6 business plan tips from Unternehmenswerk
Before you start the business plan, let us give you some tips that will simplify the entire business planning process. Business plans are both an analysis and a planning tool, two components that are essential for starting a new business and for the successful business development of existing companies.
What exactly is a business plan again?
Before you start the business plan, let us give you some tips that will simplify the entire business planning process. Business plans are both an analysis and a planning tool, two components that are essential for starting a new business and for the successful business development of existing companies.
Roadmap for the initial phase of your business
Research market conditions, competition and pitfalls
Our 6 business plan tips for you: How to write a successful business plan
01
Keep it short
The first of our business plan tips is: Business plans should be short and concise. There are two simple reasons for this: First, you want your business plan to be read. No one is going to read a 40-page or even 100-page business plan. Sure, you may need supporting documentation and statistics for certain sections, but you can include these elements in the appendix so that only the people who are actually interested read it.
Also, your business plan should be a tool that you use to manage and grow your business. Something that you use and refine over time. An overly long business plan is a big hassle to revise and update – it’s almost guaranteed that an overly long business plan will disappear into a drawer and never be looked at again, let alone revised and adapted.
02
Know your audience or readership
Write the business plan in a language that your audience understands.
Write the business plan in a language that your audience understands.
For example, if your company is developing a complex scientific process but your potential investors are not scientists, you should avoid jargon, specifications and acronyms that your investors are not familiar with. Instead, accommodate your investors and keep the explanation of your product simple and direct by using terms that everyone can understand. You can always use the appendix of your business plan to provide the full specifications, documentation, statistics, surveys and additional business and market forecasts – if necessary.
03
Test your business idea
If you write your own business plan and start with a small pitch, you can test the viability of your business idea long before you launch. In fact, it’s best to get feedback and test different elements of your business model as you draft your business plan – from branding to vision to marketing. This method is a bit more involved, but works like having a mentor or partner review different elements of your business plan. Another option can be to conduct surveys by a market research institute and talk directly to your potential customers. The more elements you check, the better your business plan and your company will be in the end. It can also save you from spending days developing a strategy that is simply not feasible.
04
Set goals, assumptions and targets
You should know in advance what you want to achieve with your business. Do you want to turn a sideline into a full-time job? Are you trying to expand your team or open an additional location? Once you know what you want to achieve and have questions like these in mind, you can develop your business plan specifically for these goals.
Now, before you start, you may not have every milestone or even the specific steps in mind, but that’s the beauty of developing a business plan – it will help you define success metrics, concretize your goals and evolve elements of your business to achieve specific objectives. To better focus on the essentials and get started in the first place, all you need is a vision or goals to strive for.
05
Be realistic about time and resources
If you’re currently working in a large company, you might think that things would go a lot faster if you were hands-on and independent. However, when you’re in the situation yourself, buying raw materials, writing checks, answering phones and taking care of everything else personally, reality quickly catches up with you and you realize that you may have misjudged the effort involved.
Being too optimistic with time and resources is a common mistake that entrepreneurs make. Being realistic is important because it lends credibility to your business plan.
Our practical tip for “realistic time estimates”: Always assume that things will take 15% longer than you have planned. For example, if you have planned 20 weeks, it will take 23 weeks.
06
Don't let yourself be intimidated
The last of our six business plan tips:Keep a cool head and take things step by step. Did you know that the vast majority of business owners and entrepreneurs are not business experts?They don’t have accounting degrees or MBA’s (Master of Business Administration) – they are learning as they go, finding more and more tools and acquiring the necessary resources to help them with their problem.
Writing a business plan may seem like a big hurdle, but it doesn’t have to be.You know your business – you’re the expert on it. For this reason alone, writing a business plan and then using your plan to grow won’t be nearly as difficult as you think.
We hope we’ve been able to help you with our business plan tips. However, if you still need help with creating a professional and bankable business plan, we will be happy to help you with all your questions. More info: Have a business plan drawn up.
A professional business plan is the foundation of your project.
We support you professionally right from the start. So that your company gets off to a successful start. Feel free to contact us for a non-binding consultation.
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You now know our 6 business plan tips.
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