13 Reasons Why You Need A Business Plan

Ah, Business Plan. No matter what kind of business you have or plan of having, it is very important to have a business plan for it. You might be wondering why does a business plan matter and why should you bother doing it.

Well, let me tell you 13 Reasons Why You Need A Business Plan for your Business Plan.

1. Roadmap for your Growth

Your business is like your baby. You want to see it grow and be part of each of its milestones. And in order to make sure that your business is growing where it should be, you need to have a business plan to see its progression. It acts as a guide in running your business in order to achieve its goals.

2. Assess Feasibility

Your business plan helps you see if your business idea has a great potential to grow and provide for you financially.

3. Plot Your Focus

Having many ideas is not really a bad thing unless you're doing too many things at a time. If this is the case, then it's taking you out of focus, thus hindering your growth. Your business plan helps sort your ideas in line, telling you when and what you should be doing at a certain point in time. It helps you sort out the business-related things in your head, making you focus on what matters.

4. Defining Milestones

Your business plans help you see what are the things that you want to achieve in your business. It acts as a checklist of what you think is your marker for success. The good thing about having a business plan is that it's not something that is etched in stone. You can change it based on the situation if you need to.

5. Understand your Competition

Every business has a competitor. You might think that you don't have a competitor, but you are wrong about that. There is always a competition for your business somewhere out there that you might not know of. Your business plan acts as your war strategy to help you understand your competition, helping you plan on how and what you should do to stand out in your target market.

6. Document your Revenue Model

Simply selling a product and earning a profit out of it is not enough to run your business. Your business plan can show you how you should have a diverse source of income to run your business, how you could generate that money for your business.

7. Understand who your customers are

Having a business without a clear idea to whom you will market it to is like trying to shoot a target in the dark. Your business plan helps you research who your customers are, what they need from you, why would they need your business, the price point that they are willing to pay for your business, and how you should market your business to attract them to buy from it.

8. Understanding the Market

Now that you know who you are targeting with your business, the next thing that you need to know is how much percentage of that market are you looking to enter and create a strategy on how can you hold that market share.

9. Positioning yourself in the Marketplace

After knowing your target market and customers, the next thing that your business plan will show you is how you want to position your business in the market.

10. Determine your Financial Needs

Your business plan will show you how much money you need to run and sustain your business. This will also be beneficial if you are looking for funding for your business.

11. Helps you get Funded

As I mentioned, your business plan is an essential tool to help your business get funded. Banks, Grantors, and Investors will be asking for your business plan because they will want to see what you'll be doing for the business, how you'll be doing it, and how you're going to pay them back.

12. Attract Partners and Investors

If you want your family or friends to invest in your business, your business plan can help you convince them because it will show them how you will run and sustain your business, as well as what they will be getting if they became part of it.

13. Forecast Growth

We all want to have a business that will grow through the years, making it financially stable every step of the way. You will want to know how much your business grows for every milestone that it achieves.

Making a business plan can sound like a very hard thing to accomplish but you can start by focusing on these 13 things first as a guide and work it from there. Depending on what kind of business you are planning to have and you are looking for funding from a bank, your business plan could be a 40 or more pages business plan.

If you need help in making a solid business plan for your business that can help you get funded, visit our website and send us a message! We will be happy to take on the challenge of building your business plan for you to help you make your business come to life!

Strategically Yours,

Tracy V. Allen, Impact Strategist