Business Plan Checklist

Write a Business Plan, a detailed outline of what you plan to do and how you plan to achieve it, and one of the most important documents for your new venture. You’ve had this amazing, and you’re finally ready to take the big step to start a new business.

Before you do anything, you need to write a business plan. A business plan aims to determine the probability that a business idea will be successful in the marketplace.

Why write a business plan?

A place to set out your business proposition, identify the market you are aiming for, who your potential customers are and research of competitors in the market.

A business plan helps clearly identify the opportunity, what success will look like, and what you need to make it happen, and it can also be key document when talking to investors like angels, banks, and venture capitalists.

Ask yourself lots of questions:

• How will you make this new business succeed?
• How will you generate revenue?
• What will the overheads be?
• Industry standards or certifications needed?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses within the plan?
• Will you need staff?
• Who are your competitors?
• How will you stand out from the crowd? What makes you a better choice?
• How much potential profit could you make?

Important elements of a business plan like goals, strategies, marketing and sales, financial forecasts and management structure.

Writing and documenting your business plan on a computer or simply with a pen to paper can help identify problems you hadn’t previously considered. Identify priorities for launch and stages where additional ideas would start to be implemented to achieve the goals and objectives.

Define business goals, objectives and strategies

A business plan defines the business’s goals, objectives and strategies for achieving them.

Research has shown the writing a business plan makes your startup more likely to succeed.

Successful start-ups created their business plan a year to six months before starting their business. According to them, “writing a plan in this timeframe increased the probability of venture viability success by 8%.”

Business plans can identify “Where you are now?” “Where you want to get to?” and “How are you going to get there?”

It also gives you a great way of explaining your business idea to others especially potential investors.

Business Plan Checklist

Write a Business Plan

Define the Opportunity

Define and map out your products and services.

Define Unique Selling Point (USP)

What differentiates your products or services from competitors.

Research

Understand the market, potential market size and share and what competitive advantage to you have over competitors.

Competitive Analysis: How are you going to succeed despite established competitors?

Market analysis: Why will you succeed in this market?

Target Audience and market

Identify who, what and where you will find your target market.

Find Business Mentor

Right mentor to provide much-needed business advice.

Create Business Plan

Written document that describes your core business objectives.

Outline A Plan

Outline how you’ll execute the plan.

What needs to be done and when.

Milestones or Goals

Map out business milestones or goals.

Set the plan tactics into practical milestones. Milestones are what you use to convert your business strategy and tactics into action. Example include launch dates.

Company Overview

Overview of the most important points about your company.

Financial Projections

Planning out and working on your company’s financial projections enables you budget for your new business.

Running Costs

Your new business will have specific costs. Having an idea of the cost of running a the business is fundamental.

Business Structure

Set Up Your Business Structure.

Deciding on which formal business structure to use and register.

Writing a business plan can give you a clear idea of the stages of your business’ journey over a timeframe.

Now think about Marketing a New Business Basics.