Creating the Framework of Your Home Business Plan
Creating the Framework of Your Business Plan
Now, you’re ready to begin creating your business plan. From this point forward, your business plan will be one of the most important documents in your life. Your business plan is your road map. As you might have noticed by now, starting a business requires the coordination of hundreds and hundreds of details. Every item has to be thought through and planned for intelligently – or your business will suffer. A logical, written plan ensures that you make the necessary arrangements, while at the same time, preventing or minimizing the feelings of being overwhelmed.
After your business starts, the business plan acts as your company handbook. What are your plans for the future? How will business be maintained? What terms do you offer clients? All of these questions are answered in your business plan, thus showing that your business is well thought out and consistent. Rather than immediately writing your business plan from start to finish, you begin by constructing the framework, and then finish building the plan as you get the information you need to fill in the sections. You might need to rewrite some sections several times, as your plan becomes more precise and your assessment of business more realistic.
In this section, you learn how to begin building your plan by outlining a basic business plan “form” that lists all the necessary information and components of your business plan. Your business plan will be divided into sections; within each section, you will answer a series of questions that provide necessary information about your financial, logistical, and legal plans for your business. The basic format of the plan is shown in Figure 3.2. These are the major headings that make up the framework of your business plan:
• Introduction/Overview
• The Basics
• Business Overview
• Marketing
• Logistics
• Financials
• Assumptions, Expansion, and Exits Within each of these sections, you’ll add information that answers a number of questions.
The following sections detail these questions and discuss how to go about answering them within each of these important areas of your business plan. As you fill in your business plan, create a list of any equipment, supplies, or other items you’ll need to begin and run your business. If you know how much an item will cost, note that directly on your list. Save this list of items for the when you formulate a budget. 50 Start Your Own Home Business In No Time For additional help, check the many free publications available from the Small Business Administration.
Much of the information can be downloaded from the website, sba.gov/library/pubs.html. Booklets and other informational pieces include a home business overview, how to determine if you are ready for business, and a wide variety of general and specific business plans. If you do not have Internet access, look up the nearest Small Business Administration (SBA) office in your phone book under the blue pages/government listings section.
Tags: home based business, home business, work at home