Businesses have to make future plans in order to develop a strong and efficient business structure to cope with changes and market groups that can fluctuate any time. Gathering information and data with the help of useful resources and past collections of customer information will help businesses plan further their next step of process. Businesses need business plans to make sure everything will be done correctly and accurately on time. Since time is money for businesses, they have to make sure everything will be done on time, not exceeding the time limit. For new businesses or start ups, they have to make and create a good business plan that contains all information that are needed and are true. Businesses make business plans to remind themselves of goals they have to achieve and the amount of expenses they will have to use to make or create something. With a business hand, neatly made in hand, businesses can allocate resources and predict future plans and actions that can be beneficial to a business. Also, with a business plan, a business can predict actions and alternatives that might be harmful to a business. In order to prevent harmful defections, a business has to write and add essential information into a business plan to ensure safety both to itself, workers, and customers. People might believe business plans are only for startups; however, business plans are very healthy and helpful for running businesses. Whether or not a business needs investment or loans, it is vital and critical for businesses to prepare a business plan, always. According to priorities, businesses can grow and develop themselves through optimized plans. Major questions are “Is there a standard business plan?” Well, the real answer is “It depends.” Plans must have basic components that will later be provided below. However, situations of different businesses can result in different plans.
A business plan has standards and main components. The main components of a business plan are executive summary, business overview, operation overview, market analysis, products and services, sales and marketing, management team, competitive analysis, financial plans, and projections. All of the components make up a good business plan which will further project and predict a business’s future progress. There are two types of business plans, brick and mortar business plan and home-based business plan. The two have different uses and objectives. From their names, it is obvious that brick and mortar business plans are generally for businesses that operate in places and locations while home-based business plans are for businesses done at home that usually needs detailed information and data analysis.
An executive summary contains an overview look of a business. Its products, aims, objectives, features, and other essential information like staffs can also be included. However, an executive should not be too long to make things boring. For an overview of a business, it is important to focus products and services as well as their features. First, describe mainly what a business is about, what it is selling, and what the objectives are. Operation overview is simply just an overview of how things are done in a business. Production plans and operation plans can be included in this section. Market analysis is very important in a business plan as well. Market analysis includes expected target groups and market groups in the market. In this section, it is important to jot down and point out all data and information about customers and buyers. The market size, growth rate, market profitability, industry cost structure, market trends, and distribution channels are main components of a market analysis. Products and services have to be explained in detail in a business plan. Since products and services are what businesses sell, they have to make sure what they write down is true and that the information entered should be persuasive and beneficial. Sales and marketing is also an important section in a business plan. This section has to include information about expected or predicted sales and real amount of sales in a yearly basis. Management team refers to staffs, employees, and administrators. In a business, it is important to give credits to those who are responsible in working different jobs. Employees, managers, workers, and administrators are important and all businesses need them to be successful. Human resources are one of the most important factors in business. Without human resources, operations and progresses would not be made. Machinery cannot work unless humans control them and tell them what to do. Competitive analysis includes brief information about competitors in a current market. Financial plans include information about expected sales and money needed to go to the expenses list. Projections are of course predictions of actions and plans that will lead a business to success.