How To Write A Business Plan / Proposal
Title Page
It should be simple and precise containing logo and / or name
of company (Upper section of page); Name of Business plan in the center of
page; Prepared By with document date in the lower section of page.
Executive Summary
The Executive Summary is where you briefly sell / explain
the general idea behind your proposal; it’s where you give the reader (stakeholder)
a clear indication of why you have sent this Business Plan to them. This is an elevator
pitch, which should be 1-3 pages max that summarizes what your business / idea
is all about.
Do remember that, while the entire Business Plan should be well-written, this
section must really demonstrate excellent composition and grammar. This is the
first part of your Business Plan that anyone will read, so it’s important that
it really impressive.
In the Business Plan section, you will have to gain the reader’s attention by
letting them know what you do. Try to answer some or all of the following
questions:
- What
products or services do you offer?
- Who is
your target audience?
- What makes
your offer unique?
The Executive Summary is the place to succinctly describe your
business. It’s also appropriate to address why you’ve created your proposal,
answering questions like these, briefly, in addition to those above:
- How much finance
do you need?
- What is
the finance to be used for?
- How will
your business become profitable using offered business plan?
- What’s in
it for the recipient?
The last question is perhaps the most important. Already,
only having read as far into your business plan as the Executive Summary, your
reader is wondering “what’s in it for me?” And your challenge is to offer them
a preview, do remember this is a “summary” of the benefits of accepting your
business plan, while not giving away the whole story and just provide the juice
of your entire document.
Table of Contents
Here you have to list all sections with their page numbers.
Background (Back
ground of your Idea / Proposal in detail)
Here in this section you should have to introduce the background your Product
/ Service / Idea in detail. Here you should relate some theoretical aspect. This
is the place for your “origin story.” Try to explain that how did you get to
this point?
This is where you tell the other party that “where” you are
coming from, before you get to “why” you are in need to win this idea or
proposal, in a nutshell.
Products and
Services (Introduction of your Idea / Proposal in detail)
This section is the essence of any successful
Business Plan. This is where you describe what it is that you have to offer.
Be sure to include:
- Detailed descriptions of your Products and/or
Services.
- Detailed features/ specification and benefits of your
products and/or services.
Always remember that human being in this world love benefits, and the
stake holder who will going to invest against your proposal / idea of any type
of Products/Services want to know that what kind of benefits s/he will get from
it in the shape of ROI (Return On Investment). Therefore provide enough
information about your Product/Service so that stakeholder will able to believe
in it.
Marketing Plan
Marketing is the thing that brings your
business / idea to its audience. The first thing to do in the Marketing Plan
section is to prove that you know your target audience. Put the research,
market analyses, and industry knowledge that you possess to work in this
section. You are illustrating to your recipient that you know your audience
better than anyone, and that makes yours the ideal business to serve the
audience.
This section can be broken into four distinct parts, as follows:
- Clearly define and explain your target audience
- Briefly describe your competition – particularly what
makes you better at what you do than them
- Do the SWOT Analysis
- Tell your
reader how your customers will see your business.
SWOT Analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threats)
While doing SWOT analysis you should go with competitive analysis
of your idea/ Product / Service. You have to highlight the strength of your idea/
Product / Service that how it will be beneficial to stakeholder as compare to
your competitors.
You should have to highlight that how your idea/ Product /
Service will assist your stakeholder to overcome the weakness (in positive manner)
of your stakeholder problematic areas.
You should have to highlight the external opportunities that
stakeholder can avail or enjoy by utilizing your idea/ Product / Service.
You should have to highlight external threats and then
giving solution that how stakeholder be secure and get benefits by utilizing your
idea/ Product / Service.
Financial Plan /
Budgeting
The Financial Plan is the absolute most important segment of
Business Plan. This is a section that your reader will be eyeing closely.
Begin this section by telling the prospective investor about the facts and
figures require for said Idea / Product / Service.
Depending upon the business proposals requirements in some cases you have to plan
your Profit and Loss (P&L) for at least the next 12 months. This
spreadsheet can be used in connection to the cash flow spreadsheet. If your
business plans to run a loss for the first year (or two, or three), you should
clarify this point in this section, and add a model profitable year for good
measure. Just be sure to explain that your Business Plan doesn’t always project
a loss.
Conclusion/Call
to Action
The last part of Business Plan is a conclusion
with your best recommendation. This conclusion ideally should contain a call to
action (CTA). A Business Plan CTA simply clarifies the next step that how you
will approach your stakeholder to materialize things. Whatever your CTA may be,
you’ll want to make it clear, by proving timelines to your stakeholder.
Addendums /
Appendixes
In this section you may add extra information, supporting
documents including but not limited to:
·
Graphs, technical drawings, etc
·
Certifications
I would appreciate if you all will add your valuable comments and suggestions
so that we will able to learn from them. Looking forward......
Regards
Khawaja
Imran
Kasb-e-Kamaal
you will find me on:
