How To Write A Traditional Business Plan

A properly written traditional business plan catches the eyes of potential investors, employees, and other interested parties. With compelling information and attention to detail, you’re able to set clear goals for your business while also attracting investment. Who wouldn’t want that? But the problem is business planning. How do you write a traditional business plan? Look no further, as this is the ultimate guide for you to learn from. So, stay tuned for all the tips and tricks to writing an effective business plan.

Executive Summary

The first thing that you have to add to your business plan is the executive summary. While it may be the first component of your business plan, you must try to write it at the very end. Generally, people write the summary after reading and assessing the entire story, so why not do the same for your business plan? It will give you a better idea as to what to write in it.

As you write your executive summary, make sure to keep in mind that this is where you add the highlights. Don’t get into excessive details at this point. If any potential investors need more details, they will ask you for it. Your executive summary is often used as a single document as it contains all the major highlights of your business.

You need to ensure that there is sufficient data in there that will capture any potential investors’ interest. Focusing on the following three aspects in the executive summary will surely help you do this

 

Nothing better than real-world examples. To find out more about Business Plan problems and solution check out our case studies

 

Here, you will talk about the details about your business in regards to what it does. By this, we mean that you add details as to what problems your business caters to. Since every business promises a solution for something, this is the place where you highlight it all. Grab the attention of your readers at this stage.

The focus here will be on how your business is the ultimate solution for a particular problem. With clarity and to-the-point description in your executive summary, you will make your readers want to know more about your business. This section will also further clarify to who you wish to offer your goods or services. This means you need to have a clear idea about your target market.

Go over items such as the demographics of your target market, along with their psychographics. Each of these is important for you to clarify in your traditional business plan’s executive summary. Along with this, you will have to add a portion enlisting your competitors as well. This is crucial to the business plan as almost every business out there has some direct or indirect competition.

Team

Next, your investors will be interested in who’s working with you. Once they look at the experienced and highly trained team, they will surely have a more positive outlook towards your business. The trick is to essentially have a good team that you can showcase in your business plan. Other than that, while writing down your team members, you can add the relevant qualifications and experience about them as well. Doing so will surely prove to be highly essential for the business in terms of investment perspective.

Financials

Lastly, in the executive summary, you will have to add an overview of your business’s financial situation. To do this, you should first have a complete set of forecasts and finance projections made beforehand. This will assist you with your financial plan that will be a major chunk of your business plan.

With the data on hand, you have to pick up the most relevant financial details that interest the investors. These include what financial goals you set in meeting your sales when you will break even, how profitable the business is expected to be, and how much investment is required at your end.

Execution

The first bit of your traditional business planning explains what your business aims to do. Things change as it moves to the second part of the business plan, where you’re required to explain how you plan on achieving your goals. This is where you clarify your marketing, sales, operations, and other mechanisms that you will incorporate as you go to execute your plans.

Marketing And Sales

In this segment, you will add all the relevant details to map out how you will communicate to your target market. Marketing is a form of communication in which you need to be precise about what measures to take as you venture to create your brand’s awareness. Choose methods, mediums, and channels that you will use to put your business out there in front of the target audience.

Marketing channels can incorporate social media, advertising, traditional methods, and so much more. The channel you use depends on what your target market is. If your target is Gen-Z, you want to use platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to get their attention.

This isn’t all that you add here. You also want to make sure that the details of your sale are clarified here. Make sure to lay out what measures that your team will take to achieve the sales that you’ve planned out for your business. Talk about what processes your team will follow to get the leads and close sales.

Operations

The operations of your business will include the various processes that your business goes through. For instance, a manufacturing business will have a different list of operations to follow instead of a mail-order business. You will have to first define what type of business you are and then get into the operations’ details.

Here, you will assess the various processes that your business requires. This means how your everyday operations will look like. You will have to cover what facilities you will use, the process you use to procure goods and more.

Milestones And Metrics

The last things that you will have to take a look at and add to your business plan are the milestones and metrics for the execution bit. While your traditional business plan will have all the relevant details about your business, you will need a specific timing set to meet these requirements. For instance, if you wish to achieve a certain amount of sales, then what is the time you will need for this?

Add milestones in your business plan to assess when you intend to achieve a particular goal. Moreover, you will also have to measure key metrics to assess your business’s overall performance in your planning.

Company

The next part of your traditional business plan will incorporate details about the structure of your business. Here, you will talk about the entire team behind the business and how the hierarchal structure is like.

Overview And Structure

Initially, you will have to talk about what the basis of your business is like. This will include what legal entity it is known as. Is your business a limited liability company (LLC), a partnership, or something else? Clarify these details here while also expanding on where your business is located, what facilities are in use and other relevant business specifications.

Team

In the other half, you will introduce the team working on board with the business. It is a highly essential part of your plan, as this is where you’re able to attract potential investors. By telling your story here, you can explain the importance of funding for your business. List your qualifications and the relevant experience here to capture the attention of the readers.

You will have to specify the key roles that each team member plays in the business. If you’re a startup, then you might not have a wide team working with you, but that’s okay. All you need to do is ensure that each member’s roles are mentioned clearly along with their qualifications.

Financial Plan

Now, it is time to talk about the real deal- the finances. Your business needs a certain set of financial planning that will allow it to achieve its finance goals. With CFO services on board, you can ensure that your financial planning goes exceptionally well throughout your business.

For your financial plan to be effective, you will have to cover two aspects: forecasting and financing. Each of these elements is essential for the business, so you will need to be careful about the application of each.

Forecast

Building a financial model in excel is essential to get all your forecasts on point for your business. Startups aren’t fully equipped with the right set of workers, so it is best to outsource this work to professionals. Seek professional CFO services so that you have no problems when it comes to forecasting for your traditional business plan.

Generally, traditional business plans have forecasts of up to five years. Here, various financial statement elements are covered, such as sales, expenses, profits, assets, liabilities, and more. Most of the time, entire financial models are created to make financial planning much more effective.

Financing

The next part of the financial plan in business planning is to seek financing. Not every business requires this. However, if you’re a startup, then there is a fair chance that you will require financing. You will have to add in all the relevant details here, such as how much financing you will require for your business, whether you will require loans, investments, or other financing aspects.

Appendix

Lastly, we have the appendix that will be the final part of your traditional business plan. Here, you will attach all the relevant documents that will support the details of your business plan. These include the financial forecasts, financial models, projections, and other necessary documents for your business.

It’s better to always have the basic documents in your appendix as potential investors always look at it for the details. In case you’re not sure about how to follow through with all these steps, you should let a professional handle your business plan for you.

Bottom Line

You want to make sure to write an effective business plan. To do so, you need to have the right skills as well. While it may seem simple to put together a business plan, it requires a huge amount of research and analysis. If you’re a startup or any other business looking for someone to do your business planning, then we have the right

answer for you.
We, at Oak Business Consultants, are experts in offering consultation on such matters. Our skilled team ensures to deliver effective business plans according to your business requirements. Visit our website at Oak Business Consultant and get a free consultation.