5 Top Tips to Create a Business Plan - Part 1

This is part 1 of a 2 part series which will discuss some top tips for creating a practical business plan:

One of the key aspects which can influence your business idea as an aspiring entrepreneur is the detail provided within your business plan. If you decide you don't want a business plan at all then you are making the task of being a successful entrepreneur a lot more challenging than what it needs to be. I have previously written a post "Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail". It is advisable that you delay the launch of any service or product until you feel you have a comprehensive plan. If you are new to business and have only recently decided to become an entrepreneur you may not fully understand the importance of having such a
plan. A well structured business plan should act as a road map with a variety of scenarios and situations you have envisaged as possible.


1. Have a clear aim and set of objectives - set goals
To increase the chances of your business succeeding it needs clear direction. An ideal place to document this is in your business plan. When you are starting out as an entrepreneur you are likely to have a lot of different ideas and directions you would like to take. However as you prepare to launch you need to focus on one area, idea and direction. Not doing so may mean you dilute your time and resources too much. It is important that you are able to put 100% effort into each area you take on. This may mean that you need to prioritise which area you start with. Give your product or service a clear aim. This means stating exactly what you want to achieve ensuring you make this as clear and specific as possible. You can then separate this aim in to a set of objectives. Setting goals can be a great way of clearing demonstrating to yourself how you can achieve your goals. For more information about being an effective at setting goals read "Be A SMART Entrepreneur".

2. Plan your finances.
A key aspect of any business plan has to include your finances. This is in main due to the number of new businesses that fail within the first 12 months. In large part it would seem that lack of cashflow is a big contributing factor.

Financial planning can be particularly difficult when you are an aspiring entrepreneur. It would appear that the most common approach in the first 12 months however is to overestimate your expenditures and underestimate your income/ revenue. This should help you plan your finances in a realistic manner. If you are new to business financial planning you may want to seek some professional advice regarding this. It is tempting to think that when you launch your business the product or service you are offering will fly off the shelves. Perhaps they will, however this does not happen often and do not let your enthusiasm for your product result in it clouding your judgement with regards to forecasting sales. If you are worried your enthusiasm may get the better of you as you launch your service why not read my post "Curve that enthusiasm!"

Another important aspect within financial planning is pricing your product. This can be difficult however if you research what others charge and compare the quality of their product or service to yours then you may get a good idea of what you can charge. Remember you want to avoid both underpricing and overpricing. Underpricing is likely to affect your cashflow and overpricing may result in lack of sales. Value for money is often a key term to be aware of. Consumers are happy to pay extra if they feel they are getting higher quality or a better service. My post "7 Startup Tips For The Entrepreneur" briefly discusses pricing and signposts to other websites which has further information.




The next post will discuss the remaining three top tips you will need to consider to develop a comprehensive and practical business plan. Part 2 of this series is now available by clicking here.