Being a startup entrepreneur is not an easy task by any means. With only as many as 6 out 1000 business startup ideas actually managing to garner investments, the situation is truly bleak. Well, the most crucial task is to write a suitable and attractive startup business plan. It is this startup business plan which will be viewed by your prospective investors and the decision will be made on the basis of the document alone. Writing a startup business plan is not difficult, only if you know how to showcase your ideas methodically. A startup business plan is also about understanding what an investor truly wants to see in a new business venture. It cannot be written with intuition alone. You need to gather as much information as possible and study various aspects of a startup business plan, before writing your own.
To start with, you need some serious research. Your startup business plan should be good enough to do justice to your idea. So, you must work hard. The internet is the best place to start off. Check for some “business plan outlines” for a basic idea of what your plan should look like; investors generally stick to a set pattern. There are some templates for business plans also available online. You can try filling in the respective fields to see how the plan shapes up. This is one of the best ways for a trial, before attempting the actual startup business plan.
You can also go through some related material on the web, which offers guidance on how to write such plans. If there is a Small Business Development Center nearby, it’s a great idea to visit for some really good and useful ideas. You could also make use of some of the most effective software available online and use them to formulate an amazing startup business plan. There are plenty of samples for business plans available online. Look for some which caters to business ideas similar to yours and go through quite a few of them. This can really be an insightful activity. Once your preparatory steps are completed, you are ready to embark upon an ideal startup business plan.
As you start penning down your startup business plan, you need have a thorough idea of a couple of things. To start with, the executive summary should be your unique selling point. It should contain an overview of all relevant data related to your venture. This must include the salient features of a comprehensive analysis of the targeted customer segment. The analysis must specify the needs which the product or service is aiming to cater too. This if well explained, will actually justify the viability of the venture and propel financers to invest in it. Therefore an elaborate analysis must go into this.
Later in the startup business plan, you need to explain this analysis in greater detail. The startup business plan must also provide a detailed insight into the targeted customer segment. This must include an analysis of the prevalent market trends and the recent developments in the market. This research must also justify how and why your product or service would be able to cut the clutter and make a niche for itself in the market. Indirectly, you must communicate how different your product is from the other established ones in the market and why customers would prefer it over the other popular brands they are quite satisfied with.
Your startup business plan will also have a mention of research and development related activities in the executive summary and a detailed explanation of the same in the body. The startup business plan should clearly explain the thought process which has gone into developing this product or idea. It must also provide details of the ongoing process of product and service development and the way you have been enhancing the features of the product or service even more. If you are selling a product, this startup business plan must also bear details of suppliers for raw materials. You need to explain the selection process adopted for them and also state ways of developing excellent working relationships, for enhanced productivity. Vendor management is an integral criterion for a successful business and must always be included in your startup business plan.
Sales improvement and marketing strategies must also be included in your startup business plan. This section of your startup business plan must include a comprehensive competitor analysis. You must name their sales and marketing strategies in concise form. Also mentioning what your strategies will be and the way in which they are different from the already existing ones, is a great idea. You will be able to portray your unique skills and show how you differ from others. Once the investors see your exclusivity they could be interested in being a part of your project. But the ideas must be realistic and plausible ones. Impossible strategies would just show that you are a bit too imaginative.
Financial data is always the most important part of a startup business plan. You need to chalk out your requirements clearly. There must be a historic financial data and future prospective summary of figures. You must put business startup statistics for sales projections and explain clearly how you came by those figures. The projections should be realistic yet encouraging. You must also provide a valuation of your deal and other assets. There must be a clear cut plan stating how much capital you would require and for what purpose. The sequence of fund requirement should also be explained clearly. This is a great way of letting your future investors know of your requirements.
The basic structure of a startup business plan can be found anywhere and adhered to. All plans have more or less that same structure. Routine stuff like mission statement, company personnel profiles etc, do not really interest investors. What matters to them is vital sales, marketing and finance related information which shows the true mettle of the business professional. What they want to find in an entrepreneur is a true visionary; whose visions are dependant on comprehensive research.