Business Plan Writing

Our startup business plan is a comprehensive document that will set the foundation for your company’s success. It covers all aspects of your business, including a situation analysis, detailed financial information and a strategic marketing plan.

Startup plans serve two purposes: internally, they provide a step-by-step guide that you and your team can use to start a business and generate results on day one. Externally, they prove the validity of your business concept to banks, venture capitalists and investors, whose capital you’ll likely need to make your entrepreneurial dreams a reality.

Elements of the startup business plan that we will produce for you include the followings:

• Executive summary: Write a brief synopsis of your company’s concept, potential audience, product or services, and the amount of funding required.
• Company overview: Go into detail about your company’s location and its business goals. Be sure to include your company’s mission statement, which explains the “why” behind your business idea.
• Products or services: We will explain exactly what your business will offer to its customers. Include detailed descriptions and pricing.
• Situation analysis: We use market research to explain the competitive landscape, key demographics, and the current status of your industry.
• Marketing plan: We guide clients to discuss the strategies they’ll use to build awareness for their business and attract new customers or clients.
• Management bios: Here we tell them to introduce the people who will lead their company. Include bios that detail their industry-specific background.
• Financial projections: We often tell our clients to be transparent about startup costs, cash flow projections and profit expectations.

We often tell our clients not to be afraid to go into too much detail—a startup business plan can often run between ten to hundred plus pages long. Investors will expect and appreciate your thoroughness. However, we often advise our client if they have a hot new product idea and need to move fast, they can consider a lean business plan. It’s a popular type of business plan in the tech industry that focuses on creating a minimum viable product (MVP) first, then scaling the business from there.

Having done this many times over, we are thorough in how we craft an Internal Business Plan. Our experts know how and who to target with an organization’s Internal Business Plan. Often, Internal Business Plan targets a specific audience within the business. For example, the marketing team needs to evaluate a proposed project the organization wants to undertake.

Most times we create this document to describe the company’s current state, including operational costs and profitability. Our financial experts then calculate if and how the business will repay any capital needed for the project. When we are done with the Internal Business Plan, it provides information about project marketing, hiring and tech costs. The plan also typically includes a market analysis illustrating target demographics, market size and the market’s positive effect on the company income.

If a client has opened a coffee shop, and they know that the first store is just the start. Eventually, they may open multiple locations throughout their region. A Strategic Business Plan will serve as their guide, helping define their company’s direction and decision-making over the next three to five years.

We encourage every client to use a Strategic Business Plan to align all their internal stakeholders and employees around their company’s mission, vision and future goals. An entrepreneur or an organization’s strategic plan should be high-level enough to create a clear vision of future success, yet also detailed enough to ensure they reach their eventual destination.

Like a Start-Up Business Plan, when we write a Strategic Business Plan, we make sure to include:

• An executive summary
• A company overview
• Your mission and vision statements
• Market research
• A SWOT analysis
• Specific, measurable goals you wish to achieve
• Strategies to meet those goals
• Financial projections based on those goals
• Timelines for goal attainment

Every entrepreneur fear failure which can be a good thing in business at times. In guiding our client in writing a Feasibility Business Plan, we often tell them that nothing is guaranteed until their business concept is tested and proven that it can fly. We make them understand that a feasibility business plan answers two primary questions about a proposed business venture: Who, if anyone, will purchase the service or product they want to sell, and If the venture can turn a profit. You see, our Feasibility Business Plan will include, but are not limited to, sections describing the need for the product or service, target demographics and required capital. The Feasibility Business Plan that we will create will end with recommendations for going forward. If we feel that the concept will not work, we will bluntly tell you one of two things, YES move forward, or NO wait and re-innovate your concept.

We sometimes referred to a Feasibility Business Plan, a decision-making plan because it helps our clients understand the viability of offering a new product or launching into a new market. This business plan is typically internal and focuses on answering two more critical questions: Does the market exist, and will the client make a profit from it? We tell clients to use a Feasibility Business Plan externally, too, if they need funding to support your new product or service.

We often do not include high-level, strategic information about the client’s organization, their Feasibility Business Plan will be much shorter and more focused than a startup business plan. More often, our clients’ Feasibility Business Plans typically include:

• A description of the new product or service you wish to launch
• A market analysis using third-party data
• The target market, or your ideal customer profile
• Any additional technology or personnel needs required
• Required capital or funding sources
• Predicted return on investment
• Standards to objectively measure feasibility
• A conclusion that includes recommendations on whether or not to move forward

Our Operations Business Plan often helps clients do just that. This internally focused document will explain how the leadership team and their employees will propel the company forward. It mainly includes specific responsibilities for each department, such as human resources, finance, and marketing.

When we sit with clients to write an Operations Business Plan, we use their organization’s overall goals as our guide. During the writing process, we then consider how each area of their business will contribute to those goals of profitability, growth, sustainability, and continuity. In writing the Operation Business Plan we always include the following things:

• A high-level overview of your business and its goals
• A clear layout of key employees, departments and reporting lines
• Processes you’ll use (i.e., how you’ll source products and fulfill orders)
• Facilities and equipment you’ll need to conduct business effectively
• Departmental budgets required
• Risk management strategies that will ensure business continuity
• Compliance and legal considerations
• Clear metrics for each department to achieve
• Timelines to help you reach those metrics
• A measurement process to keep your teams on track

We sometimes called Growth Business Plan an expansion plan. This form of business plan will help an organization see one to two years into the future. Creating a Growth Plan lets clients see how far—and how fast—they can scale their business. It lets them know what they’ll need to get there, whether it’s funding, materials, people, or property.

We tell clients that the audience for their Growth Business Plan will depend on their expected sources of capital. If they’re funding their expansion from within, then the audience is internal. If they need to attract the attention of outside investors, then the audience is external.

Since it is much like a Start-Up Business Plan, the Growth Business Plan should be rather comprehensive, especially if the people reviewing it aren’t familiar with the company. We normally include the following items to clients’ Growth Business Plan:

• A brief assessment of your business’s current state
• Information about your management team
• A thorough analysis of the growth opportunity you’re seeking
• The target audience for your new venture
• The current competitive landscape
• Resources you’ll need to achieve growth
• Detailed financial forecasts
• A funding request
• Specific action steps your company will take
• A timeline for completing those action steps

Another helpful thing we include in a Growth Business Plan is a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. A SWOT analysis will help the client to evaluate their performance, and that of their competitors. Including this type of in-depth review will show their investors that they’re making an objective, data-driven decision to expand their business. This analysis helps to build investors’ confidence and trust.