In a nutshell, a business plan is a document that describes all the key elements of your business. Describing what you do, the market and competition, how you plan to sell and market your products and services, how you plan to operate the business, and how much profit can you generate from the business.

A business plan should give a comprehensive overview of your business concept and potential. The following are the fundamental building blocks of a good business plan:

• Executive Summary
• Business Description
• Industry Analysis
• Target Market
• Competition
• Sales and Marketing Strategy
• Operations and Management
• Financial Model and Forecasts

A business plan is an important planning tool that allows you to evaluate your business potential. It forces you to look at all the key elements of your business, internally and externally, and understand what you really need to launch or grow your business successfully.

A business plan should answer and clarify the following questions for you:

• What is the business idea and concept? What are my goals and objectives?
• What are my products and services?
• How is the industry doing? What is the market size?
• Who are my target customers? What are their needs?
• Who are my competitors? How is my business different or better?
• What is my go-to-market strategy? How will I acquire customers?
• What are my sales and distribution channels? How and where can customers find and buy my products or services?
• How will I run my business on a day-to-day basis? How will I produce my products or services and fulfil customer orders?
• Who will manage my business? How many employees do I need?
• Is this business profitable? What are my costs? What are my revenue streams?
• How much capital do I need to start and run this business?

As you can see, these are all very important questions that are fundamental to your short and long term success.

Typically, a business plan is written for 2 key audiences, internal and external. The main purpose (and content) of the business plan can change depending on the audience it is written for.

The actual writing of a business plan does not take much time at all, it can be done in a couple of days.

The time-consuming part is doing all the research needed to gather all the information needed to write the business plan, which usually takes weeks and, sometimes, even months to complete.

Most business plans I write take on average around 1 month to complete. This is an estimated average, the timeline could be a little longer or shorter depending on your business model, business size, and amount of research needed to complete the business plan.

Success is never guaranteed, if anyone claims that their business plan guarantees success, you should run away fast.

Think of a business plan as a roadmap for success, it lays out the strategy and tactics needed to reach your goals. How you can achieve those goals is through good execution.

Execution is how well you implement the business plan and adapt to business changes, the quality of your execution is determined by your People, Process, and Product, the 3 Ps.

The 3Ps:

• People: Your management team and employees, how well you hire will greatly affect your chances of success.
• Process How efficient your operations are, the systems you implement to make sure everything is running smoothly within your business.
• Product: How good your products or services actually are and whether they meet customer expectations.

A business plan is most needed when a business is aiming for a big milestone and you need to plan resources, funding, and strategy to reach that milestone. The two most common scenarios are:

Launching a new business

I would argue this is the most critical time for any business. A Startup business plan is needed to make sure your business gets off the ground successfully.

Growing a business

Whether it’s an expansion in size, capacity, or geographical coverage, growth is a resource-intensive activity, you will need to access to funding, human resources, and technical resources amongst others. A growth or expansion plan documents the roadmap and outlines what is needed to take your business from point A to point B.

Whether it’s for a new startup or an existing business, once you have your business plan in place, it’s good practice to always keep it updated and revisit it annually.