Whether you are a start up or established business, and whether you are a non-profit organization, writing a business plan can be one of the most useful things you can do for your business. Obviously there are different types of business plans depending on the nature of your company or organization. It’s not enough that you have a “hunch” your new start up will be a roaring success, or you believe your latest web. 2.0 idea a surefire “ten bagger” success for the lucky venture capitalist. There are people who need to take a close look at your business plan; whether it’s you, internal management or external investors. In this article, we will look at the top three reasons for writing business plans.

First to answer the question: “Is the business feasible?”

Before you actually commit funds, manpower and time on starting a business, it helps to actually have a “dry run” to see if the venture you have in mind has a good chance of success. The business planning process forces you to look at what your competitors are doing and to ask yourself how you can differentiate your product or service. Typically we call this a SWOT analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. At the same time you want to identify, as clearly as possible your unique selling proposition. This can be a special feature or something unique about your branding. Just be different and attractive in the eyes of your target market. Going through this process will give you a better idea of you chances for success in the marketplace.

Then look at your projected financials – do you have the required funds to start your business? Where are you going to raise the capital? How soon will the business break even? All of them are pertinent questions.

Secondly, a business plan is used to help secure loans from banks or financing from outside investors. Typically if you are a start up, you will find it very hard to get any financing from your local bank unless you have landed collateral, regardless if you have a plan written or not. If your business is established for several years and have healthy cash flow, then the bank will definitely want to see your financials before given you any loans or bridge financing.

If you are looking for angels or venture capital investment, then a business plan, particularly the executive summary is what they will require. What’s more important to these investors, more than the plan itself, is the entrepreneur’s track record and the strength of your management team. Be sure to include these important points in your bplan.

Last but not least, a written business plan should be constantly evolving. It acts as a blue print to guide management in the execution of business strategy and to meet goals. By constantly reviewing and updating the plan, it is used as a useful communication tool within the company to guide business growth.

We’ve looked at some good reasons from writing business plans. Now, if you don’t think you know how to write one, help is available. Look for a template online, such as at the site given below. Or better still get business plan software. The good ones, such as Business Plan Pro 2007, are easy to use and will guide you to input the necessary text and numbers and come out with a complete plan for you. There’s absolutely no reason why any business person should not have a business plan blueprint.

Business Start-Up: Plan your business successfully.

Are you planning to start your own business? What does it takes to have a successful business? Lots of money, experienced business partners or just plain guts!! You’ll be surprised; you just need a good business plan. But what constitute a good business plan? There isn’t any specific rule on good business plan, but here are some precautions that you may consider to avoid failures.

1. Set Company Values through Vision statements. First, you had to have vision for your company. The vision will help you to set-up some values that you want your staff to abide as the company. These values will differentiate you from your competitors. Looking forward, it enhances the growth that will make you proud, someday. Develop a mission statement that will help achieve immediate or minor goals/priorities.

2. Financial forecast and budgeting. Create your own financial forecast and budgeting. It is part of your business plan. Without them you’re planning for failure. But your plan should also covers competitor analysis, market conditions including knowing your industry & customers well. Only with those factors can you plan your budget and forecast well.

3. Serve your customers well. If you don’t serve your customers, others will. Sometimes, customers can be nasty. But if you explained and tried to get them understood, these difficult customers may become your loyal customers. They can also be your centre of influence once they become your friends and liked your service.

4. Always be aware and understand your competitor. You have to be updated of what’s going on in your industry. You can be a big player in your industry, but never be complacent. A newbie in the industry has all the ability to capture your market share without you realizing it.

5. Do take risk. Business is about opportunity and taking risk. However, you have to do some research and analysis to take calculated risk. Make a study on the possible challenges and its potential returns. Don’t just jump into the wagon recklessly. In this way, you minimize your losses.

6. Learn from the expert. You may like to get some feedbacks from an experienced business-owners pertaining to your plan that you wanted to carried out. Even the most experienced entrepreneur does that. The different views may help you to build up on your original ideas better.

7. Prepare for the unexpected. You may have drafted a wonderful business plan. Sometimes your plans still need some twinning due to unexpected events. This may result in amending your budget or forecast, or even abandoned the original plan at all. Therefore, your business plan has to be flexible in accommodating those circumstances.

8. Unique selling points. Your original plan may change with time and circumstances but your customers must be able to experience the difference when dealing with you. Develop a unique selling point to make your company stands out and beyond your competitors. Be it after sales service, follow-up system or whatever. Leave that last good impression with your customers.

9. Rewards and praise your staff. In order to keep your business running, you need a trustworthy, hard-working and dedicated staffs. Without them, your business may suffer. Therefore, you need to incorporate some form of reward system in your planning. This is to motivate your staff better and together, the company will reach greater heights.

10. Review your plan. No plan is wonderful unless you follow through. Identify your milestone. Whenever your sales volume or revenue reached several amount, you need to re-look into your business plan to see the possibility of expansions. Reviewing your business plan occasionally helps you to determine whether your existing process is effective or needs further improvement. Remember, it is your business plan that will turn your vision into reality.

A business plan does not have to be a monotonous, text-only document. In fact, your plan may be more successful if it is not. After reading many plans of this type, investors and lenders are always ready to see a plan which uses images, charts, and graphs to better tell its story, as long as these graphics fulfill their purpose. The following are a few suggestions of where images or graphic layouts can be used to good effect in a business plan, although they are by no means the only options.

Customers and Competitors

Since your customer groups and top competitors must be listed in the plan, why not use a chart to summarize this information? This can be a good method of showing the differences and similarities between customer target markets and competitors. To better illustrate how competitors will compare to your intended business, include your business as a row on such a chart as well. Furthermore, images or logos that better inform a reader about customers or competitors can be of use here and help to break up the monotony of research.

Industry Market Share

If you can find the information, it is always easier to communicate how market share for a given market is broken up between competitors using a pie chart. If you cannot find this precise information in your research, you may still be able to extrapolate such a chart through smart assumptions and the bits of information you can find.

Products and Services

If you are creating a new product or service, showing images can generally illustrate them better than the same space in text, even if they are just charts of the product or service delivery system prototype. If full diagrams of the design of a system are necessary, these may be better placed in the appendices of the plan and mentioned earlier on. However, if a picture can replace a great deal of text, it is highly recommended here.