Writing a Business Plan

Series Summary

Starting a business requires the utmost organization and planning. Beyond conceptualizing a business plan and getting the ball rolling, there are employees to compensate, books to keep and bills to pay. It is the small business owners' responsibility to monitor every detail that takes place in their business. It can be strenuous work to start a new business, but keeping organized and accurate is the foundation to a successful company. In this free video series on business tips, a successful business owner discusses starting a new business. Learn about the importance of writing a business plan, and get advice on raising money for start-up business financing. After picking the best business name, get tips on obtaining a small business license, getting insurance and paying business taxes. A successful business relies on careful planning and endless motivation.

Video Transcript

"A business plan is a road map, that is really created by the company to guide it and help with know where to go. My name is Clayton Christopher, founder of Sweet Leaf Tea Company and CEO. We write a business plan every year and it is really there to lay out a series of strategic initiatives and what you want to accomplish for your business for the coming year. There is also business plans that are written to raise capital and those usually look pretty different than a business plan that you use to run your company. A business plan to run your company, you want to have all of your objectives laid out for each one of your departments. What you plan on doing with marketing, what you plan on doing with sales, what you plan on doing in operations, and those are all put in place so that yourself and everyone that works at your company knows exactly what they need to be working toward on a weekly, a monthly and a quarterly basis, to achieve the goals that you put in place for the year. So, if you are raising money for your company, trying to raise money off of the business plan, you definitely need to explain a lot more about the business, and what you reason for being is. The size of the market, to find an opportunity of the company, basically what sort of growth you feel like the company can do and then substantiate that. Why do you felt like your company can grow at that rate? You really have to say, why is that realistic. And then, at the same time you are selling your business, almost like you are selling your product. You want to dress it up as much as possible if you are doing it to raise money. But, even if you are just running your business it is a really a very important piece of it. When I first wrote a business plan, my very first year when we first started, I went and get a 'how to write a business plan' book for dummies from a bookstore. There is not a whole lot of science behind it, but it is really there to help guide you and help keep everyone focused. And, business plans changed. I don't think just because of whatever is said is in stone when you first write that business plan. Strategies changes as your business grows and as the market changes. So, you have to be flexible, you have to be willing to try something, fail, and then try again. That is how your business becomes more and more efficient and put you on the right path. And, that is how you write a business plan. This is Clayton from Sweet Leaf Tea Company."