7 Business Plan Ideas
7 Business Plan Ideas
When we talk about a business plan, many people immediately think of raising funds or getting a loan. No! Raising funds for a business is not the only reason for writing a business plan, there are many other reasons why a business plan may be necessary. As a business owner and entrepreneur, you must know all the types of business plans that exist; it is also important to correctly evaluate your peculiar business needs and your current business position to determine what kind of business plan you need. Just going to write a business plan without first settling the reason why one is needed can get your business into a tight spot if the recommendations of the business plan you are following are not in line with your actual business objectives and needs.
All businesses, no matter at what stage, do need so level of planning that is both relevant and required at the current level of operation but if as an entrepreneur, you do not know the various types of business plan ideas that exist, it may be difficult for you to get the right plan that addresses your current situation and gives you the right solution that your business needs.
What is a business plan?
A business plan is a guiding document that spells out the goals of a business and the detailed steps which those who are running the business must take to achieve the identified goals of the business. Business plans are like manuals that must be consulted throughout the growing stages and the entire lifespan of a company until the desired goals, success, and achievements are accomplished.
7 business plan ideas
As stated earlier, raising funds is not the only business needs to calls for the construction of a business plan. So, in this article, we will look at 7 business plan ideas to help you understand different kinds of business plans and when and where they are needed or applicable in the various stages of business growth and development. Let us look at these 7 business plan ideas.
The Startup Plan
When we talk about the startup plan, what does it mean? This is a business plan idea that revolves around the idea of a new company trying to project itself, and present itself to make the company attractive to potential investors with the expectation of getting investors to become interested in funding its startup needs and projects. The startup plan is fundamentally an initial business plan idea that most of the time may not have all the sufficient details that a company can rely on for the long term. Therefore, a comprehensive startup plan at its best will still require some adjustments here and there, as the business grows. Frankly speaking, this is the kind of business plan idea that most people are familiar with.
The Strategic Plan
What does a strategic business plan refer to? This is a business plan idea that provides specific and more accurate details of the strategies and steps a company must take to achieve its overall business goals. The goal here is not fundraising. In fact, the plan can start and end without any recourse to money – except for income generation strategies and financial management plan. If you ever come across any strategic business plans, you’ll find that they mostly include the following five major components:
- The mission of the company
- The vision of the company
- The major keys to success for the company
- Specific and strategic steps which must be followed to achieve the goals of the company, and
- The time frame for achieving those objectives.
Majorly, strategic plans are meant only for the internal use of the organization and it doesn’t leave the company to any other external entities such as investors. In fact, strategic plans of companies are usually well protected to avoid leakage of the information therein to unauthorized persons both within and outside of the organization. When such an important plan as this is being written, the management team will be required to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the company in great details through what is called SWOT analysis, and they must find areas that improvements can be made to increase the strengths and reduce the weaknesses of the organization. The management can determine the best strategies that will bring maximum gains to the company based on the reality of its apparent strengths and weaknesses.
Also, milestones must be set for achieving all identified goals as broken down into various timed chunks. Meeting such timelines is one of the ways the company measures its success.
7 Business Plan Ideas
The Feasibility Plan
What does a feasibility plan idea refer to? The feasibility plan (also referred to as the “feasibility study”) is majorly a requirement that is usually triggered when a company has been in operation but at a given point, begins to consider a new venture, whatever it is. It can either be the creation of a new product or services or taking existing products and services to a new market (set of customers) that the company was not serving before that time.
The feasibility Plan will focus on issues such as determining whether the new market will be interested in the products and/or services, or whether the new products (or service) will sell and how well. The Feasibility Plan often requires in-depth research which must be data-driven, for instance, product testing, because the margin for assumption must not be tolerated if the company will not waste its resources pursuing an idea that won’t end in profitability.
Read Also: How to Create a Business Proposal
The Operations plan
The Operation Plan is a very interesting one because it is the one that dictates what we do in our company on a day-to-day basis. The operations plan, just like its name suggests, maps the daily operations, a set of daily activities that must be done and completed if the business intends to achieve its overall goal. In other words, it breaks down the goals of the business into daily activities and routines. The operation plan covers topics such as the business objective and the activities or tasks that are involved; the responsibilities of the management team, responsibilities of various departments within the company, responsibilities of each staff and job roles, resources needed for these activities, how these activities will be tracked and measured (or sets the parameters for measuring success – or failure), and so on. The operations plan is also an important tool for justifying proposed budget increments in Annual General Meetings.
The Expansion Plan
I guess the name of this type of business plan says it all! Put simply, it is the plan to expand. When a company is thinking about growth, it can write and adopt a business plan that focuses on growth and expansion. Growth and expansion are almost always associated with the need to increase a company’s financial base and make bigger resources available in order to make the growth happen. The resources a company requires for growth might be a greater number of employees, acquisition of new or better production equipment, increased volumes of production materials – whatever is needed to implement the growth, finances, and funding will be an underlying need. When organizations and businesses create growth plans, it can be either for external reasons or internal reasons. Each of these different versions will not include the same types of information since their objectives are different.
The outbound (or externally focused) expansion and growth business plans are written in the situations when proposed expansion cannot happen without the assistance of outside investors or contributors. In this case, the expansion plan will have to include a lot of detail about the company in such a way that makes it easy for investors to decide whether financing the company’s growth and/or expansion is a worthwhile decision. The kind of details that are needed for inclusion in an external growth plan is usually much more than when the growth plan is an internally focused one. Some of those details include the full description of the company, details about the company’s products and/or services, important information that gives a good background on the people who make up the management team, the details of the company’s financial projections, full market analysis based on research, the funding request, and important achievements of the company over time.
The One-page Plan
The “one-paged” plan like the name suggests is a business plan summary that is presented as a single-page document with highlights of the most important parts that must be communicated to the audience or recipient of the plan. This is required most of the time when a business wants to “pitch” or present the plan in a situation where it is specifically required, or in a situation when the writer is aware that the person or the group of persons to assess the document are busy people who may not have the required time to go through a document that is written in the standard format. This kind of plan is used to capture the attention and the interest of an investor at a glance.
If you need a service of a Professional Business plan writer, then Dayo Adetiloye Business Hub is the place to go Call or WhatsApp us now on 081 0563 6015, 080 7635 9735, 08113205312 or send an email to dayohub@gmail.com and we will solve any of your business plan problems.
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