Outlining Your Business Plan

Written by Neva Quantz

The basic Business Plan Outline appears below. However, rather than being caught up in following the outline in every detail, please tailor it to your practice and capital needs.

Introduction
Introductory Letter (1)
Cover Page (1)
Table of Contents (1)
Executive Summary (1-3)

Body
Business Overview (1-5)
Products/Services Offerings (1-3)
Industry Overview (3-5)
Marketing Strategy (3-5)
Management and Staffing (2-30)
Regulatory Issues (1-3)
Risks (1-3)
Implementation Plan (-3)
Financial Plan (4-8)
Conclusion (1)

Appendices

The bracketed (numbers) following each heading are merely suggestions for page lengths.

While you need to work with the assumption that the reader of your Business Plan is completely unfamiliar with your business or practice, they will be seeking answers to relatively basic questions such as:

how will the business make money?
how will it add value for the client and the investor?
by who and how it will be managed?

Bear in mind that most investors and bankers dislike reading overly lengthy Business Plans so be as straight forward and succinct as possible. You can always place detailed and supplementary information in attached appendices.

Here are some points to bear in mind as you begin writing your plan.

Clearly define for whom you are producing the business plan.
- Who is going to read the plan?
- What do you want them to feel?
- What action do you want them to take?
These objectives will help you decide how much emphasis to put on the various sections of the business plan.
Make sure to take enough time and have enough resources to thoroughly research your business plan. A business plan is only as good as the research that went into creating it. For example, you will have to do a lot research in order to find out more about your particular industry, your potential customers, your potential competitors, and your potential sales and costs. Use some of the websites listed in last month’s newsletter.
Outline the key points you want to make in each section before you start writing. This will help with the natural flow of the work. Review your outline to ensure that your sections are consistent with each other, that there is no duplication, and that all the key issues have been covered. Each section covers an area you should have researched previously.
DO, DO, DO write your OWN business plan. One of the most common mistakes made by professional and business people is to copy too much information from sample business plans and simply change the names and some of the numbers.
There are two big problems with this approach. First, the copied business plan may place too much emphasis on a section(s) that are not applicable to your particular venture. Second, a good business plan should flow together like a good story; with the sections working together to demonstrate why your business will be successful. Business plans which borrow too much information from other business plans tend to be disjointed, with some sections contradicting others and some key issues being overlooked. Be very careful to portray what you want portrayed. Define and state your passion clearly.
When writing the plan:
- Avoid unnecessary jargon
- Economize on words
- Use short crisp sentences
- Check spelling
- Concentrate on relevant and significant issues
- Break the text into numbered paragraphs, sections etc.
- Relegate details to Appendices
When writing a business plan you must start with the Body. You will write the Introductory part last because the introduction will contain a short and snappy summary of the whole business plan.

Next month we will discuss the “Business Overview” portion of the Body.

“Excellence is never an accident: it is the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, skillful execution and the vision to see obstacles as opportunities.”
– Author Unknown


Name:
Email:
We respect your privacy. We will never share your personal information.