If you have a business idea which you have researched, you really can write a business plan in an afternoon. Come on, let’s get started.
Who is Your Audience?
Your basic business plan will be the same whoever reads it but the audience can make some differences.
If the plan is for your bank or to apply for a grant, you may need to use a specific format or even fill in a form. At the very least, you need to make sure that your plan covers all of the things which in which your reader would be especially interested. As a starter, banks always have an understandable interest in how they will get their money back if the venture is not successful.
If the plan is to be viewed by third parties who you want to impress, then presentation, spelling and grammar will be important. Not as important as the content – but important. You may also want to include lots of evidence that what you say is true. As an example, it could be helpful to include your full CV and even copies of your qualification certificates as appendices.
If the plan is purely for your own use, perhaps to pull your ideas together and make sure that you have really considered all angles then you may choose to spend less time on presentation. You may also omit some pieces of evidence but be careful not to use this as an excuse for glossing over an absence of evidence about whether the plan will work.
Length
There are no strict rules 15-20 pages plus appendices would usually be fine. It may be longer if the area of business is especially complex but many professionals consider that overly long business plans are the written by people who are not thinking clearly enough to distinguish the important information from secondary information.
Possible Structure
There are many structures which can be used to write a business plan. This is just one suggestion. Provided the sequence is logical and you have covered all key issues the exact structure is not critical.
