Business Plan Basics

Learn business plan basics and how to do a business plan or your gift basket business startup company.

You’ll find a free Business Plan Template at SBA.gov. The SBA site’s template is designed to help you build a business plan. Review and complete each section of the template. At the end of the program you’ll be able to generate and save a formatted business plan which can later be further modified or presented as a final product.

What is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a blueprint of your company, presented in standard business format that is logical and well documented. A good business plan is also:

• A strategic vision of your company
• Your most important communication tool
• A document to obtain working capital and/or investments
• A tool for planning, measuring and improving performance
• A basis for sound decision-making
• A way to motivate employees

Why a Business Plan is Important

The Success of your business depends largely upon the decisions you make. A business plan allocates resources and measures the results of your actions, helping you set realistic goals and make decisions.

You may have asked yourself, Why should I spend my time and energy drawing up a business plan? Remember, first and foremost that lack of planning leaves you poorly equipped to anticipate future decisions and actions you must make or take to run your business Successfully.

On the other hand, a sound plan can act as:

A reality check. The process of putting a business plan together, including the thought you put in before you begin to write it, forces you to take an objective, critical, unemotional look at your business project in its entirety.

A performance tool. Your written business plan is an operating tool which, when properly used, will help you manage your business and work effectively towards its Success. Your business plan will allow you to set realistic goals and objectives for your company’s performance, and, if maintained, will also provide a basis for evaluating and controlling the company’s performance in the future.

A message sender. The completed business plan communicates your company’s ideas and message to employees, outside directors, lenders, and potential investors. outside your company. A business plan helps you do that in an organized, credible manner. Also, the process of planning helps you determine if your vision is realistic, and tells you what you need to do in order to achieve it.

A motivation tool. The development of your business plan is one of the best ways for you to communicate how well you understand your business and describe your vision of your business. Without proper planning, it becomes impossible for you to get all of your employees reading off the same page of the book and generating energy through high levels of team work. It is impossible to motivate people when they do not know where they are going or what they are trying to achieve.

A management development tool. Putting together your business plan will help you develop as a manager because it can give you practice in thinking and figuring out problems about competitive conditions, promotional opportunities, and situations that are or may be beneficial or harmful to your business.

A road map. Your business plan, once it’s completed, will give you /and your employees goals and direction: a roadmap to follow in guiding your business through good and bad times.