How to Write a Business Plan STEP BY STEP for Beginners (Free Template)

in this video i'm going to take you through how to complete your business plan step by step we're actually going to go through our complete business plan template which you can see here so before you do anything else please download the business plan template from the link in the comments so we can get started in the meantime my name is katrina douglas i am a launch strategist i help professionals organizations and business leaders launch legacy driven projects that light them up and lead to long-term commercial success so this is part two in our business planning series part one is called business planning for beginners so if you have not watched that already do go ahead and do that so let's go into it and let's start planning your business step by step so like i said here's the business plan template do go ahead and download it and i'll be taking you through it so this is not our usual style video this is actually more like a kind of semi uh work group so let's go through this together so in part one i took you through the six p's so just to recap what they are the six ps are the basis of your business plan they are the six key components that every business plan needs to include so the first one is purpose what does your business do and why does it exist the second one is people so who are you who are your ideal clients the third one is products so what do you actually sell and how do you make money fourth is promotion how will people know that your business and your services exist number five is is processes so how are you going to deliver your service how are you going to consistently generate leads what is the process for that and finally is profit how are you going to generate reoccurring revenue and make money way into the future so those are the six components those from the basis of our business plan and those are the components that we're going to go through in a fair amount of detail in this video so let's start with purpose so first you just complete your details in this section so your name um your address that sort of stuff is pretty self-explanatory that isn't purpose that's actually your details so within the purpose section the key question you want to be answering is why does your business actually exist so you want to be putting your business goals and objectives one thing to note here is that you want to be making sure that your goals are smart so they are specific they are measurable they are attainable um they are relatable and they are time based they are relevant in fact and time based so specific measurable achievable relevant to where you're going and time based so let me give you an example so if you are launching a business that sells hats for example custom bespoke hats you might say that i want to sell x amount of hats by next june for example basic example but they need to be specific so that you know at the end of the day whether or not you have achieved them if they're not specific if they're not vague if they're vague then you know that makes it difficult to do so make sure that your objectives are smart in here you also want to have some financial goals and how much money you want to make but don't limit to that don't limit it to that i also encourage people to have impact goals so how many people do you want to impact in a certain time period what changes do you want to see occurring in your business with that within a certain period perhaps within a certain period one three or five years you want to recruit your first team so those sorts of things go into your goals and objectives okay so the next thing is what are your short term and long term plans so yes you have the goals but what are your plans for getting there in the short term and in the long term okay then you want to be asking yourself as well what is the market opportunity because here is almost like a litmus test for the validity of your your idea your business at this point because so often we go ahead and we haven't really thought about whether there's a need for the business so the benefit of the business planning process is that actually it gets you to really be thinking about your business and the viability of your business in a way that you wouldn't necessarily think about it if you haven't gone through the business planning process so you know you want to be asking yourself what is the market opportunity because you don't want to launch a business in a silo what i mean by that is your business is in the context of other businesses competition different trends and you want to be bearing that in mind because all of those things have a bearing on how successful your business is going to be and whether or not your business is likely to be a success so you know it's not the entire thing but i see too many business owners business leaders launching businesses in silos without considering the market opportunity so we want to be looking at why you've chosen this business and if it's viable and here we don't just want opinion we want facts and stats what makes you think this is a good idea what about the market what's happening in the market what stats are there facts available that demonstrate that this business is a good idea okay and you need to be asking the question is there growing demand in the market for your offering is this an opportunity that you can take into the future or is it a one kind of season thing is it like you know the opportunity is now but maybe a bit sketchy in the future you want to be thinking about how viable this business is and what the opportunity looks like not just today but tomorrow and way into the future okay so all these things help establish the credibility of your business and for yourself and also for others that may want to partner with you or invest in your business because without this level of rigor if you perhaps want grants and funding and investors and partners partner with significant organizations they're going to want to know that you have the answer to these types of questions okay so a couple of other questions you want to be thinking about in this area what are the notable trends in your industry have you conducted any market research for yourself uh do you have any proof that there is demand for this and who are your primary competitors now what i will say about competition is it isn't the be all and end all and actually i think there's room for all of us in the market how many brands of water are there for example and yet all of the brands sell you know so there's always space in the market but why you need to look at your competition is because you need to look at how you're positioning yourself in that context again it's all about acknowledging the fact that you're not just building a business in a silo it's not just you there's other factors other competitors you need to consider also just to see you know what is their pricing like um what do they do well what do they know do not so well so that helps you define the opportunity that you can take advantage of but unless you really look at the competition um then you're not gonna know and this doesn't have to be like people just people that are like for likes like selling exactly what you sell and so those are direct competitors it can also be indirect competitors so for example if i want to chill out for the evening i could choose a movie i could choose music so those are two different products but they're in direct competition because they're vying for the same space in the consumer's life so you know just think about the competition as well and then here you want to be doing a basic swot analysis so a swot analysis is where you look at strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats so this is where you're really honest with yourself and strengths and weaknesses pertain to your organization so and what you're building and your particular strengths so what are the strengths of your business idea what are the weaknesses of the business of your business idea opportunities and threats reflect threats refer to the external environment so what threats are there potentially in the marketplace that may prevent people from purchasing your product or service so a big one right now is obviously covered massive threat but also a massive opportunity for businesses like zoom so depending on what you do your sport is going to be going to look different something like covert is a big threat for many organizations but it's a big opportunity for brands like upwork who specialize in facilitating um virtual workers and also zoom who has of course blown up so you need to look at the market and what is an opportunity for you and what is a threat for you and then put your financial summary as well and so there's spaces for all of these questions so don't worry if you're not catching all of this because it's all in the template for you literally all in the template and the digital version you has editable fields so you can actually fill this out as you go and then the final bit in the purpose section is a financial summary so that consists of your forecasted sales your forecasted costs and your forecasters pro forecasting profit so an important point to note here um is that revenue and profit are not the same thing so a lot of times you'll hear when i say organizations say oh we turn over um six figures in sales or however much in sales but what were your costs what was your profit and so that's the number that's important not how much money you make but how much money you keep and so again this section ensures that you are fee thinking about the mass behind your mission the numbers behind your business and again this is going to help you decide how viable how sustainable it is and also things like how you need to be pricing okay so the second p is people so who are you first of all and we can go in many directions here but i want to keep this short and simple for you so in people we're just gonna cover who you are as the owner and also your ideal client okay so firstly what qualifications do you have do you have any trainings because people looking at your business plan they're going to want to know that you are a credible individ individual and you have the capacity to run the business that you are proposing especially if they're going to be investing in the business or you're asking for funding so it's important that you think about what qualifies you it doesn't have to be you know um educational qualifications or just educational qualifications but there needs to be something that demonstrates that you have the experience and knowledge to be able to run this business okay so the next thing is what experience and unique skills do you have do you have that are relevant to this business what is your passion what are you passionate about because your personal passion is important when running a business because that fuels your ability to continue when the going gets tough so what is your personality type and i've put a link to the 16 personalities test here and why this is important because when you you're aware of your personal personality type when it comes to employing people building your team whether that's voluntary or paid you know that you want people that have in some cases personality traits and abilities that you don't have so knowing exactly where you sit from that perspective is helpful okay so who is your ideal client so what is your ideal client profile and this is just also in terms of their behavior um how they make decisions what motivates them their demographics are the standard things like age gender um and this is a hypothesis so what i mean by that is when you're looking at your ideal client you are not necessarily going to know until you get into the marketplace and that becomes apparent to you but you still need to to jot down what you think the ideal client might be or who they might be um but actually this is something that you don't really know until you launch and you're in the marketplace and you see the type of people that are attracted to your business and i always like to say actually um you don't necessarily find your ideal client your ideal client finds you and then actually i've put a section in here for your team so what are your current skills gaps and what roles will your first hires fill so it gets you to think about your business as a business so as opposed to just thinking about it as an entrepreneurial endeavor and yourself as a solo printer you begin to think about your business as an actual entity that exists as outside of you or apart from you okay and then the third one is product so is are you selling a product are you selling a service are you selling both so what is your product statement so your product statement is simply this i do x for y in order to achieve z so i do whatever your your business does for your ideal client and target audience in order to achieve a certain outcome okay and the reason i put this in here because so often you ask people what do they do what do they sell and they cannot tell you in a concise and clear way and can i say to you if people are confused about what you sell and what you buy they will not buy so clarity is absolutely clear and that is a big part of why you're you should even be completing this business plan template okay so describe the product or service in basic terms what will you charge for your product or service where do you want your pricing to sit do you want to be a lower end product or service so you're accessible to as many people as possible do you want to be middle of the range or do you want to be high end so think about what your pricing is and where you want to sit in the marketplace because pricing is much is as much about branding and how you want to be perceived as it is about making a profit okay so describe the different types of products and services you have if you're starting out or i normally say focus on one um and then as that becomes successful and you roll that out in the market expand your offerings start small but think big okay if you are going to sell um a range of products but you're not starting out with them explain why you're starting with this product or service and then in time you will be branching out so that there's some rationale and that rationale can be understood yeah so your processes and this is probably one of my favorites one that makes probably makes one of the biggest differences in the business and separates the businesses that really stand the test of time and those that don't so processes are how you're actually going to deliver what you deliver and how your business can still ex continue to operate aside from you um so the first major process is your service delivery process so how are you going to deliver your product or service okay so when it comes to your uh service you want to be thinking about payment methods suppliers premises equipment if it is a physical product for example but how are you going to deliver how are people going to pay how are you going to ensure a consistent service time after time because the best businesses they have a consistent level of service and they can only do that if they have a clear process okay what is your marketing process so marketing is one of the most important areas of your business especially when starting out so you need a consistent method and way of getting the message out what is that okay and we're going to speak about that a little bit more in the next section so what legal requirements do you have so this is something that we don't think about enough so what are your terms of service do you need any contracts in place what are the legal requirements that you have what insurance requirements do you have to make sure that your business is protected so liability insurance for example what insurances do you have and again unless you go through a business planning process sometimes these are questions that get overlooked and i can almost assure you that unless you plan your business to some degree in this way or this type of way there will be important areas that you skip or miss out on now fourth is promotion because promotion is one of the most important things you can have the greatest idea in the world but if people don't know about it um then your business isn't gonna go anywhere fast but it's important to know that this is the fourth beam because people mistakenly think about their promotion first like the business has zero foundation but they're thinking about how to promote it i do not want you to make that mistake that i see so often so the purpose of having the three p's prior so thinking about purpose thinking about people thinking about product thinking about processes um is that you have the foundation laid before you even think about marketing your business so within this section you have what are your tactics so what methods are you going to be using to promote your business for example advertising email marketing content marketing what methods are you going to be using to promote your business that is the tactics what channels will you use to promote your business so of course social media is the obvious one but then there's other channels like email um a podcast um the list goes on but what primary channels are you going to be using to promote your business events um whether that be online or offline how are you going to be promoting your business what types of content will you share video content primarily would it be graphics would it be text based content in terms of articles and blogs and that sort of thing will it be audio content by way of a podcast will it be a variety what are your way main content types content types and then what sales activity will you do because the main point of promotion and marketing is to get a sale so that's one of the main objectives not the only one brand awareness for example is another one but it's one of the main objectives but it's something that we don't do enough so what we tend to do is have all this marketing activity but we never close the deal so you need to be thinking about what direct sales activity are you going to be doing for example direct messaging your followers to let them know about your offering and ask them if they're interested especially if they've engaged with you it could be picking up the phone to someone that said they're interested in your product or service it could be you know so many things related to sales but you need to think about how are you going to close the deal and how are you going to move from people just having an awareness to actually taking the decision to buy from you is it going to be activity on your website are you going to have things like webinars so what sales activity are you going to do as part of your promotional process and then we have a strategy statement that really summarizes all the four points that we've raised above in this promotion section and then finally we're on to the final section which is profit and here in the template you have a a table that you can copy and you're looking at for the next 12 months what are you aiming to bring into the business and when are you aiming to turn a profit okay so literally those are the six steps now this is a different type of video it's more of a tutorial so download the template and watch the video whilst doing the template and so by the end of the video you can essentially have your business plan and take the pain out of the process because i have taken on the pain for you given a giving you a complete structure so all you have to do is watch this video follow the steps and complete the template so if you haven't already go ahead and download that template from the launch strategist and don't forget to subscribe in fact don't go to the launch strategist.com the link is in the comments and go directly to that link and don't forget to subscribe see you in the next video

Channel: The Launch Strategist

Views: 6,546

Keywords: how to write a business plan, how to write a business plan step by step, how to write a business plan to start your own business, how to write a business plan in 2021, how to write a business plan for beginners, write business plan, write business plan step by step, write business proposal, write a business plan for a startup, write a business plan in one day, business plan template, business plans for small business, business planning and strategy, business plans for beginners

Id: 44eAd-4ooGI

Length: 23min 14sec (1394 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 14 2021