A business plan is a valuable document that lays out your ideas and strategies, including how your business will make money, its principal markets, the type of customer you’ll sell to, and the products or services you’ll offer.
Creating one offers many advantages, including assessing whether or not your idea is viable in practice, establishing how much money/investment you’ll need, and clarifying your overall strategy.
It can guide you through the start-up stage of your business or help you attract investors during a growth stage. In fact, it’s useful to develop at any stage of your business’ journey.
So how do you create a business plan for 2022 that will stand up to scrutiny from the banks and investors, whilst also creating a roadmap for the initial stages of your business if you’re starting-up?
The format of a business plan is typically dictated by the size of business, or the industry in which it operates. There’s no rigid structure, but these are some of the elements generally included:
Executive summary
The executive summary is a brief description of your business. It conveys the reason why you’ve developed this business plan and is typically a couple of paragraphs in length. It needs to be fairly concise to capture the reader’s attention so they carry on reading the entire document.
Description of your business
This is where you can describe your business and industry in more detail. Include the products or services you provide, whether it’s a start-up business or already established, the number of people you employ, your unique selling point, and your mission statement.
Your market
Include the results of your market research in this section, as well as a SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Talk about market trends and how you intend to capitalise on them.
Business strategy
Discuss your business strategy and how it’ll be executed – your intentions and targets for marketing and sales, for example, staff and premises, and your operational systems including accounts and quality control.
Financials
This section includes financial information and projections. They need to be accurate and detailed so it’s advisable to seek professional accountancy help with this. Include a cash flow statement, profit and loss forecasts, and sales forecasts – the information you include will depend on whether you’re a brand new business or have been in operation for some time.
Here are a few key takeaways for your 2022 business plan:
An accountant’s involvement can make the whole process of creating a business plan much easier, and crucially, ensures the figures are accurate.