Business Plan Preparation for Growth: Business Plan Guidelines - Wellcorp

Planning is the foremost essential move of any business start-up which becomes its foundation. If you are keen on starting up or developing a business, then you need to learn the art of preparation of business plan and proposal writing laying down a proper roadmap and execution process. A business plan is typically a detailed document that lays down the company’s goals and objectives, the actions necessary to achieve the same, the effects of various factors, and set timelines. Here’s a complete guide giving deep insights about the business plan, its importance, types of business plan followed by various FAQs. 

The Importance of Business Plan 

One cannot emphasize enough on the importance of a business plan than the fact that lack of proper planning could be the sole reason for the failure of your business. Following are the key points that highlight why a business plan lays the foundation for any budding business: 

• Helps in assessing the feasibility of the business. 

• It gives direction and casts a proper roadmap of the way ahead. 

• Helps in forecasting the major obstacles that lie ahead and proactively plan to remove the same. 

• Acts as a benchmark and helps in tracking the progress after the implementation. 

• Guides in raising finance from the banks, other financial institutions, and investors. 

• Facilitates the decision-making of the organization and prevents it from taking wrong decisions. 

• Carry out SWOT analysis i.e., determining the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats of the organization and preplan to mitigate the same. 

The Importance of an Ongoing Business Plan 

If you have already created a business plan, then you would be happy to know the benefits that it entails to your organization. The following are the benefits of an ongoing business plan: 

• Steer your growth in the right direction. 

• Helps in maintaining your focus on your goals and ensuring that you achieve them within the set timelines. 

• Gives insights into where your organization is lacking to make informed decisions towards the scope of improvement. 

• Helps in understanding the market scenario and whether your strategies align with your market predictions. 

• Revise and modify your plan in case things do not go as planned. 

Whether you prepare a business plan for small scale enterprise or a big organization, it will entail the benefits of progressing in the right path. 

What are the Types of Business Plan? 

Following are the types of business plans that the businesses usually develop: 

1. Start-Up Business Plans: Startup business plan essentially lays down the roadmap for a new venture. It works as a great tool to pitch the business idea to the investors and gain their confidence. Investors need clear prospects of how the business will function in the future to know whether it's worth taking the risk. 

Startup business plans include detailed and comprehensive information of what the startup is all about and what are the future prospects of the startup. As the startup grows, the plan is modified accordingly to suit the company’s needs. 

2. Internal Business Plans: These are made for internal business purposes. The targets are usually specific to departments and teams like the marketing team, operations department, etc. The internal business plan aims at addressing the shortfalls within the organization and taking corrective measures to further enhance growth. It usually pushes up the current state of the company’s affairs that includes various costs associated with marketing, hiring, and technology, etc., current revenues and profitability, etc. 

3. Strategic Business Plan: The strategic plan is also for the internal purpose of the organization. Though it involves some figures and statistics, the major focus will be on the strategy of the organization. SWOT analysis is one of the key parts of a strategic plan. SWOT analysis includes the following: 

• Strengths: These are what the organization is good at. This can be a USP, competitive advantage, etc. 

• Weakness: These are the internal shortcomings of the organizations. It is where the organization is lacking.  The Organization should think on how to improve it? 

• Opportunities: These are the opportunities presented by the market and the external environment of the organization. 

• Threats: These are the threats and obstacles that your business faces from the external environment. 

A strategic plan is devised keeping the vision and mission of the company in mind. It usually lays the foundation for some of the most important decisions taken in the organization.  

4. Feasibility Business Plan: A feasibility plan helps to determine the feasibility of a new venture, product, or project. In simple terms, it is the business plan preparation for new ventures with the rationale to determine in advance whether the upcoming endeavors will be profitable or not. You can prepare a simple plan for a specific business project. It includes the specifications about the venture, product or project, target demographics, and the required investment into the same. 

5. Operations Business Plan: The Operations business plan focuses on the operations of the organization. It includes the decisions and planning with respect to day-to-day operations of an organization including the routine activities, staffing, resource requirements, progress tracking, achievement of targets, etc. 

6. Expansion Plan: When the company seeks to expand its operations, a detailed strategy and roadmap are to be prepared. The expansion could be through entering a new product line or a geographic market or integrating the verticals into the mainstream business. It could also be through forming a branch or subsidiary or acquisition of an existing company. The expansion plan consists of all such details and finances with respect to the same. 

Business Plan Development: Our Services 

Wellcorp provides a range of services from business consultancy to business plan preparation and review. Our business plan preparation service includes providing guidelines for preparing a business plan to developing a full-fledge business plan, reviewing an existing business plan and providing recommendations for improvements thereof. 

• It all starts with understanding your needs and requirements and the purpose of creating a business plan. The target audience is one of the most important aspects to be considered, according to which the plan has to be developed. 

• Once the target readership is determined, then comes the gathering of useful information from both internal and external sources. 

• Then begins the preparation of the business plan. We provide a detailed as well as concise business plan as per your needs setting out all the information and presenting it in a structured manner. 

A business plan can be a deal-maker or a deal-breaker when it comes to financing or making important organizational decisions. Always remember this while you prepare a business plan for your chosen small-scale enterprises or your company.  

What Your Business Plan Should Include? 

A business plan is tailor-made depending upon the company requirements, the type of plan, the market, and the industry. However, the following are the steps in preparing a business plan and the key elements to be included: 

• Title and Page Contents: This includes the title of the business plan, company’s name and logo, address and contact details, etc. After the cover page follows the table of contents highlighting all the points covered in the business plan. 

• Executive Summary: It conveys a summary of the plan in the fewest words possible. It should give insights as to what does the business plan address and what is the outlook of the plan. 

• Business Description: This gives the description of the existing business in a few paragraphs.  This also includes the description of industry in which the company is operating; the other major offerings of the company; where does the company currently stand; future probabilities etc. Further, it highlights the performance of the company in recent years. 

• Products & Services: The products and services offered by the company are highlighted here. This section can also be bifurcated based upon the business line of the company. The performance of each business segment or individual products and services are helpful in making informed decisions. 

• Market Analysis: Here, what is the market scenario and how does it influence the organization is laid out. The market is influenced by many factors like inflation, geopolitical scenario, consumer preferences, competitors’ offerings, etc. All this should be summed up to derive meaningful conclusions of the overall market response. 

• Strategies: This section depicts the potentials of the market and the company’s offerings and how they can be materialized. This is the beginning of the business plan where the strategies are being highlighted for further growth of the company along with the execution plan. 

• Financial Projections: This part drafts out the future financial projections. It gives insights into the future performance of the company after the strategy is implemented. In the case of an internal business plan, these can include the financial impact of the strategy on that particular department that is laying down the business plan. 

• Appendix: This section is for all supporting documents that form part of the main business plan. 

When & How to Review Your Business Plan? 

Once the business plan is implemented, it is important to review it periodically to ensure that everything is going as per the plan. Certain things are outside the control of the organization that can pose a threat to the strategies formulated. Also, there might arise certain favourable events that can speed up the achievements of the objectives. The following points should be kept in mind for reviewing your business plan: 

• Review it periodically. Remember that the time gap is not too long otherwise, it will delay the implementation of the required changes and achievement of the overall objectives. 

• Take timely feedback. This can be from your team members, executives, or customers depending upon the plan. 

• Review your performance. The Comparison of what you forecasted and how are you performing will give you a clear idea of the plan’s effectiveness and the required changes. 

• Track the external market changes. Accuracy of market predictions will directly affect the success of your business plan. 

• Compare with your budget. Compare the actual financials after implementation of the plan with the budgeted figures. It can help you arrive at meaningful conclusions. 

• Analyse the competitors’ response. Analyse the response of the competitors and it effect on your business after implementation of the business plan. Keeping a check on competition is essential to survive in the cut-throat competitive market. 

Need Help? Get Business Counselling 

Preparing a business plan being an essential on for the overall growth and achievement of the organization, what’s equally important is to make informed decisions in your business. A business plan pens down what you are planning to achieve for your organization but it is important to be assured that what you seek is beneficial for your company. Wellcorp, as your trusted business counsellor, can help you take right decisions for your business along with laying down a proper financial plan for the growth of your business.