You’ve got an excellent business idea, maybe even am product almost ready for market, but like many other entrepreneurs what you don’t have is a reliable business plan to help encourage investment.
Underestimating the value of a solid business plan is a common mistake, and is often the biggest stumbling block when it comes to securing both investment or loan funding. Yet it’s easy to achieve by following some simple steps.
A well thought out business plan will give an overview of your objectives, plans, budget predictions, and sales and marketing strategies. This will help you identify what success looks like and will give you a one-stop document to present to potential investors, banks, suppliers and even potential employees in the hope of garnering their support.
If you are still not convinced here are some more important reasons a thorough plan is vital to your business:
- It gives you the ability to spot potential problems and determine solutions
- It allows you to set out your business goals in full
- it enables you to review and measure your progress against your goals.
A clear and concise business plan is essential if you want to be taken seriously and succeed. It gives you a clear focus and confident approach that allows you to present your product or service, along with all its benefits, in a simple and digestible manner.
All elements need to be researched and backed up with evidence and conclusions, showing interested parties that your business is on the path to succeed. This will establish their confidence in you and your business, and generate a need to get involved.
Your plan should set out:
- The nature of your business
- The products and services offered
- Demonstrate your understanding of your target customer’s needs
- Your chosen methods of interacting with your customers
- Details of your integrated marketing communications plans and strategies
- How you arrived at your pricing strategy
Fundamentally a business plan builds confidence and trust in your business capabilities. Don’t risk your investment potential by producing a weak one, or nothing at all.
To watch our handy Business Planning video, click here.
For more information, visit our Business Planning section here.
Look out for the next top tips for business instalment delivered by John Stenhouse, CPCA Growth Hub Programme Manager.
