How to Write a Business Plan [Powerful Step by Step Approach]

why do business owners turn into diamonds because  they're always under pressure how to write a   business plan let's go ahead and talk about it  now of course creating a business plan is very   important because well it can help you get funding  it can also help you establish a concrete timeline   but most importantly it can actually help you be  successful in business and listen okay i get it i   get it because when i first started my business  i probably had the same thoughts that you have   right now like man i don't need a business plan i  got all my thoughts and all my ideas and my plan   right here let's do it but honestly not having  a thorough business plan was probably one of my   biggest mistakes when i started my first business  so in this video what i want to do is help   you think through how to write a business plan  that is suited for you step by step stay tuned hey there and welcome back to our channel i'm  sean with life accounting the accounting company   that saves people from high taxes and low profits  and today we're going to focus on the profit part   because today is all about business planning okay  let's go ahead and get into it now i'm sure most   of you already understand number one what is a  business plan but let me briefly very briefly   touch on it so a business plan basically is  simply that right it is a plan for your business   typically there are seven components of a business  plan first you have your executive summary which   basically summarize the overall business  plan then you have your company description   you have the market analysis you have your service  and product lines you have your sales and your   marketing strategy you have your management plan  and lastly you typically have your financial   projections now what most people do is they tell  you about these seven components of a business   plan and heck they may even give you a tip to  write your executive summary last but i'm gonna   do something a little bit different okay i'm gonna  get a little bit deeper and actually break down   where you need to start step by step and exactly  why and along the way i'll also share additional   tips from my experience when it comes to launching  a new business as well all right so let's go ahead   and get started with step number zero that's  right step zero like before you even write a   business plan you need to really think about okay  who you are because the truth is whether or not   your business is going to be successful depends on  how passionate you are about the business so i'll   tell you a quick story to help illustrate this  okay so i used to do marketing and one day i had   back-to-back meetings with two of my clients my  first meeting was with a client who owned an i.t   company and the bulk of the meeting was pretty  monotone with a few glimpses of frustration from   my client like he would often make slight comments  like man we should be growing so much faster   than this this is supposed to be a high growth  industry and so on okay so then right after that   i had another meeting with one of my clients  who owned a dog walking business no joke okay   and the majority of that meeting was high energy  with a lot of excitement and overall optimism   about where the marketing campaign was going and  throughout my time of working with both companies   the dog walking business went on to make millions  of dollars whereas the it company eventually   gave up okay so so what exactly is my point well  i believe because my client with the dog walking   business loved and i mean absolutely loved what  she did that helped accelerate her success and   too many people get into business only to make  money and to try to get to financial freedom   but they don't consider how much they need to  learn and how hard the journey will be so step   zero is to learn yourself and find your passion  before you get into business all right now once   you get that done let's get into some of  the juicy stuff okay so step number one for   writing a business plan is to analyze the  market all right that's right analyze the market   so once you have your idea don't rush into trying  to figure out your business name or trying to   figure out a catchy slogan or none of that right  the first thing you need to do is start actually   analyzing and seeing is if there is a need and  demand for your business idea meaning that people   will actually want to buy what you have to offer  hey sean look everyone needs my youtube videos okay kind of like that so how do you know  that there is a demand for your business idea   well the first obvious one is are there any  other companies that offer what you're offering   right now and if so are they successful so for  example if you are thinking about creating a   stylish swimwear company and you see that another  company is just completely selling out of this   trendy style of swimwear then obviously there's  a demand for that product but that's like a very   comparable situation but maybe your business  idea is completely unique right like maybe you   want to create a swimwear that has pockets that  are completely water resistant for your devices   like your phone okay well even though your product  is very unique and innovative it can still build   off the premise that swimwear is in high demand on  the other hand if swimwear wasn't in high demand   don't assume that your product will be able to  turn an entire market even if you have a great   business idea okay the next thing you want  to ask yourself within your market analysis   is how many other companies are offering this  and here you want to get a gauge on how saturated   the market actually is because listen business  is like a race and you rather race against 10   other businesses or 10 other people than race  against a thousand other people because that   will heighten your chances of winning and  lastly when it comes to analyzing the market   ask yourself what is the competition's  level of quality and price because listen   you never want to go into a business where you  are offering a lower quality product at a higher   price that is a recipe for failure so of course  ask yourself realistically can i create a   quality product or service that is just as good or  better than what is on the market today and if so   can you offer it at just as good of a price or  a better price than what is on the market today   okay going through these three questions will  help you quickly understand if you have a viable   business or not especially before you get too  deep into writing your business plan because   if you get too deep into writing your business  plan then you're going to start being committed   to following a business i did that may not work  out at all now once you successfully analyze the   market then you're ready to move on to step number  two but really quick before i move into that step   if you are enjoying this video so far all i  ask you to do is to hit the like button for the   youtube algorithm it really helps our channel in  this video reach more people like you who want to   learn how to write a successful business plan did  you do it yeah okay thank you so so much now let's   go ahead and get on with it with step number two  and that is to develop your sales and marketing   strategy so again notice i'm not recommending  that you try coming up with your company name   or your company description or even trying  to build out your products or your services   yet okay the next step here is to figure  out how you're actually going to get people   to see your products and your services and exactly  how you're going to sell it to them why okay   two reasons number one because doing this forces  you to look at things from a different perspective   it forces you to think about who your customers  and consumers are so at this point you can start   to build a target audience like what gender are  they what's their age what's their educational   background what are their interests what are  their financial prowess like their net worth   etc and through this you start to learn more  about your business idea so let's go back to   the previous example okay let's say for example  you're creating a high-end swimwear company   with waterproof pockets for your devices okay but  then your your competency your skill set is in   targeting college students with little money then  you probably need to rethink your business idea   because those college students may not be able  to afford high-end swimwear right now the second   reason i like starting with marketing and sales  is because you can actually start marketing before   your business launches or even before your  business plan is complete for example right now   our channel on youtube doesn't really offer or  sell anything but in the future we plan to have   products that help people build well faster but  right now we are creating content and providing   value to our target market and you can do the same  thing whether it's a youtube page starting a blog   starting a social media page that is a themed  account and relevant to your future business   and of course i realize those are all digital  marketing tactics but of course you can also do   some traditional things like speaking at different  events or establishing partnerships with other   companies and while you're actually doing the  marketing you will start getting more in tune   with what your potential customers actually want  hey sean look our viewers want us to dance more okay maybe not but moving on to step number three  build your management or partner team now i put   this as step number three because unless you are  starting a sole proprietorship or a single member   llc then you're going to want your management team  to be on the same page with you when it comes to   other aspects of writing your business plan in  fact you will likely find that your management   team will have some other really great ideas and  energy to contribute to the overall business so   of course you want to think very carefully  about who you want on your management team   and why okay ideally your management team will  be able to bring something to the table that you   as a business owner cannot whether it's their  time or their experience now quran has a really   great video breaking down business partnerships  that i definitely recommend that you check out   right after you watch this video in the link above  okay step number four build your products and   services okay i know you've been waiting on it and  here it is okay now you can go about mapping out   your products and your services but notice i still  have this step before selecting your business   name okay why is that because when you're building  your products you need to aim to be a little bit   unique right like you don't want to offer the  same exact thing as someone else if you want a   successful sustainable business so while you  are building your unique value proposition   you may find something is very unique that you can  incorporate into your brand name or your company   description okay so we go back again to that  swimwear example with the waterproof pockets which   by the way i don't know why i keep going back  to that i'm not quite sure if there's a company   out there that actually has waterproof pockets  but that sounds like a really good idea to me   but anyway if you're creating that swimwear  company and you find that the zippers look like   mermaids or something special then maybe that ties  into your brand name right like maybe the name of   the company could be mermaid swimwear also i want  to say this especially when it comes to writing   your business plan don't worry about perfecting  your product or your service in the plan because   trust me you're going to have multiple iterations  of your designs your features and your service the   point of your business plan is just to make  it extremely clear what problem or need your   product and service will solve because that is the  root of what will make up your business even if   your product changes as you innovate or learn more  from your customer feedback the root value of your   business will stay intact okay moving on to step  number five financial projections okay this is   where things start to get a little bit interesting  right so i want you to focus on your financial   costs your startup costs as they say because  you can reasonably project those costs you can   run some google searches make some phone calls  talk to other business owners and get a rough   estimate of what it's going to cost you to start  your business now that's the easy part the hard   part of course is projecting the revenue and  i've had people come up to me and say sean i   got a business plan and it's in a huge industry  and i'm projecting that i'm going to make one   million dollars in my first year i just need some  capital now i'm always like whoa whoa whoa okay   one million dollars in your first year of business  is definitely possible but does not happen often   i mean even breaking six figures in the first  year is hard for a new business to do so when   it comes to projecting revenue be as realistic  as possible especially especially especially   if you want to attract investors because if  your projections are enormous you may think that   impresses an investor but actually that investor  will think you're a little bit crazy because many   investors have real experience and they know how  difficult it is for startups to drive profitable   revenue in year one so here are some quick  tips when it comes to financial projections   if you have a product just assume that in year  one you're going to spend majority of your time   your money and your resources developing the  product and actually getting it to the market   that means you'll likely lose money in your one  and maybe if you're good start breaking even   in year two and you should project faster growth  going into year three and year four on the other   hand if you have a service assume that in year one  you will be profitable but you will not be able to   scale quickly because you need human capital which  takes time so that means you need to recruit you   need to hire you need to train people which  takes time so you should project slow growth   now of course these tips mainly apply to people  who are getting in business for the first time   or have little business experience but if you  have successfully built a startup then you   can be a little bit more aggressive with your  financial projections okay step number six you   can finally create your business description your  business name your business mission your business   values etc now of course you can name your  business whatever you want but if you want   to heighten your levels of success then i do have  a few tips for you number one make your business   name identifiable with what your business is  okay let me say that again make your business   name identifiable with what your business actually  is have you ever heard a business name and off the   top of your head you had no idea what it could be  well that's exactly what you don't want right like   in the case of business you want it to be as clear  as possible if we just had to name life people   would be like okay what is life but when you hear  the name life accounting people automatically   understand that it's a group of accountants  right or if it was life cleaners that would   be pretty obvious or life fitness that would be  pretty obvious so that's first when someone hears   your business name they should immediately be able  to understand what you do tip number two make your   business name searchable okay at some point you're  going to want to market your business online   okay that means being on social media being  on youtube being on google having a blog etc   and guess what people are already searching  for different businesses and brand names online   like literally right now for example one day i  was looking for a property management company   for a rental property so of course i went to  google and i searched for atlanta property   management company and literally the first  company that i found was a website in a business   that is actually named atlanta property management  group inc and it was smart that they named their   business that because they knew that people would  be searching for it and lastly step number seven   complete your executive summary so once you get  through all the first six steps completing your   executive summary is pretty easy okay all you  need to do is just summarize everything else   that you have come up with so far so let's take  a final look at the typical traditional structure   of a business plan then let's take a look at my  process and steps on how to write a business plan okay and following my steps in my process will  give you a strong possibility of creating a   business plan that will actually succeed  now if you're past the business plan step   and you're ready to actually launch your  business then make sure you check out my   video on how to start a business step by  step coming up next or you can check out   one of our other popular videos coming up  next as well and i'll see you over there you

Channel: LYFE Accounting

Views: 241,116

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Id: 0h-HTUSZyKo

Length: 18min 58sec (1138 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 07 2021