Starting a business is an exciting task. There are so many things to consider, and one of these is your business plan. Find out here how you can prepare a helpful business plan, what to include, and what to do with it. Let’s get started!
Before your business plan
Before you begin, it’s important to do a little research and decide on business structure, marketing, and finances. If you can find out information on all these things it will be much easier to prepare your plan and forecast any figures within it. Try the www.bussiness.gov.au website for help on business structure. You can look at what your competitors are doing for marketing and think of better ways to do it, and when it comes to finances it might pay to engage a bookkeeper or accountant to help you.
Think about who the plan will be for. Is it just for your own reference to stay on track? Or are you looking for investors? Your plan needs to be written for who will be reading it. Then you can get started.
The business plan essentials
- A title page – to describe what the plan is for. Include your logo, name, your title (director or manager?), the business name, address, ABN/ACN, the date, and contents list.
- Business Summary – about what the business plan is about. Make it no longer than one page and write it after you have finished to summarise the plan.
- About the Business Page – to outline the structure, location, staffing, products, and other necessary details.
- About the Market Page – is essentially your marketing plan. You will outline your industry, competitors and your customers. It will also talk about your strategy to achieve your goals.
- Future Page – will outline your vision statement, mission, and goals for the business
- Finances – this will talk about costing and financial projections. You can include creditors and debtors, government funding, and expected cash flow projections here.
- Any supporting documents – such as copies of maps, resumes, financial projections, letters etc. should be attached at the end.
Once finished
Make sure to review it and keep looking at it. This document is going to be living and breathing with your business so you should update any strategies and projections often. It’s there to serve you to make sure your business is going in the right direction.
Make sure to only send your plan to trusted people who will not take your idea and information. However feedback is valuable so show your mentors for advice and trusted parties such as accountants, lawyers, and bookkeepers to gain opinion on the technical points. You can also put a confidentiality agreement in place if necessary.
And of course if you need some help with insurance speak to All Trades Cover. You can fill in our online form to get the ball rolling for a quote.
