How To Build A Business Plan That Puts Money In Your Bank Account

Your business plan is the roadmap of your company. It outlines how you’re going to grow, what resources are needed when certain actions need to happen, and how they will affect the business. A good business plan helps you measure your success over time and shows potential investors and lenders that you have a realistic vision for your future.

10 Steps on How To Write a Business Plan – YouTube

Takeaways
1. A well-crafted business plan is essential for putting money in your bank account.
2. Focus on a clear and realistic executive summary to capture the essence of your business.
3. Conduct thorough market research to identify opportunities and challenges in your industry.
4. Define your products or services, highlighting their unique selling points and target audience.
5. Develop a comprehensive marketing and sales strategy to attract customers and generate revenue.
6. Outline a strong financial plan with realistic projections to showcase your business’s profitability.
7. Present a solid management structure that inspires confidence in potential investors and lenders.
8. Continuously update and refine your business plan to adapt to market changes and achieve long-term success.

Table of Contents

Have A Clear Idea Of Where You Want To Go

If you’re reading this, I’m going to guess that you want to build a successful business. That means that before you create your business plan and start spending money on marketing, sales, and operations expenses or anything else you need to know where exactly it is that you are aiming for.

Here are some questions to ask:

What do I want my company to look like?

What will success look like in the next year, three years, or five years?

How much revenue do I think this business can generate each month? Yearly? In 10 years? More than $10 million per year? Less than $100k per year? Somewhere in between these extremes?

How many employees does my company have now (if any)? And how many employees do I hope it will have at its peak in five/ten years.

Crafting a well-structured business plan is the first step towards turning your entrepreneurial vision into reality. Learn how to write an effective plan with our comprehensive guide on How Writing a Business Plan Can Turn Your Idea into Reality.

Consider What Needs To Be Achieved For Your Business To Be Successful

To build a business plan that puts money in your bank account, you need to consider what needs to be achieved for your business to be successful.

Start by asking yourself: What are some of the goals I want to achieve with this company? Is it just a side hustle or am I looking at this as an investment vehicle? If so, how much money do I want to make and when do I want to make it?

Decide On The Main Purpose Of Your Plan

The main purpose of your business plan is to help you make money. That’s it.

The main purpose of your business is to make money. That’s it!

The main purpose of a business plan is to help you make money and build a successful, profitable company—so you can quit your job and work for yourself!

A successful business plan requires careful planning and execution. Follow our step-by-step guide on How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Simple Steps to create a solid foundation for your venture.

Make Sure That Everyone Who Needs A Copy Gets One

You’ve built your business plan and you’re ready to share it with the world. But how do you get it into their hands?

If you have a team, make sure each person who needs to see your plan has one. If they don’t, tell them why that matters and what they can do if they’re not getting their copy as soon as possible.

If there are customers or partners on which your success depends, make sure they have a copy of the plan so that they know what’s going on and how they fit into the picture (or don’t).

If investors are involved in any way, make sure their contact info is up-to-date at all times especially when it comes time for investor meetings or pitches!

List Any Barriers That Stand In The Way Of Earning Money And Offer Solutions

Now that we’ve identified your target market, it’s time to outline the barriers that stand in the way of earning money. For example, if you plan to open a restaurant, there are a lot of things you will need to do before you can even open your doors for business.

You may have to fork over quite a bit for permits, licenses, and insurance; decide what type of menu items you’re going to serve; find a good location for rent or purchase; hire staff members who are knowledgeable about food preparation; and buy supplies like dishes and silverware.

If any of these steps seem too difficult (or impossible) on your own, don’t be afraid to ask friends or family members if they can help out with some tasks!

Focus On What Matters And Keep It Short, Simple And Punchy

To build a business plan that puts money in your bank account, you need to focus on what matters. Don’t try to cover everything: instead, choose the most important topics and write about them clearly and concisely.

The best way to do this is by keeping it interesting. Focus on how your company will make money; where they’ll get their customers from; what they’re selling or providing; how much they charge for each service or product and why those charges should be enough for them to make a profit (but not so much that customers don’t buy from you).

Securing funding for your business is often contingent on a well-crafted business plan. Discover the ways a compelling plan can attract investors in our article on Does a Business Plan Help You Get Funding?.

Look At How Other Businesses Have Succeeded Or Failed, And Learn From Them (Without Copying Them)

Look at how other businesses have succeeded or failed, and learn from them (without copying them).

It’s a good idea to do a competitive analysis of your competitors, but you should also look at what other successful businesses are doing. There are lots of articles and books written about this subject, so read as much as you can about it. Here’s what I would recommend as a starting point:

What You Like About Your Competitors, What are the things that make them different from you in ways that you respect? Take some time to write out these points in detail and then use these ideas to help guide your business plan.

What You Don’t Like-What are some of the things that make them less appealing than they could be? Which aspects of their business would not work for you if they were part of your plan? Again, write all these down so that they’re easy for you to refer back to later when planning out your business strategy.

How Your Customers View Them-Is there something specific about another company’s approach or output (good or bad) which causes customers who purchase products/services similar in nature to yours to prefer theirs over yours? If so, why do they prefer this competitor over yourself even though there isn’t any difference between what each one offers?

Eliminate Your Own Bias By Asking Others Who Know Your Business To Read Through Your Plan And Give Feedback

You should always get feedback on a business plan before you present it to anyone else. It’s your plan, so you know what it says and how it is written. But other people won’t have that same knowledge. They’ll also be able to see things that are not as clear to you, particularly because they don’t know the details of your industry or the way your mind works.

But who should give this feedback? It’s important that people who read through the plan be familiar with its contents, but they needn’t be part of your business or even know anything about its internal workings (unless they’re one of those people).

You can get some great insights from someone who knows nothing about your company but make sure they have relevant experience within their field so that their opinions aren’t just guesses based on assumptions about what other businesses do!

You also want to make sure these readers aren’t too closely connected with either yourself or anyone else involved in building out this new venture; otherwise, there’s a risk that any feedback will be tainted by personal biases rather than being purely objective observations made by an outsider who understands nothing more than what’s explicitly stated in an objective document.

Review Your Business Plan Regularly And Make Changes As Needed

After you’ve created a realistic, achievable plan for your business and have started to implement it, continue to review the plan regularly. The economy is constantly changing, so even if things are going well now, there’s no guarantee that they’ll continue to do so in the future.

You need to stay aware of any changes that could affect your business or alter your goals so that you can make adjustments if necessary. In addition, check in with yourself: Are you still working towards all of the goals listed? Have any new ones arise? Do certain aspects of running this kind of business fit better with who you are than others?

Are you hesitant about writing a business plan? Learn why having a business plan is crucial for your success and gain valuable tips on how to create one with our guide on Why You Should Write a Business Plan and How to Do It.

Find A Balance Between Thinking Big But Also Being Realistic

You should think big when planning, but also be realistic. You don’t want to put yourself or your business in a hole by setting unrealistic goals. You have to have a plan for what you will do if your plan doesn’t work out, and that plan needs to be specific and measurable. Your plans also need to be achievable and relevant as well as time-bound.

Write Down The Steps You’re Going To Take So You Can Measure Progress Later On

To build your business plan, you need to decide what your goal is. This will be the foundation for everything else you do in the process of building your business plan.

Once you have a clear idea of what your goals are, write them down and prioritize them based on their importance to the success or failure of your company. Then take a look at how long each step will take and how much it costs so that we can make sure that these goals are realistic for our budget.

Measure Your Success Using Both Qualitative (Words) And Quantitative Data (Numbers)

You might be thinking, “Well, I don’t want to measure my success in numbers.” And that’s fine—you can still use qualitative data for your business plan. Qualitative data is information that can’t be quantified or counted. It’s more subjective and harder to measure than quantitative data (which can be described by numbers). Here are some examples of qualitative data:

How much money did you make?
How many customers did you sell to?
What kind of training did your team need before they could start selling?

These are all questions about the outcome of your sales efforts, but they’re not easily answered using only quantitative information. When writing down the answers, write them out as complete sentences instead of just listing off numbers it makes it easier for someone else to understand what happened in each case if they read it as a story rather than just a series of bullet points!

Set Goals That Are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, And Time-Bound (S.M.A.R.T.)

Just like the acronym itself, SMART goals are easy to remember and they have a lot of benefits.

specific-Make sure your goal is specific. For example, “Raising Awareness” is not a specific goal. But raising awareness about something specific (like school funding) is a much better choice.

immeasurable – You need to be able to measure how you’re doing towards reaching your goal. For example, if you want to grow sales by 10% over the next year, how will you know if you’re on track?

Measuring how much revenue comes in each month or quarter against prior years and projecting what it might look like for future quarters based on current trends and past results can help make this easier for you!

AchAteable-This might seem obvious but there’s no point setting yourself up for failure so make sure that whatever it is that’s important enough for us as an individual or company then set it at a level where we think we can achieve it without too much effort than required which ultimately leads us back into being relevant.

Again because relevance means something more than just being successful; relevance means having meaning behind our actions and being able to communicate those same ideas effectively within another person’s headspace; both aspects are equally important!

Plan For Seasonal Variations In Demand For Products And Services

You need to understand the seasonal variations in demand for your products and services. For example, if you’re a plumber, you will likely get more work during the winter months when pipes burst due to low temperatures than during the summer months when people are away on holidays.

So plan for this by increasing your stock levels in the busy months and reducing them in the quiet months.

If you can take advantage of these times by offering promotions and discounts, then do so!

Investors pay close attention to well-crafted business plans. Ensure your plan stands out with our expert tips on How to Write a Business Plan That Investors Actually Read.

Set Up An Online Presence For Your Business Before You Launch, Even If It’s Very Basic At First

It’s important to have a presence before you launch your business. A website is the first step, and it can be as simple as a free blog hosted by WordPress or Tumblr. The next step is to get an email address for your business, and set up social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and other platforms where potential customers hang out online.

If you aren’t sure how to do these things yourself (or don’t want to spend the time), find someone who can help with these tasks for you quickly and affordably.

Conclusion

As you can see, it’s not hard to build a plan that works for your business. All it takes is some careful thought, planning, and action. The key thing to remember is that you need to keep on top of everything as things change all the time in business especially when you start! But having this plan will help make sure that nothing gets left behind or forgotten about.

If you follow all the steps we’ve outlined above then hopefully your plan will serve as an invaluable resource for years to come

FAQs

What are the key elements of a business plan?

A business plan typically includes a clear executive summary, company description, market analysis, information on products/services, a marketing and sales strategy, management and organizational structure, and financial projections.

How long should a business plan be?

The length of a business plan can vary depending on the complexity of the business, but it is generally recommended to keep it concise and focused, ideally between 15 to 25 pages.

What is the purpose of a business plan?

The main purpose of a business plan is to outline the business’s goals and strategies, provide a roadmap for growth and development, secure funding from investors or lenders, and guide the business’s operations and decision-making.

Should a business plan be updated regularly?

Yes, it is essential to review and update the business plan regularly to reflect changes in the market, industry trends, and the business’s performance. Regular updates ensure that the plan remains relevant and aligned with the company’s goals.

How do I present my business plan to potential investors?

When presenting your business plan to investors, focus on conveying a clear and compelling story about your business, highlighting its unique value proposition and growth potential. Use visuals and data to support your claims and be prepared to answer questions with confidence and transparency.

Costantine Edward

Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.