A business plan outlines a company's goals, operations, finances, and marketing strategies. It identifies objectives and helps ensure those goals are met. Business plans are important as they attract investors, guide the company, and help avoid failure by providing a roadmap. An effective plan considers the reader and desired response, describes the company and products or services, analyzes the market and competition, and provides financial projections and strategies for success.

1. Business Plan

2. Before writing a business plan, it is important to
consider two important factors:
Who will the reader be?
What do you want their response to be?

3. What is Business Plan?
 A business plan is a document created by a company
that describes the company's goals, operations, industry
standing, marketing objectives, and financial
projections.
 Business plans help companies identify their objectives
and remain on track to meet goals. They can help
companies start, manage themselves, and grow once up
and running. They also act as a means to attract lenders
and investors.

4. Why is a business plan important?
 A business plan is a very important and strategic
tool for entrepreneurs. A good business plan not
only helps entrepreneurs focus on the specific
steps necessary for them to make business ideas
succeed, but it also helps them to achieve short-
term and long-term objectives.
 Benjamin Franklin once said, "If you fail to plan,
you are planning to fail."

5. Business Plan Format

8. Why do you need a
business plan?
The four most important reasons for having a plan are:
• The plan is your roadmap.
• The plan is necessary for investors/lenders.
• The plan can help you track progress.
• The plan tests the feasibility of your business idea.

9. Executive Summary
• The first section, the executive summary, is the most important one. It
is only if they find this section attractive enough that potential
investors will dive into the other sections of your plan to get more
details. Because this section is a summary of the rest of the plan this is
the one you will write last.
• This section is all about getting your investor excited in 5 minutes. Do
not try to cover everything. Keep it short and to the point. There are
four things that you need to cover:
• who you are
• what you sell
• how big and profitable it can get
• how much you need
• Business Overview
• Market Overview
• Financial Highlights

12. Vision
Mission

13. Objectives – are specific actions and
timelines for achieving the goal.

15. The Company
The Company
(Brief History) The objective of this section is to introduce the
company and its management. The content of this section will vary
slightly depending if you already have a business or if you are
starting a new venture. Structure & Ownership, Location, and
SWOT Analysis (Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the
business and product or service, the opportunities that exist in the
marketplace, and the threats to the viability of the project. This is
best done in a matrix diagram).

16. Products and Services
• The key to writing a good product and services
section is to be precise about the product or
service you sell, the client you are targeting and
the channel you are targeting him through. After
this section your reader will start thinking about
how big, how crowded and how profitable your
market is and try to guess what the overall strategy
is going to be.
• include pictures of your products.
• USP

19.  A market analysis is a quantitative and qualitative assessment
of a market. It looks into the size of the market both in
volume and in value, the various customer segments and
buying patterns, the competition, and the economic
environment in terms of barriers to entry and regulation.
What is a market analysis?
The objectives of the market analysis section are to show the
investors that: you know your market the market is large
enough to build a sustainable business.
This section covers market research and competitor analysis.
It must demonstrate that there is a viable market and that you
can beat the competition in the market for sales.

20. Target Market
The target market is the type of customers you target within the
market. Geographic, Demographic, Psychological, and
behavioural segmentation The market to which you are
planning to sell the product or service. Characteristics of
potential customers in each segment .
Market Trends
Analyse what is happening in the market: Recent changes,
Future predictions, Drivers such as demographic changes,
economic and legislative factors, Implications for your product
or service, Your plans to meet future demands and changes in
the market.

21. Market Need
This section is very important as it is where you show your potential investor that you
have an intimate knowledge of your market. You know why they buy! (bases from
market research)
1. Price
2. Functionality and convenience
3. Reliability and sustainability
4. Risk reduction
5. Accessibility
6. Experience
7. Design
8. Efficiency
9. Performance
10. Transparency
11. Terms
13. Integration and compatibility
14. Information
15. Variety of Options

22. Competition
The aim of this section is to give a fair view of who you are
competing against. You need to explain your competitors'
positioning and describe their strengths and weaknesses. The
idea here is to analyse your competitor's angle to the market in
order to find a weakness that your company will be able to use
in its own market positioning.
Profile of Competitors
Analysis of your competitors in the market: What are the
competing products and services? Profile of key players
(company size, turnover, profitability etc) and their market share
Advantages and disadvantages of the competitors’ offerings

23. Competitive Advantage
This is your assessment of why potential customers will choose
to buy your product in place of those profiled above.
Advantages may include: Unique features, Price, New
technologies or systems , Better value to customers in terms of
efficiency.
Benefits to Clients
This is what your product or service provides to potential
customers in terms of their own business goals. Does your
product or service enable them to: Save money? Save time?
Maximise resources? Reduce errors?
Reduce downtime? Improve Customer Service, reduce churn,
increase loyalty? What will buying your product or service
actually do for the customer?

24. Barriers to Entry
This section is all about answering the questions from your
investors: What prevents someone from opening a shop?
Here are a few examples of barriers to entry:
Investment (a project that requires a substantial
investment)
Technology
Regulation (licences)
Access to resources (exclusivity with suppliers,
proprietary resources)
Access to distribution channels (exclusivity with
distributors, proprietary network)
Location

25. Marketing Plan
This section sets out your strategies for reaching your
target market, arousing their interest in your product or
service, and actually delivering the product or service to
them in sales.
Marketing Sales Strategy
How you will sell your product or service to the target
market. Directly, Retail, Distributor, Agent, Sales rep,
Website
State the advantages of the methods you have chosen to
sell your product or service.

26. 7 P’s
1. Price
How you will set the price charged for your product or
service.
2. Place
3. Promotion. How you will promote your product or
service in the marketplace. Ex: Advertising – where, when,
how, to whom, Public relations, Direct marketing, Website
and internet marketing, Exhibitions and conferences,Word
of mouth, etc.
4. Product
5. Packaging
6. People
7. Positioning

27. Operational Plan
State the physical requirements of the
business: Premises, Equipment,
Production facilities, Infrastructure,
Communications facilities, Costs
involved, and Suppliers.

28. Organizational Plan
Forms of Ownership
Sole Proprietorship
Partnership
Corporation
Cooperative
Organizational Structure
Management-Team Roles and Responsibilities

29. Financial Plan and Statements
Sales Forecast
Break-Even Analysis
Income Statement
Cash Flow Statement
Balance Sheet
Appendix
This is where you add any detailed piece of data or backup materials
you might have. The objective of the appendix section is to serve as a
reserve of materials that the investor can use either to investigate
certain areas of your business plan in more details or as a starting point
to do his due diligence.