Learn how to write a small business plan step by step and grab our free business planning template...

So you know that you have a brilliant business idea and you have established that this business is in fact a feasible venture? Now it's time to set your plan in stone and implement steps to ensure your small business plan drives your business toward a profitable future.

Even if you are an existing business owner. A business plan is vital. A useable short business plan that you can actually use is a must.

 

Business Planning can be a daunting and often time consuming task at first which is why we like to break it into simple steps and offer you free templates or links to some great software that can walk you through the process. A business without a business plan is often traveling down a non goal driven repetitive path and the business is usually driving the owner instead of the owner driving the business. The idea of a good business plan is to ensure that your business grows and moves forward at a rate that you are comfortable with and to ensure every stone is unturned before you begin. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses as an operator and establishing your financial status is imperative to achieving success in any business.

 

A good product or service is simply not enough to keep your business going, your plan will be your lifeline and will offer you the reigns to move forward if you know to apply it.

 

Our VIP Members Pack includes a Free Business Plan Template with instructions, examples to help you get planning. Grab it Here.

 

Let's look at a very basic outline of what you plan should include:

 

Primary Objective
What are you reasons behind starting this business? What do you hope to achieve? What is your mission statement for operating?
This will be the outline for the rest of your plan. Keep it short and concise and leave out the 'fluff'.

 

Describe Your Business
What are the core activities of your business? Who is involved? What is your history and the history of the business? Where would you like to see the business in 2-5 years? How do you intend to achieve these goals?

 

SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)
This is possibly the most important part of your plan and will require you to analyse yourself and your abilities with the rose colored glasses off.
Outline a list for each section and spend more time on the threats and weaknesses. Determine your biggest obstacles and decide how you will combat these now, not later.

 

Market Analysis
Now you are going to become familiar with your market. You are going to know them better than they know themselves and you are going to ensure your business is about servicing their needs not yours.
Who are your customers? Where are your customers? What are their needs? What is their purchasing power? How do I access them? Is the market stable or ever changing? What influences my customers? What are the seasonal trends? What is my competitive edge? What is the price sensitivity?

 

Marketing Strategies
Throughout our ECourse we run through a great deal of marketing tips and tricks that you can learn and master. As a business owner the majority of your time will be spent in this area, so it is extremely important that you can identify how you will market your business before you begin.
What strategies will be used to achieve sales? What will your customer service be like? How will you promote your business? How will you advertise? Will you be marketing online of offline or both? How will you manage your customer details? What is your competitive edge? How will you test your marketing? What free strategies can you use? What campaigns will you run simultaneously and for how long will you run them?

 

Sales Productions and Targets
As you begin your business it is probable that you may be underpinned by cash issues. You must carefully plan how you intend to achieve your sales targets for the first year and determine what kind of working capital you will require to keep your head well above ground.
You will basically derive your working capital needs from your projected cash flow and remember that you may not be receiving any profit for 3mths, 6mths or even a year so you must outline how you will run until that time.
The business templates that we recommend offer cash projection worksheets to help you determine your needs. Be diligent in working through your finances so that there will be no hidden surprises popping up once you are up and running. Work with worst case scenario figures just to be safe.

 

Business Growth and Development
This is the most exciting part of the planning stage! You should now know who your customers are, how you intend to find them and what your financial picture is for the first year. Now we want to increase sales, optimise your business structure, increase buying power, improve inefficiencies and improve your product and service.
How will you develop you products and services to ensure you are competitive in your field? What technologies will need to be updated? Will you be fine tuning and testing your marketing techniques? How will you be monitoring your financial position? How will you project and budget to analyse your bottom line? Will you be expanding? Are you analysing your negatives and  monitoring systems?

 

Production Facilities
This is where you decide what fundamentals are required for you to run a successful business.
What are your skills, qualifications and experience to help you run this business? What kind of equipment or raw materials will you require? Who will help you run your business? What technical requirements are you unaware of? Do you require further training in a certain area?

 

Business Structure
Are you going to be a sole trader, partnership, limited partnership or proprietary limited? Do I need to trademark of patent my product or business? Do I need an ABN, Business or Company Name? What types of agreements between partners of shareholders need to be drawn up? What is the management and ownership status and what are the background details of these people?

 

Financial Requirements and Planning
What is it going to cost you to establish this business and how much funding will you require? This is the million dollar question! You have outlined your projections for sales above and now you must outline every cost associated with starting and running your business. Ask advice from an accountant or professional in outlining your costs if necessary. Our business planning templates include financial planning spreadsheets but we reccomend that you use paid software for one simple reason... paid software allows your spreadsheets to be exported into formats that can then be imported into accounting software. We like to do this so that when you are working on your monthly budgets you can align your plan with your actual figures to ensure you are incorporating your financial plan into your business. If you are not using paid software then once you have completed your projections you should simply enter these projections into the budgeting section of your accounting software.

 

For more information regarding tax, structure and financial requirements for small businesses please visit the Australian Govt Business Information Site.

 

Business Planning Templates

 

Free:   

BusiWizard's Free Template with Video Tutorial

BPlans             PlanWare        Microsoft Templates 

 

Paid Software (Recommended):   

 

Business Plan Pro: Includes more than 500 sample plans to get you started and walks you through the process in an easy to understand step by step way. Easily the worlds most popular business planning software and we highly recommend it as we know it can literally save you hours if not weeks!

 

Heidi can help you write your plan and put it into action. Call 1800 467 851 today to discuss your planning needs!