Business Plan Formatting Tips

By: Eric Powers Click author's name for more of his/her articles

A business plan has a pre-defined format determined by years and years of standard practice. Before putting the content of your plan into this format there is a great deal of research and preparation to be done. However, using this format at the right time will put you on the right track by examining the document in the way that your intended audience (investors or lenders) will.

Preparation Before Formatting

After a business concept has been created, deeper research begins the business planning process. This research should be into the overall industry the business is in, the primary customer groups, and the primary competitors. It should also include research into marketing and operations methods which are standard (and non-standard) practice in the industry and the startup costs involved in the business. From this deeper research, the backbone of the plan is created which becomes the raw content you will use in your industry, customer, and competitive analysis sections. This research also presents an opportunity for you to choose to scrap the business idea if the hurdles appear too great.

The Right Time

The right time to put the content of your plan into business plan format is after this research is relatively complete. At this point you will be able to fill in most sections of the plan with a draft of the text. You will be able to read the plan from start to finish in the way you intend for funders to read it. By doing this you can better ask yourself whether the plan makes a logical progression through the ideas presented, whether certain information or definitions must appear earlier, and whether there is too much repetition or redundancy in the plan. Even if you have yet to make certain strategic decisions that will impact the marketing plan, operations plan, and hiring, using the business plan format will allow you to consider those sections in the greater context of what the funder is reading. This should help to guide you in making those decisions.

Business Plans Are Samples of Your Decision-Making

A business plan hopefully offers readers a complete understanding of the who, what, where, when, why and how of your business. However, it also offers them a look at you, personally. Assuming you plan to work as a key manager of the business, the plan shows readers a sample of your decision-making ability.

Being Decisive In a Business Plan

How, you may ask, can I be decisive in my business plan if there is so little information to go on about what my business must do? While it is true that any startup business must remain flexible to change its tactics as it learns more about the actual market situation it is in, business managers by their nature must be able to make decisions with incomplete information. Show that you can be decisive by presenting specific tactics you choose to pursue and why. This shows readers your confidence as well as your thinking process, allowing them to judge whether they would make the same decisions with the data you have at hand.

The danger of not being confident in your choices in your plan is that you may appear indecisive to readers. For example, if you include a huge list of marketing tactics or possible staff you may hire, readers see evidence of a writer who was able to copy lists of options from another source, but not a manager who realizes that the company cannot try and do everything.

Customer Targeting

Choosing specific customer target markets to pursue is one way to show your decision-making ability. After gathering information on the size of each customer market segment, considering how highly they will value your product or service, and examining how easily you will be able to market to each segment, you should be able to prioritize which to approach first. Although you may approach a few at the same time, be careful to take note it the marketing and operations methods required of this begin to contradict one another. If there are contradictions like this, readers will be turned off from your plan. Making specific choices like this based on the best data you can find is expected when running a business as well as when planning a business.

Article Source: ABC Article Directory

About The Author: Eric Powers is associated with Growthink, a business plan consulting firm. Since 1999, Growthink's business plan writers have developed more than 2,000 business plans. Call 800-506-5728 today for a free business plan consultation. If you're writing your own business plan, Growthink offers an easy business plan template to help you finish it faster.