Business Plan: Making a business plan is a lot of work, but it greatly increases the chance of success. This provides insight into the position, goals and feasibility of the idea and offers external parties (the bank) a good picture of the company.
What exactly is a Business Plan?
what is a business plan? A business plan is a plan that describes in detail how the starting entrepreneur wants to set up his company. A business plan is also sometimes referred to as a business plan or business plan. It is a summary of all facets of the possible company and what it will look like.
Drawing up a business plan is investigating whether the idea that is in your head is also feasible. Whether it is smart to become an entrepreneur. Every year, more than a hundred thousand Dutch people start their own company, but less than half are successful. A business plan is therefore really advisable.
With a business plan it becomes clear to the entrepreneur and any third parties where the opportunities and threats for the company lie. These can be different for each company and are highly dependent on the entrepreneur, the market, competitors, product and external factors.
Business plan: is your Business Idea feasible?
business planYou usually have an opinion about whether your business idea is feasible. But you also sometimes have to convince the municipality, employees, or your partner. You may think you have a brilliant idea. But does the bank think so too? Does your partner think that too? Are there any customers who want your products?
In addition, a good idea and a gap in the market is sometimes not enough. It takes more. Think of business financing, and you definitely need a plan to see how much money is coming in or going out in the first few months. It is also wise to see where your strengths and weaknesses lie. In a business plan, you examine your own idea.
A gap in the market is sometimes not enough.
So you actually work out the idea that you have in your head. You will learn what to spend your time with when you start your own business, and you will map out risks, marketing and finances for the first period. In addition to a snapshot in which it is checked whether the entrepreneur has thought of everything and whether everything has a positive effect and where the entrepreneur must spend most of his time.
Do you want to start your own business? Prepare to register at the Chamber of Commerce and also take into account all costs for your own company in your plan.
Mandatory in the business plan
It is a personal plan. Nobody can therefore tell what a business plan should look like. For many entrepreneurs, the business plan is a simple scrap sheet that may have been written during a brainstorming session and a nice glass of wine or freshly brewed beer. That is also sufficient for some entrepreneurs.
No one would argue that a business plan should be very comprehensive and have dozens of sides. It contains the red line so that the entrepreneur can start. If seed capital is not needed, the risks, financial parts and the market may be described quickly. The goal of the company may then already be sufficient. However, the content of a business plan is usually more extensive than that.
The business plan has no mandatory content.
Content business plan
What it contains can therefore differ per company and entrepreneur. There is no fixed table of contents that you can literally copy. You will have to think about the content of your business plan yourself. However, there are parts that come back very often. The five most recurring chapters of a business plan are:
Summary of your business idea
Write a business plan.
A business plan usually starts with a short summary that describes the main reason for the company in a few words. This can be a management summary, but smaller companies prefer a personal preface.
Discuss here what you want to offer, for which market, what is the business formula with what distinguishes your product from the other products and how you will approach this. When writing this piece, remember that after reading the summary, a busy bank manager should have a feeling that he wants to continue reading. Therefore, write short and sweet and make sure it reads well.
Describe your business idea clearly and concretely in the outline, the details will follow later in the plan itself. Whether it is a foreword or summary, make sure that it is short and personal. This is perhaps the best-read part of your business plan and often the reader already has an unconscious idea here. Because this is a comprehensive summary, it is best to write this part last.