Your Business Plan

Let’s talk business plans. It’s boring, daunting and makes business feel like a scary 9 foot business man with a stoic face , when in fact, it’s just a smart little NORMAL lady like us, with a tailored suit.

70% of businesses don’t have a business plan, and of those businesses 60% will fail within the first two years.  Even if you’ve already started your business, it’s still beneficial to do a business plan. Whether for yourself, or if you’re presenting it to potential investors.

There are a ton of free resources for the boring parts of business including business planning, but the most common reason we fail to plan our businesses is because we don’t know where to begin.

Below are the basic sections of a business plan — and even further below I will give you a couple more resources for planning. Anyone can do it, this is the MOST BARE BONES I could possibly give you, but really think about all these things and as always, I’m here if you have questions or comments.

What’s in a Business Plan:

• What is your mission?
• What is your product or service
• How is your business different than the next guy’s?
• A Market analysis – your competition and what share of the market you think you can secure (ex: wal mart owns 90% of the retail market, I can secure 1% the retail market with my boutique business)
• Description of your team or key players in your business and their experience
• Your marketing plan — how will people find out about you and how will you get them to buy your product
• SWOT analysis (Your firm’s Strengths , weaknesses , opportunities &  threats)
• A cash flow statement
• Revenue projections
• Summary/Conclusion