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Step 1
Market Research and Feasibility
By beginning with market research, you can get an early sense of the feasibility of launching the business. If the research shows a small market, heavy competition, or slim profit margins for the industry, this may be a good time to either radically change the business concept or drop it entirely. On the other hand, the information from this research can further your ideas about how the business should operate and sell to its customers. -
Step 2
Find Template
Next find a business plan template which can save time towards creating your plan. Enter the information you have so far and highlight where additional development is needed. -
Step 3
Financials
Use the financial model to enter your assumptions of revenues and costs in order to determine the capital requirements of the business and the time required to break even. If possible, compare the profit margins you are showing to industry averages to see if you are in the same range. Be sure that you will be adequately compensated and that there will be financial returns for funders appropriate for the risk they take. -
Step 4
Draft Plan
Going through the plan from start to finish, rewrite your notes and additional research in full sentences. Take care to make wording and the language you use as simple as possible. Avoid repetition of sentences throughout the plan, except for the executive summary. Write the executive summary last, pulling from the main points for each section you've written to create a one to two page version of the plan. -
Step 5
Edit and Revise
Finally, work on your own and with the help of others to edit, proofread, and revise the plan. Look for both language and content issues by asking readers who help you whether the business ideas are clear and whether the plan proceeds logically from one section to the next. Although you should not change the order of sections, you can introduce necessary information earlier if it helps the flow of the document, for example.
