Writing Business Plan What Is a Business Plan? Why do You need? Table of contents Describe Introduce Products or Services Unique selling points Management Marketing Marketing Mix Promotional Strategy Future Growth and Expansion Key Success Factors Financial documents Mistake to avoid

1. Writing Business plan
“You’ve got to be careful if you don’t
know where you’re going because you
might not get there.”
—Yogi Berra

2. Business plan
By writing this type of plan, you’ll gain a thorough understanding of all
aspects of your business.
What Is a Business Plan?
• The business plan is your sales tool. Make sure that you know what
you are using this tool for and take time to develop it.
• A business plan is a written statement that describes and analyzes
your business and gives detailed projections about its future.
• A business plan also covers the financial aspects of starting or
expanding your business—how much money you need and how
you’ll pay it back.

3. Why What Is a Business Plan?
You need Business Plan?
Helps You Get Money
•
• Helps You Decide to Proceed or Stop
• Improve Your Business
• Order own ideas. Checklist important aspects, Study
feasibility,
• Gives direction to business development, Reference for
operational plans
• Reference for results, Be able to react quick on new
developments
• Internal partners, External partners
• Financiers

4. Business plan
Who
• Entrepreneur, team, network
Why
• Motivation, objectives
What
• Product, services, market
How
• Strategy, organisation, finances

5. What business should I start?
• Know Your Business
• Be Sure You Like Your Business
My note:
• I don’t believe any business exists that is so foolproof
that anyone can enter and make a sure profit. On the
other hand, a skilled, dedicated owner often can make
a venture successful when others have failed.
Remember, your potential customers will exchange
their money only for the conviction that you are giving
them their money’s worth. And that means you’ll need
to know what you’re doing. While this point should
appear obvious, sadly—it isn’t.

6. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Front page, Executive summary, Table of content
1.Information about entrepreneur
2.Business description
3.Market review
4.Product/service
5.Marketing and selling strategy
6. Production and supply
7. Management and organization
8. Future growth and development
9. Success and risk factors
10. Financial plan
11. Annex

7. Describe Your Business - Where do
you go ?
• Motivation:
– Why are you starting the company?
• Vision:
– What do you see as promising future situation for your
company?
• Mission:
– What contribution will your company give to the
community / clients
• Objectives:
– Identify Your Type of Business , Reaching the market
– Start to writing step by step

8. Introduce entrepreneur
• Introduce yourself
• Motivation for start up business
• Describe your roll in implementation of
the plan
• Your specific experience
• Experience in entrepreneurship and
management

9. Company Profile
• What is company profile?
• It is a snapshot of your business and who is involved in it. There
include: form of business, owners, business description, location etc.
Basic Questions:
1) What general type of business is this?
2) What is the status of the business? Start-up, expansion or takeover?
3) What is the business form?
4) What are your products?
5) Who are (will be) your customers?

10. Products or Services
• In many cases it is not just a service or a product you
are providing but both.
• What is it?
– Describe every product that You sell. That is your product
mix
– Describe key characteristics of the product and how it is
different of competition (function, permanence, easy to
use, ...)
– Describe key characteristics of the service and benefit for
costumer
– Describe protection of your products/services, patents,
copyright and so on

11. Products or Services
Basic Questions:
1) What products/services are you (will you be) selling?
2) What are the features and benefits of what you sell?
3) What Position do you have (or want to have) in the market?
4) How do your products/services differ from the competition?
5) What makes your products unique and desirable?
6) Why do (will) customers buy from you?

12. Unique selling points
• Offering more costumer value than competing
products
• Providing specific costumer benefits
• Satisfying needs and solving problems
• Distinguishing your company from your
• Competitors
• Why should a potential costumer buy your product
rather than that of one of your competitors

13. Management
• This is a description of the people who will
provide the expertise required to run your
business.
Do!!
• Job descriptions, detailed listings and roles
and responsibilities!!!!

14. Marketing
Basic Questions:
1)Who are the purchasers of your products or type
of products?
2) What is the size of the market? Is it growing?
3) What is (will be) your share? How will your share
change over time?
4) Are there segments of users who are underserved by competition?
5) Do any of these under-served segments present
opportunities? Etc.

15. Marketing Mix
•
•
•
•
Product
Price,
Place (distribution), and
Promotion.

16. Promotional Strategy
What do I include?

17. Promotional Strategy
Costs
•
•
•
•
Readership
Target market profile
Distribution coverage
Distribution frequency of the chosen
promotional mediums etc.

18. Promotional Strategy
Place
How will your method of distribution affect:
1. Sales
2. Service
3. Promotion
4. Timing
5. Economics

19. Promotional Strategy
Pricing
• Price is a function of your costs, competition and
customers. Your customers must have a desire, willingness
and ability to pay for your product or service.
• Pricing Strategy
–
•
•
–
–
What do I include?
Pricint fot a service: labour, overhead, profit margin
Pricint fot a product: labour, overhead, materials, profit margin
Pricing considerations: Low, medium, high
Client's perception of value

20. Pricing Strategies
Pricing Strategies
1.What will be your pricing strategies?
2.How will you compare with competition and
how will they respond?
3.Why will customers pay your price?
4.What will be your credit policies?
5.Is there anything about your business which
insulates you from price competition? etc

21. Target marketing and reaching the
market
• Before you target you must do reaching the market!
– You have described the market, identified your target
segment and analyzed the competition; now you need to
show how you will reach the market.
• A target market is a homogeneous group of potential
customers that have both a need and a willingness to pay for
the business' product or service.
• Target include:
• consumer demographics,
• psychographics,
• business demographics and psychographics etc.

22. Research
Advice:
Be concrete, use annex statistic data, numbers
and data sources

23. Promotional Strategy
Competition
• This is a thorough analysis of both direct and indirect
competitors.
• Your analysis must identify the strengths and weaknesses of
the competitors.
• Competition research and strategy must include?
• YOUR COMPETITION
•
•
•
•
•
•
Hours of Operation,
Product/Service description,
Customer profile,
Pricing,
Marketing/Advertising,
Strengths/weaknesses - why do customers buy from them? Etc.

24. Competition
Factor
Product
Price
Quality
Service
Selling methods
Reputation
Advertising
Image
Location
My
company
Strengths
Weaknesses
Competitor 1
Competitor 2
Importance for
customer

25. Promotional Strategy
Basic Questions:
1) Who are (will be) your largest competitors?
List them.
2) How will your operation be better (and
worse) than your competitors?
3) How are competitors doing? What are their
sales and profits?
4) How will competition respond to your market
entry?

26. Selling plan
Jan.
Sold units A
Price per unit A
Total A
Sold units B
Price per unit B
Total B
Total for month
Feb. Mart
April
May
Jun
Total

27. Future Growth and Expansion
• How will your business grow in the next year, next 2
years and next 3 years
–
–
–
–
Staff
Number of clients
Turnover
Other resources
It is important to be able to understand the needs of
your business as it grows

28. Key Success Factors
•
•
•
•
•
Listening to the voice of the customer
Building a team working environment
Striving for continuous improvement
Failing to plan means planning to fail
Understanding financial implications of laws
and tax regime

29. Key Risk Factors (swot)
Internal Risks
• Inability to create a client base
• Sustainability is difficult to
achieve in the beginning
• Loosing key people of the
company
• Staff are not skilled
• Key positions within the
company can not be filled with
staff
External Risks
• Beware of competition – they
are watching you very closely
• Economic instability can affect
your business
• New government regulations
could be introduced
• Sales go down due to low
purchasing power

30. Financial documents
Basic Questions:
1) What is the total investment required?
2) How will the loan or investment be used?
3) How will the loan or investment make the
business more profitable?
4) When will the loan be repaid?

31. Key documents of Financial plan
Key documents of Financial plan
Break-even Point
Profit & Loss Statement
Balance Sheet
Cash flow

32. Financial documents - Cash Flow
• It is the actual money that is collected from sales and the actual
money that is paid out for expenses on a monthly basis.
• A cash flow statement takes the predictions and estimates that
you have determined in your business plan and transfers them to a
comprehensive financial statement.
• What do I include?
SOURCES OF CASH
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sales
Loans
Equity Investments
USES OF CASH
Expenses to be paid
Start-up Costs

33. Financial documents - Break-even
Analysis
Break even (B/E) analysis is a simple, but very effective financial feasibility
test. B/E is used to find the amount of sales necessary to pay all fixed
costs (and have zero income.) In your business plan, it represents a
minimum acceptable performance.
Follow these steps to calculate:
1) Determine Contribution Margin Percent. Contribution Margin (CM) equals
Sales minus
2) Variable Expenses. CM% equals CM dollars divided by Sales.
Note: The biggest variable expense is usually Cost of Goods Sold (CGS),
which is the direct material and labor necessary to make a product or
service ready for sale.
3) List and total all Fixed Expenses for a specific time period (usually one
month.) Fixed expenses do not rise or fall with sales volume. Examples:
rent, insurance, utilities, etc.
4) Break Even Sales is Fixed Expenses divided by Contribution Margin %.

34. Price
Breakeven Point – point where Revenues match the Costs and the
business has no profit and no losses
R
nu
ve
e
es
Break- even
point
P
Cost
iable
Var
Fixed Cost
n
Number of Units Sold

35. Financial documents - Balance
Sheet
• The Balance Sheet is the financial statement that
reports the assets, liabilities and net worth of a
company at a specific point in time. Assets represent
the total resources of a company, which may shrink
or increase depending on the results of operations.
Assets are listed in liquidity order - ease of
converting into cash.

36. Financial documents - Profit & Loss projection
1)Sell
0
100%
Direct costs of working force
0
%
Materials costs
0
%
Other direct costs
0
%
2) Total costs of sold goods
0
%
3) Brutto Profit (1-2)
0
%
Selling and marketing costs
0
%
General and administrative costs
0
%
4) Total operational costs
0
%
5) Net operational profit (3-4)
0
%
Depreciation
0
%
Other revenues
0
%
Other costs
0
%
Costs of interest fees
0
%
6) Total other revenues/costs
0
%
7) Net profit before taxes (5-6)
0
%
8) Profit tax
0
9) Net profit /loss (7-8)
0
%

37. Financial documents - Balance Sheet
Assets
EUR
Liabilities
EUR
Current assets
Current liabilities
Cash
Debts
Accounts receivable
Acrual liabilities
Inventory
Short-term loan
Total current assets
Part of long-term debt
Capital assets
Total current liabilities
Long-term liabilities
Vehicles
Total liabilities
Office equipment
Capital
Fabric equipment
Land and buildings
Private capital
Minus: Accumulate depreciation
Retained profit
Total Capital assets
Total capital
Total assets
Total Liabilities + Capital

38. Cash flow
The most important financial document
It is your alarm for liquidity
Cash is King!

39. Financial documents
Important Appendix :
• supporting Documents Historical financial
statements, tax returns, resumes, reference
letters, personal financial statements, facilities
diagrams, letters of intent, purchase orders,
contracts

40. Mistake to avoid
• NO Cover Sheet or Table of Contents
• Poor organization – follow the outline, don’t
rely on business plan software
• Poorly researched
• Poorly defined customers or competition
• Unrealistic assumptions of costs & sales
• Inconsistencies, financials must agree with
text

41. Writing Business plan
Conclusion and workshop

42. GOOD LUCK!!

43. Q&A

44. Writing Business plan
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