If you could not find the necessary business plan with calculations, then the best solution would be to draw it up yourself. What are the stages of document preparation? What sections should it contain? How to write it in such a way as to interest investors? Read more in the article “Business.ru”.

Business plan, what is it?

BP is a management, financial and marketing strategy of a company, drawn up in the form of a document. Within its framework, all aspects of future activities are covered, possible risks are taken into account, the volume of investments in the development of the project and the approximate date of return of the invested funds are calculated.

Let’s take a closer look at what a business plan is and give as an example the business plan of two small businesses:

• small coffee shop;
• fitness club.

Functions of a business plan

The main requirement for creating a detailed business plan for an enterprise is the ability to demonstrate your idea of ​​a future business clearly to those who will provide funds for its development (investors, banks, various funds, potential partners, etc.).

Business planning will help systematize and structure all information about the project. It will also allow you to set up the planned deployment of future infrastructure and help you correctly determine the time to invest money in its development. Most aspiring entrepreneurs have only a basic understanding of the functions of a business plan. All possible varieties are listed below.

1. Simple and clear wording in the text, without the possibility of other interpretations;
2. Try not to exceed 25 pages. The file must be arranged according to generally accepted standards;
3. The investor should receive complete information about the project after reading the business plan;
4. All your calculations and conclusions should be based on verifiable figures, research and facts;
5. Each section should be interconnected and should complement a comprehensive positive opinion about the project. Having familiarized himself, the investor must discern the future potential of the enterprise;
6. Try to remain flexible. If your business plan allows you to make changes, clarifications and additions, then your project is already better than its competitors;
7. Be sure to indicate methods for monitoring the future enterprise.

Creating a business plan yourself is not difficult if you think through the idea of ​​a startup. Have you already looked through ready-made examples of business plans for small businesses and haven’t found a suitable one? We present a step-by-step algorithm that will allow you to develop it yourself. Each item of the BP will be described in detail below.

First of all, you need to determine the “negative” and “positive” aspects of your business idea. There is no need to quit what you started if the negative aspects at first glance outweigh the positive ones. Every minus can become a growth point for a business.

The cornerstones of a successful business are a stable position in the market and the ability to compete in the chosen niche. The sales market will require a detailed analysis. If, after conducting the above research and calculating the initial financial indicators, you have not changed your mind about starting a business, you should start creating a business plan.

Sections of a business plan: 12 main points

The structure of a business plan, consisting of 12 mandatory sections, is widely used. The volume of each of them will depend on the specifics of the project; a small enterprise can do without some of them completely. But in general, the power supply should look exactly like this.

1.Cover page

This should include:

• The name of the project and the company in which this project will be developed and launched. It is required to provide detailed contact information (contact number, legal address, etc.);
• Full name of the head of the company;
• The person or group responsible for creating the BP;
• Date of creation of the BP;
• It is possible to add the most significant project indicators to the title page.

2. Non-disclosure memorandum or NDA (non-disclosure agreement)

This important agreement will ensure that your unique business idea is protected and will prevent someone else from stealing your finished project. This file contains information about the requirement to keep confidential any information that was obtained while reading this document. Duplicating a business model in this form, copying documents and other facts of copyright infringement within the framework of this business plan will be prosecuted by law.

3. Brief summary

The order of this section of the business plan should not mislead you; you should begin filling out this part only at the end of writing it. This is a kind of excerpt from the entire document: briefly describe the main points related to financial indicators and your business idea.

Instructions on how to write a resume:

1. Describe your product or service;
2. Give a description of the target audience;
3. Indicate how many products will be sold/produced and what the company's total revenue will be within one calendar year after the launch;
4. The total volume of required investments and planned costs;
5. Organizational and legal aspects;
6. Data on the required labor force within the project;
7. Possibility and list of sources of subsidizing the project;
8. Indicate the time frame for reaching the break-even point and the payback period in general.

Important! The investor pays attention to this section first of all. Therefore, the fate of your business idea largely depends on your resume. In this case, you need to keep it to one page.

In this section you also need to write: total income for the year, total funds at the end of the year, profitability of the enterprise and net present value (NPV).

4. Project description

This section should reflect the main aspects that prompted you to believe in the presented business idea. The following clarifications will help:

• The essence of the project (in simple words, without the possibility of erroneous interpretation)
• What does the company need to do to achieve its goals?
• Are there barriers to the success of your business model? If yes, how to overcome them?
• What can you personally suggest (specific steps) to ensure that the company achieves profit in the shortest possible time? Indicate a specific period of time (3 months, six months, a year, 10 years, etc.).

Important! Be precise, concise, and provide only hard facts in your business plan. Try to keep it to 2 pages

It will be useful to clearly demonstrate the viability of your enterprise using a SWOT analysis (analysis of opportunities and risks). The main thing to remember is that you are analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of your business, not a product. Entrepreneurs often mistakenly do the opposite.

Example of a SWOT analysis for a coffee shop chain:

5. Description of the market niche

When drawing up a business plan, try to demonstrate the viability of your idea as part of a marketing study of the market situation.

The following numbers will help:

• Sales volume of a similar product over a significant period of time (quarter, year, 5 years);
• The overall growth rate of the niche you are applying for;
• Specifics and trends of pricing policy;
• Detailed information about competitors;
• Identification of startups and small players, description of their advantages and disadvantages;
• Characteristics of your buyer. What does he consider a familiar product? What does he want to buy? His financial capabilities;
• The influence of external factors on the market (politics, society, science, economics);
• Possible promising aspects of a niche in the chosen industry.

6. Detailed information about the project

In this section of the business plan, you need to reveal the essence of the project in more detail. The degree of readiness for launch and the availability of all the necessary resources for this should be mentioned.

Be sure to indicate in this chapter of the business plan:

1. Primary goals;
2. Detailed description of the target audience;
3. Important aspects (measurable) of success in the chosen market;
4. Detailed product description. It should be noted that its qualities should be higher than the average of its analogues;
5. Phased production of the product (for existing enterprises). Copyright information, availability of patents, certificates of conformity;
6. Description of the company;
7. General cost indicator with details of the time and volume of each tranche from the potential investor;
8. Primary costs for building marketing and management structures in the company.

7. Marketing strategy

Describe its essence, main performance indicators and tools for achieving the goals outlined in the business plan. It is required to indicate the responsibilities of each employee in the marketing department, as well as the timing and methods for achieving results. Calculate how much money you will need to invest in promoting your product or service.

What must be included in a marketing plan?

• Market analysis.
• Quantitative indicators of the release of future products and product line, product release schedule with time indicators and an indicator of the moment of 100% production load.
• Product improvement in the process of enterprise development.
• Description of pricing and external indicators of the product (packaging).
• Information about the sales and procurement system.
• Methods of promoting a product to the target audience.
• Measurable indicators.
• Service maintenance.
• Measures to monitor the implementation of the marketing strategy.

Important! There are no strictly documented instructions for creating the ideal business plan. You can exclude, add or change items at your discretion

8. Production plan

Enter here all the information about the production of the product, taking into account seasonality. If you plan to sell finished products, you can omit this item when creating a business plan.

When creating a production facility from scratch, indicate the required production capacity, the specifics of the production process, and outsourced operations. In addition, you will need a complete list of equipment, its technical parameters and cost, as well as information about leasing purchases.

The production plan should also include:

• Information about areas for the enterprise;
• Required materials;
• Output costs at each stage of the production cycle.

Important! Do not forget to indicate any factor that directly or indirectly affects the cost of the final product

9. Organizational plan

This section of the business plan reveals the features of hiring workers, managing and distributing responsibilities between them. This section should not be neglected, even when it comes to existing enterprises. It helps to understand whether the current organizational structure meets its intended goals.

This section specifies:

• Legal and actual address of the enterprise/company;
• Name of the organizational and legal form (joint stock company, LLC, individual entrepreneur, etc.);
• Control circuit. It is important to reflect the relationship of each employee and department, as well as direct instructions for each unit of staff;
• Information about the founders and co-founders;
• Management composition (CEO, executive, finance, etc.);
• Instructions for communicating with staff;
• Supply issues for the administrative part of the enterprise.

10. Financial plan. What needs to be calculated?

A section of the business plan that describes all the financial nuances of the project. We need data on profitability, payback period, movements in the foreign exchange market (if the product is tied to imported raw materials), etc.

What data and calculations are required:

• Tax calculation (what and how much you need to pay);
• Composition of the enterprise's capital (loans, investments, issued shares, etc.);
• Plan-report of income and expenses;
• Cash flow in the form of a table (cashflow);
• Enterprise balance sheet;
• Payback period of the project.

In addition, it is advisable to calculate such indicators of the effectiveness of investments in a project as the investment return index (PI) and the internal rate of return (IRR) at several discount rates. PI is calculated using the formula: PI=(NPV+I) / I, where NPV is NPV for the last year, I is the initial investment.

The project is unprofitable if the index is less than or equal to one. For example, the amount of discounted flows for the year was 14 million rubles, the initial investment was 7 million. PI= (14,000,000 +7000,000) /7000,000 = 3. Low profitability. For every ruble invested, the discounted profit is 3 rubles.

IRR is the interest rate at which the value of all cash flows of the investment project is zero. That is, such a bet will allow you to recoup the initial investment, but without profit.

11. Risk management

In this section of the business plan, you need to examine the possible risks associated with the project. Factors that directly affect profit are especially important. You should pay attention to each of the possible risks (industry, social, financial and others). Do not forget to indicate the exact actions to reduce damage or prevent the impact of such risks on the functioning of the company.

To do this, you need to indicate: a detailed list of possible risks, tools and techniques for eliminating, eliminating and preventing possible problems, as well as modeling situations with zero growth of the enterprise and clear regulations for actions in such a situation. We can mention the low probability of such an outcome.

12. Applications

The final part of the business plan, in which you can describe the sources used, display tables that were used for calculations, provide links to external sources, organization documents (certificates, research results, etc.). This is not a mandatory point, but not superfluous to interest the investor.

Documents for download:

A business plan is a document that provides a detailed justification for the project and the ability to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of decisions made, planned activities, and answer the question of whether it is worth investing in a given project.

The business plan should:

• show that the product or service will find its consumer, establish the capacity of the sales market and prospects for its development;
• estimate the costs required for the manufacture and sale of products, provision of works or services on the market;
• determine the profitability of future production and show its effectiveness for the enterprise (investor), for the local, regional and state budget.

Main functions of a business plan:

• is a tool with which an entrepreneur can evaluate the actual results of activities for a certain period;
• can be used to develop a business concept in the future;
• acts as a tool for attracting new investments;
• is a tool for implementing the enterprise strategy.

One of the most important stages of the planning process is the preparation of a business plan, which is necessary both for internal planning and for justifying the receipt of funds from an external source, i.e., receiving money for a specific project in the form of bank loans, budgetary allocations, and equity participation of other enterprises in the implementation of the project.

1. Business plan summary (brief summary)
2. Project goals and objectives
3. Company Description
4. Analysis of the industry and its development trends
5. Target market
6. Competition
7. Strategic position and risk assessment
8. Marketing plan and sales strategy
9. Operating activities
10. Technological plan
11. Organizational plan
12. Personnel plan
13. Financial plan
14. Social and environmental responsibility
15. Conditions for going out of business

How to write a business plan correctly

Any form or sample business plan offered on the Internet provides only a general idea. Any business has its own characteristics, therefore, there cannot be a “standard” writing algorithm that is suitable in all cases. There is only one proven principle for drawing up any business plan: IT SHOULD ALWAYS BE SHORT.

Start from the right premises. As paradoxical as it may sound, for most entrepreneurs a business plan as a document is one of the least important factors in obtaining capital.

• If the investor is inclined towards a positive decision, then a good business plan will be an additional argument in favor; but it is not the plan itself that is the reason for such a decision.
• If an investor is inclined to make a negative decision, it is unlikely that a business plan will be able to convince him. In this case, the investor most likely will not even read this plan to the end.

Unfortunately, naive entrepreneurs believe that a business plan is capable of causing delight and awe in the investor with an immediate request: “ Please tell me where to transfer the money».

Well, there's no harm in dreaming. The correct and realistic motivation for writing a plan should be the following: which was downplayed in the first euphoria - for example, customer service policy.

Finally, the plan exposes holes in the founding team. If, looking around the office, you realize that there is no one who could implement some key element of the plan, then someone is missing from the team.

All midnight, romantic, abstract dreams of changing the world become completely material and controversial, as soon as you transfer them to paper. Thus, the document is not as important as the process leading to its creation. Even if you do not pursue the goal of raising capital, it is still worth writing a business plan.

COMPLETION INSTRUCTIONS

Title page and contents. Start with the basics: company name, address, phone number and contact information for all founders, as well as a table of contents throughout the document.

Introduction. List all the most important things in no more than two pages. First, talk about the value of the project: what your company will do, how much profit it will generate, and why people will want to pay for your product or service. If you are sending a plan to investors, communicate the capital you will need and how you plan to use it. To highlight the essence, you need to imagine the whole picture, so it is better to start this part after completing the entire plan.

Market opportunities. Explain to whom you will sell your product or service and why this group of consumers is attractive to you. Several key questions need to be answered. How big is the market? How fast does it grow? What are the growth opportunities and potential threats? How will you deal with them? Much of this information can be found through industry websites and media, official statistics, analyst reports, and even from other businessmen. Be sure to indicate the source of information.

Market Review. Make no mistake, your business is not unique. Try to take a sober look and evaluate your opponents. Who are they? What are they selling? What part of the market do they occupy? Why will customers choose your product or service over theirs? What obstacles may arise when entering this market? Don't forget about indirect competitors who are currently working in a different segment, but have similar capabilities and can compete with you later.

Promotion of goods to the market. Describe how you will promote your products or services to consumers. Conditions and organization of product sales. What promotion channels will you use? In this section, describe pricing issues.

Company structure. Control. Staff. Execution is almost as important as the idea itself. Therefore, investors are interested in who is on your team. Attach a resume of all founders, partners and managers: what are their skills and achievements. Here you should also add information about the legal form of the enterprise and its internal organizational structure, the staff of the enterprise.

Business model. This section includes a detailed description of all sources of income (sale of product, service) and the company's cost structure (payroll, rent, operating expenses). Describe the premises, equipment, technologies, production flow diagrams. Make sure you mention and justify all potential revenues and costs. Also include the names of major suppliers and buyers. In essence, this section is the production plan of the future company.

Financial indicators and forecasts. Make a forecast for profits, losses and cash flows (income-expenses) for at least three years in advance (it is advisable to divide the first year into quarters or even months). Also provide an analysis that shows how quickly your startup investment will pay off.

Risks. Don't wait until disaster strikes to find out how your business can handle it. Work through possible worst-case, best-case and average scenarios, and what you will do to reduce the negative impact of the risks or prevent them altogether. Make sure you have enough money to weather any storm. If you insure risks, write down the amounts you will insure for and the types of insurance policies.

Sources of funds and their use. If you're trying to raise money from investors, they'll want to know how you plan to manage your capital. In this section you need to indicate the expected costs of launching: premises, purchase of new equipment, design of the company logo, etc. Most entrepreneurs underestimate the cost of starting a new business. So do your research in advance before approaching investors.

Applications. This may include a resume, credit information, market overview, schemes, promotion plan, copies of contracts, including leases, letters of guarantee from future clients, patent and trademark registration certificates, partnership agreements, and a company registration certificate.

10 mistakes when writing a business plan

According to professional project managers, there are 10 things that should not be written in a business plan.

1. "Dead Souls". A common mistake made by entrepreneurs preparing a business plan is that it includes information about certain management members who, in fact, have nothing to do with the team. Information about consultants should be reliable, because the investor may wish to communicate with them personally.
2. "Homework". There is no need to go through the trouble of going into confusing descriptions of the entire range of products and services. This will only overload your plan with a large size, which is not at all to your advantage, because the investor must understand the very essence from the first pages, otherwise further reading will not make sense for him.
3. "Fictional characters." All biographies of board members and founders must be extremely honest and not embellished.
4. "Who, when and how." Marketing plans should be based only on existing offers.
5. "Year after year". You cannot submit financial plans broken down solely by year in a business plan. As mentioned above, the first year's forecast should be done monthly and show start-up funding, and then a quarterly breakdown for the following period. The investor must see when the full return on investment will occur and whether the investment will pay off.
6. "Monopoly". There is always competition and similar products or services, the consumer market is not that large, and it takes a lot of effort to implement a business plan. Therefore, in the text you need to abandon phrases about the lack of competition, a huge market that has no analogues, products or services, and simple implementation of the project.
7. "Hockey stick". Financial indicators absolutely cannot, when viewed graphically, constitute a curve in the shape of a hockey stick, i.e., profits falling from the very beginning and boundlessly rising in the future. The most ingenious idea, even if it pays off, will generate competition, so income cannot grow indefinitely.
8. "There is no counting of indicators." The market must be assessed by you from different angles in quantitative terms: prospects, market share, customers. Otherwise, you are incompetent.
9. "Promises." You should not stipulate in the business plan possible financial investments that are at an unfinished stage. Either there is funding or there is not.
10. "Somewhere like that." Your business plan must operate with accurate numbers. You must clearly understand the scope of fixed, variable, direct, indirect and outsourcing costs.

Print out your business plan. Set aside all pages starting from the third. Re-read the first two pages - do they make you want to read the rest of the document? Brevity, simplicity, clarity - cross out everything unnecessary.

Having polished your plan to a shine, do not send it to a distant drawer to gather dust. “A business plan is just the beginning of the process. Planning a business is like steering a ship at sea: you need to constantly adjust the course. The plan itself is of little value. It is important to go back to it and see where you were wrong and what it cost you.

We wish you success! All in your hands!

A cheat sheet for dummies on how to write a business plan.

A serious project must begin by writing a competent business plan. This is a document that describes the main points of future activities, expected risks, financial indicators and much more.

Writing a business plan from scratch is often left to third-party firms. This entails a number of disadvantages:

• unnecessary costs - drawing up a document costs at least 50,000 rubles;
• consultants create it using standard tracing paper, without delving into the individual features of the case, which are understandable only “from the inside”;
• If a document is written in dry language, it will not attract the attention of investors.

It is up to current or future project leaders to do the work. They see the intricacies of the matter and will take responsibility for implementation.

If you figure out how to write a business plan, you will not only be able to make a forecast for future entrepreneurial activity, but also strengthen your faith in the success of the business.

How to write a competent business plan?

If a business plan is written correctly, it will accomplish three tasks:

• outlines the procedure for the entrepreneur;
• helps to assess development prospects;

The document should answer the questions: what is the value of the project described, who is the future competitor, what risks lie in wait?

To avoid missing details, it is worth writing the document following a standard structure.

The most important point, which must be disclosed in detail, is the financial side of the issue. You need to write down future income and expenses, and supplement with information about the starting capital.

P.S. As for income, it is important to write in the document not only the amount of profit, but also when the amount will begin to arrive in the account. This point is especially relevant when writing a business plan for the purpose of lending.

A section with financial indicators (for an existing company) or a reliable forecast for a future one is included in the text or formatted as an appendix. Use more numbers and graphs.

Choosing a plan type

• Business plan of the company.
  The most popular and widespread type. To write a document, use a standard outline. Needed by entrepreneurs for market and financial analysis.
• Loan document.
  Used to justify obtaining a loan from a bank. Answers questions: where will the money go, how soon will the debt be repaid?
• Investment plan.
  Used for presentation to investors. Contains detailed case characteristics and research data on the market niche and target audience.
• Grant document.
  Used to receive development assistance from the government. Display the benefits of future activities for the region or the entire country.

Structure of writing a business plan

The plan looks like a complex document. In fact, it is clearly structured. To write a business plan yourself from scratch, you need to follow every point.

The history of the company's existence is described in stages: from the moment of creation to gaining stability. The text should be written in business language, but lively and exciting enough so that a potential investor would want to study it completely.

Any type of activity has its own characteristics, so a standard tracing paper of a document exists to build on it, adjusting it to your own needs.

How to write a business plan point by point?

This part is called the “introduction” to the business plan or “abstract.”

It briefly reveals the essence of the project and consists of 5-7 sentences. It may seem that this part is not as important as the others. However, the more interesting the section is written, the greater the chance of captivating the reader.

Goals and objectives.

Here the entrepreneur must write what and how he wants to achieve. Unlike a summary, this part of the document is disclosed in detail, but without “water”.

Write in the business plan the address of the location, work schedule, characteristics of the building that is being purchased or rented.

Staff.

The plan must include a section on the future staff. You need to write a list of positions, job responsibilities, and create a payroll calculation table.

There should also be information about the schedule for going to work.

If you plan to increase your salary in the future, arrange refresher courses, or provide door-to-door delivery for those who work late, indicate this.

Financial part.


The most important section of a business plan. It is described here:
• income and expenses;
• unexpected expenses;
• movement of finances;
• taxation system;
• form of receiving money;
• types of contracts for future partners.

If it seems to you that you cannot write this part of the document from scratch yourself, delegate the financial section of the business plan to professionals.

The best option for formatting data for a business plan is graphs, tables and charts. Visual information is absorbed better and easier. All these figures must be supported by calculations.

Marketing.

This section of the business plan includes the following subparagraphs: an analysis of the state of affairs on the market, the presence or absence of a niche for the company, a description of competitors and advantages that will allow them to be overcome, and a potential target audience.
Based on this data, you need to write a conclusion in the document about the most suitable advertising techniques to be used.

Production.

This point of the business plan is necessary if a manufacturing business is planned.

In this case, in the section you need to indicate all the details of the production from scratch to finish (from ordering raw materials to shipping the goods to points of sale). All the important points are covered here: technology, the need for equipment, know-how. Taking into account every detail will help avoid problems when implementing the plan.

If you are not going to produce products, but to make wholesale purchases for further sale, indicate in the document the suppliers, delivery method, and place for storing the goods.

Risk analysis.


If the main goal of the document is to find investors, this section of the business plan is simply necessary to write.

It is important for any person who has a large amount of money sufficient to finance a project to invest it in a reliable company. To confirm the seriousness of your intentions, you must write down all the possible risks for the enterprise. These may include:

• falling demand levels;
• decrease in sales level;
• deterioration of the economic situation in the country;
• failure to deliver raw materials or send products to customers on time;
• emergency circumstances (war, fire, volcanic eruption).

Problems must not only be listed in the document, but also solutions must be written in a given situation. This will not only emphasize your level of responsibility, but also instill confidence in your own abilities. In case of emergency, you will not panic, but will use the ready-made instructions from the business plan.

At the end of the business plan, the results are summed up.

They include data on the amount invested, a profit growth chart and the payback period for the project. All words must be supported by specific figures, calculations and graphs.

Traditionally, calculations for a business plan need to be written for 3-4 years.

However, in the conditions of our unstable economy, it makes sense to take a term of no more than 1-2 years. Moreover, for the first year it is necessary to break it down by month. And from the second you can reduce it to a quarterly plan.

Don't pour water.

A good business plan requires brevity, but at the same time covering all the necessary aspects. It is enough to write 40-70 pages of a business plan.

It is allowed to submit additional materials in a separate appendix of the document.

Don't try to turn it into War and Peace. Having details and covering the topic fully is good. But only if dry facts are used, and not “water”. Leave artistic expressions for personal correspondence.

There is no need to write in the business plan the phrases “a product without analogues” or “there is no competition.”

The service market is huge and rapidly developing. Due to long-term planning, no one can guarantee that a product similar to yours will not appear in the near future. Even if at first glance it seems that you are a monopolist, tomorrow the situation may change.

Accurately analyze the market for prospects and potential customers.

The data in the business plan must be written in specific numbers. If you can't do this, it means you don't understand the situation well.

Try to adhere to the standard document structure outlined above.


Pay special attention to financial tables and graphs: they must be complete and correct. Otherwise, the document may simply not be accepted for consideration.

1. The text of the business plan must be literate, understandable and “alive”.

   Your goal is to interest the investor and make them read to the end.

   Avoid strong emotional assessments in your business plan.

   To make it convincing and realistic, you need to use only numbers and reliable facts.

   To find an approach to future investors, study their activities: the history of projects, work with other entrepreneurs.

   Before you start drawing up a business plan, be sure to study ready-made examples.

   Even if your activity is unique in its kind, find the closest analogues. This will help you better understand the structure and style of writing. But the calculations must be unique and based only on your specific indicators.

   All calculations for a business plan must be written as accurately as possible.

   Of course, it is simply impossible to correctly indicate the amount of future profit down to the penny. In this case, an analysis of the sales of your closest competitors and information about the average cost of your most popular services are provided.

Detailed methodology for writing a competent business plan

presented in this video:

« How to write a business plan? - this is only the first question that a future businessman must answer.

The finished document should not be left to gather dust on the shelf. It is not enough to simply write a development course from scratch until you reach break-even. You need to constantly return to it: analyze successes, correct mistakes, fill in gaps...

Useful article? Don't miss new ones!
Enter your email and receive new articles by email

• Checking individual entrepreneurs by TIN: 3 ways
• How to find a counterparty by TIN: 4 services
• What business to invest money in: 6 options

Many financiers and entrepreneurs wonder how to write a business plan. In our text you will find step-by-step instructions for preparing such documents and 13 samples that can be downloaded for free.

How to write a business plan: preparatory stage

The success of a company is associated with its ability to develop and its readiness to move towards new goals. Like red blood cells, which are formed in the body every second, maintaining the life of the human body, new ideas should fuel the activities of any, even the most conservative organization. In order for these updates to bring profit to the company without negatively affecting its sustainability, you need to seriously prepare for the preparation of the document.

So, where to start writing a business plan? First you need to find and collect the following information:

• texts of UNIDO recommendations. There are no uniform standards in Russia, so it is customary to use the standards of UNIDO - the United Nations Industrial Development Organization;
• requirements of the Ministry of Economic Development;
• requirements of the regional and regional administrations of Russia (in case the project is submitted to these structures for participation in a competition or grants);
• requirements of potential investors for the project;
• certified software products for drawing up plans, assessing the financial condition of an enterprise, calculating the project budget;
• copies of contracts, agreements, licenses, etc.;
• copies of documents on which the plan data will be based;
• price lists of suppliers;
• financial information of the company for several years (calculations of financial indicators);
• list of experts who can help before presenting the document to investors.

It is also necessary to form a working group and appoint a leader.

What to check in a business plan to get bank approval

Use the checklist to increase your chances of receiving funding.

Step. 1. Define your business plan goals

First of all, it is necessary to determine the purpose - whether the document will be needed only for internal use, or the circle of potential readers will be wider. For example, will investors consider it for financial projection. It is advisable, in any case, to compose it as if it would be studied by seasoned heads of investment funds or heads of large banks (). If you were them, would you give personal money to this project? How much do you personally need what will become the goal of the project - as a manager, specialist or ordinary person? What is the tangible value of your proposal? Be the strictest reader, only from this point of view it will be possible to see. Then, a list of information sources is compiled and the structure of the document is developed.

Step 2: Gather all the necessary information

In order to understand how to make a business plan from scratch, you will need to collect the necessary information - about the sales market, price forecasts for services / goods, legislation that may affect the company's work, and other accurate data that every from statements and forecasts. Some can be collected independently, from industry media, scientific periodicals, stock exchange news, ready-made marketing research, information about similar projects of other companies. If this information is not enough, you should conduct or order your own marketing research from specialized companies.

When should you draw up a business plan yourself, and when should you turn to professionals?

Expert commentary

Ksenia Shvetsova, business trainer

The higher the significance of the project and the requirements for it, and the larger the amount involved, the higher the likelihood that the company will turn to third-party specialists. If the company has competent employees in management, marketing and financial planning, it is quite possible to cope with the task on its own. If they are not there, it is advisable to order the development of the document from professionals.

Turning to third-party specialists is also relevant when an investment project is drawn up for certain competitions or government programs. Specialized firms have experience in this matter and know the subtleties and nuances that may be unknown to entrepreneurs. If a business plan is being created for internal use, then it is more effective to first write it yourself, and then, if necessary, seek help from professionals.

How to increase your chances of getting your business plan approved by the bank

The project must take into account the main threats that could affect its successful implementation.

Step 3: Develop a Marketing Plan

Now let's look at the main sections of the business plan. The marketing plan is one of the most important sections. First, you need to conduct a marketing study in which to evaluate profitability and payback in different situations, depending and not depending on the company’s activities, including the volume of financial investments. Next, create a marketing plan. It is he who will determine the direction of the development of the project and give an understanding of the most suitable tools and means to achieve the goals. Include the following items:

1. Marketing strategic planning:

• Company's mission;
• company goals;
• competitive advantage of the company;
• marketing strategy, its characteristics;

2. Product Description:

• product description and assortment;
• main product characteristics, performance characteristics;
• attractiveness for the client, benefits of using the product;
• requirements for consumer properties of the product;
• competitive advantages of the product and competitiveness of the product;
• patents, licenses, certificates for the product;
• product packaging;
• delivery conditions;
• guarantees and service;
• taxation feature.

3. Pricing policy:

• factors influencing pricing;

4. Sales of products:

• volume and level of development of the industry;
• main categories of clients;
• target markets and their comparative characteristics;
• barriers to entry and development in the market;
• product sales strategy;
• product distribution scheme;
• sales channels;

5. Promotion:

• sales promotion methods;
• advertising.

6. Schedule planning of the intended strategic plan:

• dates for achieving intermediate goals;
• date of achievement of the final goal.

7. Detailing of the plan down to specific performers and designated responsible persons. Answers to the questions of who should do what, when, where, with what resources and how it affects the final result.

8. Formation of a marketing budget:

• sales volume forecast;
• cost forecast;
• determining the budget for marketing activities.

Marketing planning will help determine the price level for a product or service - the maximum amount that a buyer is willing to pay for your offer. The more accurate this forecast is, the more stable the profit will be and the more effective promotion costs will be.

It is equally important to correctly identify the choice of suppliers of equipment, tools, services and other things that are necessary in the implementation of the project. Don’t chase cheapness, find even a smaller quantity, but find those companies that do not let you down with supplies and quality. You also need to identify the sales market, potential buyers or service users. No matter how reliable a small number of them may seem, the disappearance of the need for your product will reduce all the effort and cost to zero. Therefore, expand your customer base in advance. At the same time, it is important to correlate the search for clients with promotion costs. The business plan budget is not infinite, advertising agencies promise a lot, but be realistic, even large audience coverage does not always bring target clients.

Reflect in your marketing plan the sales methods you will use - directly to the consumer, through a network of distributors, etc.

Step 4: Create a production plan

The next part of creating a business plan is the production plan. Here you need to answer the following questions:

1. Where is the production located?
2. Is it provided with transport routes?
3. Are all necessary communications available?
4. Is the construction of production facilities required?
5. How are the equipment supply issues resolved?
6. Is the enterprise staffed with qualified personnel?
7. What technologies are planned to be used?
8. Is cooperation established with suppliers and subcontractors?
9. How is the problem of waste disposal solved?

Answering these questions should be based on the information provided in the market research.

Production control

Particular attention should be paid to the description of the production of the product and the quality control system at each stage. To do this, the TQM control chart (process quality control chart) and the economic order quantity model are used.

The key point of the production plan is evidence of the need for the selected production technology (service provision). If there is a choice of production processes, then you need to mention them all, listing the serious disadvantages so that the merits of the technology the company needs appear reasonable. You can consider the possibility of saving budget funds at each point of the plan: using leasing, renting equipment, collaborating with freelancers instead of permanent employees, transferring some functions to outsourcing. It is very important to identify the most effective and low-cost opportunity to conquer an economic niche in the market.

Recruitment

Recruitment is another important part of the production system, because its success depends on the skills and reactions of project managers. The description of the level of qualifications and the company's provision with the necessary specialists should reflect the real picture. If there is a need for additional recruitment of personnel and a management core, it is important to clarify whether it is possible to find them at the location of production or whether you will have to incur costs to motivate them to move from other cities. Don't waste too many words on the management biography. It is necessary to show that each of the managers is truly a professional in his field, dedicated to him and the team believes in the leader. For this, specific data about his role in participation in other projects is sufficient, while it is not necessary to describe exclusively successes. An adequate analysis of one’s past mistakes and the ability to draw the right conclusions is positively perceived by investors.

Loading production

The next point is production utilization or production capacity (PM). It contains data on the volume of products (services provided) that the company is able to produce (provide) for a specific time period. This paragraph examines the company's PM in several categories: project, current, reserve, and from the point of view of its possible increase and decrease. Here you need to provide information about how flexible production will be - whether it is possible to quickly increase or reduce the production of goods without significant losses and breaks in the production-supply chain.

The production plan must include a layout of equipment and its justification.

Aggregate plan and work schedule

An aggregate production plan for product sales is created to compare marketing data and production capacity for a period from one year to 5–7 years. Characterized by clear definitions of goods/services that must be produced to fulfill the business plan. The production and sales plan is usually divided into periods of up to a year. It can be adjusted every month, depending on the current situation in the company. The very concept of “aggregate” means to enlarge. In this case, we mean the generalization of individual indicators and their reduction into one position.

The next items are scheduling work and planning material requirements. For this it is convenient to use .

Step 5: Prepare a Financial Plan

This part of the business plan is designed to evaluate the project in terms of its costs and profitability. It should justify the need for finance, describe ways to replenish the project budget, and guarantees. It also provides a description of the economic situation in the area of ​​interest of the project, difficult to predict factors and possible options for financial behavior under several scenarios for the development of events. Preparing to work on a financial plan consists of drawing up an estimate and the degree of its accuracy.

It is important to list in detail all planned expenses for the project and the rationale for their necessity by year, dividing them into quarters. It is advisable to plan the first year monthly.

For each month (quarter, year) of the project, you need to reflect:

• taxes and their rates;
• inflation;
• information on capitalization methods;
• loan repayment schedule.

Take data from:

• ;
• documentation on the movement of money;
• balance sheet.

Recommendations to help you write a competent business plan yourself

1. Reflect in the plan the approximate period when the invested funds will be returned and what specific steps are provided for this.
2. When making forecasts, check project performance indicators.
3. Experts advise, after accurately calculating the costs of implementing the project, to double this figure. Lack of funds can ruin the most promising project.
4. Compare the timing of receipt of funds with the timing of the company’s regular expenses.
5. Create a financial reserve while the income growth from the project exists only on paper.
6. Create informed profitability forecasts. It is better to expect less than to be captured by illusory expectations and create a difficult financial situation for the company.
7. Tightly control costs until operational returns are achieved.

A business plan is what helps an entrepreneur navigate the market environment and see goals. Many successful people note that an idea must be written down on paper, otherwise it will never be realized. Therefore, a business plan is necessary for running a successful business. How to write a business plan yourself: a sample and step-by-step instructions are contained in our new publication!

A business plan is a program according to which a company operates. It is necessary in order to competently coordinate the actions of the organization and see the directions of its development.

A business plan can be called a kind of rehearsal. The entrepreneur plays out various scenarios during which he can see problems and find ways to solve them. In this case, the person does not lose money, as would happen in a real situation.

Business plan objectives

• Formulate the goals of the organization (both short-term and long-term)
• Set project deadlines
• Determine the target audience and markets for products
• Analyze the competitiveness of the organization
• Determine the company's advantages
• Assess the level of costs
• Develop an action plan aimed at increasing the economic efficiency of the organization
• Predict the amount of profit and the level of profitability of the business.

What's included in a business plan?

1. Title page and contents

Here the company's imprint and contact details of the founders, as well as the contents of the document, should be indicated.

2. Summary (introduction)

This part is a summary of the entire business plan. The most important thing should be here, i.e. justification of the relevance of the business and the financial part.

The resume should not be approximately two pages long. Although it is located at the very beginning, its compilation should begin at the end. You need to approach this responsibly, because this is the part that the investor studies.

3. Company history

If you already have an existing organization, then you need to talk about the history of its origins and its successes.

4. Market opportunities

In this section, it is necessary to conduct a SWOT analysis of the enterprise, i.e. identify its strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

7. Business model

This is a financial plan. Here you need to describe all sources of income and costs. You also need to indicate your suppliers and main buyers.

A cafe business plan: an example with calculations and step-by-step instructions for creating your own cafe from scratch can be found

8. Forecast

In this section you need to create a financial forecast. It is necessary to write about the amount of profit and payback period of the project.

The entire business plan should be 30-40 pages.

How to write a business plan yourself: a sample for a small business

Let's look at some sections of a business plan using an example

SWOT Analysis Matrix

You will find the best franchises with prices and terms of purchase in our new publication at the link.

Business model

Thus, the starting capital is 290,000 rubles. At the same time, fixed costs amount to 105,000 per month.