Creating a business plan is an essential step in the entrepreneurial process. While having a business plan doesn’t guarantee that your business will succeed, it will help you get off to the best start possible. Below are a few tips when it comes to writing a business plan:
1. Before jumping straight into the business plan, it’s important to create a mission statement for your business. It will leave you with a road map that you can use to define short-term goals.
2. Include a budget in your business plan. In this section, you’ll include everything you’ll be spending money on from employee salaries to utility expenses. You’ll include start-up costs, operating costs, and a forecast of how long it will take you to break even and start making a profit.
3. Take time to speak with your potential customers. Doing this will allow you to build your business plan around their needs.
4. Look at what your competitors are doing. You can learn from their mistakes and find out what works. Learning your competitors’ flaws will help you avoid them and will give your business a better shot at succeeding.
5. A business plan should also list five to ten of the biggest risks your business may face. After listing these risks, you need to outline how you will deal with them if and when they arise.
6. Have people look over your business plan. They can point out any flaws in your plan that you may have overlooked.
7. Don’t copy what your competitors are doing. You’re starting your own business to be unique. You can’t be unique if you’re a duplicate.
8. Lastly, don’t forget to actually write the business plan.
It may seem like a lot to do, but writing a business plan will pay off when you’re ready to open your business. If you have any questions about small business laws and the legal hurdles associated with owning a business, contact an experienced Arizona small business attorney.
Call JacksonWhite’s Small Business Law Team at (480) 464-1111 to discuss your case today.