Every Company Needs a Plan for Building a Successful Business
Step One: Write a business plan/a core plan that includes these main content categories:
- Executive Summary: One-page describing your mission, your goals, the status of the marketplace, and why your plan works…
- Company Description: Staff, current revenue levels, a comprehensive look at products, and basic financial results…
- Market Research: Data that shows there is a want and a need for the products and/or services you are proposing.
- Net New Products: A detailed list of those products and services, and the training needed to bring them to market…
- Marketing and Sales Plan: A list of sales milestones in order to measure progress, and a proper marketing plan with examples of steps you will need to take to drive and support sales, and actually hit those milestones.
- Financial Projections: Copies of current and proposed [pro forma] documents, including profit and loss worksheets, cash-flow models, and balance sheets. Each of these documents should show a different set of results, before and after… Costs of equipment and infrastructure purchases should be included as well…
This list of requirements, will, for instance, help somebody from a banking institution (or an “other” party) understand your business. In the end, as long as you have compelling documentation showing a core market need, a fair amount of cash left over at the end of the day, and growth potential over time, you stand a good chance of obtaining financing, support, etc.