The main sections of the business plan. Quick guide

We offer you a short cheat sheet that will help you correctly compose the most important sections of a business plan. Do not forget that all its points must be regularly reviewed and adjusted - based on changing conditions and the company's development strategy.

In the article you will learn:

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The project summary is one of the most important sections of a business plan.

In the summary - the whole essence of the project on two sheets of A4 format. You send it to the investor after the first meeting with him to arrange a meeting and find out how interesting the project is for him. If the project summary is of interest to the investor, he will request a business plan and make an appointment. Therefore, the main purpose of the resume is to briefly outline the main provisions of the business plan you have developed, so that the person reading the resume understands the main content of the project in 5 minutes. That is why the structure of this section should be as concise as possible, but at the same time meaningful.

Your resume must:

1. Formulate SMART goals and work out SMART planning to achieve them, as well as determine the criteria that a smart goal must meet. (goals must be formulated according to SMART ).
2. Describe your current products or services and tell about the launch of new directions.
3. Conduct a comparative analysis of competitors briefly and talk about your differences from them.
4. Specify the planned financial indicators (information about the forecast sales volumes for the coming years, production costs, gross profit, the level of profitability (profitability) of investments, etc.), indicate the timing of the return on investment.
5. Indicate the required amount of investment and briefly say what it will be spent on.

Market analysis in the context of the overall business plan of the enterprise

In fact, this section begins the main content of your business plan . In terms of content, market analysis comes right after the summary, and this chapter should briefly tell the investor about your market and its development prospects. Therefore, in this section it will be necessary to present the results of marketing research of the market itself and indicate:

the life cycle of the market of the studied product category;
the dynamics of sales in the industry over the past three years and the predicted rates of their growth (a three-year retrospective of data will make it possible to more accurately build a forecast model);
main market pricing trends;
the result of a comprehensive analysis of competitors, both direct and indirect, indicating their strengths and weaknesses;
market segments that your company will focus on with a buyer portrait schedule;
an overall assessment of the impact of scientific, technical, social and economic components when entering the market (the so-called PEST analysis );
promising market opportunities.

Goods and services that you plan to transfer

In the current section of the business plan, it is necessary to tell in detail about the planned production of a new product or service so that the reader can form his own opinion about it and its prospects, understand the distinguishing features from competitors and USP - a unique selling proposition. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on differences from competitors and how you will satisfy customer needs with a new product / service. Describe the features of the product / service, the contexts of their consumption and the properties that are attractive to customers. This will help emphasize the prospects of the product and its uniqueness, as well as show how you will stand out from your competitors.

Enterprise marketing strategy and market entry

This is one of the most important sections of a business plan, as many lenders and investors believe that the success of a new venture or the launch of new products and services is directly dependent on the marketing plan and strategy (and they do it absolutely correctly).

It is in this section that the planned sales volume and reaching the break-even point are signed. Here it will also be necessary to indicate all tasks for all elements of the marketing mix with a schedule of what should be done, by whom, when and what resources will be required for this. The main points of the marketing strategy plan are:

a program of comprehensive market research that is supposed to be carried out during the implementation of the project, in addition to directly analyzing the market and its segmentation, further quantitative and qualitative research will have to be carried out, which will confirm and correct, if necessary, the concept of a new product, its positioning and promotion plan. It is also important to note that under the agile development of new projects it is necessary to constantly develop your product only on feedback from users in short iterations (sprints), therefore, in essence, marketing research is a continuous process throughout the entire product and market life cycle;
total volume and range of products sold, broken down by project period up to capturing the planned market share;
product positioning. You need to answer as briefly and clearly as possible what the product is and for whom it is intended in order to convey this idea in advertising messages to your audience in the future;
directions for product improvement - it is necessary to formulate hypotheses for product improvements and modifications, and then check their relevance based on feedback from consumers;
requirements for design, packaging, its parameters and the appearance of the product, which must fit into the strategy of its positioning;
justification of the pricing policy: development of several product packages to enable customers to purchase it at different prices;
promotion. It is necessary to indicate how the company intends to achieve the planned sales volumes (creating a sales service for direct marketing or using a dealer network, distributors, intermediaries; number, qualifications of employees). Advertising plays an important role in the marketing of products. At the same time, it is important to determine which tools will be used for this purpose (press, mailing, etc.) and how they should interact with ongoing PR campaigns.
product distribution planning;
service planning.

An important point: if the company is going to produce several types of products, then the forecasts of sales volumes, prices and sales volumes must be made for each product, and then the sales volume is summed up to sum up the overall result.

Production plan

The cost price plays an important role, so the planned production process itself and all its components must be indicated in the business plan. Describe the technological processes, production capacities, features of the equipment involved in the production, raw materials, materials. Tell us also about your suppliers of raw materials and materials, and at what prices you cooperate with them. This information is critical to fully understanding your business and assessing its risks.

By the way, an important point for any company is how it communicates with its client after the sale is made. After all, most services / products have after-sales service (technical support), for which the client also pays. This point should also be indicated in this section of the business plan and indicate what resources will be needed for its implementation.

When developing a production plan, it will be necessary to describe in detail what exactly will be used - that is why it is necessary to indicate prices for raw materials, equipment, staff salaries, patenting, etc. Here it is important to correctly determine the volume of production by years and by quarters, since the costs of the enterprise will also depend on their level. The relevance of all further revenue plans will depend on the correct forecast of the volume of own costs. The results of the development of a production plan with a planning horizon of three years are recommended to be made in the form of a table for a more simplified and systematic understanding by an investor reading a business plan. The table should indicate:

projected output volume (in physical terms);
determination of the need for fixed assets (in value terms);
determination of the need for resources (raw materials, materials, components, fuel, energy). These indicators should be developed in physical terms and in monetary terms;
calculation of the need for human resources and labor costs;
cost estimates and product costing.

This data in the table will clearly show your need for spending for each year and help the investor understand the real need for money. .

Company management organization

In the general structure of the business plan, the section devoted to the organization of the company's management stands apart. It should evaluate the current team that you have, as well as determine the degree of need for new people and their qualifications when launching a new product or service. Ultimately, it is people who determine the success of a company, so the result depends on their knowledge and motivation. Investors understand this, so they carefully study the current composition of the team and the logic for recruiting people in the future. That is why this section must be carefully worked out.

In addition, the current organizational structure will show the investor how your business processes and interaction between departments and people are built. It will be useful if you show the investor here how it works for you people, you indicated the costs in the production plan, so here you need to reveal the mechanism for motivating and encouraging people.

Capital and legal form of the enterprise

In the general structure of the content of the business plan, this section can not be given so much attention, but it is important to briefly and to the point tell what legal form you have, how shares are distributed among the participants in the company, who owns the right to vote, what sources of funding the company exists where they were brought from and under what conditions. Based on this information, the security service and the financial department of the investor will check you and issue a verdict on the advisability of working with you. Also, this information will show how the company has developed before, and who will be responsible for its development in the future after receiving new investments.

Financial section of the business plan

In the financial section, it is necessary, as its name suggests, to describe in detail the aspects of financial support for the activities of the enterprise and the algorithm for using funds based on current financial information and a forecast of the volume of sales of goods and services in the markets in subsequent periods. It is this section of the business plan that finally convinces the investor of the need to invest in your enterprise and the time frame for making a profit after their investment (as well as the time frame for the return on investment).

Predictive models are always the most risky part of a business plan due to their uncertainty, but they will show the options for developing your business in the future to the investor. Forecasts usually include pessimistic, neutral and optimistic scenarios, which are associated with various options for sales volume, supplier prices, exchange rates, etc. All this can change at any time, so financial forecasts should be multivariate.

Conclusion

You write a business plan, first of all, for yourself. The investor and their own employees also need it, but first of all you need it, so you yourself must write it. Don't pass it on to your subordinates or external consultants. A well-written and well-structured business plan will help you take a fresh look and evaluate your own vision of a new business; in the course of writing it, you will identify the main bottlenecks in the business model: you will understand the prospects of the direction itself, your advantages over competitors, and then, for through which you will win the love of buyers. Well, as an additional bonus, you will receive a document that will let subordinates understand what they are doing and will be doing, and the investor will form an opinion on giving money or not.