Making a Business Plan

A solid business plan is more than just a means to go to a bank and try to get a loan. A good business plan forces you to think through your endeavor and do a little planning.

Don’t make it for the bank, make it for you

A business plan. This is often the first thing you discover on a checklist when you are beginning to create formal plans to start your own firm or enterprise. (Entrepreneur, 2014) However, you will soon discover that the process of making a business plan is about far more than expected budgets and business structures. While you do need those technical facts in place, ultimately, you’ll want to make a business plan for you, and not for the bank or anyone else.

Why? Think of the plan as your North Star, your GPS, your infallible road map. A bank won’t be able to accurately interpret the value of the honest business plan because it is far more philosophical than factual. As an example, an honest video production business owner in Dallas, Texas took time to create a business plan and use a heading that read “Items That I Want to Accomplish”.

The bank would not appreciate this information because it would be theoretical and have very little to do with the proverbial “bottom line”. However, modern marketers know that the strongest campaigns are built on “storytelling“, and this does not include the quarterly earnings but the vision and philosophies behind the creation of the business.

Of course, it cannot all be castles in the air either, and the rest of your business plan will need realistic goals and feasible expectations. This is because it is meant to ensure you always head in the right direction based on certain facts. For instance, let’s say that you start to earn at a certain level, will you then expand, invest in something, build a better website with professional design, and so on?

You can and must understand what you intend to do at each phase. Your goal is not to break even but to grow, and your personalized business plan shows you the milestones you have selected and when it is you hope to hit them. For instance, you may begin your website with entirely DIY design. However, when you have hit a certain financial milestone you may feel that it is the right time to invest in professional production, video content and more.

The business plan should be a reasonable and accurate projection of your goals, how you will reach them, and what you will do with every success. It has to be honest, and it has to reflect the dedication you have towards your goals. It will be the ultimate guide in doing your very best because it will indicate your honest resources, and the workloads you can sustain at your high quality output.

The philosophical approach to what you want to accomplish is of utmost importance. Make sure you have a good vision of what the end goal is and return to the business plan on a regular basis. Forget about all the made up charts and graphs.

If you need to write a buisness plan for a bank, this isn’t the right site. Check out entrepreneur.com.