Business plan, sample of creating a business on paper. Step-by-step instruction

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

There are several types of business plans in Russia:

• 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 a 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...

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Choosing a niche and an idea to create your own business is half the battle. No one can guarantee the success of a future enterprise.

It is important to understand how to organize the process and spend start-up capital.

Carefully thought out and correctly composed " scenario» on the implementation of the idea allows not only get the business started faster, but also prevent potential errors leading to loss of funds.

With a plan, you will be able to assess the feasibility of your plans and immediate prospects. In addition, creating a business plan from scratch is mandatory in cases where lending is to be done.

Purpose and structure

A business plan is a road map of the future business, which reflects:

• main aspects of operation;
• possible problems;
• risks of loss;
• prospects;
• anti-crisis measures.

The business plan must contain all aspects of the existence of the future company from the moment of creation to a state of stability when a transition to a new level is required. The description must be detailed and extremely simple without complex economic terminology, so that the document is understood by all interested parties (owner, employees, bankers, partners, investors).

Advice from the author! It would not be superfluous to enter into a memorandum (agreement) of confidentiality with those to whom the document is transferred for study. This step will protect the author of the written project from the theft of the idea and unauthorized use of the information contained in the business plan.

The detailed plan is 30-40 pages in length. The information is presented concisely, but informatively. The project includes 4 main blocks:

1. annotation– outlines the main concept (on half a page).
2. Summary– contains the main conclusions of the business plan and the results expected in the course of business.
3. Main part– the “body” of the project is signed.
4. Applications– graphic materials (diagrams, tables, graphs, resumes of managers) are displayed on them, allowing you to visually assess the prospects of your business.

You need to understand that a template plan for a specific idea may not be useful. Each type of activity has nuances, and the principles of its functioning may differ radically from other forms of business. Therefore, it is advisable to understand the structure of its writing. An analysis of the niche in which it is planned to implement the idea, competitors and features will have to be carried out by a potential businessman individually in each case, depending on the scale and scope of activity.

Compilation algorithm

By correctly drafting this important document, you will give the green light to your business. Let's consider the main components of a business plan:

Annotation. Essentially, this is an appeal to stakeholders, explaining what the project is, how and by whom it will be implemented. Describe the main idea briefly but interestingly.

Summary. Approach writing this part responsibly, because it is this part that all potential partners and investors, without exception, will read to the end. The resume determines whether the idea is interesting in principle. If the investor may ask to change any part of the business plan, then the project, the summary of which is not impressive, will be rejected at the first stage. The summary should reflect the rationale for the success of the idea, the expected results of the project and how to achieve them. To do this, specify:

• objective of the project;
• business maintenance;
• financial needs (project budget);
• target audience of consumers;
• information about the demand for a product (service);
• difference from analogues;
• financial indicators of project success.

Important! It is worth noting that the resume is written based on the results of the business plan. Only by understanding the whole picture of the project will you be able to present a summary clearly and convincingly.

Goals and objectives

They provide a quantitative understanding of the project's results. The goal is what the project is being implemented for. Objectives are the effect that must be achieved. Analyze the business idea, its strengths and weaknesses, and the selected market segment so that it is clear who will benefit from the project.

Product or service

Explain this part in detail so that it is extremely clear what you are supposed to do. It is necessary to reflect: description of the product (service), uniqueness (advantages), possibilities of use, required personnel qualifications, technology, need for licensing (patent).

Market analysis

It will be necessary to collect and systematize information regarding: the composition of consumers, the state of the selected market segment and its prospects, and the capabilities of competitors. It is advisable to show the share that your product (service) occupies in the selected niche on a graph or diagram.

Marketing plan

This section aims to win over a potential investor. A carefully described strategy for promoting a product (service) will help to inspire trust.

Be sure to indicate what characteristics distinguish the idea from competitors, how this will help in its promotion, and how it will affect pricing.

Also describe all the ways to sell the product (service), advertising moves and sales promotion opportunities.

Production plan

This paragraph reveals the material component of the future business. Must contain information about: type and location of premises, involvement of subcontractors, necessary equipment, supplies, purchase of equipment (materials).

Management personnel

Indicate the personnel (management and ordinary employees) who will be involved in the implementation of the idea, as well as ways to motivate them (salary, compensation).

1. Required resources. Describe the amount of funds needed, timing and sources of raising them. In case of lending, indicate the terms and possibilities of repayment of funds, investment - the amount of monthly dividends. It is appropriate to display the project budget in the form of a table indicating salaries, direct and indirect costs of the project.
2. Financial plan. An important section that allows you to predict business development, as well as avoid unnecessary expenses. It is necessary to calculate: sales volumes, balance of assets and liabilities, profit and loss ratios, cash flow, payback of the project. This also includes an analysis of risks indicating ways to overcome them.

Applications

This section comes as a separate block. It contains statistical information, graphic materials, product design.

Important! All materials contained in the Appendix must be signed and numbered. Links to them are indicated directly from the text from the main part of the document. Applications usually take up to 10 pages.

Example of a business plan

Download an example of a business plan from scratch for solar energy:

More business plans:

• Organization of a workshop for reinforced concrete products ();
• Children's animation school ();
• Construction of a telecommunication network ();
• Brewery ();
• Bakery ().

Benefits of Business Planning

When planning to open a mini-factory, shopping center or water park, it is advisable to entrust the development of a business plan from scratch to specialists. It is worth understanding that a business, the creation of which involves the injection of substantial investments, significantly increases risks.

Therefore, it is advisable to carefully study the market, competitors, calculate the budget, profitability, work patterns, and anti-crisis measures. All this can only be done by professionals. At the same time, it is quite possible to write this document yourself to implement a small idea without investments. This has its advantages.

Firstly, independent development of a plan will allow you to put together a holistic picture of the future business (weaknesses and strengths of the service (product), the amount of start-up capital, operational work plan, marketing strategy, the need to attract personnel and staffing).

When the smallest details are spelled out, it will become easier to understand whether the calculations are wrong. For example, attracting 20 thousand clients in the first year contradicts hiring 2 sales managers, setting them impossible tasks in advance.

In this case (if it is not possible to reduce the level of market entry), it would be appropriate to orient the business towards forming partnerships or cooperation with distributors.

Secondly, Having a self-written business plan in hand, an individual entrepreneur will be able to control success. Clear planning broken down by dates, fixed on paper, disciplines and allows you to impartially evaluate achievements. If the indicators indicated in the document are lower than those that were achieved in practice, this indicates the right choice of strategy.

Analyze due to what factors you were able to exceed your own expectations (seasonality, course jump, specialization). Continue to focus on this in the future. This way the company will generate even more income.

Failure to achieve the set goals should prompt an analysis of the reasons why this happened (overestimation of certain factors, problems with financing, improper organization of work, unforeseen circumstances).

Third, a business plan specifies the goals of the business owner. The wording “generating income” is unlikely to lead to success. If you state that you plan to sell 1 thousand units of product by the end of the year, then this is a specific goal, not a passive forecast.

The team's actions should be aimed at achieving it. The document contains goals for all points: income, sales volume, expense items, attracting clients, recruiting personnel. A goal formulated in quantitative terms becomes a task that predetermines an action plan.

Advice from the author! What is once done well is done forever. If the foundation of a business is built correctly and step by step, this significantly increases the chances of “surviving.” If necessary, the company can easily be repurposed or expanded.

Fourth, a good plan helps attract talented employees. Business prospects are an effective motivation for staff. When goals and their implementation schedule fixed on paper, company employees it becomes clear how to get to the maximum in achieving results.

Many beginning entrepreneurs, when implementing a certain entrepreneurial idea, ignore drawing up a plan, considering it just a tool for obtaining loans or investments. This opinion is wrong. A business plan is intended not so much for finding funds to open your own business, but for its successful step-by-step implementation and competent management.

Having a business is a great way to start earning money on your own, but it cannot be opened without first developing a special project. In this publication you will find the answer to the following questions: what is a business plan, how to draw up this document, are there any nuances of its design.

What is a business project?

A business project describes all the features of the future organization. It analyzes possible problems, identifies options for solving them, and predicts the result. How to draw up a correct business plan is a question asked by people who are planning to attract investors. Competent preparation of the document will guarantee the successful future of your enterprise.

Drawing up a correct business project is not easy even for an experienced entrepreneur, so it is advisable to entrust this work to a team of competent economists. The plan must contain, regardless of the type of activity:

1. Justification of economic feasibility.
2. The state of the economic environment in which it is planned to open a business.
3. Financial results (sales volume, revenue and profit).
4. Sources of financing.
5. Task execution schedule.
6. Appointment of people responsible for the implementation of the business.
7. Determine indicators that allow you to monitor intermediate results.

Every successful entrepreneur can confidently say that a well-written business plan is one of the most important elements in forming your own business. Understanding how to correctly design a future enterprise, you can predict a positive result when contacting a credit institution or investor. Let us next consider the basic rules for writing a business plan.

Purpose of the document

Writing a business plan (an example project will be discussed below) can be done in various ways. There are various benefits for this. However, in most of them the information is very specific and understandable only to economists or accountants. At the same time, the need to draw up a business plan arises for all beginning entrepreneurs. The document is necessary for submission to a credit institution, obtaining a loan from an investor for the development of a business at the initial stages. In addition, a business plan allows you to see immediate and upcoming goals, predict capital investments at one time or another, anticipate the moment when the first profit will arrive, and calculate the total income from activities.

Specifics of enterprises

To obtain a loan for the construction of a plant or factory, it is more advisable to contact the appropriate organizations that can provide qualified assistance in writing a business plan. In this case, the document will contain economic calculations and be supported by financial documents drawn up in accordance with all the rules for their execution. A business plan drawn up in this way can, without hesitation, be sent to both foreign investors and domestic credit companies. However, in this case, it should be understood that services for drawing up a project for a future enterprise will not be cheap. To open a mobile retail outlet or a clothing or shoe repair shop, for example, there is no need to study or calculate industry risks in detail. In this case, it will be sufficient to competently organize production, determine the sales market, and predict enterprises. A program for writing a business plan for such an activity will be understandable to a novice entrepreneur.

Important point

Entrepreneurs who have quite a lot of experience in doing business do not recommend unconditionally relying on the experience of acquaintances or friends and only on their intuition. Forecasting activity does not appear as an obsolete component of socialist reality. Planning is an essential element of modern business. Analysis of payback periods, determination of periods of investment, development and subsequent return are the most important aspects even with a relatively small investment. Concepts such as “market” and “plan” are fundamental in both the East and the West. At the present stage of economic development, it is enough to adopt the experience of successful companies and get positive results.

Sample of writing a business plan

A project for a future business is necessary for the investor, as well as the entrepreneur himself. The structure of writing a business plan includes a number of mandatory points. These include, in particular:

• introduction;
• a brief description of the future enterprise;
• assessment of the sales market, competition, investment risks;
• production formation plan;
• forecasts for sales of services/products;
• financial plan;
• management organization;
• application.

Adaptation to the Russian market

The above plan for writing a business plan is recommended by Western analysts. However, in the practice of domestic entrepreneurship, some of its points require clarification and additional decoding. Thus, taking into account the peculiarities of the Russian business sphere, the plan for writing a business plan should include a section that reveals an adequate understanding of the problems and issues related to the quality of services and goods. Here it is necessary to present possible solutions to them. It is also advisable to include a clause in the plan for writing a business plan that describes the ability to competently manage and regulate the cost of services/products. In the same section it is worth revealing ways to ensure its competitiveness. Another additional point will be a clear vision of the prospects for the development of the enterprise, guarantees of the ability to bring the matter to completion.

Plan for writing a business plan: independent work

First of all, you should clearly assess the competitiveness of the proposed services or goods, analyze the sales market, the timing of the first profit, the time during which the investment will pay for itself. The next step will be to determine the amount of capital investment required. Experts recommend dividing the investment into several parts, supporting the justification with appropriate calculations. Taking into account the above points, it should be understood that a business plan drawn up independently may be fundamentally different from the structure given above. It should also be noted that there is no project form regulated by norms and standards. Each entrepreneur has the right to independently establish a list of items and the scope of documentation for enterprise planning. However, if external investment is needed to open a business, you should still adhere to the above scheme.

Introduction

This section of the business plan is a presentation of the future enterprise. It must describe the type of activity in an understandable form in the most optimistic light. It often happens that the introduction is the only section that the investor reads on his own and immediately makes a decision - to take the project into development or reject it. He will entrust the study of the remaining parts, which display calculations, marketing research, and financial justifications, to his specialists. However, as practice shows, it is the introduction that decides the fate of the project. This section should be short and concise at the same time.

Characteristics of the industry and enterprise

This is the next important part of the business plan. This section provides a general description of the enterprise and industry:

• Financial indicators.
• Personnel composition.
• Direction of activity.
• Company structure.
• List and description of services/products.
• Development prospects and so on.

The section should contain characteristics of the proposed production and a number of technological aspects. These points should be described in simple and accessible language. There is no point in delving into terminology or using a professional style. In this case, it is enough to indicate the uniqueness of the services or products and their demand in the near and foreseeable future. You can also draw the investor’s attention to the advantages of the products offered.

Marketing research

Here you should describe the conditions under which consumers become clients of the enterprise. The section outlines methods of sales promotion, creating a positive image, and distributing services/products. The marketing plan includes a list of advertising costs. Essentially, you need to justify how and why consumers will purchase a service or product.

Production

This section should describe the characteristics of the premises and indicate the established requirements for equipment and personnel. The production plan should also describe suppliers and contractors.

Organization of the enterprise and financial component

The business plan must contain characteristics of the form of management and the tasks of administrative specialists. For a domestic investor, it is important to have a resume for each member of the management team. In this regard, in this section it is worth listing the partners, noting as truthfully and objectively as possible the contribution of each of them to the development of the enterprise, functional responsibilities and role in the company. The financial part contains economic calculations. In particular, a table of income and expenses is compiled, the balance sheet is forecasted, variable and direct costs are indicated, carried out, and so on. Typically, three forecasts are developed in this section: realistic, optimistic and pessimistic. They are displayed in the form of graphs.

Creating a business “from scratch” begins with thinking through the concept of the project: in what area the company or individual entrepreneur will operate and what exactly he is going to offer to a potential client. The next, no less important step is choice. But this is not enough: before you prepare, you need to draw up a business plan - independently or with the involvement of marketing specialists.

How a small business will look in the eyes of investors, creditors, target audiences and potentially interested buyers depends on how competently, succinctly and clearly the business plan is written. Below we will tell you how to write a detailed, attractive business plan on your own, as well as two examples of ready-made projects.

Why write a business plan and who needs it?

Before reading the step-by-step instructions for drawing up a business plan, it would be a good idea for a novice entrepreneur to find out in what cases such a document is needed and when you can do without it.

The answer to the second question is simple: the more promising the project seems and the more it is planned to attract investors and creditors, the more the need for a business plan increases. If we are talking about a company that can be equipped, launched and “introduced” into the market on its own, it is not necessary to draw up a plan; Your own start-up capital or consumer loan and the persistence of an entrepreneur are enough.

Otherwise, when a truly large-scale enterprise is created, which will function for many years in the future and not only generate income for the owner, but is also an object of investment, you cannot do without a correctly written and calculated business plan: not a single serious investor will invest money in dubious project.

Thus, a business plan is a kind of business card for a project that is at the stage of creation or development. After reading it, potential lenders, investors and partners will get an idea:

• about the essence of the idea;
• about the main parameters of development and functioning;
• about prospects and risks;
• about the business owner’s readiness to overcome problems and correct possible miscalculations.

Advice: before the presentation (individual or group) of the business plan, it would not hurt to conclude a memorandum of non-disclosure of the information heard with each of the representatives of financial institutions, investment companies and commercial partners. This will protect the original project from plagiarism, and the non-original project from the premature readiness of potential competitors.

Drawing up a business plan - detailed instructions

As already mentioned, you can write a business plan yourself, focusing on the algorithm and ready-made samples given below, or resort to the help of professionals.

The first option is preferable for small business owners who plan to develop according to a standard scheme. It is hardly possible to create a fundamentally new scheme for selling ice cream, hot tea or demi-season clothing: the demand for these items is almost the same in any era and depends little on the efforts of the businessman. Marketing tricks do their job, but it is impossible to sell more than the target audience is ready to buy.

Relying solely on their own strengths, the business owner will be able to:

• save money on expensive help from marketers and experts;
• understand more clearly what exactly he is doing;
• immediately correct detected deficiencies in the business plan, without waiting for a crisis situation to occur;
• gain full control over your own project.

By entrusting the preparation of a plan to professionals, you can achieve:

• minimizing the cost of time and energy: a businessman will receive a finished project in the shortest possible time, without the need to understand marketing and economic intricacies;
• early identification of all possible risks and errors: a novice businessman who does not yet have sufficient experience may not pay attention to an error that has crept into his calculations, which will be much more difficult to correct in the future;
• obtaining complete information: although a business plan is usually not a very voluminous document, a specialist can make it truly capacious by filling each page with valuable information.

The choice remains with the business owner: both options for drawing up a business plan have their advantages and are implementable not only within the framework of individual entrepreneurship or a small company. The main thing is an understanding of the situation, knowledge of general terms and a desire to understand the current situation.

Advice: You should not skimp on the preparation, development and presentation of the document. A business plan is a long-term project designed to bring an enterprise or product “from scratch” to a level of stable operation or demand. The process can take from a month or two to a year or more; all this time it is necessary to attract investments and repay loans taken, and therefore ensure the profitability of the company. And this is much easier to do, relying not on your own intuition, but on a clear and clear plan for everyone.

If the project is new, unusual and its implementation seems difficult to implement, the business plan should, if not be drawn up by professionals, then at least be tested by competent persons: you can never be sure that a business attractive to the inventor will turn out to be completely unpromising from a commercial point of view and will “burst.” “still at the stage of attracting resources. However, loans must be repaid and investments returned; In order not to end up bankrupt, a novice businessman should not neglect expert opinion; It’s better to step back a little and think through everything again than to be left without money and reputation.

A business plan, no matter who draws it up, usually meets the following standards:

1. The volume of text is from 30 to 50 pages. You should not get carried away by immersing the reader in overly detailed information: investors and creditors are unlikely to be interested in what kind of nutritional additives will be present in ice cream or with the threads of which supplier it is planned to stitch the shoes being produced. You need specific numbers, as in the samples, which can be downloaded from the links below, and nothing superfluous.
2. The document consists of four mandatory sections:
   • abstract - the most concise description of the enterprise’s activities; ideally should occupy from half to three quarters of an A4 page;
   • summary - should contain key provisions relating to the project in general and the business plan in particular, from possible difficulties to expected results;
   • the main part is the business plan itself, the structure of which will be presented below;
   • application(s) - additional information: photographs, graphs, diagrams, recommendations from partners and managers, marketing research, and so on.
3. The text of the document, handouts and presentation should be easy to read and pleasing to the eye. A novice entrepreneur needs to remember: attracting creditors, investors and partners is in his interests, and therefore, he must seek their favor, and not vice versa. A sloppily written document with an unreadable font will definitely not contribute to the establishment of positive relationships - and may even turn those gathered away from a really good idea.
4. The language of the document should be businesslike, not burdened with frills, but not too dry. Still, a business owner or project developer turns to real people for support, who are unlikely to want to understand the intricacies of scientific terms and phrases. Of course, a professional will not make such a mistake, so the recommendation is addressed primarily to businessmen who decide to act independently.
5. The plan should contain only real, reliable facts and figures. None of the potential investors and creditors will take the trouble to double-check the numbers and conduct repeated research, but if the project collapses, its creator will have to explain why this happened, and the presence of deliberately made inaccuracies in the text will certainly not help him in this situation.

Advice: Do not overload the Applications section. Although in theory any information related to the business plan can be included, the number of pages with appendices should not exceed the volume of the main text - otherwise the project will become too complex to study.

In order to make it easier to familiarize yourself with visual information, you can build and place at least some of the graphs and diagrams directly in the text, without assigning them to another section. This is especially convenient if you plan to open a business, the idea of ​​which can be familiarized with in a few minutes, and not a branched, complex enterprise.

Design of the introductory part

Now, knowing the basic rules for drawing up a business plan (you can find specific examples by clicking on the links below), you can start writing it yourself.

As is already known, the first part of the document is introductory; it includes:

• title page;
• abstract;
• summary;
• goals.

At first glance, it may seem that the title page of a business plan is an insignificant detail, the correct design of which can be neglected in favor of a more thorough elaboration of the main text.

This is a mistake: the title is the “face” of the entire project, and potential partners, lenders and investors will judge the business plan as a whole based on its quality. Of course, this does not mean that you need to decorate the document with unnecessary drawings or use non-standard fonts in the title; It is simple enough that each part of it is neatly formatted and contains the necessary information in full.

The title page must indicate:

• full and, if any, short official name of the enterprise;
• organizational and legal form (IP, LLC, JSC, etc.);
• type of activity of the organization (if there are several of them, you need to indicate the one that the business plan concerns);
• registration addresses and actual location of the company;
• information about the founder - parent company or individual entrepreneur.

The next required subsection of the introductory part is the abstract., as succinct and concise as possible. The information presented in it will be presented in more detail in the main part of the text, so for a novice entrepreneur, when drawing up a business plan, there is no need to increase the volume of the annotation to two or more pages: one incomplete one will be enough.

Advice: if you plan to attract foreign investors or lenders, it makes sense to duplicate the annotation in their national or international (English) language. If foreign entrepreneurs are the main audience for which the presentation of the business plan is intended, a positive effect can be achieved by presenting the entire project in two languages. This is not necessary, but highly recommended; if it is not possible to translate the text, it is necessary to take care of high-quality parallel oral translation.

Now you can start writing your resume. From the title of this subsection it is clear that it should be as short as possible. In addition, since it summarizes all the provisions of the business plan, the summary should be written after writing and checking the main text. It is necessary to provide basic information about the project, answering two main questions:

1. What will lenders and investors get? who provided a budding entrepreneur with borrowed funds and invested their own money in his project? It is best to provide for several scenarios:
   • complete success: the project was implemented exactly as described in the business plan - a rare, but most attractive case;
   • partial success: problems arose during business development, but were overcome at the cost of minor losses - the most realistic option;
   • predominant failure: at a certain stage, the enterprise faced serious economic blows that did not depend on the will of the businessman’s abilities, and as a result, most of the investments did not bring results - also a fairly common situation that should not be focused on;
   • complete failure: the business failed, and loans and investments were lost - this item, due to the obviousness of the consequences, can not be included in the resume.
2. What are the risks and how likely are they? It would be quite logical to list here all the main threats to the successful development of a business, putting them in a list or table. It is not possible to give exact amounts of losses for each hazard, so it would be optimal to indicate its probability in front of each negative factor as a percentage.

Subsection “Goals” (“Setting goals”) can be included in a resume or separated into a separate category. The “goals” should indicate:

• directly intended goals - in a list, in a table or in any other visual form;
• tasks set to achieve goals;
• problems that may arise when solving these problems;
• the order of actions of the project manager to get out of each specific situation - it is not necessary to limit oneself to a single algorithm to solve one issue: the variability of the project will make a good impression on investors and creditors;
• deadlines for achieving goals;
• strong arguments in favor of investing in the project and providing loans to a budding businessman.

Advice: Don’t get too carried away with presenting arguments in your favor. It is enough to indicate the main ones, and if necessary, tell the rest in words.

Description of goods or services

In the first subsection of the main part, it is necessary to tell in sufficient detail, but without going into unnecessary details, what exactly the businessman plans to offer the consumer. This should be done in several stages:

1. By providing a short list of goods and services, if necessary - with small characteristics opposite each position.
2. By talking in more detail about each part of the sentence or about individual proposals included in a single business plan.
3. Explaining how the positions are related to each other- if, of course, there is such a connection.

For example, a small business producing dairy products would be completely logical to use its own milk rather than purchased milk to produce sour cream; This is something you should mention in your business plan.

Advice: since the document should be as visual as possible, it is highly recommended to provide directly in the text or in appendices, as mentioned earlier, photographs or drawings of goods (if they are not unique and are already in production) and simplified service delivery schemes. In general, an entrepreneur can act at his own discretion, not forgetting the main condition: potential investors, creditors and partners should be interested. You can view successful examples of business plans by clicking on the links below.

Next, you need to indicate what target audience the products and services are intended for. Ideally, the audiences for each position should partially or completely coincide; otherwise, it makes sense to create and present several separate business plans.

It is imperative to draw the attention of potential investors and lenders to the product characteristics:

• the main and minor advantages and disadvantages of each individual product or each service for the consumer/user;
• strengths and weaknesses of all positions relative to competitor offerings;
• technological and actual features of the production of goods and provision of services, including from the point of view of current local legislation;
• general conclusions about competitiveness.

Important: You should not tell investors and creditors about LLC or other proposed form of activity. But it wouldn’t hurt to provide a list of documents necessary for the uninterrupted legal production of goods or provision of services: although this does not directly relate to the business idea, this way potential partners will be able to assess the complexity of implementation and the prospects of the planned plan.

Conducting market analysis

The next most important subsection is market analysis (more precisely, the niche in which the enterprise will operate). As usual, in a business plan, a document that is not too large in volume, you should not describe the current situation in too much detail, much less provide historical parallels and your own forecasts.

The market analysis should consist of the following points:

1. Current state of affairs: what is the demand for the product being produced (or being prepared for production) or the services provided, what are the expectations of the target audience and how ready is it to implement original products, technologies and techniques. Of course, when collecting data, you cannot completely get rid of the factor of subjectivity: both the researcher and the entrepreneur will inevitably reflect at this point their own opinion regarding the issue. There is nothing wrong with this: the main thing is that it is not too different from the statistical average.
2. Presence of competitors. There is no need to list all domestic companies carrying out similar activities; It is enough to limit yourself to your region or internal network.
3. Strengths and weaknesses of competing enterprises. Data should be as objective as possible, without overly emotional assessments and rash judgments.
4. Optimal ways to compete. This paragraph of the business plan should list exclusively legal methods; investors and creditors do not need to know about all of the entrepreneur's plans, no matter how exciting they may seem to him.
5. General portrait of the buyer. Compiled based on surveys; It is clear that the more honestly a novice businessman approaches this task, the more benefits he will be able to derive from the project in the future.
6. Brief marketing plan, consisting of the following points:
   • effective ways to attract customers, taking into account the specifics of the product and market conditions;
   • forecasted sales volume for several critical time points;
   • price per unit of product or service provided;
   • methods of selling goods (directly, through private intermediaries, retail chains, via the Internet, and so on);
   • legislative framework - to what extent all of the above corresponds to the provisions of domestic law.

Advice: as evidence of the integrity of the surveys, the entrepreneur can provide the audience with several completed questionnaires, fragments of video recordings and other documentary evidence.

Production part

Optional part for enterprises that do not produce goods and are engaged only in their sale. In other cases, the procedure for presenting production information in the business plan is as follows:

1. First of all, you need to list the existing production facilities and those to be acquired in the future: machines, apparatus, other technological equipment, as well as premises at the disposal of the novice businessman. Data can be presented in the form of a table or list.
2. Next, describe the procedure and schemes for supplying current assets (raw materials). It wouldn’t hurt to familiarize investors, lenders and future partners with the production process diagram; in this case, detail is more a plus than vice versa. The diagram can be given both in the text and in the appendix to the business plan.
3. The approximate number of employees and, at least in outline, the staffing table. The latter should contain:
   • employee positions;
   • their schedules;
   • the procedure for calculating wages;
   • other important information.

Advice: an undeniable advantage will be the opportunity to familiarize the audience with job descriptions of employees, as well as planned ways to improve occupational safety.

Organizational plan

In this subsection it is necessary to list the steps to implement the business plan, describing them:

• possibility of implementation;
• complexity;
• perception by competitors and target audience;
• legality;
• execution schedule.

Each project must have its own steps.

Required costs

In the penultimate subsection of the main part of the business plan You need to provide, in the form of a list or table, all planned expenses:

• for renting premises;
• for depreciation of technological equipment;
• for consumables;
• for employee salaries;
• for mandatory deductions (taxes and fees).

Next, by summing up the costs and estimating the cost of a product or service, you can determine the break-even point of the project (the sales volume value at which the business moves from “minus” to “zero” and then to “plus”), for greater clarity, attaching the corresponding graph to the calculations .

Important: profit and income are different concepts. The first is obtained by subtracting the amount of monthly expenses from the second; This must be remembered when making calculations using the formulas used in the document.

Expectations, risks and prospects

This subsection is a more detailed description of the opportunities and risks presented in the summary. It is built in free form and may include the following items:

• list of prospects and risks;
• the probability of each of the listed events, as well as their combination;
• probable financial losses;
• ways to prevent and overcome problems.

Advice: if you plan to insure the company against a number of risks, you should mention this in the business plan: such foresight will make a good impression on investors.

Download successful business plan samples

You can see examples of successful business plans in different areas by following the links.

How to write a business plan - video instructions from an expert

Common mistakes when writing a business plan

The most common mistakes made when working on a business plan include:

• ignoring the nature of work: daytime (5/2, 6/1), shift (2/2, 3/3) or seasonal;
• an overly optimistic sales forecast or an overly positive assessment of one’s own products coupled with an underestimation of competitors;
• incorrect determination of working capital and other economic indicators of the project;
• incorrect assessment of the required amount of funds: exclusion of equity capital from their volume, non-use of part of the investment, errors in planning loan repayment, and so on;
• the volume of the business plan is prohibitively large: the thicker the project, the less likely it is to be read to the end;
• intentional or accidental use of false data;
• the uncertainty of a novice businessman, in writing or in speech, in his capabilities.

Let's sum it up

You don't have to be a professional to create a business plan yourself; all you need to do is put in a little effort and follow the simple plan above.

Attracting investments requires a responsible approach and the use of exclusively reliable information: only then the document, instead of an attempt to interest the lender, becomes a full-fledged “road map” that can be guided in difficult and unpredictable circumstances.