BlodgettVentures.com

Always start and run your business with a detailed business plan.

A good business plan is a living, working document that sets forth what we're planning to accomplish and how we're going to accomplish it. It will have a timetable, milestones, and lists of tasks and assignments. It will also contain a budget and forecast for investment, expenditures and revenues.

Greatly simplified, it's simply a list of what we are going to do and how and when we're going to do it. When I do a business plan, I get a standard 3-ring binder, (a big one). I put a cover sheet for Business Plan, the business name, and date. Next, I put the outline. After the outline, I put the plan narrative. Behind that are separate pages for each of the major headings from the outline. Next, I have a tab for "Exhibits." Your research, financial forecast and budgets, schedules and other exhibits will fit nicely behind these header pages. A business plan could contain hundreds of pages.

An excellent place to start off the planning process is with an outline of the plan elements. A business start-up or ongoing plan will usually contain at least the following ten sections:

Situation. This is a snapshot of where we are right now. It would include an overview of the thinking and activities that have led us to this point.

Services/Products. This is what we are selling.

Target Markets. This is industry, and more specifically, the market segments on which we focus our marketing efforts. The paths to these markets are called channels.

Collaborators. These are outside resources that we will utilize as our cheerleaders and external support system, such as groups to which we belong or plan to belong; we may have alliances with other consultants such as accountants and attorneys, who refer business; we may seek additional associations with public or political figures, or experts in the field whom we rely on for information and guidance.

Mission Statement. This is our reason for being in business and how we project that into the business community. It is also one of our first concrete steps into branding our business.

Competition. We identify who else is doing what we do, and we get a picture of how they are doing it. We also identify their apparent strengths and weaknesses. This could be in the form of a SWOT Analysis.

Marketing Strategies. The strategies we will employ to market our product/s, including pricing, promotion, public relations, packaging, positioning and distribution channels.

Implementation Timetable. This would be a list of date and accomplishment milestones.

Operating Plan. How we'll run the business, where we'll operate and how we plan to keep records, files and so on.

Financial Plan and Budget. This outlines quantitatively how much we have budgeted for startup costs, how much we will spend each month for operating and marketing, and how much revenue we plan to generate. This is usually projected for a minimum 3-year period.