer.

For example, if you sell an innovative SaaS product, let us say a project management software , a company offering time management software is your indirect competition.

There is an easy way to find out who your indirect competitors are in the absence of no direct competitors. You simply have to research how your potential customers are solving the problems that your product or service seeks to solve. That is your direct competition.

Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition

There are three main factors that any business can use to differentiate itself from its competition. They are cost leadership, product differentiation, and market segmentation.

1. Cost Leadership

A strategy you can impose to maximize your profits and gain an edge over your competitors. It involves offering lower prices than what the majority of your competitors are offering.

A common practice among businesses looking to enter into a market where there are dominant players is to use free trials or pricing to attract as many customers as possible to their offer.

2. Product Differentiation

Your product or service should have a unique selling proposition (USP) that your competitors do not have or do not stress in their marketing.

Part of the marketing strategy should involve making your products unique and different from your competitors. It does not have to be different from your competitors, it can be the addition to a feature or benefit that your competitors do not currently have.

3. Market Segmentation

As a new business seeking to break into an industry, you will gain more success from focusing on a specific niche or target market, and not the whole industry.

If your competitors are focused on a general need or target market, you can differentiate yourself from them by having a small and hyper-targeted audience. For example, if your competitors are selling men’s clothes in their online stores , you can sell hoodies for men.

4. Define Your Business and Management Structure

The next step in your business plan is your business and management structure. It is the section where you describe the legal structure of your business and the team running it.

Your business is only as good as the management team that runs it, while the management team can only strive when there is a proper business and management structure in place.

If your company is a sole proprietor or a limited liability company (LLC), a general or limited partnership, or a C or an S corporation, state it clearly in this section.

Use an organizational chart to show the management structure in your business. Clearly show who is in charge of what area in your company. It is where you show how each key manager or team leader’s unique experience can contribute immensely to the success of your company. You can also opt to add the resumes and CVs of the key players in your company.

The business and management structure section should show who the owner is, and other owners of the businesses (if the business has other owners). For businesses or companies with multiple owners, include the percent ownership of the various owners and clearly show the extent of each others’ involvement in the company.

Investors want to know who is behind the company and the team running it to determine if it has the right management to achieve its set goals.

Management Team

The management team section is where you show that you have the right team in place to successfully execute the business operations and ideas. Take time to create the management structure for your business. Think about all the important roles and responsibilities that you need managers for to grow your business.

Include brief bios of each key team member and ensure you highlight only the relevant information that is needed. If your team members have background industry experience or have held top positions for other companies and achieved success while filling that role, highlight it in this section.

A common mistake that many startups make is assigning C-level titles such as (CMO and CEO) to everyone on their team. It is unrealistic for a small business to have those titles. While it may look good on paper for the ego of your team members, it can prevent investors from investing in your business.

Instead of building an unrealistic management structure that does not fit your business reality, it is best to allow business titles to grow as the business grows. Starting everyone at the top leaves no room for future change or growth, which is bad for productivity.

Your management team does not have to be complete before you start writing your business plan. You can have a complete business plan even when there are managerial positions that are empty and need filling.

If you have management gaps in your team, simply show the gaps and indicate you are searching for the right candidates for the role(s). Investors do not expect you to have a full management team when you are just starting your business.

Key Questions to Answer When Structuring Your Management Team

• Who are the key leaders?
• What experiences, skills, and educational backgrounds do you expect your key leaders to have?
• Do your key leaders have industry experience?
• What positions will they fill and what duties will they perform in those positions?
• What level of authority do the key leaders have and what are their responsibilities?
• What is the salary for the various management positions that will attract the ideal candidates?

Additional Tips for Writing the Management Structure Section

1. Avoid Adding ‘Ghost’ Names to Your Management Team

There is always that temptation to include a ‘ghost’ name to your management team to attract and influence investors to invest in your business. Although the presence of these celebrity management team members may attract the attention of investors, it can cause your business to lose any credibility if you get found out.

Seasoned investors will investigate further the members of your management team before committing fully to your business If they find out that the celebrity name used does not play any actual role in your business, they will not invest and may write you off as dishonest.

2. Focus on Credentials But Pay Extra Attention to the Roles

Investors want to know the experience that your key team members have to determine if they can successfully reach the company’s growth and financial goals.

While it is an excellent boost for your key management team to have the right credentials, you also want to pay extra attention to the roles they will play in your company.

Organizational Chart

Adding an organizational chart in this section of your business plan is not necessary, you can do it in your business plan’s appendix.

If you are exploring funding options, it is not uncommon to get asked for your organizational chart. The function of an organizational chart goes beyond raising money, you can also use it as a useful planning tool for your business.

An organizational chart can help you identify how best to structure your management team for maximum productivity and point you towards key roles you need to fill in the future.

You can use the organizational chart to show your company’s internal management structure such as the roles and responsibilities of your management team, and relationships that exist between them.

5. Describe Your Product and Service Offering

In your business plan, you have to describe what you sell or the service you plan to offer. It is the next step after defining your business and management structure. The products and services section is where you sell the benefits of your business.

Here you have to explain how your product or service will benefit your customers and describe your product lifecycle. It is also the section where you write down your plans for intellectual property like patent filings and copyrighting.

The research and development that you are undertaking for your product or service need to be explained in detail in this section. However, do not get too technical, sell the general idea and its benefits.

If you have any diagrams or intricate designs of your product or service, do not include them in the products and services section. Instead, leave them for the addendum page. Also, if you are leaving out diagrams or designs for the addendum, ensure you add this phrase “For more detail, visit the addendum Page #.”

Your product and service section in your business plan should include the following:

• A detailed explanation that clearly shows how your product or service works.
• The pricing model for your product or service.
• Your business’ sales and distribution strategy.
• The ideal customers that want your product or service.
• The benefits of your products and services.
• Reason(s) why your product or service is a better alternative to what your competitors are currently offering in the market.
• Plans for filling the orders you receive
• If you have current or pending patents, copyrights, and trademarks for your product or service, you can also discuss them in this section.

What to Focus On When Describing the Benefits, Lifecycle, and Production Process of Your Products or Services

In the products and services section, you have to distill the benefits, lifecycle, and production process of your products and services.

When describing the benefits of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Unique features
• Translating the unique features into benefits
• The emotional, psychological, and practical payoffs to attract customers
• Intellectual property rights or any patents

When describing the product life cycle of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Upsells, cross-sells, and down-sells
• Time between purchases
• Plans for research and development.

When describing the production process for your products or services, you need to think about the following:

• The creation of new or existing products and services.
• The sources for the raw materials or components you need for production.
• Assembling the products
• Maintaining quality control
• Supply-chain logistics (receiving the raw materials and delivering the finished products)
• The day-to-day management of the production processes, bookkeeping, and inventory.

Tips for Writing the Products or Services Section of Your Business Plan

1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords

The products and services section of your business plan should clearly describe the products and services that your company provides. However, it is not a section to include technical jargons that anyone outside your industry will not understand.

A good practice is to remove highly detailed or technical descriptions in favor of simple terms. Industry buzzwords are not necessary, if there are simpler terms you can use, then use them. If you plan to use your business plan to source funds, making the product or service section so technical will do you no favors.

2. Describe How Your Products or Services Differ from Your Competitors

When potential investors look at your business plan, they want to know how the products and services you are offering differ from that of your competition. Differentiating your products or services from your competition in a way that makes your solution more attractive is critical.

If you are going the innovative path and there is no market currently for your product or service, you need to describe in this section why the market needs your product or service.

For example, overnight delivery was a niche business that only a few companies were participating in. Federal Express (FedEx) had to show in its business plan that there was a large opportunity for that service and they justified why the market needed that service.

3. Long or Short Products or Services Section

Should your products or services section be short? Does the long products or services section attract more investors?

There are no straightforward answers to these questions. Whether your products or services section should be long or relatively short depends on the nature of your business.

If your business is product-focused, then automatically you need to use more space to describe the details of your products. However, if the product your business sells is a commodity item that relies on competitive pricing or other pricing strategies, you do not have to use up so much space to provide significant details about the product.

Likewise, if you are selling a commodity that is available in numerous outlets, then you do not have to spend time on writing a long products or services section.

The key to the success of your business is most likely the effectiveness of your marketing strategies compared to your competitors. Use more space to address that section.

If you are creating a new product or service that the market does not know about, your products or services section can be lengthy. The reason why is because you need to explain everything about the product or service such as the nature of the product, its use case, and values.

A short products or services section for an innovative product or service will not give the readers enough information to properly evaluate your business.

4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers

Your business will rely on vendors or suppliers to supply raw materials or the components needed to make your products. In your products and services section, describe your relationships with your vendors and suppliers fully.

Avoid the mistake of relying on only one supplier or vendor. If that supplier or vendor fails to supply or goes out of business, you can easily face supply problems and struggle to meet your demands. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships for better business stability.

5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers

The primary goal of your business plan is to convince your readers that your business is viable and to create a guide for your business to follow. It applies to the products and services section.

When drafting this section, think like the reader. See your reader as someone who has no idea about your products and services. You are using the products and services section to provide the needed information to help your reader understand your products and services. As a result, you have to be clear and to the point.

While you want to educate your readers about your products or services, you also do not want to bore them with lots of technical details. Show your products and services and not your fancy choice of words.

Your products and services section should provide the answer to the “what” question for your business. You and your management team may run the business, but it is your products and services that are the lifeblood of the business.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing your Products and Services Section

Answering these questions can help you write your products and services section quickly and in a way that will appeal to your readers.

• Are your products existing on the market or are they still in the development stage?
• What is your timeline for adding new products and services to the market?
• What are the positives that make your products and services different from your competitors?
• Do your products and services have any competitive advantage that your competitors’ products and services do not currently have?
• Do your products or services have any competitive disadvantages that you need to overcome to compete with your competitors? If your answer is yes, state how you plan to overcome them,
• How much does it cost to produce your products or services? How much do you plan to sell it for?
• What is the price for your products and services compared to your competitors? Is pricing an issue?
• What are your operating costs and will it be low enough for you to compete with your competitors and still take home a reasonable profit margin?
• What is your plan for acquiring your products? Are you involved in the production of your products or services?
• Are you the manufacturer and produce all the components you need to create your products? Do you assemble your products by using components supplied by other manufacturers? Do you purchase your products directly from suppliers or wholesalers?
• Do you have a steady supply of products that you need to start your business? (If your business is yet to kick-off)
• How do you plan to distribute your products or services to the market?

You can also hint at the marketing or promotion plans you have for your products or services such as how you plan to build awareness or retain customers. The next section is where you can go fully into details about your business’s marketing and sales plan.

6. Show and Explain Your Marketing and Sales Plan

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but it means nothing if you do not have a marketing and sales plan to inform your customers about them. Your marketing and sales plan is critical to the success of your business.

The sales and marketing section is where you show and offer a detailed explanation of your marketing and sales plan and how you plan to execute it. It covers your pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success, and the benefits of your products and services.

There are several ways you can approach your marketing and sales strategy. Ideally, your marketing and sales strategy has to fit the unique needs of your business.

In this section, you describe how the plans your business has for attracting and retaining customers, and the exact process for making a sale happen. It is essential to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales plans because you are still going to reference this section when you are making financial projections for your business.

Outline Your Business’ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The sales and marketing section is where you outline your business’s unique selling proposition (USP). When you are developing your unique selling proposition, think about the strongest reasons why people should buy from you over your competition. That reason(s) is most likely a good fit to serve as your unique selling proposition (USP).

Target Market and Target Audience

Plans on how to get your products or services to your target market and how to get your target audience to buy them go into this section. You also highlight the strengths of your business here, particularly what sets them apart from your competition.

Before you start writing your marketing and sales plan, you need to have properly defined your target audience and fleshed out your buyer persona. If you do not first understand the individual you are marketing to, your marketing and sales plan will lack any substance and easily fall.

Creating a Smart Marketing and Sales Plan

Marketing your products and services is an investment that requires you to spend money. Like any other investment, you have to generate a good return on investment (ROI) to justify using that marketing and sales plan. Good marketing and sales plans bring in high sales and profits to your company.

Avoid spending money on unproductive marketing channels. Do your research and find out the best marketing and sales plan that works best for your company.

Your marketing and sales plan can be broken into different parts: your positioning statement, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising, public relations, content marketing, social media, and strategic alliances.

Your Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement is the first part of your marketing and sales plan. It refers to the way you present your company to your customers.

Are you the premium solution, the low-price solution, or are you the intermediary between the two extremes in the market? What do you offer that your competitors do not that can give you leverage in the market?

Before you start writing your positioning statement, you need to spend some time evaluating the current market conditions. Here are some questions that can help you to evaluate the market

• What are the unique features or benefits that you offer that your competitors lack?
• What are your customers’ primary needs and wants?
• Why should a customer choose you over your competition? How do you plan to differentiate yourself from the competition?
• How does your company’s solution compare with other solutions in the market?

After answering these questions, then you can start writing your positioning statement. Your positioning statement does not have to be in-depth or too long.

All you need to explain with your positioning statement are two focus areas. The first is the position of your company within the competitive landscape. The other focus area is the core value proposition that sets your company apart from other alternatives that your ideal customer might consider.

Here is a simple template you can use to develop a positioning statement.

For [description of target market] who [need of target market], [product or service] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [top competition], it [most essential distinguishing feature].

For example, let’s create the positioning statement for fictional accounting software and QuickBooks alternative , TBooks.

“For small business owners who need accounting services, TBooks is an accounting software that helps small businesses handle their small business bookkeeping basics quickly and easily. Unlike Wave, TBooks gives small businesses access to live sessions with top accountants.”

You can edit this positioning statement sample and fill it with your business details.

After writing your positioning statement, the next step is the pricing of your offerings. The overall positioning strategy you set in your positioning statement will often determine how you price your products or services.

Pricing is a powerful tool that sends a strong message to your customers. Failure to get your pricing strategy right can make or mar your business. If you are targeting a low-income audience, setting a premium price can result in low sales.

You can use pricing to communicate your positioning to your customers. For example, if you are offering a product at a premium price, you are sending a message to your customers that the product belongs to the premium category.

Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering

Setting a price for your offering involves more than just putting a price tag on it. Deciding on the right pricing for your offering requires following some basic rules. They include covering your costs, primary and secondary profit center pricing, and matching the market rate.

• Covering Your Costs: The price you set for your products or service should be more than it costs you to produce and deliver them. Every business has the same goal, to make a profit. Depending on the strategy you want to use, there are exceptions to this rule. However, the vast majority of businesses follow this rule.
• Primary and Secondary Profit Center Pricing: When a company sets its price above the cost of production, it is making that product its primary profit center. A company can also decide not to make its initial price its primary profit center by selling below or at even with its production cost. It rather depends on the support product or even maintenance that is associated with the initial purchase to make its profit. The initial price thus became its secondary profit center.
• Matching the Market Rate: A good rule to follow when pricing your products or services is to match your pricing with consumer demand and expectations. If you price your products or services beyond the price your customer perceives as the ideal price range, you may end up with no customers. Pricing your products too low below what your customer perceives as the ideal price range may lead to them undervaluing your offering.

Pricing Strategy

Your pricing strategy influences the price of your offering. There are several pricing strategies available for you to choose from when examining the right pricing strategy for your business. They include cost-plus pricing, market-based pricing, value pricing, and more.

• Cost-plus Pricing: This strategy is one of the simplest and oldest pricing strategies. Here you consider the cost of producing a unit of your product and then add a profit to it to arrive at your market price. It is an effective pricing strategy for manufacturers because it helps them cover their initial costs. Another name for the cost-plus pricing strategy is the markup pricing strategy.
• Market-based Pricing: This pricing strategy analyses the market including competitors’ pricing and then sets a price based on what the market is expecting. With this pricing strategy, you can either set your price at the low-end or high-end of the market.
• Value Pricing: This pricing strategy involves setting a price based on the value you are providing to your customer. When adopting a value-based pricing strategy, you have to set a price that your customers are willing to pay. Service-based businesses such as small business insurance providers , luxury goods sellers, and the fashion industry use this pricing strategy.

After carefully sorting out your positioning statement and pricing, the next item to look at is your promotional strategy. Your promotional strategy explains how you plan on communicating with your customers and prospects.

As a business, you must measure all your costs, including the cost of your promotions. You also want to measure how much sales your promotions bring for your business to determine its usefulness. Promotional strategies or programs that do not lead to profit need to be removed.

There are different types of promotional strategies you can adopt for your business, they include advertising, public relations, and content marketing.

Advertising

Your business plan should include your advertising plan which can be found in the marketing and sales plan section. You need to include an overview of your advertising plans such as the areas you plan to spend money on to advertise your business and offers.

Ensure that you make it clear in this section if your business will be advertising online or using the more traditional offline media, or the combination of both online and offline media. You can also include the advertising medium you want to use to raise awareness about your business and offers.

Some common online advertising mediums you can use include social media ads, landing pages, sales pages, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, emails, Google Ads, and others. Some common traditional and offline advertising mediums include word of mouth, radios, direct mail, televisions, flyers, billboards, posters, and others.

A key component of your advertising strategy is how you plan to measure the effectiveness and success of your advertising campaign. There is no point in sticking with an advertising plan or medium that does not produce results for your business in the long run.

Public Relations

A great way to reach your customers is to get the media to cover your business or product. Publicity, especially good ones, should be a part of your marketing and sales plan. In this section, show your plans for getting prominent reviews of your product from reputable publications and sources.

Your business needs that exposure to grow. If public relations is a crucial part of your promotional strategy, provide details about your public relations plan here.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a popular promotional strategy used by businesses to inform and attract their customers. It is about teaching and educating your prospects on various topics of interest in your niche, it does not just involve informing them about the benefits and features of the products and services you have,

Businesses publish content usually for free where they provide useful information, tips, and advice so that their target market can be made aware of the importance of their products and services. Content marketing strategies seek to nurture prospects into buyers over time by simply providing value.

Your company can create a blog where it will be publishing content for its target market. You will need to use the best website builder such as Wix and Squarespace and the best web hosting services such as Bluehost, Hostinger, and other Bluehost alternatives to create a functional blog or website.

If content marketing is a crucial part of your promotional strategy (as it should be), detail your plans under promotions.

Including high-quality images of the packaging of your product in your business plan is a lovely idea. You can add the images of the packaging of that product in the marketing and sales plan section. If you are not selling a product, then you do not need to include any worry about the physical packaging of your product.

When organizing the packaging section of your business plan, you can answer the following questions to make maximum use of this section.

• Is your choice of packaging consistent with your positioning strategy?
• What key value proposition does your packaging communicate? (It should reflect the key value proposition of your business)
• How does your packaging compare to that of your competitors?

Social Media

Your 21st-century business needs to have a good social media presence. Not having one is leaving out opportunities for growth and reaching out to your prospect.

You do not have to join the thousands of social media platforms out there. What you need to do is join the ones that your customers are active on and be active there.

Businesses use social media to provide information about their products such as promotions, discounts, the benefits of their products, and content on their blogs.

Social media is also a platform for engaging with your customers and getting feedback about your products or services. Make no mistake, more and more of your prospects are using social media channels to find more information about companies.

You need to consider the social media channels you want to prioritize your business (prioritize the ones your customers are active in) and your branding plans in this section.

Strategic Alliances

If your company plans to work closely with other companies as part of your sales and marketing plan, include it in this section. Prove details about those partnerships in your business plan if you have already established them.

Strategic alliances can be beneficial for all parties involved including your company. Working closely with another company in the form of a partnership can provide access to a different target market segment for your company.

The company you are partnering with may also gain access to your target market or simply offer a new product or service (that of your company) to its customers.

Mutually beneficial partnerships can cover the weaknesses of one company with the strength of another. You should consider strategic alliances with companies that sell complimentary products to yours. For example, if you provide printers, you can partner with a company that produces ink since the customers that buy printers from you will also need inks for printing.

Steps Involved in Creating a Marketing and Sales Plan

1. Focus on Your Target Market

Identify who your customers are, the market you want to target. Then determine the best ways to get your products or services to your potential customers.

2. Evaluate Your Competition

One of the goals of having a marketing plan is to distinguish yourself from your competition. You cannot stand out from them without first knowing them in and out.

You can know your competitors by gathering information about their products, pricing, service, and advertising campaigns.

These questions can help you know your competition.

• What makes your competition successful?
• What are their weaknesses?
• What are customers saying about your competition?

3. Consider Your Brand

Customers' perception of your brand has a strong impact on your sales. Your marketing and sales plan should seek to bolster the image of your brand. Before you start marketing your business, think about the message you want to pass across about your business and your products and services.

4. Focus on Benefits

The majority of your customers do not view your product in terms of features, what they want to know is the benefits and solutions your product offers. Think about the problems your product solves and the benefits it delivers, and use it to create the right sales and marketing message.

Your marketing plan should focus on what you want your customer to get instead of what you provide. Identify those benefits in your marketing and sales plan.

5. Focus on Differentiation

Your marketing and sales plan should look for a unique angle they can take that differentiates your business from the competition, even if the products offered are similar. Some good areas of differentiation you can use are your benefits, pricing, and features.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing Your Marketing and Sales Plan

• What is your company’s budget for sales and marketing campaigns?
• What key metrics will you use to determine if your marketing plans are successful?
• What are your alternatives if your initial marketing efforts do not succeed?
• Who are the sales representatives you need to promote your products or services?
• What are the marketing and sales channels you plan to use? How do you plan to get your products in front of your ideal customers?
• Where will you sell your products?

You may want to include samples of marketing materials you plan to use such as print ads, website descriptions, and social media ads. While it is not compulsory to include these samples, it can help you better communicate your marketing and sales plan and objectives.

The purpose of the marketing and sales section is to answer this question “How will you reach your customers?” If you cannot convincingly provide an answer to this question, you need to rework your marketing and sales section.

7. Clearly Show Your Funding Request

If you are writing your business plan to ask for funding from investors or financial institutions, the funding request section is where you will outline your funding requirements. The funding request section should answer the question ‘How much money will your business need in the near future (3 to 5 years)?’

A good funding request section will clearly outline and explain the amount of funding your business needs over the next five years. You need to know the amount of money your business needs to make an accurate funding request.

Also, when writing your funding request, provide details of how the funds will be used over the period. Specify if you want to use the funds to buy raw materials or machinery, pay salaries, pay for advertisements, and cover specific bills such as rent and electricity.

In addition to explaining what you want to use the funds requested for, you need to clearly state the projected return on investment (ROI) . Investors and creditors want to know if your business can generate profit for them if they put funds into it.

Ensure you do not inflate the figures and stay as realistic as possible. Investors and financial institutions you are seeking funds from will do their research before investing money in your business.

If you are not sure of an exact number to request from, you can use some range of numbers as rough estimates. Add a best-case scenario and a work-case scenario to your funding request. Also, include a description of your strategic future financial plans such as selling your business or paying off debts.

Funding Request: Debt or Equity?

When making your funding request, specify the type of funding you want. Do you want debt or equity? Draw out the terms that will be applicable for the funding, and the length of time the funding request will cover.

Case for Equity

If your new business has not yet started generating profits, you are most likely preparing to sell equity in your business to raise capital at the early stage. Equity here refers to ownership. In this case, you are selling a portion of your company to raise capital.

Although this method of raising capital for your business does not put your business in debt, keep in mind that an equity owner may expect to play a key role in company decisions even if he does not hold a major stake in the company.

Most equity sales for startups are usually private transactions . If you are making a funding request by offering equity in exchange for funding, let the investor know that they will be paid a dividend (a share of the company’s profit). Also, let the investor know the process for selling their equity in your business.

Case for Debt

You may decide not to offer equity in exchange for funds, instead, you make a funding request with the promise to pay back the money borrowed at the agreed time frame.

When making a funding request with an agreement to pay back, note that you will have to repay your creditors both the principal amount borrowed and the interest on it. Financial institutions offer this type of funding for businesses.

Large companies combine both equity and debt in their capital structure. When drafting your business plan, decide if you want to offer both or one over the other.

Before you sell equity in exchange for funding in your business, consider if you are willing to accept not being in total control of your business. Also, before you seek loans in your funding request section, ensure that the terms of repayment are favorable.

You should set a clear timeline in your funding request so that potential investors and creditors can know what you are expecting. Some investors and creditors may agree to your funding request and then delay payment for longer than 30 days, meanwhile, your business needs an immediate cash injection to operate efficiently.

Additional Tips for Writing the Funding Request Section of your Business Plan

The funding request section is not necessary for every business, it is only needed by businesses who plan to use their business plan to secure funding.

If you are adding the funding request section to your business plan, provide an itemized summary of how you plan to use the funds requested. Hiring a lawyer, accountant, or other professionals may be necessary for the proper development of this section.

You should also gather and use financial statements that add credibility and support to your funding requests. Ensure that the financial statements you use should include your projected financial data such as projected cash flows, forecast statements, and expenditure budgets.

If you are an existing business, include all historical financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements .

Provide monthly and quarterly financial statements for a year. If your business has records that date back beyond the one-year mark, add the yearly statements of those years. These documents are for the appendix section of your business plan.

8. Detail Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projections

If you used the funding request section in your business plan, supplement it with a financial plan, metrics, and projections. This section paints a picture of the past performance of your business and then goes ahead to make an informed projection about its future.

The goal of this section is to convince readers that your business is going to be a financial success. It outlines your business plan to generate enough profit to repay the loan (with interest if applicable) and to generate a decent return on investment for investors.

If you have an existing business already in operation, use this section to demonstrate stability through finance. This section should include your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements covering the last three to five years. If your business has some acceptable collateral that you can use to acquire loans, list it in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

Apart from current financial statements, this section should also contain a prospective financial outlook that spans the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and capital expenditure budget.

If your business is new and is not yet generating profit, use clear and realistic projections to show the potentials of your business.

When drafting this section, research industry norms and the performance of comparable businesses. Your financial projections should cover at least five years. State the logic behind your financial projections. Remember you can always make adjustments to this section as the variables change.

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section create a baseline which your business can either exceed or fail to reach. If your business fails to reach your projections in this section, you need to understand why it failed.

Investors and loan managers spend a lot of time going through the financial plan, metrics, and projection section compared to other parts of the business plan. Ensure you spend time creating credible financial analyses for your business in this section.

Many entrepreneurs find this section daunting to write. You do not need a business degree to create a solid financial forecast for your business. Business finances, especially for startups, are not as complicated as they seem. There are several online tools and templates that make writing this section so much easier.

Use Graphs and Charts

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business. Charts and images make it easier to communicate your finances.

Accuracy in this section is key, ensure you carefully analyze your past financial statements properly before making financial projects.

Address the Risk Factors and Show Realistic Financial Projections

Keep your financial plan, metrics, and projection realistic. It is okay to be optimistic in your financial projection, however, you have to justify it.

You should also address the various risk factors associated with your business in this section. Investors want to know the potential risks involved, show them. You should also show your plans for mitigating those risks.

What You Should In The Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection Section of Your Business Plan

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section of your business plan should have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first year. It should also include annual projections that cover 3 to 5 years.

A three-year projection is a basic requirement to have in your business plan. However, some investors may request a five-year forecast.

Your business plan should include the following financial statements: sales forecast, personnel plan, income statement, income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and an exit strategy.

1. Sales Forecast

Sales forecast refers to your projections about the number of sales your business is going to record over the next few years. It is typically broken into several rows, with each row assigned to a core product or service that your business is offering.

One common mistake people make in their business plan is to break down the sales forecast section into long details. A sales forecast should forecast the high-level details.

For example, if you are forecasting sales for a payroll software provider, you could break down your forecast into target market segments or subscription categories.

Your sales forecast section should also have a corresponding row for each sales row to cover the direct cost or Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The objective of these rows is to show the expenses that your business incurs in making and delivering your product or service.

Note that your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) should only cover those direct costs incurred when making your products. Other indirect expenses such as insurance, salaries, payroll tax, and rent should not be included.

For example, the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a restaurant is the cost of ingredients while for a consulting company it will be the cost of paper and other presentation materials.

2. Personnel Plan

The personnel plan section is where you provide details about the payment plan for your employees. For a small business, you can easily list every position in your company and how much you plan to pay in the personnel plan.

However, for larger businesses, you have to break the personnel plan into functional groups such as sales and marketing.

The personnel plan will also include the cost of an employee beyond salary, commonly referred to as the employee burden. These costs include insurance, payroll taxes , and other essential costs incurred monthly as a result of having employees on your payroll.

3. Income Statement

The income statement section shows if your business is making a profit or taking a loss. Another name for the income statement is the profit and loss (P&L). It takes data from your sales forecast and personnel plan and adds other ongoing expenses you incur while running your business.

Every business plan should have an income statement. It subtracts your business expenses from its earnings to show if your business is generating profit or incurring losses.

The income statement has the following items: sales, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), gross margin, operating expenses, total operating expenses, operating income , total expenses, and net profit.

• Sales refer to the revenue your business generates from selling its products or services. Other names for sales are income or revenue.
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) refers to the total cost of selling your products. Other names for COGS are direct costs or cost of sales. Manufacturing businesses use the Costs of Goods Manufactured (COGM) .
• Gross Margin is the figure you get when you subtract your COGS from your sales. In your income statement, you can express it as a percentage of total sales (Gross margin / Sales = Gross Margin Percent).
• Operating Expenses refer to all the expenses you incur from running your business. It exempts the COGS because it stands alone as a core part of your income statement. You also have to exclude taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Your operating expenses include salaries, marketing expenses, research and development (R&D) expenses, and other expenses.
• Total Operating Expenses refers to the sum of all your operating expenses including those exemptions named above under operating expenses.
• Operating Income refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It is simply known as the acronym EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Calculating your operating income is simple, all you need to do is to subtract your COGS and total operating expenses from your sales.
• Total Expenses refer to the sum of your operating expenses and your business’ interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
• Net profit shows whether your business has made a profit or taken a loss during a given timeframe.

4. Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement tracks the money you have in the bank at any given point. It is often confused with the income statement or the profit and loss statement. They are both different types of financial statements. The income statement calculates your profits and losses while the cash flow statement shows you how much you have in the bank.

5. Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a financial statement that provides an overview of the financial health of your business. It contains information about the assets and liabilities of your company, and owner’s or shareholders’ equity.

You can get the net worth of your company by subtracting your company’s liabilities from its assets.

6. Exit Strategy

The exit strategy refers to a probable plan for selling your business either to the public in an IPO or to another company. It is the last thing you include in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

You can choose to omit the exit strategy from your business plan if you plan to maintain full ownership of your business and do not plan on seeking angel investment or virtual capitalist (VC) funding.

Investors may want to know what your exit plan is. They invest in your business to get a good return on investment.

Your exit strategy does not have to include long and boring details. Ensure you identify some interested parties who may be interested in buying the company if it becomes a success.

Key Questions to Answer with Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection

Your financial plan, metrics, and projection section helps investors, creditors, or your internal managers to understand what your expenses are, the amount of cash you need, and what it takes to make your company profitable. It also shows what you will be doing with any funding.

You do not need to show actual financial data if you do not have one. Adding forecasts and projections to your financial statements is added proof that your strategy is feasible and shows investors you have planned properly.

Here are some key questions to answer to help you develop this section.

• What is your sales forecast for the next year?
• When will your company achieve a positive cash flow?
• What are the core expenses you need to operate?
• How much money do you need upfront to operate or grow your company?
• How will you use the loans or investments?

9. Add an Appendix to Your Business Plan

Adding an appendix to your business plan is optional. It is a useful place to put any charts, tables, legal notes, definitions, permits, résumés, and other critical information that do not fit into other sections of your business plan.

The appendix section is where you would want to include details of a patent or patent-pending if you have one. You can always add illustrations or images of your products here. It is the last section of your business plan.

When writing your business plan, there are details you cut short or remove to prevent the entire section from becoming too lengthy. There are also details you want to include in the business plan but are not a good fit for any of the previous sections. You can add that additional information to the appendix section.

Businesses also use the appendix section to include supporting documents or other materials specially requested by investors or lenders.

You can include just about any information that supports the assumptions and statements you made in the business plan under the appendix. It is the one place in the business plan where unrelated data and information can coexist amicably.

If your appendix section is lengthy, try organizing it by adding a table of contents at the beginning of the appendix section. It is also advisable to group similar information to make it easier for the reader to access them.

A well-organized appendix section makes it easier to share your information clearly and concisely. Add footnotes throughout the rest of the business plan or make references in the plan to the documents in the appendix.

The appendix section is usually only necessary if you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, or hoping to attract partners.

People reading business plans do not want to spend time going through a heap of backup information, numbers, and charts. Keep these documents or information in the Appendix section in case the reader wants to dig deeper.

Common Items to Include in the Appendix Section of Your Business Plan

The appendix section includes documents that supplement or support the information or claims given in other sections of the business plans. Common items you can include in the appendix section include:

• Additional data about the process of manufacturing or creation
• Additional description of products or services such as product schematics
• Additional financial documents or projections
• Articles of incorporation and status
• Backup for market research or competitive analysis
• Bank statements
• Business registries
• Client testimonials (if your business is already running)
• Copies of insurances
• Credit histories (personal or/and business)
• Deeds and permits
• Equipment leases
• Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
• Industry associations and memberships
• Images of product
• Intellectual property
• Key customer contracts
• Legal documents and other contracts
• Letters of reference
• Links to references
• Market research data
• Organizational charts
• Photographs of potential facilities
• Professional licenses pertaining to your legal structure or type of business
• Purchase orders
• Resumes of the founder(s) and key managers
• State and federal identification numbers or codes
• Trademarks or patents’ registrations

Avoid using the appendix section as a place to dump any document or information you feel like adding. Only add documents or information that you support or increase the credibility of your business plan.

Tips and Strategies for Writing a Convincing Business Plan

To achieve a perfect business plan, you need to consider some key tips and strategies. These tips will raise the efficiency of your business plan above average.

1. Know Your Audience

When writing a business plan, you need to know your audience . Business owners write business plans for different reasons. Your business plan has to be specific. For example, you can write business plans to potential investors, banks, and even fellow board members of the company.

The audience you are writing to determines the structure of the business plan. As a business owner, you have to know your audience. Not everyone will be your audience. Knowing your audience will help you to narrow the scope of your business plan.

Consider what your audience wants to see in your projects, the likely questions they might ask, and what interests them.

• A business plan used to address a company's board members will center on its employment schemes, internal affairs, projects, stakeholders, etc.
• A business plan for financial institutions will talk about the size of your market and the chances for you to pay back any loans you demand.
• A business plan for investors will show proof that you can return the investment capital within a specific time. In addition, it discusses your financial projections, tractions, and market size.

2. Get Inspiration from People

Writing a business plan from scratch as an entrepreneur can be daunting. That is why you need the right inspiration to push you to write one. You can gain inspiration from the successful business plans of other businesses. Look at their business plans, the style they use, the structure of the project, etc.

To make your business plan easier to create, search companies related to your business to get an exact copy of what you need to create an effective business plan. You can also make references while citing examples in your business plans.

When drafting your business plan, get as much help from others as you possibly can. By getting inspiration from people, you can create something better than what they have.

3. Avoid Being Over Optimistic

Many business owners make use of strong adjectives to qualify their content. One of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make when preparing a business plan is promising too much.

The use of superlatives and over-optimistic claims can prepare the audience for more than you can offer. In the end, you disappoint the confidence they have in you.

In most cases, the best option is to be realistic with your claims and statistics. Most of the investors can sense a bit of incompetency from the overuse of superlatives. As a new entrepreneur, do not be tempted to over-promise to get the interests of investors.

The concept of entrepreneurship centers on risks, nothing is certain when you make future analyses. What separates the best is the ability to do careful research and work towards achieving that, not promising more than you can achieve.

To make an excellent first impression as an entrepreneur, replace superlatives with compelling data-driven content. In this way, you are more specific than someone promising a huge ROI from an investment.

4. Keep it Simple and Short

When writing business plans, ensure you keep them simple throughout. Irrespective of the purpose of the business plan, your goal is to convince the audience.

One way to achieve this goal is to make them understand your proposal. Therefore, it would be best if you avoid the use of complex grammar to express yourself. It would be a huge turn-off if the people you want to convince are not familiar with your use of words.

Another thing to note is the length of your business plan. It would be best if you made it as brief as possible.

You hardly see investors or agencies that read through an extremely long document. In that case, if your first few pages can’t convince them, then you have lost it. The more pages you write, the higher the chances of you derailing from the essential contents.

To ensure your business plan has a high conversion rate, you need to dispose of every unnecessary information. For example, if you have a strategy that you are not sure of, it would be best to leave it out of the plan.

5. Make an Outline and Follow Through

A perfect business plan must have touched every part needed to convince the audience. Business owners get easily tempted to concentrate more on their products than on other sections. Doing this can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business plan.

For example, imagine you talking about a product but omitting or providing very little information about the target audience. You will leave your clients confused.

To ensure that your business plan communicates your full business model to readers, you have to input all the necessary information in it. One of the best ways to achieve this is to design a structure and stick to it.

This structure is what guides you throughout the writing. To make your work easier, you can assign an estimated word count or page limit to every section to avoid making it too bulky for easy reading. As a guide, the necessary things your business plan must contain are:

• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Product or service description
• Target audience
• Market size
• Competition analysis
• Financial projections

Some specific businesses can include some other essential sections, but these are the key sections that must be in every business plan.

6. Ask a Professional to Proofread

When writing a business plan, you must tie all loose ends to get a perfect result. When you are done with writing, call a professional to go through the document for you. You are bound to make mistakes, and the way to correct them is to get external help.

You should get a professional in your field who can relate to every section of your business plan. It would be easier for the professional to notice the inner flaws in the document than an editor with no knowledge of your business.

In addition to getting a professional to proofread, get an editor to proofread and edit your document. The editor will help you identify grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inappropriate writing styles.

Writing a business plan can be daunting, but you can surmount that obstacle and get the best out of it with these tips.

Business Plan Examples and Templates That’ll Save You Tons of Time

1. hubspot's one-page business plan.

The one-page business plan template by HubSpot is the perfect guide for businesses of any size, irrespective of their business strategy. Although the template is condensed into a page, your final business plan should not be a page long! The template is designed to ask helpful questions that can help you develop your business plan.

Hubspot’s one-page business plan template is divided into nine fields:

• Business opportunity
• Company description
• Industry analysis
• Target market
• Implementation timeline
• Marketing plan
• Financial summary
• Funding required

2. Bplan’s Free Business Plan Template

Bplans' free business plan template is investor-approved. It is a rich template used by prestigious educational institutions such as Babson College and Princeton University to teach entrepreneurs how to create a business plan.

The template has six sections: the executive summary, opportunity, execution, company, financial plan, and appendix. There is a step-by-step guide for writing every little detail in the business plan. Follow the instructions each step of the way and you will create a business plan that impresses investors or lenders easily.

3. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

HubSpot’s downloadable business plan template is a more comprehensive option compared to the one-page business template by HubSpot. This free and downloadable business plan template is designed for entrepreneurs.

The template is a comprehensive guide and checklist for business owners just starting their businesses. It tells you everything you need to fill in each section of the business plan and how to do it.

There are nine sections in this business plan template: an executive summary, company and business description, product and services line, market analysis, marketing plan, sales plan, legal notes, financial considerations, and appendix.

4. Business Plan by My Own Business Institute

My Own Business Institute (MOBI) which is a part of Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship offers a free business plan template. You can either copy the free business template from the link provided above or download it as a Word document.

The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.

• The Business Profile
• The Vision and the People
• Home-Based Business and Freelance Business Opportunities
• Organization
• Licenses and Permits
• Business Insurance
• Communication Tools
• Acquisitions
• Location and Leasing
• Accounting and Cash Flow
• Opening and Marketing
• Managing Employees
• Expanding and Handling Problems

There are lots of helpful tips on how to fill each section in the free business plan template by MOBI.

5. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

Score is an American nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs build successful companies. This business plan template for startups by Score is available for free download. The business plan template asks a whooping 150 generic questions that help entrepreneurs from different fields to set up the perfect business plan.

The business plan template for startups contains clear instructions and worksheets, all you have to do is answer the questions and fill the worksheets.

There are nine sections in the business plan template: executive summary, company description, products and services, marketing plan, operational plan, management and organization, startup expenses and capitalization, financial plan, and appendices.

The ‘refining the plan’ resource contains instructions that help you modify your business plan to suit your specific needs, industry, and target audience. After you have completed Score’s business plan template, you can work with a SCORE mentor for expert advice in business planning.

6. Minimalist Architecture Business Plan Template by Venngage

The minimalist architecture business plan template is a simple template by Venngage that you can customize to suit your business needs .

There are five sections in the template: an executive summary, statement of problem, approach and methodology, qualifications, and schedule and benchmark. The business plan template has instructions that guide users on what to fill in each section.

7. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two free business plan templates, filled with practical real-life examples that you can model to create your business plan. Both free business plan templates are written by fictional business owners: Rebecca who owns a consulting firm, and Andrew who owns a toy company.

There are five sections in the two SBA’s free business plan templates.

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Service Line
• Marketing and Sales

8. The $100 Startup's One-Page Business Plan

The one-page business plan by the $100 startup is a simple business plan template for entrepreneurs who do not want to create a long and complicated plan . You can include more details in the appendices for funders who want more information beyond what you can put in the one-page business plan.

There are five sections in the one-page business plan such as overview, ka-ching, hustling, success, and obstacles or challenges or open questions. You can answer all the questions using one or two sentences.

9. PandaDoc’s Free Business Plan Template

The free business plan template by PandaDoc is a comprehensive 15-page document that describes the information you should include in every section.

There are 11 sections in PandaDoc’s free business plan template.

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Products and services
• Operations plan
• Management organization
• Financial plan
• Conclusion / Call to action
• Confidentiality statement

You have to sign up for its 14-day free trial to access the template. You will find different business plan templates on PandaDoc once you sign up (including templates for general businesses and specific businesses such as bakeries, startups, restaurants, salons, hotels, and coffee shops)

PandaDoc allows you to customize its business plan templates to fit the needs of your business. After editing the template, you can send it to interested parties and track opens and views through PandaDoc.

10. Invoiceberry Templates for Word, Open Office, Excel, or PPT

InvoiceBerry is a U.K based online invoicing and tracking platform that offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats for freelancers and small businesses.

Before you can download the free business plan template, it will ask you to give it your email address. After you complete the little task, it will send the download link to your inbox for you to download. It also provides a business plan checklist in .xlsx file format that ensures you add the right information to the business plan.

Alternatives to the Traditional Business Plan

A business plan is very important in mapping out how one expects their business to grow over a set number of years, particularly when they need external investment in their business. However, many investors do not have the time to watch you present your business plan. It is a long and boring read.

Luckily, there are three alternatives to the traditional business plan (the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck). These alternatives are less laborious and easier and quicker to present to investors.

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

The business model canvas is a business tool used to present all the important components of setting up a business, such as customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance in a single sheet. It provides a very focused blueprint that defines your business initially which you can later expand on if needed.

The sheet is divided mainly into company, industry, and consumer models that are interconnected in how they find problems and proffer solutions.

Segments of the Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas was developed by founder Alexander Osterwalder to answer important business questions. It contains nine segments.

• Key Partners: Who will be occupying important executive positions in your business? What do they bring to the table? Will there be a third party involved with the company?
• Key Activities: What important activities will production entail? What activities will be carried out to ensure the smooth running of the company?
• The Product’s Value Propositions: What does your product do? How will it be different from other products?
• Customer Segments: What demography of consumers are you targeting? What are the habits of these consumers? Who are the MVPs of your target consumers?
• Customer Relationships: How will the team support and work with its customer base? How do you intend to build and maintain trust with the customer?
• Key Resources: What type of personnel and tools will be needed? What size of the budget will they need access to?
• Channels: How do you plan to create awareness of your products? How do you intend to transport your product to the customer?
• Cost Structure: What is the estimated cost of production? How much will distribution cost?
• Revenue Streams: For what value are customers willing to pay? How do they prefer to pay for the product? Are there any external revenues attached apart from the main source? How do the revenue streams contribute to the overall revenue?

Lean Canvas

The lean canvas is a problem-oriented alternative to the standard business model canvas. It was proposed by Ash Maurya, creator of Lean Stack as a development of the business model generation. It uses a more problem-focused approach and it majorly targets entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept as the business model canvas, however, they have been modified slightly to suit the needs and purpose of a small startup. The key partners, key activities, customer relationships, and key resources are replaced by new segments which are:

• Problem: Simple and straightforward number of problems you have identified, ideally three.
• Solution: The solutions to each problem.
• Unfair Advantage: Something you possess that can't be easily bought or replicated.
• Key Metrics: Important numbers that will tell how your business is doing.

Startup Pitch Deck

While the business model canvas compresses into a factual sheet, startup pitch decks expand flamboyantly.

Pitch decks, through slides, convey your business plan, often through graphs and images used to emphasize estimations and observations in your presentation. Entrepreneurs often use pitch decks to fully convince their target audience of their plans before discussing funding arrangements.

Considering the likelihood of it being used in a small time frame, a good startup pitch deck should ideally contain 20 slides or less to have enough time to answer questions from the audience.

Unlike the standard and lean business model canvases, a pitch deck doesn't have a set template on how to present your business plan but there are still important components to it. These components often mirror those of the business model canvas except that they are in slide form and contain more details.

Using Airbnb (one of the most successful start-ups in recent history) for reference, the important components of a good slide are listed below.

• Cover/Introduction Slide: Here, you should include your company's name and mission statement. Your mission statement should be a very catchy tagline. Also, include personal information and contact details to provide an easy link for potential investors.
• Problem Slide: This slide requires you to create a connection with the audience or the investor that you are pitching. For example in their pitch, Airbnb summarized the most important problems it would solve in three brief points – pricing of hotels, disconnection from city culture, and connection problems for local bookings.
• Solution Slide: This slide includes your core value proposition. List simple and direct solutions to the problems you have mentioned
• Customer Analysis: Here you will provide information on the customers you will be offering your service to. The identity of your customers plays an important part in fundraising as well as the long-run viability of the business.
• Market Validation: Use competitive analysis to show numbers that prove the presence of a market for your product, industry behavior in the present and the long run, as well as the percentage of the market you aim to attract. It shows that you understand your competitors and customers and convinces investors of the opportunities presented in the market.
• Business Model: Your business model is the hook of your presentation. It may vary in complexity but it should generally include a pricing system informed by your market analysis. The goal of the slide is to confirm your business model is easy to implement.
• Marketing Strategy: This slide should summarize a few customer acquisition methods that you plan to use to grow the business.
• Competitive Advantage: What this slide will do is provide information on what will set you apart and make you a more attractive option to customers. It could be the possession of technology that is not widely known in the market.
• Team Slide: Here you will give a brief description of your team. Include your key management personnel here and their specific roles in the company. Include their educational background, job history, and skillsets. Also, talk about their accomplishments in their careers so far to build investors' confidence in members of your team.
• Traction Slide: This validates the company’s business model by showing growth through early sales and support. The slide aims to reduce any lingering fears in potential investors by showing realistic periodic milestones and profit margins. It can include current sales, growth, valuable customers, pre-orders, or data from surveys outlining current consumer interest.
• Funding Slide: This slide is popularly referred to as ‘the ask'. Here you will include important details like how much is needed to get your business off the ground and how the funding will be spent to help the company reach its goals.
• Appendix Slides: Your pitch deck appendix should always be included alongside a standard pitch presentation. It consists of additional slides you could not show in the pitch deck but you need to complement your presentation.

It is important to support your calculations with pictorial renditions. Infographics, such as pie charts or bar graphs, will be more effective in presenting the information than just listing numbers. For example, a six-month graph that shows rising profit margins will easily look more impressive than merely writing it.

Lastly, since a pitch deck is primarily used to secure meetings and you may be sharing your pitch with several investors, it is advisable to keep a separate public version that doesn't include financials. Only disclose the one with projections once you have secured a link with an investor.

Advantages of the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck over the Traditional Business Plan

• Time-Saving: Writing a detailed traditional business plan could take weeks or months. On the other hand, all three alternatives can be done in a few days or even one night of brainstorming if you have a comprehensive understanding of your business.
• Easier to Understand: Since the information presented is almost entirely factual, it puts focus on what is most important in running the business. They cut away the excess pages of fillers in a traditional business plan and allow investors to see what is driving the business and what is getting in the way.
• Easy to Update: Businesses typically present their business plans to many potential investors before they secure funding. What this means is that you may regularly have to amend your presentation to update statistics or adjust to audience-specific needs. For a traditional business plan, this could mean rewriting a whole section of your plan. For the three alternatives, updating is much easier because they are not voluminous.
• Guide for a More In-depth Business Plan: All three alternatives have the added benefit of being able to double as a sketch of your business plan if the need to create one arises in the future.

Business Plan FAQ

Business plans are important for any entrepreneur who is looking for a framework to run their company over some time or seeking external support. Although they are essential for new businesses, every company should ideally have a business plan to track their growth from time to time.  They can be used by startups seeking investments or loans to convey their business ideas or an employee to convince his boss of the feasibility of starting a new project. They can also be used by companies seeking to recruit high-profile employee targets into key positions or trying to secure partnerships with other firms.

Business plans often vary depending on your target audience, the scope, and the goals for the plan. Startup plans are the most common among the different types of business plans.  A start-up plan is used by a new business to present all the necessary information to help get the business up and running. They are usually used by entrepreneurs who are seeking funding from investors or bank loans. The established company alternative to a start-up plan is a feasibility plan. A feasibility plan is often used by an established company looking for new business opportunities. They are used to show the upsides of creating a new product for a consumer base. Because the audience is usually company people, it requires less company analysis. The third type of business plan is the lean business plan. A lean business plan is a brief, straight-to-the-point breakdown of your ideas and analysis for your business. It does not contain details of your proposal and can be written on one page. Finally, you have the what-if plan. As it implies, a what-if plan is a preparation for the worst-case scenario. You must always be prepared for the possibility of your original plan being rejected. A good what-if plan will serve as a good plan B to the original.

A good business plan has 10 key components. They include an executive plan, product analysis, desired customer base, company analysis, industry analysis, marketing strategy, sales strategy, financial projection, funding, and appendix. Executive Plan Your business should begin with your executive plan. An executive plan will provide early insight into what you are planning to achieve with your business. It should include your mission statement and highlight some of the important points which you will explain later. Product Analysis The next component of your business plan is your product analysis. A key part of this section is explaining the type of item or service you are going to offer as well as the market problems your product will solve. Desired Consumer Base Your product analysis should be supplemented with a detailed breakdown of your desired consumer base. Investors are always interested in knowing the economic power of your market as well as potential MVP customers. Company Analysis The next component of your business plan is your company analysis. Here, you explain how you want to run your business. It will include your operational strategy, an insight into the workforce needed to keep the company running, and important executive positions. It will also provide a calculation of expected operational costs.  Industry Analysis A good business plan should also contain well laid out industry analysis. It is important to convince potential investors you know the companies you will be competing with, as well as your plans to gain an edge on the competition. Marketing Strategy Your business plan should also include your marketing strategy. This is how you intend to spread awareness of your product. It should include a detailed explanation of the company brand as well as your advertising methods. Sales Strategy Your sales strategy comes after the market strategy. Here you give an overview of your company's pricing strategy and how you aim to maximize profits. You can also explain how your prices will adapt to market behaviors. Financial Projection The financial projection is the next component of your business plan. It explains your company's expected running cost and revenue earned during the tenure of the business plan. Financial projection gives a clear idea of how your company will develop in the future. Funding The next component of your business plan is funding. You have to detail how much external investment you need to get your business idea off the ground here. Appendix The last component of your plan is the appendix. This is where you put licenses, graphs, or key information that does not fit in any of the other components.

The business model canvas is a business management tool used to quickly define your business idea and model. It is often used when investors need you to pitch your business idea during a brief window.

A pitch deck is similar to a business model canvas except that it makes use of slides in its presentation. A pitch is not primarily used to secure funding, rather its main purpose is to entice potential investors by selling a very optimistic outlook on the business.

Business plan competitions help you evaluate the strength of your business plan. By participating in business plan competitions, you are improving your experience. The experience provides you with a degree of validation while practicing important skills. The main motivation for entering into the competitions is often to secure funding by finishing in podium positions. There is also the chance that you may catch the eye of a casual observer outside of the competition. These competitions also provide good networking opportunities. You could meet mentors who will take a keen interest in guiding you in your business journey. You also have the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs whose ideas can complement yours.

Exlore Further

• 12 Key Elements of a Business Plan (Top Components Explained)
• 13 Sources of Business Finance For Companies & Sole Traders
• 5 Common Types of Business Structures (+ Pros & Cons)
• How to Buy a Business in 8 Steps (+ Due Diligence Checklist)

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Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

Go to homepage business.govt.nz business.govt.nz

Business.govt.nz, in association with, how to write a business plan.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula to write a business plan. But there are some key things to consider. Check out our free templates — one for start-ups and a quick-focus template for growing businesses.

Tips for preparing a business plan

• Be clear and focused about what you want to achieve – this will help align your team so you’re all working toward the same thing.
• Choose the type of business plan that works for you – you may like to have a document, or a business canvas might work better.
• Keep it short, simple and easy to understand.
• Keep your goals realistic and relevant to what is going on in the economy and in your industry.
• Use Stats NZ’s Data for Business website to find useful business tools and statistics.
• Contact Stats NZ to get useful business data.
• Get out and speak with your customers to gain understanding of how your product works for them and whether it’s something they would pay for.
• Do a SWOT analysis to determine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
• Ask your advisor or mentor to review your plan and give you feedback and suggested improvements.

Data for Business (external link) — Stats NZ

Call Stats NZ toll-free on 0508 525 525

Use this free template to help you write a great plan for launching your new business.

A business plan helps you set goals for your business, and plan how you’re going to reach them. When you’re starting out it’s a good idea to do a full and thorough business plan.

Quick-focus business plan

Quick-focus planning to make sure you work on the right things for your growing business - every day.

It’s important to take time to reflect on your business strategies and plan. It doesn’t have to be a difficult or time-consuming task.

Business planning e-learning

Learn how to create a business plan that clearly sets out where you and your business are going and how you’ll get there.

Implementing your business plan

• Keep your business plan as a living document – don’t leave it to gather dust on a shelf.
• Make sure it’s easily accessible and top-of-mind for you and your team.
• Reflect your goals in the day-to-day operations of your business.
• Outline the most practical and cost-effective way to achieve each goal – make a note of any extra resources you’ll need.
• Make it clear these goals are the top priority for the business.

SWOT your business, and your competition

A SWOT analysis is a great way to assess what your business does well, and where you’ll need to improve. It can also help you identify ways you can exploit opportunities, and to identify and prepare for potential threats to your business success.

Strengths and weaknesses are typically inside your business — what are you good at, what are you not so good at — while opportunities and threats are external factors.

It can be as simple as drawing a large square, and dividing it into four quadrants – one for each element of the SWOT analysis.

Think about what you, your team, and your business are good at – all the attributes that will help you achieve your goals, for example, what you (and your team) do well, any unique skills or expert knowledge, what you/your business do better than your competitors, good processes and systems, and where your business is most profitable.

Think about the things that could stop you from achieving your objectives. This might include what costs you time and/or money, the areas you or your company need to improve in, what resources you lack, which parts of the business aren’t profitable, poor brand awareness, disorganised processes, or a poor online presence. Think about what you can do to minimise your weaknesses.

Opportunities

Think about the external conditions that will help you achieve your goals. How can you do more for your existing customers, or reach new markets? Are there related products and services that could provide opportunities for your business, and how could you use technology to enhance your business?

Consider the external conditions that could damage your business's performance – things like what’s going on in your industry, and in the economy, the obstacles you face, the strengths of your biggest competitors, and things your competitors are doing that you're not. Think about how you could try to minimise or manage the threats.

Repeat the exercise for your competition too – it’ll help you identify areas where you can beat them, to fine-tune your niche market, and make sure you’re prepared to address the challenge they pose.

Refine and review

Craig Jackson has dabbled in business planning before. But when he set up his ice pop business Dr Feelgood, he decided to work with a mentor.

“She was instrumental to pushing us to a very healthy product. Our first business plan was 47 pages long. It came down to four pages, which distilled down what we were doing and how we look at it,” says Jackson.

“It’s really important to ask ‘do people want your product’ and then ‘are there enough of them to buy it’? Our market validation was me going around gas stations, cafes, dairies and looking in freezers and talking to freezer managers and talking to our friends.”

Jackson regularly reviews progress against his business plan. “We’ve hit all our targets, but have learnt a lot in the first six months of operating. Places I thought we’d really sell, we don’t, and places I thought we’d never go is where we’re going.”

Review your business plan

• Check how you’re tracking to reach key milestones in your business plan every month, and celebrate when these have been reached.
• Stay on top of industry trends and stay connected with your customers – this will help you keep ahead of any changes needed in your business.
• Update your business plan with any changes affecting your business or industry.

Tips on when business planning is right for your business

Tips on types of advice you’ll need

Common mistakes

Not being able to clearly articulate your business and the value it offers to customers.

Making assumptions about your customers rather than speaking with them.

Not reviewing and monitoring your business plan.

Setting unrealistic or uninformed targets.

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Table of Contents

How to Write a Business Plan

Executive summary.

It’s crucial to include a clear mission statement, a brief description of your primary products or services, an overview of your target market, and key financial projections or achievements.

Our target market includes environmentally conscious consumers and businesses seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. We project a 200% increase in revenue within the first three years of operation.

Overview and Business Objectives

Example: EcoTech’s primary objective is to become a market leader in sustainable technology products within the next five years. Our key objectives include:

Company Description

Example: EcoTech is committed to developing cutting-edge sustainable technology products that benefit both the environment and our customers. Our unique combination of innovative solutions and eco-friendly design sets us apart from the competition. We envision a future where technology and sustainability go hand in hand, leading to a greener planet.

Define Your Target Market

Market analysis.

The Market Analysis section requires thorough research and a keen understanding of the industry. It involves examining the current trends within your industry, understanding the needs and preferences of your customers, and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

Our research indicates a gap in the market for high-quality, innovative eco-friendly technology products that cater to both individual and business clients.

SWOT Analysis

Including a SWOT analysis demonstrates to stakeholders that you have a balanced and realistic understanding of your business in its operational context.

Competitive Analysis

Organization and management team.

Provide an overview of your company’s organizational structure, including key roles and responsibilities. Introduce your management team, highlighting their expertise and experience to demonstrate that your team is capable of executing the business plan successfully.

Products and Services Offered

This section should emphasize the value you provide to customers, demonstrating that your business has a deep understanding of customer needs and is well-positioned to deliver innovative solutions that address those needs and set your company apart from competitors.

Marketing and Sales Strategy

Discuss how these marketing and sales efforts will work together to attract and retain customers, generate leads, and ultimately contribute to achieving your business’s revenue goals.

Logistics and Operations Plan

Inventory control is another crucial aspect, where you explain strategies for inventory management to ensure efficiency and reduce wastage. The section should also describe your production processes, emphasizing scalability and adaptability to meet changing market demands.

We also prioritize efficient distribution through various channels, including online platforms and retail partners, to deliver products to our customers in a timely manner.

Financial Projections Plan

This forward-looking financial plan is crucial for demonstrating that you have a firm grasp of the financial nuances of your business and are prepared to manage its financial health effectively.

Income Statement

Cash flow statement.

A cash flow statement is a crucial part of a financial business plan that shows the inflows and outflows of cash within your business. It helps you monitor your company’s liquidity, ensuring you have enough cash on hand to cover operating expenses, pay debts, and invest in growth opportunities.

Tips on Writing a Business Plan

4. Focus on your unique selling proposition (USP): Clearly articulate what sets your business apart from the competition. Emphasize your USP throughout your business plan to showcase your company’s value and potential for success.

FREE Business Plan Template

To help you get started on your business plan, we have created a template that includes all the essential components discussed in the “How to Write a Business Plan” section. This easy-to-use template will guide you through each step of the process, ensuring you don’t miss any critical details.

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A good business plan is a well-researched, clear, and concise document that outlines a company’s goals, strategies, target market, competitive advantages, and financial projections. It should be adaptable to change and provide a roadmap for achieving success.

What are the 3 main purposes of a business plan?

Can i write a business plan by myself, is it possible to create a one-page business plan.

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How long should a business plan be?

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6 วิธีการเขียนแผนธุรกิจหรือ Business Plan ในปี 2024 [พร้อมตัวอย่าง]

Business Plan คืออะไร?

ขั้นตอนการเขียนแผนธุรกิจ (business plan) แบบเข้าใจง่าย , ธุรกิจของคุณเริ่มทำ business plan แล้วหรือยัง .

การเขียนแผนธุรกิจเปรียบเสมือนการปูแนวทางภาพของธุรกิจโดยรวม เริ่มตั้งแต่ข้อมูลพื้นฐาน ไปจนถึงการหาจุดอ่อนและการสร้างจุดแข็งให้กับธุรกิจ เรียกได้ว่า Business Plan เป็นตัวแปรสำคัญในการทำธุรกิจให้ประสบความสำเร็จนั่นเอง วันนี้เลยจะพาเจ้าของธุรกิจทุกคนเรียนรู้ขั้นตอนการเขียนแผนธุรกิจ หรือ Business Plan แบบง่าย ๆ ที่มือใหม่ก็ทำตามได้กัน

Business Plan หรือแผนธุรกิจ คือการวางกลยุทธ์โดยเอาเป้าหมายขององค์กรเป็นที่ตั้ง หลังจากนั้นก็ทำการลิสต์วิธีการ หรือแผนการทำงานที่จะช่วยให้เราบรรลุเป้าหมายนั้น พร้อมกำหนด Timeline ให้ชัดเจนว่าควรจะทำแต่ละอย่างให้เสร็จภายในระยะเวลาเท่าไร เพื่อให้ได้ผลลัพท์ที่ดีที่สุด

การทำ Business Plan จึงสำคัญสำหรับการทำธุรกิจเป็นอย่างยิ่ง จะเรียกว่าเป็นหัวใจก็ว่าได้ เพราะเป็นเสมือน Roadmap ให้เราเดินตามไปถึงเป้าหมายได้โดยไม่หลุดโฟกัส และวัดผลได้ตามระยะเวลาที่กำหนด

จากที่กล่าวไปข้างต้นจะเห็นได้ว่าแผนธุรกิจนั้นเป็นสิ่งที่จำเป็นต้องทำก่อนการทำธุรกิจจริง สำหรับใครที่ยังไม่เคยเขียนแผนธุรกิจของตัวเอง ลองเริ่มจาก 6 เทคนิคง่าย ๆ ตามด้านล่างนี้ได้เลย

1. ร่าง Executive Summary

Executive Summary คือสรุปโดยย่อของธุรกิจเรา ซึ่งจะใช้ในการขอทุนจากเหล่านักลงทุน หรือผู้บริหารให้อนุมัติแผนงานของเรา สำหรับใครที่ทำธุรกิจของตัวเองสามารถข้ามการเขียน Executive Summary ไปได้ แต่สำหรับคนที่ทำงานในองค์กรหรือกำลังระดมทุน Startup การเขียน Executive Summary จึงสำคัญถึงขนาดเป็นตัวชี้วัดว่าเราจะเริ่มทำธุรกิจเลยไหมทีเดียว

การเขียน Executive Summary ที่ดี ควรกระชับ ตรงประเด็น และมีหัวข้อเหล่านี้ประกอบอยู่ด้วย

• ธุรกิจของเราขาย หรือให้บริการอะไร
• เป้าหมายและวิสัยทัศน์ในการทำธุรกิจ
• ข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับสินค้าหรือบริการของเรา พร้อมบอกจุดเด่นที่ทำให้เราได้เปรียบคู่แข่ง
• กลุ่มเป้าหมาย และแผนงานทางการตลาด 
• สถานการณ์ทางการเงินและรายได้ในปัจจุบัน
• รายได้ประมาณการในอนาคต หากได้รับเงินทุนหรือการอนุมัติให้ลงมือทำ
• จำนวนเงินที่ต้องการในการทำธุรกิจ
• ทีม หรือผู้มีส่วนร่วมในการทำธุรกิจ

2. ร่างวิธีการทำธุรกิจ และเป้าหมายของการทำธุรกิจ

พยายามตอบให้ได้อย่างชัดเจนว่าธุรกิจของเราทำอะไร และมีเป้าหมายจะทำอะไร สองสิ่งนี้จะเป็นพื้นฐานให้เราสร้าง Business Plan ได้อย่างแม่นยำ หัวข้อที่ควรมีได้แก่

• โครงสร้างธุรกิจ
• อุตสาหกรรมของสินค้า หรือบริการที่เราจำหน่าย
• วิสัยทัศน์ อัตลักษณ์ และจุดยืนของแบรนด์
• สิ่งที่เคยทำมาแล้วประสบความสำเร็จ หรือล้มเหลว
• เป้าหมายธุรกิจในอนาคต ทั้งระยะสั้นและระยะยาว

บริษัท A เป็น Startup ขายรองเท้าผ้าใบที่มีจุดเด่นให้ผู้ซื้อสามารถ Customize ได้ตามต้องการ เป้าหมายคือให้ผู้ซื้อบอกเล่าตัวตนผ่านรองเท้าผ้าใบ ซึ่งเป็นสิ่งที่ใส่ติดตัวเป็นประจำได้ และสิ่งนี้เองเป็นจุดเด่นที่ทำให้เราแตกต่างจากตลาดและคู่แข่งทั่วไป จากการทำธุรกิจพบว่าเป็นที่นิยมในกลุ่มชายหญิงในช่วง Gen Z ที่เชื่อในความเป็นปัจเจก และชอบแสดงตัวตนบนโลกโซเชียล แต่ไม่ได้รับการตอบรับที่ดีจากกลุ่ม Gen X ที่ชื่นชอบความเรียบง่ายและมีแบรนด์ประจำที่ชอบใส่กันอยู่แล้ว

เป้าหมายธุรกิจในระยะสั้นคือสร้าง Engagement ในหมู่ Gen Z ให้ได้เพิ่มขึ้น 30% ภายใน 6 เดือน และสร้างกำไรเพิ่มเติมจากกลุ่มเป้าหมายให้ได้ 12% ภายในหนึ่งปี 

3. ทำ Market Analysis

การทำ Market Analysis สำคัญต่อการเขียน Business Plan ในแง่การเป็น Logic ของกลยุทธ์ที่จะช่วยให้เราบรรลุเป้าหมายธุรกิจที่ตั้งไว้ เพื่อให้เรารู้และตระหนักว่าเป้าหมายนั้นเป็นไปได้หรือไม่ และมีปัจจัยทางการตลาดอื่น ๆ ที่ควรคำนึงถึงหรือไม่ การทำ Market Analysis ประกอบไปด้วย

• การทำ SWOT Analysis (วิเคราะห์ธุรกิจ)
• การทำ Brand and Product Analysis (วิเคราะห์แบรนด์และสินค้า)
• การทำ Competitor Analysis ( วิเคราะห์คู่แข่ง )
• การทำ Customer Analysis (วิเคราะห์กลุ่มลูกค้า)

ในยุคการทำธุรกิจออนไลน์อย่างปัจจุบัน การทำ Market Analysis ที่ดีต้องอาศัยเครื่องมือเทคโนโลยีเข้ามาช่วยประมวลผลข้อมูล เช่น Social Listening Tool ที่ช่วยวิเคราะห์แนวโน้มตลาด คอนเทนต์ของคู่แข่ง และความเห็นของกลุ่มลูกค้าที่มีต่อแบรนด์ของเรา ทำให้เรามีข้อมูลที่มากพอและแม่นยำที่จะเขียนแผนธุรกิจต่อไปได้

แบรนด์ A Startup ขายรองเท้าผ้าใบที่มีจุดเด่นให้ผู้ซื้อสามารถ Customize ได้ตามต้องการ ทำ Market Analysis และพบว่ารองเท้าของตัวเองเป็นที่นิยมในช่องทาง TikTok แม้จะมีจุดเสียเปรียบที่ราคาค่อนข้างแพง แต่ผู้บริโภคก็ยังชื่นชอบในคุณภาพ และชอบที่สามารถสร้างสรรค์รองเท้าให้เป็นแบบของตัวเองได้ เมื่อเทียบกับคู่แข่งผ่าน Social Listening Tool แล้วก็ยังไม่พบว่าแบรนด์ของเราด้อยกว่าคู่แข่งในจุดใดอีกนอกจากความแพง แต่ในยุคที่เศรษฐกิจยังไม่ฟื้นตัวนัก ก็ทำให้เป็นจุดบอดที่ทำให้กำไร 12% ที่ตั้งไว้เป็นไปได้ยากขึ้น

4. ทำ Marketing Plan

หลังจากมีข้อมูลเพียงพอจากการทำ Market Analysis แล้ว ขั้นตอนต่อไปของการเขียน Business Plan ก็คือการสร้างแผนการตลาดที่จะช่วยให้เราบรรลุเป้าหมายทางธุรกิจได้ การทำ Marketing Plan ที่ดีควรมีข้อมูลเหล่านี้อยู่

• กลยุทธ์ทางด้านการสื่อสาร
• กลยุทธ์การซื้อสื่อ
• กลยุทธ์การทำราคา และโปรโมชัน
• กลยุทธ์การทำ Market Segmentation

หลังจากบริษัท A รู้ช่องทางในการสื่อสาร เทรนด์ตลาด และกลุ่มเป้าหมายแล้ว ก็คิดค้นกลยุทธ์ในการทำงานร่วมกับ KOL บน TikTok ที่ตัวแบรนด์ได้รับความนิยมมากขึ้น ในลักษณะของการรีวิว, ทำ Live, และ Affiliate ที่เน้นการทำวิดีโอสั้นเอาใจกลุ่ม Gen Z และใช้เงินซื้อสื่อโฆษณาบน TikTok เพื่อเพิ่มการเข้าถึง และ Engagement

สำหรับราคาและโปรโมชัน บริษัท A ใช้ช่วง Double Digit ในการลดราคาเพื่อขายรองเท้าให้กลุ่มลูกค้าใหม่ และขาย Accessories เพิ่มเติมเพื่อแลกกับคะแนนสะสมสำหรับลูกค้าเก่า ซึ่งแน่นอนว่าจะทำแบบนี้ได้ บริษัท A ได้มีการทำ Market Segmentation ระหว่างลูกค้าใหม่และเก่าเอาไว้แล้ว เพื่อให้คอนเทนต์การตลาดมีความ Personalized ไปกับความต้องการของลูกค้ามากขึ้น

5. วางกลยุทธ์ด้านการปฏิบัติการ และการขนส่ง

หลังจากได้ Marketing Plan แล้ว ขั้นตอนต่อไปของการทำ Business Plan คือการดูแล Logistics and Operations เพื่อให้แน่ใจว่ามีทรัพยากรเพียงพอรองรับต่อแผนการตลาดที่สร้างมา สิ่งที่ควรพิจารณาได้แก่

• จำนวนบุคลากรที่มี
• การดูแลบริการหลังการขาย

หลังจากบริษัท A ทำ Marketing Plan เสร็จแล้ว ก็เริ่มดูจำนวนพนักงาน ว่ามีแอดมินดูแลช่องทางออนไลน์ครบไหม มี Digital Marketer ที่ซื้อสื่อบนช่องทาง TikTok ได้หรือไม่ และมีใครที่จัดการดูแลความสัมพันธ์กับ KOL ทางแบรนด์มีจุดจำหน่ายสินค้าที่เหมาะสมกับช่องทางการตลาดหรือไม่ และเตรียมคนให้พร้อมสำหรับการ Live และการดูแลลูกค้าให้ทั่วถึงหลังการขาย ทำลิสต์ออกมาว่ามีใครที่เกี่ยวข้องบ้าง และต้องทำอะไรบ้าง

6. วางแผนด้านการเงิน

ขั้นตอนสุดท้ายของการทำ Business Plan คือการวางแผนด้านการเงิน เพื่อให้แน่ใจว่าแผนการตลาดที่เราคิดมาเพื่อให้ตอบโจทย์เป้าหมายทางธุรกิจ รวมถึงค่าใช้จ่ายเรื่องบุคลากรและการปฏิบัติการณ์เป็นไปได้จริง และคุ้มค่าที่สุด สิ่งสำคัญที่ต้องมีในการวางแผนด้านการเงิน ได้แก่

• รายได้ของบริษัท และ Cash flow ในปัจจุบัน
• คาดการณ์รายรับ-รายจ่าย ของบริษัท
• งบประมาณที่ต้องใช้เพิ่มเติมในการจัดการทรัพยากร

จะเห็นได้ว่าการวางแผนธุรกิจเป็นสิ่งที่ขาดไม่ได้ ทั้งสำหรับธุรกิจรายใหญ่หรือรายย่อย จะทำมานานแล้วหรือกำลังเพิ่งเริ่ม โดยในบทความนี้ เราได้รวบรวมเทคนิค และเรียบเรียงเป็นขั้นตอนการทำ Business Plan ทั้ง 6 ขั้นตอนมาให้ทำตามกันได้ง่าย ๆ เริ่มตั้งแต่การเขียนเป้าหมายการทำธุรกิจและการขอทุน ไปจนถึงการทำรีเสิร์ช และแพลนต่าง ๆ จนได้เป็นแผนการทำธุรกิจที่มีความครอบคลุม และทำตามได้จริง

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Delta's top DEI officer jettisons 'ladies and gentlemen' gate announcements as part of equity push

Delta had a plan to 'boldly pursue equity' where no airline had gone before.

DEI fosters anti-Americanism: Brooke Goldstein

Deroy Murdock, Roma Daravi and Brooke Goldstein discuss why college campuses have become breeding grounds for antisemitism following the Oct. 7 attack on 'Kudlow.'

Over the last few years, Delta Air Lines has embraced the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agenda under the purview of a chief officer who believes that the phrase "ladies and gentlemen" isn't inclusive. 

Delta's Chief Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Social Impact Officer Kyra Lynn Johnson has said publicly Delta is striving to "boldly pursue equity" which has impacted every level of the company, from its hiring practices to the language it uses in gate announcements. 

"So we're beginning to take a hard look at things like our gatehouse announcements. You know, we welcome ‘ladies and gentlemen.’ And we've asked ourselves, ‘Is that as gender inclusive as we want to be?’" Johnson said during a February 2021 panel with other DEI insiders. "You know, we're looking at some legacy language that exists in some of our employee manuals. And getting to the root of the way some things are described and saying, ‘Does that actually send a message of inclusivity?’"

ALLEGED INSIDER SAYS BOEING'S WOES ARE SYMPTOM OF 'FAILURE OF OUR ELITES' AND DEI ‘RIPPING OUR SOCIETY APART’

Delta Air Lines executive Kyra Lynn Johnson oversaw an acceleration of DEI after the 2020 "social justice awakening."  (Fox Business Digital-Hannah Grossman | Delta Airlines)

Delta released an inclusive language guide in December 2020 which advised employees and leaders against using terms that reinforce the notion that there are only two genders.

"Use gender-neutral language and pronouns. Do not use language that suggests a gender binary (male-female)," the Delta guide said. 

A Delta spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the company encourages its employees to use inclusive language. 

"Delta encourages our people to use language that is inclusive of everyone as our global customer base includes a broad range of diversity in cultural backgrounds, identity and experiences," the spokesperson said. 

FORMER FAA SAFETY EXPERT ADDRESSES AIRLINE DEI CONTROVERSY, VIRAL UNITED COMMENTS

Inclusive guide from Delta Air Lines advised employees and leaders against using terms that reinforce the notion that there are only two genders. (Fox Business Digital-Hannah Grossman | Delta Air Lines / Fox News)

Also, during the DEI panel in 2021, Johnson stressed how it was important to Delta to be an "antiracist company." 

"To really come out and say, as an organization, that we are an antiracist company was really important to us," she said. "We are going to actively seek diversity. We're also talking about how we're going to boldly pursue equity. And we're talking about the steps we're taking to consciously promote inclusion."

The concept of being antiracist was significantly popularized by activist Ibram X. Kendi, with the publication of his book, "How to Be an Antiracist," in 2019. Some critics say that Kendi argues for current discrimination in order to atone for historical wrongs. Kendi believes, like Johnson, that it is not enough to not be racist; one must be an activist against racism. 

"So, we realize, like many of you have, that it's not enough just to say, 'We aren't racist,' but to say that you are antiracist," Johnson added. 

"So we're beginning to take a hard look at things like our gatehouse announcements," Delta's executive said about the equity crackdown. (Fox Business Digital-Hannah Grossman / Fox News)

In addition to recommendations for employees' communications, Delta has also pursued a top-down approach in its talent pipeline.

"We said we're going to reimagine and redefine our talent strategy," Johnson said, with a focus on being "intentional about the representation that we need." 

She added how those metrics would be closely tracked and measured by Delta's DEI team.

"We're starting on a quarterly basis to specifically measure those representation gaps at every level of the company. So we're looking at the front line representation gap," she said. 

ELON MUSK DINGS BOEING AFTER ALASKA AIRLINES SCARE: 'PRIORITIZED DEI HIRING'

In addition to applying DEI to Delta's internal culture, Johnson said in a November 2021 interview with the Airline Tariff Publishing Company that the airline was looking to push DEI externally. 

The company evaluated how it was spending its "PAC dollars" and which "legislation we should support" to mitigate what it deemed "inequity ," she said. 

Some Delta employees have not been "comfortable" with the changes spearheaded by Delta's equity squad.  (Fox Business Digital-Hannah Grossman / Fox News)

"The next thing we said is we were just going to flat out address inequity," she said. "And when we say we're boldly pursuing equity, that's what we mean. So we were going to lend our voice and our brand to things that support… justice and… equity. We're going to look at where we spend our PAC dollars. We're going to look at what legislation we should support," Johnson said on the DEI panel.

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However, some employees have not been "comfortable" with the changes, according to Johnson. 

"Perhaps the greatest challenge has been normalizing those conversations," she said. "So, notice I said the company has set an expectation that those conversations are to be normalized… That doesn't mean everyone feels that way. It doesn't mean that everyone's comfortable having those conversations." 

When asked about Johnson's leadership, Delta told Fox News Digital, "Delta is demonstrating an authentic commitment to being a workplace where all people can thrive and where we reflect the rich humanity of the customers and communities we serve across the globe."

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MoSCoW Prioritization

What is moscow prioritization.

MoSCoW prioritization, also known as the MoSCoW method or MoSCoW analysis, is a popular prioritization technique for managing requirements. 

  The acronym MoSCoW represents four categories of initiatives: must-have, should-have, could-have, and won’t-have, or will not have right now. Some companies also use the “W” in MoSCoW to mean “wish.”

What is the History of the MoSCoW Method?

Software development expert Dai Clegg created the MoSCoW method while working at Oracle. He designed the framework to help his team prioritize tasks during development work on product releases.

You can find a detailed account of using MoSCoW prioritization in the Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM) handbook . But because MoSCoW can prioritize tasks within any time-boxed project, teams have adapted the method for a broad range of uses.

How Does MoSCoW Prioritization Work?

Before running a MoSCoW analysis, a few things need to happen. First, key stakeholders and the product team need to get aligned on objectives and prioritization factors. Then, all participants must agree on which initiatives to prioritize.

At this point, your team should also discuss how they will settle any disagreements in prioritization. If you can establish how to resolve disputes before they come up, you can help prevent those disagreements from holding up progress.

Finally, you’ll also want to reach a consensus on what percentage of resources you’d like to allocate to each category.

With the groundwork complete, you may begin determining which category is most appropriate for each initiative. But, first, let’s further break down each category in the MoSCoW method.

Start prioritizing your roadmap

Moscow prioritization categories.

1. Must-have initiatives

As the name suggests, this category consists of initiatives that are “musts” for your team. They represent non-negotiable needs for the project, product, or release in question. For example, if you’re releasing a healthcare application, a must-have initiative may be security functionalities that help maintain compliance.

The “must-have” category requires the team to complete a mandatory task. If you’re unsure about whether something belongs in this category, ask yourself the following.

If the product won’t work without an initiative, or the release becomes useless without it, the initiative is most likely a “must-have.”

2. Should-have initiatives

Should-have initiatives are just a step below must-haves. They are essential to the product, project, or release, but they are not vital. If left out, the product or project still functions. However, the initiatives may add significant value.

“Should-have” initiatives are different from “must-have” initiatives in that they can get scheduled for a future release without impacting the current one. For example, performance improvements, minor bug fixes, or new functionality may be “should-have” initiatives. Without them, the product still works.

3. Could-have initiatives

Another way of describing “could-have” initiatives is nice-to-haves. “Could-have” initiatives are not necessary to the core function of the product. However, compared with “should-have” initiatives, they have a much smaller impact on the outcome if left out.

So, initiatives placed in the “could-have” category are often the first to be deprioritized if a project in the “should-have” or “must-have” category ends up larger than expected.

4. Will not have (this time)

One benefit of the MoSCoW method is that it places several initiatives in the “will-not-have” category. The category can manage expectations about what the team will not include in a specific release (or another timeframe you’re prioritizing).

Placing initiatives in the “will-not-have” category is one way to help prevent scope creep . If initiatives are in this category, the team knows they are not a priority for this specific time frame. 

Some initiatives in the “will-not-have” group will be prioritized in the future, while others are not likely to happen. Some teams decide to differentiate between those by creating a subcategory within this group.

How Can Development Teams Use MoSCoW?

  Although Dai Clegg developed the approach to help prioritize tasks around his team’s limited time, the MoSCoW method also works when a development team faces limitations other than time. For example: 

Prioritize based on budgetary constraints.

What if a development team’s limiting factor is not a deadline but a tight budget imposed by the company? Working with the product managers, the team can use MoSCoW first to decide on the initiatives that represent must-haves and the should-haves. Then, using the development department’s budget as the guide, the team can figure out which items they can complete. 

Prioritize based on the team’s skillsets.

A cross-functional product team might also find itself constrained by the experience and expertise of its developers. If the product roadmap calls for functionality the team does not have the skills to build, this limiting factor will play into scoring those items in their MoSCoW analysis.

Prioritize based on competing needs at the company.

Cross-functional teams can also find themselves constrained by other company priorities. The team wants to make progress on a new product release, but the executive staff has created tight deadlines for further releases in the same timeframe. In this case, the team can use MoSCoW to determine which aspects of their desired release represent must-haves and temporarily backlog everything else.

What Are the Drawbacks of MoSCoW Prioritization?

  Although many product and development teams have prioritized MoSCoW, the approach has potential pitfalls. Here are a few examples.

1. An inconsistent scoring process can lead to tasks placed in the wrong categories.

  One common criticism against MoSCoW is that it does not include an objective methodology for ranking initiatives against each other. Your team will need to bring this methodology to your analysis. The MoSCoW approach works only to ensure that your team applies a consistent scoring system for all initiatives.

Pro tip: One proven method is weighted scoring, where your team measures each initiative on your backlog against a standard set of cost and benefit criteria. You can use the weighted scoring approach in ProductPlan’s roadmap app .

2. Not including all relevant stakeholders can lead to items placed in the wrong categories.

To know which of your team’s initiatives represent must-haves for your product and which are merely should-haves, you will need as much context as possible.

For example, you might need someone from your sales team to let you know how important (or unimportant) prospective buyers view a proposed new feature.

One pitfall of the MoSCoW method is that you could make poor decisions about where to slot each initiative unless your team receives input from all relevant stakeholders. 

3. Team bias for (or against) initiatives can undermine MoSCoW’s effectiveness.

Because MoSCoW does not include an objective scoring method, your team members can fall victim to their own opinions about certain initiatives. 

One risk of using MoSCoW prioritization is that a team can mistakenly think MoSCoW itself represents an objective way of measuring the items on their list. They discuss an initiative, agree that it is a “should have,” and move on to the next.

But your team will also need an objective and consistent framework for ranking all initiatives. That is the only way to minimize your team’s biases in favor of items or against them.

When Do You Use the MoSCoW Method for Prioritization?

MoSCoW prioritization is effective for teams that want to include representatives from the whole organization in their process. You can capture a broader perspective by involving participants from various functional departments.

Another reason you may want to use MoSCoW prioritization is it allows your team to determine how much effort goes into each category. Therefore, you can ensure you’re delivering a good variety of initiatives in each release.

What Are Best Practices for Using MoSCoW Prioritization?

If you’re considering giving MoSCoW prioritization a try, here are a few steps to keep in mind. Incorporating these into your process will help your team gain more value from the MoSCoW method.

1. Choose an objective ranking or scoring system.

Remember, MoSCoW helps your team group items into the appropriate buckets—from must-have items down to your longer-term wish list. But MoSCoW itself doesn’t help you determine which item belongs in which category.

You will need a separate ranking methodology. You can choose from many, such as:

• Weighted scoring
• Value vs. complexity
• Buy-a-feature
• Opportunity scoring

For help finding the best scoring methodology for your team, check out ProductPlan’s article: 7 strategies to choose the best features for your product .

2. Seek input from all key stakeholders.

To make sure you’re placing each initiative into the right bucket—must-have, should-have, could-have, or won’t-have—your team needs context. 

At the beginning of your MoSCoW method, your team should consider which stakeholders can provide valuable context and insights. Sales? Customer success? The executive staff? Product managers in another area of your business? Include them in your initiative scoring process if you think they can help you see opportunities or threats your team might miss. 

3. Share your MoSCoW process across your organization.

MoSCoW gives your team a tangible way to show your organization prioritizing initiatives for your products or projects. 

The method can help you build company-wide consensus for your work, or at least help you show stakeholders why you made the decisions you did.

Communicating your team’s prioritization strategy also helps you set expectations across the business. When they see your methodology for choosing one initiative over another, stakeholders in other departments will understand that your team has thought through and weighed all decisions you’ve made. 

If any stakeholders have an issue with one of your decisions, they will understand that they can’t simply complain—they’ll need to present you with evidence to alter your course of action.  

Related Terms

2×2 prioritization matrix / Eisenhower matrix / DACI decision-making framework / ICE scoring model / RICE scoring model

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Business Model and Value Designer by sophony.co

• แผนธุรกิจ (Business Plan) คืออะไร

— last updated:

first published:

มีผู้อ่านสอบถามมาเยอะมาก ว่า Business Model เหมือนหรือแตกต่างกับ แผนธุรกิจ (Business Plan) ไหม ถ้าอยากทำธุรกิจ ควรทำ โมเดลธุรกิจ (Business Model) หรือ แผนธุรกิจ (Business Plan) ดี วันนี้ชวนมาทำความรู้จักแผนธุรกิจ (Business Plan) ในเบื้องต้นกันก่อนครับ

1. แผนธุรกิจ (Business Plan) คืออะไร

แผนธุรกิจ (Business Plan) คือ แผนการดำเนินงานธุรกิจ เพื่อให้ธุรกิจบรรลุวัตถุประสงค์ตามเป้าหมาย โดยครอบคลุมแผนธุรกิจด้านต่างๆ อย่างครบถ้วน ได้แก่ ด้านการตลาด ด้านการจัดการ ด้านการดำเนินงาน ด้านการเงิน รวมถึงการจัดการความเสี่ยง

แผนธุรกิจ (Business Plan) คือ แผนการดำเนินงานธุรกิจ เพื่อให้ธุรกิจบรรลุวัตถุประสงค์ตามเป้าหมาย โดยครอบคลุมแผนธุรกิจด้านต่างๆ อย่างครบถ้วน โสภณ แย้มกลิ่น

2. แผนธุรกิจ (Business Plan) มีกี่ประเภท

แผนธุรกิจแบ่งได้เป็น 2 ประเภทใหญ่ๆ คือ

A. แผนธุรกิจเพื่ออธิบายการดำเนินงานปัจจุบัน

แผนธุรกิจแบบนี้ จะเหมาะกับธุรกิจที่ดำเนินงานอยู่แล้วในปัจจุบัน แต่ไม่เคยมีแผนธุรกิจที่เป็นรูปแบบมาก่อน เช่น ทำธุรกิจอยู่แล้ว ธุรกิจพอไปได้นะ ของก็พอขายได้ แต่เจ้าของไม่เคยจด หรือมีอะไรเป็นรูปแบบเลย ไม่รู้เลยว่าลูกค้ามีกี่กลุ่ม ขายก็ขายได้ แต่ไม่รู้ขายสินค้าแต่ละชนิดเท่าไหร่ กำไรต่อชิ้นเป็นยังไง ของซื้อจากไหนก็รู้ แต่ไม่รู้ว่าใครบ้าง ธุรกิจมีกำไรหรือเปล่าก็ไม่แน่ใจ รู้แค่มีเงินจ่ายพนักงาน ฯลฯ

ผู้ประกอบการกลุ่มที่ควรพัฒนาแผนธุรกิจแบบนี้ คือ ผู้ประกอบการที่ทำธุรกิจยังไม่เป็นระบบ เช่น เกษตรกรรายย่อย ร้านขายของชำ Micro Enterprise, SME ขนาดเล็กๆ ร้านขายของชำ เป็นต้น

โดยเฉพาะธุรกิจครอบครัว ธุรกิจส่วนตัว ที่บริหารคนเดียว แบบ “ทุกอย่างอยู่ในหัวฉัน” หากธุรกิจไหนเข้าข่ายแบบนี้ ควรเขียนแผนธุรกิจอย่างยิ่ง เพราะหากเราไม่อยู่ หากไม่เขียนแผนธุรกิจไว้ ลูกหลานจะไม่รู้เลยว่าติดต่อใคร ทำอย่างไร ซื้อของที่ไหน เป็นต้น

การพัฒนาแผนธุรกิจแบบนี้ จะช่วยจัดระบบความคิด รวมถึงจัดระบบธุรกิจตัวเองได้เป็นระบบขึ้น หากธุรกิจต้องการเพิ่มทุน เช่น กู้ธนาคาร หรือ ชวนคนอื่นมาลงหุ้นเพิ่ม เค้าจะถามเราว่า “แล้วธุรกิจปัจจุบันพี่เป็นยังไงครับ” “ลูกค้ามีใครบ้างคะ” “ขายได้เดือนละเท่าไหร่ครับ” ก็สามารถให้เค้าอ่านแผนธุรกิจของเราได้เลย

B. แผนธุรกิจเพื่อพัฒนาธุรกิจใหม่ในอนาคต

แผนธุรกิจแบบนี้ เหมาะกับธุรกิจที่ต้องการพัฒนาสินค้าใหม่ๆ และอยากจะวางแผนให้กับสินค้าและบริการนั้นๆ เช่น สินค้าใหม่อันนี้จะขายใครดี ควรเลือกใครเป็นกลุ่มลูกค้า จะผลิตที่ไหน จะขายชิ้นละกี่บาท ถ้าขายแล้วจะกำไรกี่บาท เป็นต้น

แผนธุรกิจแนวนี้ เป็นแผนธุรกิจที่มีความเป็นแผนกลยุทธ์ (Strategic Plan) อยู่สูง คือ ต้องเน้นการวิเคราะห์หลายสิ่งประกอบด้วย เช่น การวิเคราะห์สภาพแวดล้อมภายนอก การวิเคราะห์อุตสาหกรรม การวิเคราะห์คู่แข่ง การวิเคราะห์ตัวเอง เป็นต้น

(ซึ่งการวิเคราะห์ต่างๆ แผนธุรกิจแบบแรกก็มีนะ แต่ไม่สำคัญเท่าการพัฒนาแผนเพื่อธุรกิจใหม่แบบนี้ เพราะเราจะต้องไปขายสินค้าและบริการในตลาดใหม่)

แผนธุรกิจแบบนี้ จึงเหมาะกับธุรกิจทุกประเภทที่ต้องการพัฒนาธุรกิจใหม่ สินค้าใหม่ บริการใหม่ ซึ่งควรมีแผนล่วงหน้าก่อนจะดำเนินการจริง แต่ขั้นตอนการวิเคราะห์ ก็จะซับซ้อน และ ต้องใช้ทรัพยากรมากกว่าแผนแบบแรกครับ

แต่ไม่ว่าจะเขียนธุรกิจสำหรับธุรกิจปัจจุบัน (A) หรือธุรกิจในอนาคต (B) รูปแบบแผนธุรกิจจะใกล้เคียงกัน แต่การให้ความสำคัญอาจจะแตกต่างกัน

ถ้าเขียนแบบ A จะเน้นการอธิบายสิ่งที่เป็นในปัจจุบันว่าเป็นอย่างไร

แต่ถ้าเขียนแบบ B มักเน้นการวิเคราะห์ธุรกิจใหม่เป็นหลัก หลายครั้ง เป็นแผนธุรกิจเฉพาะสินค้าและบริการใหม่โดยเฉพาะไปเลย ไม่ได้เป็นแผนธุรกิจของทั้งองค์กร

3. แผนธุรกิจ (Business Plan) ประกอบด้วยอะไรบ้าง

อ่านมาถึงตรงนี้ ถ้าอยากเขียนแผนธุรกิจของตัวเอง ลองมาดูว่าแผนธุรกิจประกอบด้วยอะไรบ้างอย่างคร่าวๆ ครับ

ส่วนที่ 1 : บทนำ

ส่วนนี้จะเป็นส่วนบทนำ (Introduction) เช่น ปก สารบัญต่างๆ แต่ส่วนสำคัญของส่วนบทนำที่ควรจะมีคือ

• เหตุผลที่เขียนธุรกิจ เพื่ออธิบายว่าเขียนแผนเพื่ออะไร (เพื่อ A หรือ B) จะเอาไปทำอะไร
• บทสรุปผู้บริหาร สำหรับคนที่ไม่อยากอ่านแผนธุรกิจทั้งเล่ม ก็อ่านบทสรุป 1 – 2 หน้าพอ (สาระสำคัญคือ ธุรกิจคุณกำไรเท่าไหร่ ใส่ไปด้วยนะ)
• ความเป็นมาของธุรกิจ อาจจะเล่าประวัติสำหรับธุรกิจที่เปิดมานานแล้ว หรือ หลายครั้งถ้าเขียนแผนแบบ B คนจะเอา Problems ของลูกค้ามาอธิบายตรงนี้ แล้วอธิบายว่าธุรกิจของเราช่วยแก้ปัญหาให้ลูกค้าได้อย่างไรบ้าง
• รายละเอียดของสินค้าและบริการของเรา เพื่ออธิบายให้ผู้อ่านเห็นภาพรวมว่า ตกลงเราทำธุรกิจอะไรอย่างสรุป (ถ้าอยากรู้แบบละเอียดๆ ก็ไปอ่านส่วนที่ 2)
• การวิเคราะห์สถานการณ์ในปัจจุบัน จะรวมถึงการวิเคราะห์อุตสาหกรรม การสถานการณ์ทางธุรกิจในปัจจุบันครับ (อีกแนวนึงมักเอาส่วนนี้ไปใส่ในแผนการตลาดในส่วนที่ 2)
• Business Model หลายคนใส่ Business Model ธุรกิจในส่วนนี้ เพื่อให้ผู้อ่านเห็นภาพรวมก่อนอ่านรายละเอียดแผนธุรกิจ

ส่วนที่ 2 : เนื้อหาหลัก

ส่วนนี้เป็นส่วนประกอบหลักของแผนธุรกิจครับ จะประกอบด้วยแผนการดำเนินงานหลักของธุรกิจในด้านต่างๆ ดังนี้

แผนการจัดการ (Management Plan)

จะเป็นคล้ายๆ แผนการจัดการ (Management) + การจัดการบุคคล (HR) โดยมากจึงอธิบายพวก พวก Vision Mission Goals ของธุรกิจ อธิบายว่าธุรกิจตั้งแบบไหน (เจ้าของคนเดียว หจก บริษัท) และแผนกการจัดการด้านบุคคล เช่น เจ้าของคือใคร พนักงานคือใคร พนักงานกี่คน กี่แผนก อะไรแบบนี้

แผนการตลาด (Marketing Plan)

จะเป็นเกี่ยวกับการตลาดทั้งหมด อาจแบ่งออกเป็น 2 ส่วนหลัก คือ ส่วนการวิเคราะห์สภาวะทางการตลาดปัจจุบัน เช่น วิเคราะห์อุตสาหกรรม จะใช้ PEST , PESTEL , STEEP ฯลฯ อะไรก็ได้ที่ถนัด วิเคราะคู่แข่ง วิเคราะห์จุดแข่งจุดอ่อน วิเคราะห์ตลาดและลูกค้าเป้าหมาย เป็นต้น

อีกส่วนนึงจะเป็นการวางแผนด้านสินค้าและบริการ ผ่านการใช้ 4P, 7P เช่น รายละเอียดของสินค้าและบริการมีกี่แบบ อะไรบ้าง แต่ละแบบราคาเท่าไหร่ ขายที่ไหน ช่องทางไหนบ้าง แนวนี้

แผนการดำเนินงาน (Operation Plan)

จะเป็นเกี่ยวกับการได้มาของสินค้าและบริการ ถ้าเป็นสินค้าที่ผลิตเพื่อขาย ก็จะเขียนเป็นแผนการผลิต (Production Plan) ไปเลย เช่น ซื้อวัตถุดิบที่ไหน กี่บาท เครื่องจักรอะไรบ้างที่ต้องใช้ กระบวนการผลิตเป็นอย่างไร เป็นต้น

ถ้าเป็นธุรกิจซื้อมาขายไปก็อธิบายอีกแบบ ไปซื้อที่ไหนมา เท่าไหร่ มี Supplier กี่เจ้า

ส่วนถ้าเป็นธุรกิจบริการ ก็จะเขียนเป็นแผนการบริการ (Service Plan) แทน เช่น ไปพนักงานนวดมาจากไหน จะเทรนพนักงานนวดยังไง มีกระบวนการจัดควบคุมคุณภาพยังไงบ้าง เป็นต้น

แผนการเงิน (Financial Plan)

โคตรพ่อโคตรแม่แผน (ขออภัย) เพราะมันเยอะ และ สำคัญมาก มันคือการขมวดทุกแผนเข้าด้วยกันว่า ที่เขียนเล่าในแผนต่างๆ ก่อนหน้านี้เนี่ย ตกลงกำไรหรือเปล่า?

ดังนั้นในแผนการเงินจะประกอบได้ด้วย การประมาณการงบกำไรขาดทุน การทำงบกระแสเงินสด การวิเคราะห์จุดคุ้มทุน การวิเคราะห์ผลตอบแทนโครงการ และสารพัดแผนทางการเงินที่ต้องการเพิ่ม เช่น จะวิเคราะห์ financial ratio ด้วยก็ได้

แต่ถ้าเขียนแผนให้ธุรกิจเล็กๆ หลายครั้ง เค้าอยากรู้แค่ว่าทุกวันนี้กำไรเท่าไหร่เนี่ย ก็มีนะครับ แบบรับแต่เงิน แต่ไม่รู้ว่ากำไรเท่าไหร่มีเยอะแยะ

ส่วนแผนอื่นๆ ถ้าอยากใส่ก็เพิ่มก็ได้ เช่น แผนการจัดการความเสี่ยง (Risk Management Plan) เป็นต้น

ส่วนที่ 3 : ภาคผนวก

ส่วนนี้จะเป็นพวกตารางต่างๆ ที่เยอะมากไปที่จะใส่ในแผนก็เอามาไว้ในนี้ (เช่น พวกงบล่วงหน้าต่างๆ) รวมถึงเอกสารประกอบต่างๆ เช่น ใบจดทะเบียนการค้า พวกเอกสารอ้างอิงต่างๆ ก็นำมาใส่ในนี้ได้หมดครับ

อ่านมาถึงตรงนี้ จะสรุปได้ว่า แผนธุรกิจ ก็คือ แผนการดำเนินงานของธุรกิจในด้านต่างๆ นั่นเองครับ

แต่ด้วยว่าคำว่าแผนธุรกิจ (Business Plan) มันค่อนข้างกว้างมาก โดยเฉพาะเมื่อคุยผู้ประกอบการหรือคนนอกวงการ ดังนั้น เวลาคุยเรื่องแผนธุรกิจจึงต้องคุยให้ชัดเจนว่าต้องการทำอะไรกันแน่

หรือบางกรณีอาจจะต้องทำอย่างอื่นมาก่อน เช่น อยากจะพัฒนาผลิตภัณฑ์ใหม่ๆ (ควรทำ Business Model Design ก่อนทำแผนธุรกิจ) หรือจะเน้นให้วิเคราะห์กลยุทธ์ธุรกิจในปัจจุบัน (ควรทำ Strategic Plan) หรืออยากรู้เทรนธุรกิจในอนาคต (ควรทำ Foresight Analysis แทน) เป็นต้น

หรือในบางกรณี ผู้ประกอบการอยากได้แผนเฉพาะด้านในด้านหนึ่งหรือเปล่า เพราะแผนธุรกิจเป็นแผนแบบภาพรวม ไม่ได้เจาะลึกด้านในด้านหนึ่งโดยเฉพาะ ถ้าผู้ประกอบการอยากรู้ด้านในด้านหนึ่งโดยเฉพาะ ควรเจาะเป็นแผนเฉพาะทางไปเลย เช่น แผนการตลาด (Marketing Plan) แผนการเงิน (Financial Plan) ซึ่งจะได้ข้อมูลที่ลึกซึ้งและครบถ้วนกว่าในด้านนั้นๆ

เขียนมาถึงตรงนี้ ยังไม่ได้เล่าเรื่องความเหมือนและความต่างของ Business Model กับ Business Plan เลย รวมถึงว่า Business Plan ควรเอาไปใช้ตอนไหน ไว้เดี๋ยวมาอธิบายต่อบันทึกหน้านะครับ (เขียนแล้วนะ อ่านต่อได้ที่ Business Model กับ Business Plan ต่างกันอย่างไร )

ถ้าสนใจจะให้ผู้เขียนและทีมงาน พัฒนาแผนธุรกิจหรือแผนด้านอื่นๆ สามารถติดต่อผู้เขียนได้ที่หน้า About ครับ

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อ่านมาถึงตรงนี้ก็ต้องขอบคุณผู้อ่านทุกคนมาก เรื่อง Business Plan และ Business Model คืออะไร เป็นส่วนหนึ่งของซีรีย์โมเดลธุรกิจ (Business Model) ยังมีรายละเอียดที่น่าสนใจกว่านี้อีกมาก เขียนในบันทึกนี้คงไม่พอ ถ้าสนใจจะมาเล่าต่อในบันทึกถัดไปนะครับ ถ้าอยากอ่านเรื่องอื่นเกี่ยวกับการสร้างคุณค่า (Value Proposition Design) รวมถึงเรื่อง Strategy เพิ่มเติม สามารถอ่านได้จากหน้า สารบัญ  

บันทึกนี้อยู่ในซีรีย์นวัตกรรมโมเดลธุรกิจ (Business Model Innovation) สามารถอ่านเรื่องอื่นในซีรีย์เพิ่มเติมได้จาก link

Business Model and Business Model Innovation

Innovation series.

• นวัตกรรม (Innovation) คืออะไร
• S Curve คืออะไร
• The New S Curve คืออะไร
• Innovation Adoption คืออะไร
• นวัตกรรมเพื่อเพิ่มประสิทธิภาพ (Efficiency Innovation) คืออะไร
• นวัตกรรมเพื่อต่อยอด (Sustaining Innovation) คืออะไร
• นวัตกรรมเพื่อธุรกิจใหม่ (Transformative Innovation) คืออะไร

Business Model Series

• Business Model คืออะไร
• Business Model คืออะไร: Alex Osterwalder Masterclass in Thailand
• Business Model Canvas คืออะไร
• Business Model กับ Business Plan ต่างกันอย่างไร
• กลุ่มลูกค้า (Customer Segments) คืออะไร
• ทรัพยากรหลัก (Key Resources) คืออะไร
• กระแสรายได้ (Revenue Streams) คืออะไร

Business Model Innovation Series

• Business Model Innovation คืออะไร
• Business Model Innovation มีกี่แบบ
• Business Model Shift คืออะไร
• กลุ่มลูกค้าย่อย (Customer Micro Segmentation) คืออะไร
• โมเดลธุรกิจขยายตัว (Scalable Business Model) คืออะไร
• Unfair Advantage คืออะไร

Business Plan Series

References:

• Write your business plan by U.S. Small Business Administration

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JPMorgan Chase is giving its employees an AI assistant powered by ChatGPT maker OpenAI

JPMorgan Chase  has rolled out a generative artificial intelligence assistant to tens of thousands of its employees in recent weeks, the initial phase of a broader plan to inject the technology throughout the sprawling financial giant.

The program, called LLM Suite, is already available to more than 60,000 employees, helping them with tasks like writing emails and reports. The software is expected to eventually be as ubiquitous within the bank as the videoconferencing program Zoom, people with knowledge of the plans told CNBC.

Rather than developing its own AI models, JPMorgan designed LLM Suite to be a portal that allows users to tap external large language models — the complex programs underpinning generative AI tools — and launched it with ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s LLM, said the people.

“Ultimately, we’d like to be able to move pretty fluidly across models depending on the use cases,”  Teresa Heitsenrether , JPMorgan’s chief data and analytics officer, said in an interview. “The plan is not to be beholden to any one model provider.”

The move by JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets, shows how quickly generative AI has swept through American corporations since the arrival of ChatGPT in late 2022. Rival bank  Morgan Stanley  has already released a pair of OpenAI-powered tools for its financial advisors. And consumer tech giant  Apple  said in June that it was  integrating  OpenAI models into the operating system of hundreds of millions of its consumer devices, vastly expanding its reach.

The technology — hailed by some as the “ Cognitive Revolution ” in which tasks formerly done by knowledge workers will be automated — could be as important as the advent of  electricity , the printing press and the internet, JPMorgan CEO  Jamie Dimon  said in April.

It will likely “augment virtually every job” at the bank, Dimon said. JPMorgan had about 313,000 employees as of June.

ChatGPT ban

The bank is giving employees what is essentially OpenAI’s ChatGPT in a JPMorgan-approved wrapper more than a year after it  restricted  employees from using ChatGPT. That’s because JPMorgan didn’t want to expose its data to external providers, Heitsenrether said.

“Since our data is a key differentiator, we don’t want it being used to train the model,” she said. “We’ve implemented it in a way that we can leverage the model while still keeping our data protected.”

The bank has introduced LLM Suite broadly across the company, with groups using it in JPMorgan’s consumer division, investment bank, and asset and wealth management business, the people said. It can help employees with writing, summarizing lengthy documents, problem solving using Excel, and generating ideas.

But getting it on employees’ desktops is just the first step, according to Heitsenrether, who was promoted in 2023 to lead the bank’s adoption of the red-hot technology.

“You have to teach people how to do  prompt engineering  that is relevant for their domain to show them what it can actually do,” Heitsenrether said. “The more people get deep into it and unlock what it’s good at and what it’s not, the more we’re starting to see the ideas really flourishing.”

The bank’s engineers can also use LLM Suite to incorporate functions from external AI models directly into their programs, she said.

'Exponentially bigger'

JPMorgan has been working on traditional AI and machine learning for more than a decade, but the arrival of ChatGPT forced it to pivot.

Traditional, or narrow, AI performs specific tasks involving pattern recognition, like making predictions based on historical data. Generative AI is more advanced, however, and trains models on vast data sets with the goal of pattern creation, which is how human-sounding text or realistic images are formed.

The number of uses for generative AI are “exponentially bigger” than previous technology because of how flexible LLMs are, Heitsenrether said.

The bank is testing many cases for both forms of AI and has already put a few into production.

JPMorgan is using generative AI to create marketing content for social media channels, map out itineraries for clients of the  travel agency  it acquired in 2022 and summarize meetings for financial advisors, she said.

The consumer bank uses AI to determine where to place new branches and ATMs by ingesting satellite images and in call centers to help service personnel quickly find answers, Heitsenrether said.

In the firm’s global-payments business, which moves more than $8 trillion around the world daily, AI helps prevent hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud, she said.

But the bank is being more cautious with generative AI that directly touches upon the individual customer because of the risk that a chatbot gives bad information, Heitsenrether said.

Ultimately, the generative AI field may develop into “five or six big foundational models” that dominate the market, she said.

The bank is testing  LLMs  from U.S. tech giants as well as open source models to onboard to its portal next, said the people, who declined to be identified speaking about the bank’s AI strategy.

Friend or foe?

Heitsenrether charted out three stages for the evolution of generative AI at JPMorgan.

The first is simply making the models available to workers; the second involves adding proprietary JPMorgan data to help boost employee productivity, which is the stage that has just begun at the company.

The third is a larger leap that would unlock far greater productivity gains, which is when generative AI is powerful enough to operate as autonomous  agents  that perform complex multistep tasks. That would make rank-and-file employees more like managers with AI assistants at their command.

The technology will likely empower some workers while displacing others, changing the composition of the industry in ways that are hard to predict.

Banking jobs are the most prone to automation of all industries, including technology, health care and retail, according to consulting firm  Accenture . AI could boost the sector’s profits by $170 billion in just four years,  Citigroup  analysts said. 

People should consider generative AI “like an assistant that takes away the more mundane things that we would all like to not do, where it can just give you the answer without grinding through the spreadsheets,” Heitsenrether said.

“You can focus on the higher-value work,” she said.

— CNBC’s Leslie Picker contributed to this report.

More from CNBC:

• Stellantis laying off 2,450 plant workers due to discontinuation of Ram ‘Classic’ pickup truck
• Trump Media reports $16 million loss for quarter as revenue falls
• Wealthy investors find opportunities in stock market sell-offs

10 องค์ประกอบแผนธุรกิจ และวิธีเขียนแผนธุรกิจที่ถูกต้อง [ใช้งานได้จริง]

mins read   |  1stCraft Team

การทำธุรกิจไม่ใช่เรื่องง่าย เพราะหากดำเนินธุรกิจไปโดยไม่มีเป้าหมายที่ชัดเจน ขาดแผนที่ในการเดินทาง ก็จะยิ่งทำให้ธุรกิจไม่พบเป้าหมาย ไม่รู้ว่าจะต้องทำอะไรเพื่อให้ไปถึงจุดที่เรียกว่า “ประสบความสำเร็จ” 

ดังนั้นการวางแผนธุรกิจให้รอบคอบตั้งแต่ต้น จึงเป็นเรื่องสำคัญทั้งต่อตัวธุรกิจ และใช้เพื่อชักจูงกลุ่มนักลงทุนให้เห็นถึงโอกาสความสำเร็จ

บทความนี้มาเปิด 10 องค์ประกอบของการทำแผนธุรกิจ พร้อมวิธีเขียนที่ถูกต้อง ที่ช่วยให้ธุรกิจของคุณมีเป้าหมาย มีเส้นทางสู่การประสบความสำเร็จได้

แผนธุรกิจคืออะไร 

จุดประสงค์ของการเขียนแผนธุรกิจ, 10 องค์ประกอบของแผนธุรกิจและวิธีเขียนแผนธุรกิจที่ถูกต้อง ใช้ได้จริง, ทิ้งท้ายสำหรับการวางแผนธุรกิจ.

แผนธุรกิจ (Business Plan) คือ เอกสารที่ระบุรายละเอียดต่างๆ เกี่ยวกับธุรกิจว่าธุรกิจจะทำอะไร เพื่อจุดประสงค์อะไร และจะต้องทำอย่างไรเพื่อที่จะได้บรรลุเป้าหมายได้ โดยแผนธุรกิจก็จะถูกใช้เป็นเหมือนแผนที่ (Roadmap) ในการดำเนินธุรกิจซึ่งเป็นกรอบสำหรับการ วางแผนการตลาด วางแผนการเงิน และการบริหารงาน ถือได้ว่า แผนธุรกิจ เป็นก้าวแรกของการทำธุรกิจและความสำเร็จ

เราเขียนแผนธุรกิจก็เพื่อใช้เป็นแผนที่ในการดำเนินธุรกิจ ให้ประสบความสำเร็จตามเป้าหมายที่วางไว้ แต่นอกจากนี้ จุดประสงค์ของการเขียนแผนธุรกิจอีกประการ คือ ใช้เพื่อนำเสนอความเป็นไปได้ของความสำเร็จสำหรับการลงทุน การระดมทุน หรือการขอกู้สินเชื่อเพื่อประกอบธุรกิจ หากเรามีแผนที่ละเอียด รอบคอบ ผู้ให้ความสนับสนุนก็จะมองเห็นถึงความคุ้มค่าในการลงทุน

ประโยชน์และความสำคัญของการเขียนแผนธุรกิจที่ดี

1. ช่วยให้มองเห็นภาพรวมธุรกิจ .

ปัจจัยแรกของการทำธุรกิจให้สำเร็จ คือ เราต้องรู้จักตัวเองให้ดีก่อน ไม่ว่าจะเป็นสินค้า/บริการ ความต้องการของลูกค้า ข้อมูลที่ชี้ปัจจัยของผลลัพธ์ที่ผ่านมา วิธีการดำเนินงาน โครงสร้างรายได้-ค่าใช้จ่าย ฯลฯ เพื่อใช้ในการวางกลยุทธ์ต่อไป

2. ช่วยให้ในกลยุทธ์ในการทำธุรกิจ 

เราจะเห็นเป้าหมายและสิ่งที่ต้องทำทั้งหมดผ่านแผนธุรกิจที่ดี กลยุทธ์จะเกิดจากการที่เราลำดับความสำคัญได้ว่าจะทำอะไรก่อน เห็นความสัมพันธ์ของเป้าหมาย เข้าใจว่าควรทำอะไรเพื่อให้ได้อะไร

3. ช่วยในการวัดผลลัพธ์ 

ทำให้ธุรกิจรู้ว่าตอนนี้กำลังอยู่ในจุดไหนของแผนที่ มีข้อมูลในการทำความเข้าใจปัญหาและหาโอกาสใหม่ๆ ได้ ตลอดจนใช้ปรับแผนสร้างกลยุทธ์ใหม่เพื่อเข้าใกล้ความสำเร็จ

4. ใช้สำหรับการจัดหาแหล่งทุน 

ไม่ว่าจะเป็นการระดมทุน การขอทุนจากนักลงทุน หรือการขอสินเชื่อ เป็นต้น ซึ่งสำคัญมากๆ สำหรับธุรกิจใหม่และสตาร์ตอัป

จากจุดประสงค์และประโยชน์ข้างต้น เราจึงต้องมาทำความเข้าใจวิธีการเขียนแผนธุรกิจที่ถูกต้อง เข้าใจองค์ประกอบต่างๆ เพื่อที่จะได้สร้างแผนธุรกิจที่ใช้งานได้จริง

การเขียนแผนธุรกิจที่ถูกต้องที่สามารถใช้เป็นแผนดำเนินงานและสำหรับเสนอเพื่อขอระดมทุนจะประกอบไปด้วย 10 องค์ประกอบหรือขั้นตอนในการเขียน ได้แก่ 

• เขียนบทสรุปผู้บริหาร (Executive summary)
• คำอธิบายธุรกิจ (Company description)
• การวิจัยตลาด (Market analysis)
• รายละเอียดองค์กรและการจัดการ (Organization and management)
• คำอธิบายบริการและผลิตภัณฑ์ (Service or product line)
• แผนการตลาดและแผนการขาย (Marketing and sales)
• รายละเอียดเงินลงทุน (Funding request)
• แผนการเงิน (Financial projections)
• ภาคผนวก (Appendix)
• แผนฉุกเฉิน (Emergency plan)

1. เขียนบทสรุปผู้บริหาร (Executive Summary)

บทสรุปผู้บริหาร หรือ Executive Summary คือ สรุปภาพรวมธุรกิจและแผนธุรกิจคร่าวๆ ซึ่งจะทำให้ผู้อ่านเข้าใจธุรกิจและแผนทั้งหมดในเบื้องต้น โดยทั่วไปจะมีความยาวเพียง 1-3 หน้า เท่านั้น ควรเป็นส่วนที่กระชับที่สุด แต่สามารถทำให้เห็นภาพได้ 

เนื้อหาในส่วนนี้ จะเล่าว่า บริษัทคือบริษัทอะไร ทำอะไร แล้วเพราะจะทำอะไรจึงจะประสบความสำเร็จ ซึ่งองค์ประกอบในบทสรุปผู้บริหาร หลักๆ จะประกอบไปด้วย 

• ส่วนแนะนำธุรกิจ เป้าหมายหรือพันธกิจ จะขายอะไร ขายให้กับใคร และข้อมูลทั่วไปเกี่ยวกับธุรกิจ
• ข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับการเงิน เช่น รายได้ที่คาดการณ์ กำไร ระยะเวลาคืนทุน เป็นต้น 
• ข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับเงินทุนเบื้องต้น ว่าต้องใช้เงินทุนเท่าไร ที่มาของเงินทุนมาจากไหน 
• ข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับตลาดและคู่แข่ง ระบุว่าธุรกิจอยู่ในตำแหน่ง (Position) ใดของตลาด และแข่งกับธุรกิจใดอยู่บ้าง

จริงๆ แล้วส่วนนี้ สามารถเขียนทีหลังสุดได้ เพราะเราจำเป็นต้องมีข้อมูลจากส่วนอื่นๆ ในระดับหนึ่งก่อน แต่ส่วนนี้ก็ถือเป็นจุดเหนี่ยวไกนักลงทุนได้เลย ถ้าสามารถแสดงให้เขาเห็นภาพชัดเจนว่าธุรกิจจะประสบความสำเร็จได้อย่างไร

2. คำอธิบายธุรกิจ (Company Description)

คำอธิบายธุรกิจ คือ ส่วนที่ระบุว่าธุรกิจของเราทำอะไร ซึ่งได้แก่

• ขายหรือให้บริการประเภทใด 
• กำลังแก้ไขปัญหาหรือตอบสนองความต้องการอะไรของผู้คน 
• ใครคือลูกค้า 
• ใครคือผู้มีส่วนได้ส่วนเสีย (Stakeholder) ที่บริษัทจะขาย/แก้ปัญหาให้

นอกจากนี้ ควรระบุข้อได้เปรียบ จุดขายของธุรกิจที่จะทำให้ธุรกิจประสบความสำเร็จ ช่องทางและวิธีในการเข้าหาและขายสินค้า

3. การวิจัยตลาด (Market Analysis)

การวิจัยตลาด คือ ส่วนที่จะต้องระบุข้อมูลที่เราได้ไปศึกษาาและวิเคราะห์ตลาดมาว่า 

• ขนาดตลาดที่เราจะลงเล่นใหญ่แค่ไหน (Market Size) 
• ใครคือกลุ่มเป้าหมายบ้าง (Target Customer) ลูกค้ามีความต้องการอะไร  
• กระแสหรือเทรนด์ในช่วงนั้นๆ 
• การคาดการณ์การเติบโตของสินค้า/บริการของธุรกิจในตลาด (Market Growth) 

รวมไปถึงการวิเคราะห์คู่แข่ง (Competitive Analysis) ว่าคู่แข่งทำอะไรได้ดี เขาจับลูกค้ากลุ่มไหนอยู่ ยอดขายของเขาเป็นอย่างไร ฯลฯ เพื่อที่จะเรานำมา วิเคราะห์หาวิธีเอาชนะ ต่อไป

4. รายละเอียดองค์กรและการจัดการ (Organization and Management)

รายละเอียดองค์กรและการจัดการ (Organization and management) หมายถึง รายละเอียดที่บอกโครงสร้างของบริษัทว่าใครทำงานอะไร ทั้งส่วนของผู้บริหารและพนักงาน รวมทั้งรายละเอียดขององค์กรอื่นที่บริษัทร่วมงานด้วย 

โดยเนื้อหาในส่วนนี้ควรจะบอกลำดับการทำงาน หรือที่เรียกกว่า “Organization Chart” (ผังองค์กร) ที่แสดงให้เห็นว่าแต่ละตำแหน่ง แต่ละแผนกร่วมงานกันอย่างไร และแต่ละคนมีตำแหน่งและความรับผิดชอบอะไรบ้าง

ทั้งนี้ ถ้าทำให้ละเอียดมากขึ้น อาจระบุเพิ่มเติมถึงรายละเอียดงานในแต่ละตำแหน่ง และตัวชี้วัดที่มุ่งหวังจากภาคส่วนต่างๆ เพื่อให้เห็นภาพการทำงานละผลลัพธ์จากหน่วยต่างๆ ที่ประกอบรวมไปเป็นภาพเป้าหมายของบริษัท

5. คำอธิบายบริการและผลิตภัณฑ์ (Service or Product Line)

เนื้อหาในส่วนที่นี้ จะอธิบายสินค้าและบริการที่ธุรกิจของเราขาย อธิบายว่าสินค้า/บริการเป็นอย่างไร ให้ประโยชน์อะไรแก่ผู้ซื้อ/ผู้ใช้บริการ รวมทั้ง มูลค่าและกำไรที่จะจากสินค้า 

สำหรับบริษัทที่รายการสินค้าไม่มากแค่สามารถให้รายละเอียดสินค้าแต่ละชิ้นได้ แต่หากเป็นบริษัทใหญ่มีสินค้าจำนวนมาก อาจระบุรายละเอียดเป็นหมวดหมู่ก็ได้ 

นอกจากนี้ อีกสิ่งที่ควรระบุคือ คาดการณ์หรือระบุข้อมูลที่เคยทำได้ว่าสินค้าตัวไหนขายดี และทำกำไรได้มาก ตลาดกำลังนิยมอะไร รวมถึงต้นทุนและที่มา (Supplier) ของการได้มาซึ่งสินค้า เพื่อใช้ปรับปรุง แผนการผลิต และกลยุทธ์การตลาดต่อไป

6. แผนการตลาดและแผนการขาย (Marketing and sales)

แผนการตลาดและแผนการขาย คือ ส่วนที่มีความยากและความสำคัญอย่างยิ่ง เพราะถือเป็นด้านหน้าในการเข้าหาลูกค้า และระบุกลยุทธ์ที่ต้องทำเพื่อให้ธุรกิจประสบผลสำเร็จตามเป้าหมาย 

เป้าหมายของการวางแผนการตลาดและการขายก็คือ ระบุว่าเราจะเข้าหาลูกค้าอย่างไร ฟูมฟักเขาอย่างไร และรักษาให้เข้ายังเป็นลูกค้าของธุรกิจต่อไปเรื่อยๆ อย่างไร

อีกสิ่งที่ควรระบุในส่วนนี้คือ การตั้งงบประมาณการตลาดและการขายและต้องคาดการณ์ได้ว่าจากงบประมาณจะสามารถสร้างยอดขายหรือ ROI (Return of Investment) ได้เท่าไร โดยที่ระบุงบประมาณเป็นช่วงๆ เช่น ต่อเดือน ต่อไตรมาส เป็นต้น

แผนการตลาดและการขายของแต่ละธุรกิจก็จะแตกต่างกันไป และในแต่ละสถานการณ์ ธุรกิจก็จำเป็นที่จะต้องเปลี่ยนกลยุทธ์ให้เหมาะสม แนะนำให้ศึกษา วิธีการเขียนแผนการตลาดโดยละเอียด ในบทความนี้

7. รายละเอียดเงินลงทุน (Funding request)

เนื้อหาในส่วนนี้ หากธุรกิจของคุณมีเงินทุนสำรองอยู่แล้ว อาจระบุรายละเอียดเพียงคร่าวๆ ว่าใครเป็นเจ้าของเงินทุนและมีเงินทุนสำหรับประกอบการเท่าไร แต่ถ้าหากต้องเขียนแผนธุรกิจเพื่อขอเงินทุน เพื่อการระดมทุน หรือขอสินเชื่อทำธุรกิจ อาจต้องระบุที่มาที่ไปของแหล่งเงินทุนและปริมาณอย่างละเอียด ได้แก่

• จำนวนเงินทุนที่จำเป็นต้องใช้
• แหล่งที่มาของเงินทุน เช่น นายทุน สินเชื่อ จากการระดมทุน และจำนวนเงินทุนจากแต่ละแหล่ง

โดยข้อมูลด้านเงินทุนควรจะต้องแสดงให้เห็นความสอดคล้องไปกับแผนธุรกิจและเป้าหมาย รวมทั้งงบประมาณจะลงไปกับ ค่าใช้จ่าย อะไรบ้าง เช่น ต้องการเงินทุน 500,000 บาท ในปีแรก เพื่อทำสิ่งนี้ เพื่อให้ได้กำไรเท่านี้ และในปีต่อไปต้องการเงินทุนเท่าไรเพื่อทำกำไรให้ได้ตามเป้าหมาย หรือเพื่อขยายกิจการ เป็นต้น

8. แผนการเงิน (Financial Projections)

แผนการเงิน จะประกอบไปด้วยข้อมูล 2 ส่วน ได้แก่ 

• สถานการณ์การเงิน เช่น เงินทุน รายได้ กำไร เงินหมุน ค่าใช้จ่าย ฯลฯ ที่บอกสถานการณ์การเงินในปัจจุบันหรือที่คาดการณ์ได้ชัดเจน
• การวิเคราะห์ด้านการเงิน หมายถึง การคาดการณ์กำไร-ขาดทุน (Income Statement) งบกระแสเงินสด (Cashflow) และงบดุล (Balance Sheet) เพื่อใช้วิเคราะห์คาดการณ์ทิศทางของธุรกิจในอนาคต

ข้อมูลส่วนนี้ถือว่าเป็นส่วนที่ยากและต้องใช้ความละเอียดรอบคอบสูง จึงอาจจะเวลาในการทำหลายวัน และต้องการข้อมูลสนับสนุนจำนวนมาก รวมทั้ง ความรู้ในการคาดการณ์ด้วย จึงควรหาเครื่องมือเข้ามาช่วยคำนวณ ซึ่งอาจจะเป็น Excel / Google Sheet หรือโปรแกรมเฉพาะทางอื่นๆ ที่ช่วยให้เห็นการเงินของบริษัท เช่น ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) เป็นต้น

ทั้งนี้ คุณควรศึกษาเรื่องการเงิน วิธีการเขียนงบประมาณ การทำงบดุล และเอกสารการเงินต่างๆ เพิ่มเติมด้วย

9. ภาคผนวก (Appendix)

ภาคผนวกหรือ Appendix เป็นส่วนเพิ่มเติมของแผนธุรกิจ ซึ่งจะรวบรวมและอ้างอิงแหล่งที่มาของข้อมูลต่างๆ ที่เราไม่สามารถระบุไว้ในเนื้อหาส่วนต่างๆ ได้ แต่เนื้อหาส่วนนี้จะจำเป็นสำหรับการทำความเข้าใจในเชิงลึกถึงที่มาที่ไปของแผนธุรกิจ 

สำหรับการเสนอขอทุนหรือสินเชื่อ โดยข้อมูลและข้อสรุปต่างๆ ที่ใช้อ้างอิงในแผนธุรกิจ ควรระบุไว้ในภาคผนวกเพื่อสร้างความน่าเชื่อถือ และแสดงที่มาที่ไปของแผนธุรกิจให้แก่กลุ่มนักลงทุนหรือธนาคาร

10. แผนฉุกเฉิน (Emergency plan)

แม้ว่าเราจะพยายามเขียนแผนธุรกิจอย่างรอบคอบรัดกุมแค่ไหน แต่ในการทำธุรกิจมักจะมีเหตุการณ์ที่ทำให้ดำเนินไปตามแผนได้อย่างราบรื่น โดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่งกับสถานการณ์ภายนอกที่เราไม่สามารถควบคุมได้อย่างวิกฤตการณ์ต้มยำกุ้งเมื่อปี 40 หรือวิกฤตการแพร่ระบาดไวรัสโควิด-19 ที่กระทบธุรกิจอย่างสาหัส ได้ทำให้เราตระหนักถึงความไม่แน่นอน 

เราอาจเขียนสถานการณ์ที่เลวร้ายที่สุดไว้ 2-3 สถานการณ์ พร้อมระบุวิธีรับมือไม่ว่าจะเป็นกลยุทธ์การตลาดใหม่ๆ การลดขนาดธุรกิจ การออกสินค้าเพื่อกระตุ้นยอดขาย ฯลฯ ทำเป็นแผนรับมือคร่าวๆ ทั้งเรื่องการเงินและแผนการตลาด จากข้อมูลในแผนธุรกิจทั้ง 9 ข้อที่กลาวมาแล้ว จะช่วยให้เรารู้จักธุรกิจของเราดีมากขึ้นและสามารถหาวิธีรับมือสถานการณ์ได้เหมาะสมที่สุด

แผนธุรกิจที่สมบูรณ์อาจจะไม่มีอยู่จริงในโลกที่ธุรกิจมีความผันผวนสูง เจ้าของธุรกิจต้องคอยติดตามสถานการณ์ วัดผลลัพธ์ และประเมินสถานกาณ์เพื่อปรับปรุงแผนอยู่เสมอ โดยอาจจะนำแผนธุรกิจมาใคร่ครวญเพื่อวางเป้าหมายในรายไตรมาสหรือรายครึ่งปีอยู่เรื่อยๆ ซึ่งเปลี่ยนแปลงได้ แต่สิ่งที่ควรยึดมั่นไว้ก็คือ ‘เป้าหมาย’ เพื่อให้ธุรกิจไม่หลงทาง

ทั้งนี้ สำหรับใครที่ต้องการเขียนแผนธุรกิจ อ่านบทความแล้วเข้าใจเพียงแนวคิด เราขอแนะนำแหล่ง ดาวน์โหลดตัวอย่างแผนธุรกิจสำหรับธุรกิจประเภทต่างๆ กว่า 500 ธุรกิจ ที่จะช่วยให้คุณเห็นภาพแผนธุรกิจและสามารถเขียนแผนธุรกิจของคุณเองได้

• วางแผนธุรกิจ     เขียนแผนธุรกิจ

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8 million student-loan borrowers on Biden's new repayment plan just got more bad news after a federal court officially blocked cheaper payments and debt cancellation

• The 8th Circuit officially blocked the SAVE student-loan repayment plan in its entirety.
• It replaces its temporary stay on the plan from July, which paused cheaper payments and debt relief.
• Enrolled borrowers will likely be in limbo for long as the legal process progresses.

The legal roller coaster for millions of student-loan borrowers continues.

On Friday, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals placed a preliminary injunction on President Joe Biden's SAVE income-driven repayment plan, intended to lower monthly payments and shorten the timeline for relief for the 8 million borrowers enrolled.

If this sounds familiar, that's because it is: on July 18, the 8th Circuit placed a temporary stay on the plan in response to a lawsuit led by Missouri's attorney general to block the plan from being implemented. This latest ruling replaces that stay, and it likely means that enrolled borrowers will be in limbo for longer as the legal process is carried out.

"Among the considerations here are that all borrowers currently impacted by our administrative stay are in administrative forbearance and thus not required to pay principal or interest on their loans, borrowers who have remained in PAYE and REPAYE plans are not impacted, and the States cannot turn back the clock on any loans that have already been forgiven," the 8th Circuit said in its ruling.

The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on what this latest ruling will mean for borrowers. As a result of the legal challenges, the department has already  placed all enrolled borrowers on administrative forbearance , during which the borrowers are not required to make any payments and interest will not accrue.

Additionally, while the department confirmed this forbearance period would not count toward forgiveness progress for borrowers on Public Service Loan Forgiveness or income-driven repayment, it recently released guidance on other ways borrowers could still get credit , including switching to a new repayment plan.

Related stories

Legal challenges to SAVE have been ongoing for months. Earlier this year, two separate groups of GOP state attorneys general filed lawsuits to block parts of the plan , leading two federal courts to place preliminary injunctions on the cheaper payments and debt relief. The 10th Circuit later granted Biden's request to stay one of the rulings, but the 8th Circuit ultimately halted the plan from being implemented in its entirety.

The back-and-forth has sparked confusion and stress among many borrowers who aren't sure what their finances will look like if SAVE is blocked. One borrower on SAVE previously told BI that he's worried he'll have to sell his house or get a second job if he no longer has access to cheaper payments under the plan.

"Right when my wife and I felt like we were in a position to start a family and start the next chapter of our lives, it feels like the rug got pulled out from underneath us because it sure seemed like the SAVE plan was something that we could rely on," he said.

Are you enrolled in SAVE? Share your story with this reporter at [email protected] .

Watch: Why student loans aren't canceled, and what Biden's going to do about it

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