The right business plan content: what you need to look out for
What belongs in a business plan? Find out here. We at Unternehmenswerk have put together a detailed business plan outline for you so that you don’t forget any important points in your business plan content. This checklist is for ALG 1 and ALG 2 recipients, founders and existing companies.
Business plan content | What belongs in a business plan?
You can’t just have a generator create a business plan that has a high chance of success and is very popular with banks or other institutions – the promise that it’s that easy is usually not kept.
In our experience, successful business plans require a lot of experience or a lot of work. Below we have put together a business plan checklist for you to make things a little easier on the way to your personal business plan:
Checklist for your business plan
01
Business plan outline
02
Business plan (Executive Summary)
03
Who founds?
04
Corporate concept
05
Market and competitors
06
Marketing and Sales
07
Organisation and employees
08
Legal form
09
Opportunities and Risks
10
Financial plan
11
Documents
Business plan outline
There is no prescribed or recommended structure for a business plan. The structure of your business plan should always be clear and logical and correspond to the main areas of interest of the addressee. Banks and investors, for example, are more interested in the financial plan with the capital requirement plan and profitability forecast. In addition to the profitability plan, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce is particularly interested in your entrepreneurial personality and long-term prospects of success.
Business plan summary (Executive Summary)
For an initial overview of what the business idea is all about, a business plan begins with a brief summary. This explains the idea in an easily understandable and summarised way. The summary also includes the most important key data on objectives, capital requirements, planned investments, USP, founding team, market, opportunities and risks in the first few years. The summary should be written at the end, when everything else has already been finalised.
Who founds?
In this section of the business plan, the founder(s) are introduced. All information relevant to the business idea is presented here:
- Founder personality: education, experience, qualifications
- Industry knowledge
- Commercial / business management knowledge
- Personal and other professional requirements
- Special strengths and their benefits
- Personal and professional deficits and how to compensate for them
Corporate concept
Regardless of whether it is a product or a service, in this part of the business plan you explain the purpose and user benefits of your project. This includes:
- what makes your business idea so special.
- what your USP, or unique selling point, is.
- where exactly you are in the development process.
- what exactly is already there and what is still missing.
- what your short-term and medium-term goals are.
- when you want to start marketing it.
Market and competitors
Potential investors also want information about your location and its advantages and disadvantages. Who exactly are your customers? Do you already have customers? Who are your current and, if applicable, future competitors and how are they positioned? In this context, it is also important to find out what weaknesses you see in your competitors and how you can utilise these weaknesses for the success of your company. This requires precise industry knowledge and an objective assessment of how your own company can be successfully integrated into the existing market
Marketing and Sales
No success without marketing. Marketing starts with pricing. This also requires in-depth knowledge of the industry. In this section, the benefits of the business idea are also explained in detail. There are 4 classic marketing instruments, the so-called ‘four Ps’: Product, Price, Place, Promotion. In German, this is referred to in a somewhat more complicated way as product policy, pricing policy, sales policy and communication policy. In addition to traditional marketing, you should present an equally convincing online marketing concept. Online marketing includes your own website or shop, search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine advertising (SEO)
Organisation and employees
This part of the business plan is dedicated to the people involved and the planned company. This includes fact sheet-like information such as:
- people involved, from the managing director to employees
- date of establishment and legal form
- planned or already agreed cooperations
- possible licenses, patents, contracts, requirements
Legal form
This section is about the legal form and the reasons for choosing this legal form. The shareholder structure and the distribution of company shares are also explained. Whether GbR, GmbH or UG – we will be happy to clarify which legal form is right for you in a discussion with you. Usually more than one legal form comes into consideration. We will support you in choosing the right legal form:
- AG: Aktiengesellschaft
- Sole proprietorship
- e. K., e. Kfm. or e. Kfr.: Registered merchant or registered merchant
- GbR: Civil law partnership
- GmbH: Limited liability company
- GmbH & Co KG: Limited liability company & Compagnie Kommanditgesellschaft
- KG: Limited partnership
- OHG: General partnership
- UG: Entrepreneurial company (limited liability)
Opportunities and risks
Opportunities and risks are also part of a complete business plan content. What are the 3 biggest opportunities that could have a positive impact on your company and what are the risks? Use a SWOT analysis to present opportunities and risks, strengths and weaknesses.
Financial plan
In addition to the equity share and the debt capital requirement, you compare planned costs – including credit costs – with the planned sales. Analysis tools are the profit and loss statement, the profitability calculation and the capital requirement plan. A specific structure is not prescribed. At the end of this chapter you will see an example of the structure of a financial plan.
Example of the structure of a bankable financial plan:
- Sales planning: This is where you estimate how many products or services you will sell in different periods of weeks, months and years. The basis is the price calculation from the business plan
- Operating or running costs including wages and marketing costs: This is where the variable and fixed costs are listed. Variables, i.e. sales-dependent costs, are, for example, material and production costs. Fixed costs or operating costs are rent, wages and salaries as well as marketing costs.
- Profitability and liquidity calculation: Supplements the profit and loss statement with, for example, expenses for setting up and investments as well as contribution margin and gross profit. It is used to show the most important key figures of the operating business over the course of the year.
- Investments and financing: Here, the source of funds and the use of funds are compared. You have to know the different funding products. For some, you can only use up to 50,000 euros for operating resources, for others 100%.
Documents
As already mentioned, various attachments are attached to the business plan. Depending on the current situation, these can also be drafts:
- CV in table form
- Partnership agreement
- Lease agreement
- Security documents
- If available: cooperation agreements, leasing agreements, reports, licenses, patents…
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A professional concept and the right business plan content are the foundation of your project.
A professional concept and the right business plan content are the foundation of your project.