Business plans … the hard copy version of every small business person or every entrepreneur’s dreams … are some of the hardest documents you may ever have to write. They’re not hard from a technical perspective or from knowing what to include in them … there have been enough books and websites written about business plans that just about every possible question has been answered but people still struggle to condense their dreams and goals into a few words on a sheet of paper.
Perhaps that’s where the problem rests … how do you convert your dreams into something as formal as a business plan? If that is the case for you then the best way to make a start is by writing the easiest business plan of all. You see, there are three different business plans that you may need for your business and if we start with the easiest one the other two will just flow on from there.
The operational business plan
This business plan looks into the business and it’s used by the business to help focus on the goals of the business. It identifies those goals and which part of the business is responsible for achieving those goals. It’s a blueprint that will help you set your budgets and measure your successes or failures. It’s definitely not set in stone and it certainly should be reviewed regularly and updated at least once a year.
A summary business plan
This is a short document that highlights the important information about your business and where it’s headed. This business plan is focused on people outside of your business and those who will read it are those you are looking to for help. This business plan needs to clearly state the specific requests that you are making of the person who is going to be reading the document.
In some circumstances this type of business plan is suitable if you’re looking for a small load from a bank or you’re attempting to give someone a snapshot of your business before giving them the full business plan.
The complete business plan
When you’re after major finance such as you might attract from an angel investor or venture capitalist or you’re attempting to bring on board some strategic partners then this is the business plan you need. In the complete business plan you go into much greater detail than you did in the summary and so you can expect this plan to run to many pages. While a complete business plan is not beyond most people’s ability to write it’s probably something that should be left to a professional business advisor to assemble.
And now I’m sure you can see why starting simple is perhaps the best way to go but don’t do the easy one and skip the others. Spend time writing your business plans and your business will have a much better chance of growing.
