Writing Business Plan for a startup

Are you planning to write a business plan for you new venture?

I am presently working on a new venture and I have been doing a lot of research work on the same. Starting from the development to marketing, from conceptualization to branding, basically having the entire road map drawn for the next few years on all the things I am going to do. It is like, I am having the entire business run in my mind over and over again, looking at all the aspects and finding flaws in it and filling it up.

This is basically what a business plan does. I must admit, I am not an ardent fan of putting down my thoughts in pen and paper. So I started to look for some help to get the business plan written in a professional way. What I was looking for and am still looking for is an individual who has got experience in writing business plan and which I can use to approach VCs or angel investors to get funded.

In my search, I came across a startup in India, who give advisory services to entrepreneurs. I approached them for writing me a business plan first and then, after I am ready with my prototype, help me out in getting funds. They were game for it.

However, when I got the quote for the business plan alone, I was surprised. The quote was about a tenth of the Initial Stage funding I was looking for. The quote was for all the work including research, and writing the business plan from scratch. I am kind of happy now. The work I have done till now is worth a tenth of the funding I am looking for.

On getting back on this, I got the second option, which was they would guide me to write the plan. I will have to write it any way. It seems like coming back to square one. The fact is I am still looking for someone to help to pen down my thoughts, suggest and add a few of his/her own and then draft me a professional business plan. I am not in favor of giving a fortune for this.

It seems like everything is becoming costlier and the investment required to start a venture keeps going up every second. I still remember, my father starting his venture, with the capital which is unthinkable now. He had prepared a project report to get finance from the bank. The project report was prepared by the Charted Accountant and it was enough to get the loan.

I have a few basic questions here. Is it that important to have a professional looking business plan to get funded? What is more important, a professional business plan or a business plan which works? And lastly, Do you think we should spend a fortune in getting a business plan written by others? However, I need inputs from you to know, how do the investors approach this.

A business plan is only a plan which can guide me how to run a business. Ultimately, I have to run my business. So I have decided to write my own business plan now and did a considerable amount of research on ways to write a business plan. Below given are a few points you need to know about writing a business plan.

For those people who are still wondering what all to prepare for writing a business plan, these are the points.

» Elevator Pitch

» Vision & Mission Statement

» Market & Industry Environment

» Value Proposition, Key Products/Services and Differentiation

» Competitive Scenario and Entry Barriers

» Business Model and Sales/Marketing Strategy

» Market Traction

» Management Team

» Organization

» Financials

» Exit

» Capital

» Risk & Gaps

The exact format and the layout varies from investor to investor. I would suggest everyone to prepare as much as possible on your own. It is you who is going to run the show. A business plan prepared from someone else is not going to run the business for you. Once you have decided to run the business, do all the research possible to get as much as data and information. Each and every point is very important and nothing, I repeat nothing, can be left for a later stage.

Here are some of the facts I have found in my research. You should run your venture in your mind as many times as possible. Keep looking for loopholes and reason which might impact your business. Think in all possible directions. Put yourselves in the shoes of each person or roles which matters. Try to think like your competitor and break the business if possible. Keep penning down thoughts, ideas and all into the system or paper. Draw a complete road map. Prepare a plan B in case plan A does not work. If you have visualized a successful in mind only then you would be able to make the real business a success.

The most important part of writing a business plan. After you have written a business plan, you have to keep referring it from time to time. Once you go ahead with the venture, you need to keep on modifying the business plan based on the feedback, experiences, failures and successes. A business plan is by no means a hard and fast rule book and is always subject to change.