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Archive for the ‘Business Plan’ Category

I just love simple. Don’t you. I’m not talking about those simple get rich quick schemes built in to a so-called business plan. I am talking about a simple online business plan that will give you the full details of the necessary step by step instructions.

I have known degree physicists that have previously failed on the Internet because they thought a good online business plan had to be more than simple. I have seen people with 6th grade educations become successful when all they followed was a simple online business plan that is easy to read and follow.

Below I give you 5 major steps that are part of any successful simple online business plan. A simple online business plan that keeps you at a realistic pace so time of completion is not the important factor. What is important is the thorough completion of each step so your business success is assured.

Some of the steps in my simple business plan may seem not even to be part of a true business plan. But with 10 years experience on the Internet each step has worked for me.

Outline of the Simple Online Business Plan Steps
Sit down in front of your computer. Bare with me on this one. You are looking at your monitor. Ask yourself this question: can you be focused enough that when you are at your computer (whether it be an hour or 8 hours a day) you will be 100% focused on business. I am not talking about those occasional family or friend interruptions. I am talking about playing solitaire or surfing the net. Decide what you want to sell. This applies to both the new online business person as well as those who have been online for a while. You may have an idea for a product. Or you may decide to sell someone else’s product(s). The next step is to do research to find out if people are buying the same or similar product on the Internet. Or you will definitely need to find a source that has already found the successful markets (niche) on the Internet and can provide you with a proven formula to determine whether or not any product can be successfully promoted. Side note: If you have an idea, before you go running around asking people’s opinion do what I tell people who call or email me to get my opinion about their ideas. Write down your idea on a piece of paper. If you have photos or a drawing of it , that’s great. Then mail the idea description and anything else to yourself. Keep the envelop sealed. This will help you prove it was your idea if anyone tries to steal it. Decide on a domain name and web hosting. Skip free hosting services. They have more drawbacks than I can write in this short article. Here are a few drawbacks: they have other people’s advertising when someone visits your site, pop up and pop under advertising, reliability of up time on the Internet, and are not popular with search engines. Setting up how you are going to sell your product.. Most hosting services offer what they call a cPanel. Included will be a service called Fantastico that offers such things as free shopping carts, guest books, free blog software, and more. Then decide if you want to apply for a merchant account to accept credit cards. Or you could find many services on the Internet that will offer to process the credit cards for you for a fee. Make sure you investigate at least 8 of these services. You will find the service fees vary widely. Get a proven and thorough simple online business plan. I am not talking about one that is specifically listed as designed for the type of business you plan on starting. And I am not talking about one that is complicated. Remember the title of this article: “Simple Online Business Plan”. You want a business plan that comes with manual(s), both video and audio discs (so you can listen while you drive). Look for a business plan that gives you the option of hard copy (as I call it) shipped to you or for a less cost an area where you can download everything and print and copy to disc yourself. Once you get the business plan make sure it has some type of checklist. A checklist will help keep you focused. A simple online business plan checklist will make sure you follow the steps in the proper order. Proper order completion is a key to your success. This is not picking up a new mystery novel and first reading the last chapter to see who did it.
My Final Advice

I could have just provided a just a list what I consider the complete steps to a simple online business plan above. But in my experience people who look for business plans that are just major headings miss the necessary ingredients (explanation and sub-steps) that make each step simple and successful. Simple headlines or bullet points are just too simple and incomplete.

Money Guidelines

To accomplish the above steps it should cost you around $100 to $500 (domain, hosting, business plan). If you ever think of going over $500 my suggest is: cut up your credit cards before you spend another dime. I have seen business plans, by themselves, that cost well over a $1,000. I find them filled with material that has nothing to do with setting up a online business. A simple online business plan means you could take that same business plan and set up any type of online business you choose. And come with simple, easy to read complete explanation of what you need to know.

Now that is simple.

May the “force” (of success) be with you.

The biggest part of starting up a small business is preparing, and if you don’t have a business plan, you’re most likely not going to have a future.

Why is it important to have a plan?

A business plan is what’s going to show you what you’re going to do in the future. It’s going to give you a good idea on what you’re going to make, how many customers you’re going to potentially get, as well as set yourself some goals. It’s always best to have a plan, because if you don’t have one, you’re not going to go far at all!

When you’re looking for some business templates, I wanted to give you some pointers on where you can find them on the web, as well as offline.

Download one – If you know what kind of business you’re going to start, simply Google that business + business plan ideas / templates. This generally is going to yield some great results that you can browse through. Just make sure that the business plan is detailed, and not 300 words long!

Grab a book – Your local bookstore should have a stack of books that relate to plans. Most of these plans are going to be generic, but they are going to get you a good idea on what you should do, and hopefully get you on the right path.

Software – One of my favorites is software. I can do all the dirty work myself, and the computer will input what needs to go where. In the end, I will have a nice plan that I couldn’t have created just by hand.

One of the most pivotal aspects of starting a new business is preparing a business plan, yet the importance of it is very often mistakenly overlooked, especially by a home business newbie. A business plan format comprises of seven main sections, which is used to spot loopholes in the planning process and to showcase a company’s money-making potential in order to lure investors to it.

The first of the seven essential steps in preparing a business plan starts with an executive summary, which is basically about what you, as a home business owner, want and desire. This is the statement of purpose for your business so keep it short and do not beat around the bush. The best way is to keep it within half a page to one page long. Next is the business description of your small home based business opportunity. A home business owner should start by briefly describing the industry, including any new developments which will benefit or negatively affect your business.

In this section, you should describe your home business venture and explain how you will profit from it. This should include information on the legal form and structure of your business, as well as setting a marketing plan including advertising and promotions. The third portion of the seven steps to write a business plan is to assess the market environment for your business. This includes defining your market, projecting market share, positioning your business, determining pricing, creating a promotion plan and also making a financial projection. All the data which you garner from research will help you to determine if the profit projection for your business will be a positive one.

The fourth step in this process is to perform a competitive analysis which is used to determine your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. When you analyze your competitors in the same market, then you will be able to exploit their weaknesses within your product development cycle and also utilize marketing plan examples which will give you a unique advantage. You will also need to create a design and development plan for your home business venture which will give investors information on the product’s design, and also monitor the product’s development within the production, marketing and organizational context.

Another crucial step is to prepare an operations and management plan in order to detail how the business operates on a daily basis. The organizational structure of your business is important as it forms the platform from which operating costs can be estimated. For instance, you will need to determine labor costs, overhead expenses, costs of goods sold and also determine the amount of money you require to continue your operations. The last step in this process is relating to financial statements, consisting of income statement, cash flow statement and of course the balance sheet. You should always include these information at the back of the business plan.

Hopefully these steps will guide home business owners on how to create a business plan. You should remember not to be too optimistic when stating your sales and profit projections. Most importantly, when you are preparing a business plan, you should be flexible and able to accommodate changes in the industry.

If you are looking for a partner, funding, angle investor or venture capital you will be asked for a business plan. Even if you are not in need of capital in the formation of your new business endeavor you will still be glad you prepared a business plan to help you prove to yourself that you have the right stuff and that the business is economically viable. The first step in the creation of your new business will be making a customized business plan. Please use this outline as your template to insure you do not forget anything important. This is a business plan format and outline I had created after reading over ten business plan books and taking the best of each of them and putting them into one outline. I give this to your freely and wish you great success in your new business. It is the great entrepreneurial spirit and the entrepreneur that build this great nation, glad to see you are one of us

BUSINESS PLAN

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A. Form Of Business

B. Introduction

C. State Of Technology

II. OBJECTIVES

A. Goals

1. Market Share

2. Sales

3. Customer Service

B. Statement Of Purpose

III. COMPANY ANALYSIS AND INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

A. Location

B. Background

1. Accomplishments

2. History

3. Strengths

C. Local

1. Trends

2. Business Climate

D. Position For Growth

1. Future Of Industry

IV. MARKETING ANALYSIS

A. Marketing Strategy

1. Customer Markets

a. Types

2. Government Markets

c. Agencies

d. Divisions

3. Non-profit Markets

f. Organizations

2. Risk Considerations

a. Politics – Special Interest – Government

b. Competition – Profiles

3. Inventory

a. products

b. Supplies

c. Purchasing

4. Equipment

a. Layout

b. Type

5. Sales

a. Tactics

b. Pricing

c. Promotions – Advertising

6. Media

a. Fundraising

b. Newspaper

c. Radio

B. Demographics

1. Scope

2. Segment

3. Surveys – Etc.

4. Markets To Exploit

5. Types Of Customers

C. Distribution

1. Customer Service

2. Delivery

3. 1-800 Number

4. Flyers

V. MANAGEMENT

A. Implementation

B. Controls

C. Training

D. Labor

E. Independent Contractors

VI. OPERATIONS

A. Hours

1. Operation

2. Delivery

3. Specialty

B. Maintenance

1. Vehicles

2. Equipment

VII. LEGAL STRATEGIES

A. Licenses

B. Regulations

C. Insurance

VIII. FINANCIAL STRATEGIES

A. Taxes

B. Capital Requirements

1. Financing

2. Required Investments

3. R.O.I.

4. Breakeven

5. Working Capital

C. Benefits

1. Security

2. Health Coverage

D. Projections

1. Ratios

a. Quick Ratio

b. Debts To Assets

c. Asset Turnover

d. Cash Flow

E. Expenses

1. Lease Payment

2. Royalties

3. Printing

4. Insurance

5. Utilities

6. Telephone

7. Labor

8. Bank Fees

IX. STRATEGIC PLANNING ANALYSIS

A. Long Term Goals

B. Manager Plug-Ins

C. Renewal Of Franchise License

X. APPENDIX

A. Competitors Brochures

B. Feasibility Studies

C. Picture or Rendering of Location

When is the last time you reviewed your business plan? Do you even HAVE a business plan? Many businesses sprout from someone’s “good idea”, by an entrepreneur who either didn’t know about business plans, or simply didn’t have the time to complete one. While the idea of a business plan may seem overwhelming at first, many businesses end up hitting that wall when it’s time to expand or they need financing. Anyone who wishes to attract funding quickly understands that without a business plan, commercial lenders won’t even talk with you.

Yet business plans serve a much larger purpose, too. They allow the owner to really understand their business. Developing the plan requires a certain amount of research into the general industry as well as the business itself. Delving into the intricacies can give the business owner a new perspective on what’s working and what needs to be improved in their own business. It also helps identify new or unexplored trends in the industry. New ideas and possibilities pop up when you are clear about what works.

There are several good software packages that can help you develop your plan or you can simply start with a good outline of categories and “fill-in-the-blanks”. Either way you will be broadening your understanding of what’s possible and probable in your business.

The approach we’ve taken in most of our “Writing a Business Plan” classes has been to divide the traditional plan into individual parts and focus on each section in turn. Even with the focus and group interaction, few participants were able to complete more than 60-75% of their plans by the end of the 7-10 sessions. Recently, however, I’ve come across a wonderful new book that takes a slightly different approach.

Using Jim Horan’s “One Page Business Plan”, I’ve been able to help one of my coaching clients complete her initial draft of a viable plan in three sessions. Jim Horan is a San Francisco Bay Area small business expert who has taken the complexity of business plans and demystified the process. My client had already done some work on vision and mission, and had a fairly clear idea about what she wanted to create, but she seemed stuck as she struggled to complete the formal plan.

Jim’s book offers several interactive exercises that are more interesting and enjoyable than straight research. The exercises are designed to get you thinking about key elements of your business, from vision and mission through strategies and plans. All the elements are still there, but with the One Page Business Plan they are simplified down to their essence.

Having the resulting plan on a single page helps the business owner focus on the essentials of what will make the business work, rather than getting trapped in the verbage that makes up a more traditional plan. And it provides a document that can start the dialogue with bankers or venture capitalists. My client’s response to the One Page Business Plan? Now she’s excited about her business again – she sees that it’s doable, she has specific milestones to aim for, and best of all, a plan that will help her focus!

Whatever your approach, taking the time to develop your plan more fully will help you refocuse on your strengths and remember your vision. Whether you are starting a new business or expanding an existing one, a well thought-out business plan will add to your success.

Attract your investor, create profitable business plan

No Worries! No pitfall! Just Win-win situation for you to is in the pipeline.

The consolidated and full prove plan is the only backbone of successful business. The organization foundation and formation is solely based on initial development of business with thorough execution of business plan. Any deviation into it your plan falls apart.

Nitty-Gritty of Business Plan

The business plan involves lot of decision making process which not taken in proper form in entirety will impact your overall business goals and target. The business plan has many specific involvements of entities which makes your business stands tall. If we arranged these categories in logical order you will definitely understand its credibility.

* Business management

* Organization Management

* People management

* Attract client and investor

* Trust based stakeholders and shareholder

* Infrastructure

* Product scaling and marketing

* Resource sourcing and outsourcing

The business plan must gauge the feasibility of your idea into reality. It involves complete and thorough analysis of your business requirement.

The proper identification of impacted parameter and very much essential statistics that help you to arrive at heuristic business values based upon which you make your important decision. Otherwise you struggle later fighting tooth and nails.

The planning, initiation and controlling have its own identity when operational aspects plays role. To measure and track the success path you need to identify the critical path.

This critical path in business blog reviews operational activity upon which many other subsequent executions are dependent upon. Once this critical path and other identified shortcomings are overcome you achieve your milestone.

You need to make sure you indulge the appropriate sign offs and approval procedures and process mechanism into your business plan. Otherwise whole system will behave abruptly resulting in major churning, shuffling, adjustment and manipulation. This is absolute chaos for your business progress.

You need to understand the significance of service legal agreements and well meant contracts between both business parties. Business agreements are very important for any business deal. You should have the dealings on the papers and must be accomplished from both sides. Developing business online needs proper planning and determination. There is a long way for you to go in business industry. Always follow the rules and take innovative ideas from your team and implement it accordingly.