Every successful business has one thing in common. The owners started with a business

plan! As they say, “ Those that fail to plan, plan to fail! Here, you will find 5 crucial steps you should follow to create your business plan.

1

Adhere to industry standards in terms of developing financialprojections and sales forecasts. Make sure that your calculationswill sit well with your target audience, most especially withbankers, lenders and prospective investors. Unrealistic projectionsare the biggest tip off to potential funding sources that you don’treally know or understand the industry you are in. They willprobably deny your request for financing based on this fact.

Do your research. Analyze recent feasibility studies and market researches. That way, you can obtain facts and figures you can use when writing your business plan.

2 Come up with a mission-visionstatement. This should serve as theheart of your business plan. Develop aclear yet specific statement that willsummarize the main goals of yourcompany.

You can use the following questions as your guide when writing your vision-missionstatement:Why have I chosen this kind of business?What are my goals or aspirations for building this enterprise?What inspired me to start this business?What specific needs or demands of the local community do I wish to address? Aside from the obvious financial gains, what are my other motivations for starting thisbusiness?

Keep in mind that the answers to these self-assessment queries can help you come up,not just with an excellent mission-vision statement, but also with a winning businessplan.

3 Make an action plan. Once you’ve created amission-vision statement, what you should do nextis to determine how you will achieve your businessgoals. And this is where the details of your businessplan should come in.

Make sure that you will offer insights about the products or services you wish tooffer or distribute; the type of business structure you wish to employ; who yourtarget clients or customer are; your marketing and advertising plans.

What is your unique selling point that will put your business ahead of thecompetition? What problem will you solve better than anyone else?

Know also what kind of equipment and commercial space you need; yourmanpower requirement; etc.

4 Pay close attention to the financial aspect of yourbusiness plan. After all, this is where you can get thefull-attention of your target lenders and investors. Butwhat should you include in this portion?

First and foremost, you need to specify the financial requirements of the shopor store you wish to open for business. You need to develop a list of all the costsand expenses you will incur to finally launch your dream enterprise. Then, comeup with a loan proposal that contains the specific amount you wish to borrow,the purpose that the lump-sum will serve, and how your business can graduallypay it off. And don’t forget to include in this portion sales- and profit-projections that will highlight the capability of your enterprise to generatesufficient profit and eventually settle its future obligations.

5 Write an executive summary. After writing your plan, itis highly-recommended that you summarize the mainpoints made in your business plan. The executivesummary should contain a brief background about yourenterprise and the reasons why you have written thedocument.

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