HOW TO WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN : Come on you are an entrepreneur , not a copy cat

How to write a business plan:


Business plan is like a bible for any business. However, majority of the entrepreneurs prepare with some bad copy paste stuff to showcase others. Please prepare a realistic business plan which will be useful for you as well. The moment we want to write a plan, we Google it to download a template and start collecting the content for existing sub headings. Honestly, it is very bad practice. Come on you are an entrepreneur , you are not a copy cat. However, any business will be built on 4 pillars WHAT, WHY, WHO, HOW. You can get the business plan ready on your own when you have clarity about below questions.

Mapping between these questions to business terminology:

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                                     WHAT
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1.1 What is the problem? (Problem statement):

Which problem is going to solve your idea? how your idea is going to address the problem? it plays vital role to drive the business. This section should address following points.

• Volume of customers having this problem

• Root cause of the problem

1.2 What do you need?:

You need two plans for this question Human resource plan and Financial plan.

1.2.1 HR Plan:

Human resource is going to be your first asset, this section should be based on your existing capabilities, strength and efforts that require to get the product into market. This section should mainly cover below points.

• Resources with different skills need for your project.

• Effort estimation.

• Financial requirement for the journey.

• Detailed project plan with schedule.

1.2.2 Financial Plan:

Financial plan/Budget plan is very crucial, it should have approximate burn rate of all departments for the next two years. Financial plan money inflow, outflow, expected returns based on the burn. This section should cover these points.

•  Detailed burn of every department based on the need.

• Return on investment.

• Budget estimation.

• Plan to raise funds from different sources.

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                                  WHY
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2.1 Why customers need your solution: (What is the unique selling point (USP))

You need to have minimum market analysis to justify your product has the market. Competitive analysis is very important to differentiate from your competitor. However, what is your unique selling point? how can you differentiate from competitors? what is the value you can create to the customer. This section should cover.

• What is the cost advantage can be provided with your product. 

• uniqueness from others. 

• How does it creates value for you and your customers as well

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                                  HOW
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3.1 How to reach:

3.1.1 Marketing strategy

Marketing strategy should be matured enough to reach right targeted customers. Though you have a good product, If you don't reach customers eventually it will fail. It has to keep updating based on the market demand and customer behavior. This section should cover below bullet points.

• Traditional marketing plan.

• Digital marketing plan.

• Media and publishing.

• How to convince customers.

3.1.2 Brand building strategy:

Usually to build a brand it takes a lot of time. Majority of the people think that brand building is very expensive. However, from the day one brand has to be built with small amount of investment. This section has to cover below topics.

• Media and publishing

• Digital Marketing

3.1.3 Operations Plan:

Few ventures operations take a big share. Predominantly, many things come under operations other than technology and human resource. This section covers below points.

• Infrastructure plan.

• Facilities.

• Disaster and recovery.

• Connectivity plan with all departments.

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                                  WHO
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4.1 Who are getting benefited ( The Stakeholders):


Don't ignore stakeholder management. Sometimes lack of right communication kills you. Every person who is responsible and directly or indirectly effected and benefited because of business. This section should cover below points.

• Mode of communication

• Frequency of communication

• Roles & responsibilities

4.2 Who are the target (Target customers):


Targeting customer at right place is not easy, sometimes drawing attention a guy in front of you could be nightmare. This plan should be in such a way to reach customers demographics, income groups etc. This section should have below points.

• Customer Demographics

• Customer analysis

• Customer insights

• Customer behavior

• Customer income group

• Repetitive customer plan

4.3 Who you are (Executive summery):

Finally most important thing: Executive summery of founder, co-founder and core team
. This itself can convince venture capitalists and other key people to be part of your company. Hence it should be very impressive with academics, awards and experience.

I believe you can create your own business plan now :)