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You have completed How to Write a Business Plan!
You have completed How to Write a Business Plan!
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Business plans come in various formats and now that we have understood what we're going to put in our plans, let's look at the different types of business plans we can write and when each one is appropriate.
Business Plan Formats
Short Formats
- Startup Pitch Decks - While this is not an introductory business plan, it covers a lot of different possible sections in a short amount of time.
- Business Plan Blueprint by Sequoia Capital
Detailed Format
- A Simple Guide To Writing A Business Plan by Entrepreneur Magazine South Africa. This covers a great business plan format for starting your business.
- Business Plan Overview Template by Forbes
Online Tools
- Business Plan Builder by the Small Business Administration
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[Pasan Premaratne] Business plans can be used for many different scenarios and the information that you put into it,
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and the format you use to present it will differ with each case.
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Let's look at some of the reasons we might use business plans.
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When starting a company, you can put a business plan together to help flash out your venture.
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You can also use this information to pitch to early investors.
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In such a business plan, you will want to focus on your value proposition,
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the customer segments, and projective revenues.
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You can use business plans for internal use to evaluate a new project for the company
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or to increase company efforts in an existing activity.
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Use in this way, the plan will focus more on cost structures and potential revenues.
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A strategic business plan is a very high level plan
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and is used mostly when communicating the big picture within an organization.
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For this purpose, we can leave our business model much the same way since it provides a great overall vision and direction.
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A feasibility plan is a business plan that is structured around a proposed business venture.
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It looks like that if there's a need for said venture whether there's a profitable customer segment
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and how much revenue the company can earn.
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As a result, much of the focus in this plan is on the value proposition, customer segments,
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and the revenue stream section of our business model.
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Operational business plans are used to monitor key company activities.
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These business plans will take a detail look at all the company activities along with associated costs and deadlines.
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Finally, you can have business plans that plan for growth in the company.
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These can be both for internal use or for pitching to investors when out looking for fun to spare this growth.
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The main sections covered here will be the cost structures, revenue streams, and the customer relationship activities.
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So, you see, a business plan can serve many purposes but rather than undertaking the task of creating
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each of these types separately by starting with our business model and exploring all the high level information,
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we can just pick the sections we need and then expand upon them to create our business plan.
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So, now, we're aware of some of the different kinds of business plans.
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Let's look at a couple different formats.
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The simplest format you might encounter or be asked to make is a slide deck.
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Slide decks are a lot more common now than they used to be and are much more welcome.
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No one wants to read a 30 page document. Now, my simple I mean the presentation of it is relatively simple.
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You don't spend much time on that but you still have to put in detailed information.
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Slide decks are mostly used when pitching to investors
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or when you want to convey the relevant information in a short period of time.
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Because of this, they're often called pitch decks as well.
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Slide decks are brief. Maybe 15 to 20 slides and contain the following information.
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You're going to start with your company purpose. Next, you're going to list your problem.
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This is the precursor to our value proposition.
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What are the customer pains and how does a customer address this pains?
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Let's talk about our solution next. Talk about your value proposition.
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Describe used cases if possible. Show demos through videos, prototypes, or initial markups.
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Next, we can talk about our market size.
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This is all the information from our customer segment section the business model.
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Drill down and provide some metrics here as well.
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We'll also want to go over existing competition.
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You should have all the necessary information here from the customer segment section as well.
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Let's talk about our product. Again, this is the value proposition but with much more low level details.
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Things like form, factor, functionality, development road map, and so on.
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We'll want to spend some time focusing on the business model.
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Let's do revenue model, your pricing mechanism, your sales and your distribution strategy, and your customer channels.
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Lots of startups include a team members in their slides deck as well.
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This includes their past experience, skill sets, and the strengths they are relevant to the startup.
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Now, sometimes we want to include our financials.
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If you're just starting out, you won't have any numbers for this section.
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Refrain from projecting while growth and revenue estimates because that's exactly what they are: projections.
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Instead, focus on your core revenue model.
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What is the size of the market and how much can you expect to get out of that market?
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And how do you intend to do it?
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Slide decks are a very simple way of putting in business plan together.
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You should put on together if you have the time because you can then send it to anyone who is interested in your business.
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I've included some links to decent slide deck formats that you can use moving forward.
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On the other end of the spectrum, you have the traditional business plan.
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These are half the documents that go over every inch of your company.
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You don't really have to go over the details of such a business plan
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because we've already gone over most of the information that we will need.
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The only thing different here is the format.
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Check out some of the resources provided with different kinds of format so you can get started writing all sorts of plans.
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So now you know how to put together a business plan. You should think of your business plans as more of a living document
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that is it can constantly change and needs to adopt to your business and not your business to it.
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But, remember the advice we started out with.
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If you're just getting started with your business,
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spend more time in the real world, doing things rather than at your desk planning away.
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