Creating a Business Plan

As well as helping you to get financial backing, your business plan will also be a useful in-house tool, helping you assess your strengths, weaknesses, upcoming opportunities and potential threats before they arise.

What your business plan should include

Your business plan should include details of how your business will develop, when you are going to do it, who will be involved and how you will manage your money.

It should include:

• An executive summary – an overview of your business. This is a vital part of your business plan as many investors will make a decision based on this alone.



• The business opportunity – give details of who you are, what your business will offer, why and to whom.

• Marketing and sales strategy – why you think people will want to buy your product or use your service and how you will sell to them.

• Your team – detailing your business credentials as well as those of your management team.

• Your operations – details of your business premises, IT and production facilities etc.

• Financial forecasts – putting everything from the previous sections into numbers to show that your business will be financially viable.

Presenting your business plan

Setting down all of your ideas clearly and coherently is essential to get investors involved in your company. But the process is just as important to you, because the more planning you do, the more organised you will be and the more you will be able to recognise and deal with challenges.

The presentation of your business plan will also affect investors’ reactions to your idea. A long, clumsy business plan will put people off, so make sure that start with the executive summary, avoiding jargon and pushing lengthy research data and balance sheets to an appendix at the back.

You should also get at least two other people to proof read it before you give it to hand it out to banks and other potential sources of financial backing. If possible, you should also have it checked by an expert advisor such as an accountant who will be able to check your figures for accuracy.

There are also the day-to-day but vital issues of planning regulations, taxation, health and safety, national insurance and more to be considered.

It’s the idea that matters

You can trawl the web for all sorts of software packages to help you create a sophisticated business plan, but don't be deceived by the hype. Companies may claim that their software helped people get millions of pounds of backing, and it may indeed have helped, but it is the idea that you have and the facts and figures you come up with that will convince investors, not the software.

Nevertheless, the web is a great resource where you can find a host of free information and advice as well sample templates to help you write your business plan – it’s also a good place to research your competitors, your product, and potential customers.

The Government's (Business Link) website is dedicated to helping new businesses and offers free advice and also has a range of local branches with which you can deal directly.

Your bank will also be able to offer advice, and many further education colleges run free business plan courses that will give a clear guide to what is required.