If you have been dreaming in starting your own business, it is important that you know where to start. Having a business plan will help and guide you all throughout the process in starting your own business. Whether you are thinking of writing it on your own or if you have the means hiring a business plan expert; what matters is that you already have an effective business plan. No matter how big or small your business maybe because it will serve as your foundation.
What is a business plan?
A business plan is a document that contains a lot of research about your business. It is a document that showcases your business’s ideas and goals.
It is very vital because it is the blueprint of your business; just like any other structure or building, it cannot stand strong without a blueprint. Research is needed for startups to help you know more about it and to help you be successful.
Pages of a Business Plan
Page 1: Overview or Summary
In the First page of writing a business plan it should contain all the major information about your business, questions like why did you start this type of business, who are you doing it for, and what are you trying to accomplish?
What are your goals and what are your expectations with your startup? Page one will be filled with a series of questions and a summary on how you came up in deciding to start. Page 1 is dedicated for you and for your readers, a page where in you can always go back to at the end of the day looking at how far you have gone from starting.
It will serve as you Mission and Vision, to provide continues motivation for you to work on it. Make it simple and Meaningful
Page 2: Description
In the second page it is important that you are already an expert. It is important that your investors or financial institutions would know that you are confident about your business in that way if you may need funding, they are confident to help you.
Know your market, your customers, know what they want and make sure that is what you will provide. In this page it is also important that you have already planned its location, products, and services that you will be offering.
Page 3: Operation Management
In this page it will cover mostly about finances. A business plan expert will help you analyze your budget and your profit plans. This page will help you control your staring expenses in that way it can provide a great timeline where in you can already see your return of investments.
In this page you will also need to list down weekly, monthly, and annual reports, hiring experts or someone knowledgeable when it comes to accounting will help you make the job easier.
This page will also include your employees and other important persons in the company on how to manage them effectively and also by assessing their performance.
Page 4: Marketing and Sales
In this page it will help you plan how to advertise your market from radios, newspapers, magazine, commercial, or having a social platform in order for you to widen your network.
Before starting successful marketing strategies, it is crucial to know about the customers and that specific market. Many business owners do not pay attention to marketing even if they have good products and services, therefore they are unable to generate the required profit.
Another turning point is the change in marketing and sales strategies throughout the year. It will help you to attract customers more toward your compay because nowadays innovation and change is the key to success in the market.
Tips and Tricks to follow for startups:
A startup is always a challenge and full of hardships, therefore, you should take advice from an experienced business owner and follow a few ways to be a good fit in the market;
- When you have started something, be focused and centered on it. You must have a great passion to be consistent with that. The startup is not a dish of potatoes, which you just take and eat; rather you need great effort and hardships.
- Another key to success is the people around you. Always try to listen to those who give honest reviews and have a challenging attitude. In this way, you will get the energy and motivation to work more and more.
- Business can’t run with a single person and you need a good team around you. For greater output, you should appreciate the team and be friendly with them.
- It is productive to keep in touch with customers’ feedback. You should take the customer feedback regularly and work on it, to enhance growth.
- You should have great bonding with companies and suppliers that are involved. It is a great idea to conduct a physical meeting with them occasionally to maintain a productive relationship.
- To achieve goals successful, it is important to stay organized. Everything should be planned for at least a whole month and your teams know what is a to-do list for each and what they have to do today. The development of IT strategy is crucial for future success.
- Competitors’ analysis will help you to grow more because if you see that something has made your company better, you should learn and adopt it.
- It is advised to do efficient work to find out risks if any and reward those who have done extraordinary work in your team.
Final Words:
It is important to follow the above tricks because they will lead you to success. The latest research has shown that 15-20 % of startup fails within 2 years while 45-50 % fails within 5 years and 60-65% within 10 years. It means that only 20-25 % of startups run for longer tenure such as 15-20 years.
Therefore if you want to start a startup, you should take an effective business plan, get initial experience with that business and follow tips from experienced business owners. In this way, you will make fewer mistakes and will succeed.
