Learn how to write a business plan yourself: an example of an optimal structure. How to write a business plan: from introduction to design

Cheat sheet for dummies, how to write a business plan.

A serious project must begin with writing a competent business plan. This is a document that describes the main points of future activities, anticipated risks, financial performance and much more.

Writing a business plan from scratch is often placed on the shoulders of third-party firms. This entails a number of disadvantages:

• extra costs - drawing up a document costs at least 50,000 rubles;
• consultants create it according to standard tracing paper, without delving into the individual features of the case, understandable only “from the inside”;
• if the document is written in a dry language, it will not attract the attention of investors.

The work should be done by current or future project leaders. They see the intricacies of the matter and will take responsibility for the implementation.

If you figure out how to write a business plan, you will not only be able to forecast future business activities, but also strengthen faith in the success of the business.

How to write a good business plan?

If the business plan is written correctly, it will perform three tasks:

• outlines the course of action for the entrepreneur;
• helps to assess development prospects;

The document should answer the questions: what is the value of the described project, who is the future competitor, what risks lie in wait?

In order not to miss the details, it is worth writing the document, adhering to the standard structure.

The most important point, which is necessarily disclosed in detail, is the financial side of the issue. You need to write future income and expenses, and supplement with information about the starting capital.

P.S. As for income, it is important to write in the document not only the amount of profit, but also when the amount will begin to be credited to the account. This item is especially relevant in the case of writing a business plan for the purpose of lending.

A section with financial indicators (for an existing company) or a reliable forecast for a future one is included in the text or drawn up as an appendix. Use more numbers, graphs.

Choose the type of plan

In Russia, there are several varieties of a business plan:

• Business plan of the company.
  The most popular and widespread type. To write a document, use a standard schema. Needed by entrepreneurs for market and financial analysis.
• Credit document.
  Used to justify getting a loan from a bank. Answers the questions: where will the money go, how soon will the debt be repaid?
• Investment plan.
  Used for presentation to investors. Contains detailed characteristics of the case and data on niche market research and target audience.
• grant document.
  Used to receive development assistance from the state. Display the benefits of future activities for the region or the whole country.

Business plan structure

The plan looks like a complicated document. In fact, it is well structured. To write a business plan yourself from scratch, you need to follow each item.

The history of the existence of the company is written in stages: from the moment of creation to gaining stability. The text should be written in a business language, but lively and exciting enough for a potential investor to want to study it in its entirety.

Any type of activity has its own characteristics, so the standard tracing paper of the document exists to build on it, adjusting it to your own needs.

How to write a business plan point by point?

This part is called the “introduction” to the business plan or the “summary”.

It briefly reveals the essence of the project and consists of 5-7 sentences. It may seem that this part is not as important as the rest. However, the more interesting the section is written, the more likely it is to captivate the reader.

Goals and objectives.

Here the entrepreneur must write what and how he wants to achieve. Unlike the summary, this part of the document is revealed in detail, but without "water".

Write in the business plan the address of the location, the schedule of work, the characteristics of the building that is being purchased or rented.

Staff.

Be sure to include a section on the future state in the plan. It is necessary to write a list of positions, official duties, a table of payroll calculations is made.

There should also be information about the work schedule.

If you plan to raise your salary in the future, arrange refresher courses, or organize home deliveries for those who work late, indicate this.

Financial part.


The most important section of a business plan. It describes here:

• income and expenses;
• unexpected expenses;
• the movement of finance;
• taxation system;
• form of receiving money;
• types of contracts for future partners.

If it seems to you that writing this part of the document from scratch is beyond your power, delegate the financial section of the business plan to professionals.

The best data format for a business plan is graphs, tables and charts. Visual information is digested better and easier. All these figures must be supported by calculations.

Marketing.

This section of the business plan includes the following sub-items: an analysis of the state of affairs in the market, the presence or absence of a niche for the company, describes competitors and the advantages that will allow them to get around, the potential target audience.
Based on these data, you need to write in the document a conclusion about the most appropriate advertising techniques that will be used.

Production.

This point of the business plan is necessary if a manufacturing business is planned.

In this case, in the section you need to specify all the details of the release of products from scratch to the finish line (from ordering raw materials to shipping goods to sales outlets). It highlights all the important points: technology, the need for equipment, know-how. Taking into account every detail will help to avoid problems in the implementation of the plan.

If you are not going to manufacture products, but make bulk purchases with further sale, indicate in the document the suppliers, the method of delivery, and the place for storing the goods.

Risk analysis.


If the main purpose of the document is to find investors, this section of the business plan is a must.

It is important for any person who has a large sum of money sufficient to finance a project to invest in a reliable company. To confirm the seriousness of your intentions, you must write down all possible risks for the enterprise. These may include:

• drop in the level of demand;
• decrease in the level of sales;
• deterioration of the economic situation in the country;
• failure to deliver raw materials or send products to customers;
• emergency (war, fire, volcanic eruption).

Problems need not only to be listed in the document, but also to write solutions in a given situation. This will not only emphasize your level of responsibility, but also instill confidence in your own abilities. In case of emergency, you will not panic, but will use the ready-made instructions from the business plan.

At the end of the business plan, the results are summarized.

They include data on the amount invested, a graph of profit growth and the payback period of the project. All words must be supported by specific figures, calculations and graphs.

Traditionally, calculations for a business plan need to be written for 3-4 years.

However, in the conditions of our unstable economy, it makes sense to take a period of no more than 1-2 years. Moreover, for the first year it is necessary to make a breakdown by months. And already from the second one can be reduced to a quarterly plan.

Don't pour water.

A good business plan requires conciseness, but at the same time the disclosure of all necessary aspects. It is enough to write 40-70 pages of a business plan.

It is allowed to include additional materials in a separate appendix of the document.

Don't try to turn it into War and Peace. The presence of details and full coverage of the topic is good. But only if dry facts are used, and not “water”. Leave artistic turns for personal correspondence.

There is no need to write in the business plan the phrases “a product without analogues”, “there is no competition”.

The service market is huge and growing rapidly. Due to the long-term planning, no one can guarantee that a product like yours will not appear in the near future. Even if at first glance it seems that you are a monopolist, tomorrow the situation may change.

Accurately analyze the market for prospects, potential customers.

The data in the business plan must be written in specific numbers. If you can't do that, then you don't understand the situation well.

Try to stick to the standard document structure above.


Pay special attention to financial tables and charts: they must be complete and correct. Otherwise, the document may simply not be accepted for consideration.

The text of the business plan should be literate, understandable and "alive".

Your goal is to interest the investor and make them read to the end.

Avoid strong emotional assessments in the business plan.

To give credibility and realism, you need to use only numbers and reliable facts.

To find an approach to future investors, study their activities: the history of projects, work with other entrepreneurs.

Before starting to draw up a business plan, be sure to study ready-made examples.

Even if your activity is unique in its kind, find the closest analogues. This will help you better understand the structure and writing style. But the calculations should be unique and based only on your specific indicators.

All calculations for the business plan must be written as accurately as possible.

Of course, it is simply impossible to correctly indicate the amount of future profit to the penny. In this case, it provides an analysis of the sales of the nearest competitors and the average cost of the most popular of your services.

A detailed methodology for writing a competent business plan

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The finished document should not be left gathering dust on the shelf. It is not enough to simply write a development course from scratch until a break-even point is reached. You need to constantly return to it: analyze successes, correct mistakes, fill in the gaps ...

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A business plan is a project that allows an entrepreneur to display all the moments of organizing his future business. A competent and convincing business plan makes it possible to attract large investors, creditors and start a promising business.

Careful study of each item of the business plan is the key to drawing up a competent and promising project. Initial points worth paying attention to.

In order to draw up a competent business plan, you need to carefully study the factors presented in the table.

When drawing up a business plan, it is desirable to consider the following recommendations:

• at the beginning of the business plan, make a short discussion of it, which will concisely state the essence of the document;
• describe the future company in as much detail as possible (name, actual address, legal address, description of the direction of activity, area of ​​​​the premises, landlord, etc.);
• give a detailed analysis of the sales market (market segments, consumers, development trends, possible risks, expected profit, etc.);
• tell about future goods, services (reasons for choosing this particular product, target audience, advantages over competitors, the process of production of goods, etc.);
• describe the chosen strategy (a way to conquer the market and find your niche);
• carefully study the activities of dozens of the closest competitors, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses;
• make a complete description of the production, paying attention to even the most insignificant at first glance moments (method of delivery of goods, the procedure for writing off debts from debtors, the process of training and training personnel, equipment, technologies, licenses, legal aspects of activity, etc.);
• describe the workflow. You can attach resumes and letters of recommendation of key employees (for example, the manager and key managers), describe job descriptions, calculate the approximate costs of staff salaries;
• attach all relevant documents to the business plan. In addition to documents describing the duties and qualifications of employees, it is necessary to attach accounting documents, loan documents, lease or leasing agreements, statistical reports, etc.

At the initial stage of drawing up a business plan, it is important to avoid common mistakes. These errors include:

• excess information. The business plan should be devoted exclusively to the description of the planned business activity. The presence of a large amount of secondary information (personal merits of the author, professional terms, too detailed description of the production process, etc.) can make a negative impression on future investors;
• blurry and unattainable goals. The tasks that the entrepreneur sets for himself must be realistically achievable;
• adequate financial performance. Indicating an unnecessarily high percentage of a venture's return in order to impress investors can lead to the opposite result. Financial indicators should be based on real research and calculations, as well as take into account possible risks;

Thus, when drawing up a business plan at the initial stage, it is important to decide on the direction of activity, to collect all the necessary information. A competent project will be the key to building a successful business.

The business plan acts as the foundation of the future organization. A person who does not write the submitted document before starting his investment project is an adventurer who agrees in advance to serious risks. With a high probability, we can say that in the process of implementing a business, it will face a number of serious problems that could be leveled at the initial stage. Below we will look at how to write a competent business plan so as not to get bogged down in debt and not face pitfalls as a project opens.

As you know, any investment project begins with a business idea. However, it does not act as a great value in itself, since most people generate dozens and even hundreds of ideas every day. Many well-known entrepreneurs agree with this opinion. Surely you have had situations when an idea for a business was born, but there was not enough time and effort to bring it to life. The main thing, in most cases, a person simply does not know where to start. Any thriving project starts with a clear plan of achievement. How to compose it correctly and what should be included there?

Any term has a large number of definitions. To understand what a business plan is from scratch, we will give one of the most accurate concepts.

In an etymological sense, a business plan is a document that describes all aspects of the desired enterprise, analyzes possible problems for a future project, as well as ways to solve them. The business plan acts as a guide that describes the idea of ​​the project, the processes and mechanisms for its implementation, goals and ways to achieve them.

A business plan, like any process, should have a main goal. In this case, the success of the investment project will depend on three main factors:

1. The level at which the businessman is at the current time.
2. A clear end goal that the company plans to achieve.
3. A clear understanding of the steps, tasks, stages that need to be worked out in order to move from the first point to the second.

The business plan is drawn up in accordance with the requirements indicated below. Calculations are also made for a specific investment project. This will help to understand what problems and pitfalls await the entrepreneur, the possibility of overcoming them and securing. Drawing up a business plan is a conscious first step for a future businessman in almost any segment of business.

Basic principles and tasks

In practice, the development of a business plan may be required in two separate cases. They can be classified according to purpose.

• Writing a document for investors.

In this case, the business plan is written for creditors, bodies providing support in the form of subsidies, possible co-founders. The main purpose of such a document is the need to show the viability of the project and the effective use of funds. The main emphasis here should be on setting goals and their implementation, as well as on the logic of the actions that you plan to take. It is recommended to make a business plan with a clear structure and precise elaboration of steps; it is not recommended to mislead investors about a series of points. This could have a negative impact on future funding. Of course, you can embellish something, but this should not happen on a global scale.

Summing up, we can say that such a business plan should be clear, logical and accurate. Make sure that there are only facts here, not speculation.

• Writing a document for yourself.

This business plan is required if you plan to open a business on your own. According to it, you will actually take some action for the successful implementation of the project. This is necessary in order to immediately understand their advantages and disadvantages.

In most cases, a business plan is required for your own project. In it, you can identify those moments and pitfalls that are usually not indicated in a document for obtaining a loan, for example. In the first case, you should be prepared for investors to ask uncomfortable questions in order to know how well you have worked on your project. Remember that business does not tolerate lies, especially do not deceive yourself.

What tasks does a business plan solve?

1. Analyze the sales market, the relevance of the idea, competitors.
2. Estimate the potential profit of the business.
3. Show possible problems and risks that you will face and find ways to solve them in advance.
4. Define benchmarks.

It is recommended to write the document for three years in advance. For the first year, it is worth making a breakdown into stages, which will prescribe what project activities you will perform each month. The second year denotes the actions in the quarters, and only the third year allows you to reach the annual figures.

Read also: Secrets of effective networking - search for potential investors

Main components

In order to competently draw up a document on your own, taking into account all the features of your particular business, it is recommended to study an example of a business plan similar to the concept in your niche. The classic document has a clear structure, it contains the following sections:

• Introductory part or summary of the project. It describes the essence of the investment project in such a way that it becomes clear to anyone who reads the information what exactly you want to do.
• Description of goods and services or project idea. In this section, you will need to specify general information and information on the direction, as well as business conditions, a description of goods, range, services.
• Market and competitor analysis. Deeper study of the market segment in this area. This section describes potential consumers, as well as the capabilities of competitors and methods of dealing with them.
• Marketing plan. A marketing strategy and a possible advertising campaign for the business are described. It is also recommended to prescribe the financial support of the advertising campaign.
• Production plan. The main stages of the project. Features of the selection of premises, equipment, suppliers, personnel, as well as other nuances.
• Organizational plan. This section describes the main points on the state registration of a business. You will need to indicate the rationale for choosing the legal form of the company and the tax system. The structure of the organization, the distribution of responsibilities between staff, labor resources, information about the management team are prescribed.
• Financial plan or budget calculation. In this section, a detailed plan of expenses and their justification are signed. As well as income forecast. You also need to remember about the company's financing strategy, profitability forecasts, and analytics of possible risks.

A more detailed description of each section is given below. When starting to write a document, it is recommended not to paint it immediately in detail. It is advisable to initially describe your idea in several theses, and then proceed to fill in the sections. Remember that before that you will have to collect the maximum amount of information on the topic of the project.

You can use:

• industry analytics with qualitative and quantitative indicators;
• data on advertising in the segment, promotion of services or goods;
• study of existing competitors in your city or region;
• technologies that are applied in your niche.

It will certainly be necessary to evaluate the resources of the future project: both financial and intellectual, and even personnel. All this will help you write a business plan as efficiently as possible.

How to draw up a business plan

The preparation of the document should begin with a preliminary analysis of the current market situation. Before you start wording, filling in sections, and describing them, you need to collect as much material and information as possible. You definitely need to study the scope of future activities, if you do not understand it. You can use third-party sources or even seek help from specialists. A very good pre-analytics technology is swot analysis. It is very simple and helps to clearly structure the data that you already have.

Swot-analysis is an analysis that highlights the strengths, weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats of the project. This type of analytics allows you to qualitatively assess the external and internal factors of the company.

So, internal factors will become strengths and weaknesses. Try to evaluate them objectively. Among the strengths of the company, one can single out a unique business concept, an attractive cost of production, and high professionalism of employees. Among the weaknesses, one can single out the entrepreneur's lack of experience in business, a high investment burden. In each case, the factors will be different.

Threats and opportunities act as characteristics of the external environment. They can affect your organization independently of you. It can be:

• income level of citizens;
• the level of the demographic situation in the region;
• degree of technology development;
• economic situation in the location;
• socio-cultural factors.

Swot analysis gives a clear understanding of how promising your project is.

In order to correctly draw up a business plan, it is also necessary to understand the purpose for which it is written. Above, we have already dwelled on the varieties of business plans. If we consider them in more detail, we can distinguish four options:

1. For the company. It is an effective tool for managing an organization, increasing profits, and improving business quality. Here it is necessary to focus on development strategies, aspects of activities, and features of overcoming possible problems.
2. To attract investment. The main emphasis in this business plan is on a broad description of the future of the enterprise, marketing tools, and prospects. You need to show exactly how you will achieve success in the activity.
3. To get a loan. If you want to get a loan from a banking organization for business development, you may need a business plan. In this document, the emphasis is on describing the company's budget and justifying the need for certain financial resources. It is also necessary to show how the stability of the enterprise will be achieved. In the submitted document, it will be necessary to add a section on how exactly the borrowed funds will be paid.
4. To receive a grant. This business plan is written in order to obtain funding from state or municipal authorities. In such a document, it is recommended to focus on the contribution to the development of your city or region. Information is indicated on what problems can be solved, that is, on the creation of a certain number of new jobs, the amount of taxes for the state budget and other nuances.

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Knowing for which organization you are writing a business plan, you will be able to demonstrate exactly the information that will lead to the successful implementation of the idea.

What sections should be in a business plan

The information for the main sections of the document has already been indicated above. Let's consider them in more detail.

Project Summary

Acts as a business card for your organization, which potential investors will see when they open the document. Here the idea of ​​the enterprise is described. How well this text will be written, so much reading people will be interested in the investment project. This may include the following information:

• goals set by the investor;
• a brief description of the concept of the organization;
• attractive factors of your business idea;
• graphs, calculations, indicators that will demonstrate the future potential of the company.

Description of products or services

This section of the document should include a description of all types of goods that you plan to sell or produce, and services that will be offered to your potential customers. However, one range is not enough. The business plan prescribes the main aspects and methods of technical achievement of tasks. If you open a production, you will need to provide information about the products being manufactured with a description of the key features and benefits that the client will receive.

If you have copyrights, patents, innovative technologies, special equipment - any factors that make your concept unique, it is imperative to provide information about them. Also, in this part of the business plan, it is recommended to indicate information about the possible prospects for the growth and development of the company.

Market and competitor analysis

In order to write information in this section, you will need to study the market segment you want to enter. Analyze economic indicators, the number of similar enterprises in your region or city, the share of business, its prospects. It helps a lot to understand how the industry is moving if you analyze its market share over several years.

Competitor analysis is carried out according to some factors. First of all, you need to consider direct competitors for your business, that is, analyze the activities of companies located in a location directly next to you. Next, we consider competitors of the second level, that is, those firms that do not create direct competition with you, but are engaged in activities similar to you. Highlight their positive and negative characteristics at once, and also take care of identifying the qualities due to which the client will give preference to you.

Marketing plan

The presented section is necessary in order to set marketing tasks in the development of the company. It is recommended to immediately describe the promotion tools, goals, and ways to achieve. The following components will help with this:

• Target audience analysis. This tool helps you to see a portrait of your end customer. You will know exactly which people you should focus on, and you will be able to influence them directly when advertising.
• Analysis of competitive advantages. This was discussed in the section above. Be sure to highlight the strengths of your business and understand exactly how you will apply them.
• Development of the company's pricing policy. You should think about the cost of goods and services in advance. This is done after analyzing the proposals of competitors. Competent pricing policy can become the main factor in attracting a potential consumer.
• Development of an advertising campaign. The tools that will be used for promotion are analyzed and described. Pay attention to finding the most effective tools specifically for your business industry. The budget for advertising is specified in advance.

All this gives you the most accurate understanding of exactly how the product, service and brand will be positioned in the market.

Company production plan

This section of the document is necessary in order to understand the stages of starting your business. At the moment when your project is just getting ready to open, the production plan contains information about everything that is required to start the enterprise:

• location;
• search for premises;
• repair and remodeling works;
• development of interior and corporate identity;
• development of the company concept;
• equipment selection;
• formation of engineering communications;
• recruitment;
• development of a line of assortment of goods or services.

The production plan is a very important stage of the document, thanks to which you will be able to complete all the necessary tasks to open an organization step by step.

organizational plan

The organizational plan defines the structure of your enterprise, the personnel policy of the company, as well as its legal support. All the necessary documents and permissions from the authority that you need to obtain for work are prescribed. It is recommended to indicate the calendar schedule for the implementation of the project, as well as the main features of the company's work.

Financial plan

Contains complete information about the calculations of investments that will be required to open the project. In this section, it is recommended to consider all issues that are somehow related to the financial support of your enterprise. Be sure to think over the scheme of cash flow and predict financial results for the next few years. So you can understand how quickly your company will reach the break-even point and how profitable its activities will be.

“Plans are the dreams of knowledgeable people” Ernst von Feuchtersleben (English scientist, philosopher, literary critic).

Business planning goals

Having chosen your business, you need to decide how you will organize it, which means you need to plan for the near future. Everyone needs a business plan:

• Those from whom you will try to borrow money for the implementation of your project, that is, bankers and investors.
• Your employees who want to understand their tasks and perspectives.
• And you yourself - to test the reasonableness and realism of your ideas.

Business plan is a document that:

1. Describes all the main aspects of the future enterprise or project.
2. Analyzes all the problems that it may encounter.
3. Identifies ways to address identified issues.

A well-written business plan- this is a clear answer to the questions: “is it worth investing in the planned business and will it bring income that will pay off all the effort and money spent?”.

Important! Planning should be carried out by present or future companies, that is, those people who are not afraid to take responsibility for the implementation of the business plan. But this does not mean, of course, that it is not necessary to use the services of consultants and experts in this field. True, consulting firms charge decent amounts for its compilation, ranging from anywhere from $2,000 to $40,000. But you can make it yourself, while incurring minimal costs. By engaging in this work personally, you will not only model your future activities, but also test yourself and the idea itself for strength.

So, main purpose of a business plan: it helps entrepreneurs to solve the following tasks:

– To study the capacity and development prospects of the future sales market.

- Estimate the costs for the production of products needed by the market. Compare them with prices.

- Determine the indicators by which it will be possible to regulate the state of affairs.

Keep in mind! A business plan is usually written for the future, and it should be drawn up approximately 3-5 years in advance. At the same time, for the first year, the main indicators should be divided in monthly breakdown, for the second - quarterly, and only starting from the third year, should be limited to annual indicators. Although if we take into account our economy, its volatility, then planning for a period of more than a year is not entirely effective. Therefore, many now limit themselves to writing a plan for the year.

Business plan structure

The business plan has a complex structure. The whole life of the company from the moment of creation to the moment of stability and sustainability should be written in business language, while being intelligible and lively. A business plan should be understandable to any entrepreneur, financier and banker, as well as potential partners. The confidentiality memorandum is drawn up in order to warn those who get acquainted with the business plan of the confidentiality of the information contained in it. The memorandum may contain a prohibition on copying, on the transfer of the project to third parties and a requirement to return the project to the author.

A business plan should always be short and concise. True, sometimes, in order to reveal the essence of the problem, it is made quite deep in content. Recommended volume: 30 - 70 pages, no more. And it is desirable to make all additional materials in annexes to the business plan.

Remember! It is important to provide metered information.

Here are the main points that you will need to consider:

1. annotation(up to 1 page) - a written appeal for senior management.
2. Summary(1-3 pages) - basic information to get acquainted with the business plan.
3. Business plan(45-60) - for a detailed study of the project by the investor's specialists and experts.

Remember! Any business has its own characteristics, therefore, there cannot be a certain “standard” plan that is acceptable in all cases. There is, so to speak, only a general principle, the structure of a business plan.

Summary

Your business should always start with conclusions, you write them last, but they should be the very first paragraph of your business plan. A resume is the result of an already written business plan. This is the only part that most potential investors read.

• The purpose of the business plan.
• The need for finance, for what purposes they are needed.
• Brief description of the business and its target customer.
• Key differences from competitors
• Key financial indicators.

Business plan:

1. Goals and objectives

Here you will need to provide an idea analysis (SWOT analysis). Uncover strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats.

• Idea analysis.
• The purpose of the activity (what you want to achieve).
• Industry characteristics.

2. Product (service)

It is important that this part be written in clear, concise language that is understandable to the layman.

• Description of the product or service and its application.
• Uniqueness
• Technologies and qualifications necessary for business.
• License/patent rights.

3. Market analysis

The market and marketing is a decisive factor for all companies. You need to pre-collect and process a large amount of "draft" information.

• Buyers.
• Competitors (their strengths and weaknesses).
• market segments.
• Market size and growth.
• Estimated market share.
• composition of your clientele.
• The impact of competition.

4. Marketing plan

At this stage, the main task is to win the trust and favor of a potential investor. If you do not have a special education, you should read books on marketing, contact a specialist.

• Marketing arrangement (main characteristics of products, services in comparison with competitors).
• Pricing (how to set the right price for a product).
• Scheme of distribution of goods.
• Sales promotion methods.

5. Production plan

Here you should consider all issues related to the premises that you occupy, their location, equipment, personnel.

• Location of premises.
• Equipment.
• Sources of supply of basic materials and equipment.
• Use of subcontractors.

6. Management staff

Investments are made in specific people, not in a business plan, because this section is one of the most important.

• Key leadership team.
• The composition of the staff.
• Reward.

7. Sources and amount of required resources

In this section, you should present your thoughts on:

• The amount of funds required.
• Sources of their receipt, form, terms.
• Refund deadlines.

8. Financial plan and risk analysis

Business people are divided into those who love to work with numbers and those who are afraid of them. For those in the first category, this section of the business plan is by far the most important.

• Sales volume, profit, cost, etc.
• Risks and how they can be avoided.

9. Detailed financial plan

You need to include in your business plan a detailed financial plan:

• Forecast of sales volumes.
• Profit and loss estimates.
• Cash flow analysis (monthly for the first year, then quarterly).
• Annual balance sheet.

And finally, I would like to give some useful tips on writing a business plan:

1. To get started, read a few other business plans.
2. The business plan should reflect your personality.
3. Preparing a business plan is a job that requires imagination.
4. Gain experience and skills in the chosen direction.
5. Write only on days when you are full of energy, not when you are mentally and physically exhausted.

Wish you luck!

Almost every business entity at least once in his life was interested in how to make a business plan that would be a real assistant for the development of his business or for the implementation of a new commercial project. In our country, the attitude towards the presented financial document, starting from 1991 (the transition from the Soviet model of the national economy to a market economy) and up to the present, has been constantly changing. At first, no one knew what it was and why it was needed, in the 90s the main direction of business activity was trade, and the majority of businessmen were connected with crime. Naturally, none of them knew how a business plan was drawn up and what its meaning was, they worked according to a simple scheme - to buy a product at the lowest prices, and then sell it as expensive as possible. With the development of the country's economy, interest in planning one's business has grown significantly, and today it is impossible to even imagine a successful and profitable enterprise without a business plan.

The main objective of the presented article is to tell readers in an accessible form about all the points related to the creation of a business plan. This information is a small instruction for creating the financial document in question, taking into account all official and unofficial requirements for its structure and quality. It is of interest to entrepreneurs, bankers, employees of financial and credit institutions and ordinary citizens interested in the economy and entrepreneurship.

How to make a business plan - definition and purpose of a business plan

Even before starting to study the question of how to make a business plan from scratch, as well as analyzing real examples of this financial instrument, it is necessary to sort out the main economic categories relevant to this topic.

Among the huge number of the most diverse definitions of the presented category, which you can find in textbooks on business economics, it is enough to understand and remember one of them in order not to return to this issue. A business plan is a model for organizing your future company, which includes all the necessary expenses for starting a business, shows priorities for financing it, and also determines the main sources of income. This financial document allows you to calculate the main economic indicators: profitability of production, gross and net income, the time required to reach the "break-even point". In addition, the business plan considers all possible risks, ways to solve unforeseen problems, alternative sources of covering production costs in the event of global changes in the political and economic life of the country.

Experienced entrepreneurs who know well how to make a business plan from scratch compare this document with an estimate that allows you to get answers to the following questions:

how much money you need to invest in a business project so that it brings a stable profit;

how, what and in what sequence a business entity should do to successfully implement its idea;

how risky is the business project;

what means the entrepreneur has to solve unforeseen problems;

what sequence of tasks execution is the most effective for business development.

A business plan is a financial document that is developed by almost all entrepreneurs, regardless of the field of activity, the availability of the necessary resources, the size of the company and other objective factors. In large companies, special departments are created to develop business plans, and when it comes to small and medium-sized businesses, this task is performed jointly by the company's employees or planning is done directly by the business organizer.

Creating a real business plan is necessary for:

evaluating the effectiveness of a business project;

attraction of external sources of financing (investors, partners, financial and credit institutions, international organizations);

determining the necessary resources and evaluating their practical benefits;

comparison of the obtained results with indicators "on paper";

determination of the main economic indicators of the operating business (profit, gross income, profitability, etc.).

Idea for business

Readers who are interested in the question of how to make a business plan for a small business, from a practical point of view, most likely already have some interesting idea for starting their own business. An idea for a business is the basis, the foundation, without it it is impossible to create a profitable enterprise. Many theorists of economic disciplines argue that newcomers are unable to come up with a promising and profitable line of business, since they do not have the appropriate experience and education.

But this statement is completely wrong. If you conduct a study, you can make sure that a fairly large percentage of unique business ideas come from people who have never studied economics and have never run their own business. And this fact has a completely rational explanation: a person who has not studied the theory and is not familiar with the specifics of entrepreneurial activity, unlike experienced businessmen and economists, is completely free from all stereotypes, economic laws, axioms, etc. In other words, he can think outside the box, which is the main condition for creating a unique business idea.

For example, an ordinary average citizen of one of the European countries has never been engaged in business and has not studied economics. He decided to make a drinking straw that would bend freely at an angle to match the size of the glass and the volume of drink in it. That is, he used the usual "accordion" to get a tube, which has become traditional in many countries of the world. Most importantly, the inventor received a patent for his product and earned millions from it.

One of the main mistakes of many aspiring entrepreneurs is the fact that they do not bother themselves with "extra" (in their opinion) mental work. Beginners in this category are not interested in how to make a business plan themselves, but take someone else's successful commercial project as a basis and roughly copy it. As a rule, this ends in bankruptcy, less often, a businessman manages to realize in time that he made a mistake and changes the direction of his activity. Consider a real life example. To do this, let us once again return to the distant 90s, when new, for the post-Soviet countries, market relations were born.

The businessman who first opened a commercial kiosk in a small town very quickly began to earn big money. The assortment of the outlet included chewing gum (everyone who is a little over 30 today remembers well their bright inserts and unique taste), chocolate bars, vodka, beer, condoms, etc. In a small town, everyone is in plain sight, news and gossip spread faster than the Internet works today, so almost the entire city very quickly learned about the entrepreneur’s income.

As a result, in just a month or two, four more retail outlets open in the city. But people got used to going to the first kiosk, so very soon the newly minted entrepreneurs closed (except for one, which seriously changed the assortment, and its outlet was located on the other side of the city). This example shows well what fate awaits novice businessmen who build their business on the principle: I will do it like a neighbor, his store brings crazy profits.

In modern conditions, taking into account the level of development of the economy of our country, it is almost impossible to organize a traditional business that will bring you super profits.

In some regions, you can still find free niches for mass commercial projects (long-known business areas), but in order to really make big money, you need to come up with an idea that has no analogues, while it must have the necessary potential for successful implementation.

In this matter, there is a rather interesting pattern that does not have any rational explanation. Often a businessman or inventor is sure that their new business idea will be of interest to everyone, and a month after the start of the project, they will receive huge money. In practice, it is not possible to sell even 10% of new products, which, according to the plan, should be purchased during the first day of the sale of new products. At the same time, all marketing researches showed that the business idea is successful. It turns out that at some stage of the project implementation a serious mistake was made or all representatives of the target audience, within a short period of time, completely changed their attitude towards new products.

On the other hand, an idea that everyone considers meaningless, childish and unpromising can bring a huge amount of money to the author. For example, the sale of sunglasses for dogs brought (and continues to bring) the creator of the project a cash reward with 6 zeros. This category also includes a fitness instructor who decides to sell ordinary playing cards with images of various physical exercises. At first, all his friends and colleagues simply laughed at hearing about this "project", but when the author received his first five million dollars, they were forced to admit that they were wrong.

If you doubt that you will be able to come up with something original, then proceed the old fashioned way: choose a line of activity in which you are well versed, draw up a “portrait” of the future company (describe how you imagine it in a year or two), and also forget to make a business plan for your future and promising business.

Business plan structure

The main financial document of any business enterprise includes the following elements:

Summary - a brief description in free form of the main points of your commercial project (literally 8-12 sentences that allow you to understand what this document is about).

Description of the main goals of your idea, including a consistent analysis of the tasks that need to be solved on the way to achieving the final result.

Detailed analysis of your future company. Even those entrepreneurs who know , how to make a business plan correctly, often they cannot fulfill this item qualitatively and in full. It includes: a detailed description of the structure of the company (all departments and divisions, including the functions assigned to them), staffing, as well as a diagram of interactions between employees and departments of the company. For example, the accounting department should provide sales managers with information about payments received from customers working with deferrals.

Financial questions. One of the most voluminous items that require special attention of the business plan developer. In it, you detail all upcoming expenses, including taxes, employee salaries, rent, etc. Also carry out calculations of the profitability of activities and the resources used. Analyze the income structure of similar companies using open sources of information and your personal connections. Compare the performance of your company and the average data for the industry. In addition, this section includes the compilation of prices for your products or services, taking into account all the above nuances.

Marketing. This item is a detailed study of information about the representatives of your target audience. What do they like, where do they work, how much do they earn, what percentage of their income are they willing to pay for your services/products. This section requires special attention even for experienced professionals who know how to make their own business plan, including market research.

In addition to the listed sections, which are considered mandatory for all business entities, your financial "guide" (business plan) should include answers to a number of diverse questions:

What percentage of products from the total market consumption is provided by competitors. How satisfied are the buyers with the quality of the purchased goods, and what does not suit them. It is advisable to make a list of all competitors and collect as much information about them as possible. If you have all the necessary data about competitors' firms / enterprises, you do not even need to know how to make a financial plan or business plan for your company in order to conquer the right niche and work, getting the appropriate profit. Do not forget that you always have the opportunity to turn to specialists so that they can help you make a real plan for organizing and developing your business.

For many lines of business, it is very important to choose the right location where the production shops and the office of the administrative staff will be located. If the hairdresser needs to be located in busy places so that the maximum number of people can see it, then it is better to organize the reception of recyclable materials closer to warehouses, bases, or in close proximity to railway tracks. An entrepreneur who has managed to correctly choose a place for his business will make a profit of 50-150% more than his competitor who ignored this nuance.

Another important issue is the organization of promotional events and the use of unique technologies aimed at developing business and attracting the maximum number of representatives of the target audience. In this matter, it is necessary to act very carefully, step by step developing each individual type of advertising, which allows you to stop the advertising campaign in time and save a decent amount for the subsequent development of the business.

If you have carefully studied all the sections of the presented article, you no longer need to worry about the question of how you can make a quality business plan on your own so that it is adequately appreciated by all business entities with whom you may have common financial interests.