Plan Your Business

Business planning is the act of sitting down to establish goals, strategies, and actions you intend to take to successfully start, manage, and grow a business.

The seven steps to write a business plan include:

1. Craft a brief executive summary
2. Describe your products and services
3. Conduct market research and compile data into a market analysis
4. Describe your marketing and sales strategy
5. Outline your organizational structure and management team
6. Develop financial projections for sales, revenue, and cash flow
7. Add additional documents to your appendix

A traditional business plan should include:

1. An executive summary
2. Description of your products and services
3. Market analysis
4. Competitive analysis
5. Marketing and sales plan
6. Overview of business operations
7. Milestones and metrics
8. Description of your organization and management team
9. Financial plan and forecasts
10. Appendix

You are more likely to start and grow into a successful business if you write a business plan.

A business plan helps you understand where you want to go with your business and what it will take to get there. It reduces your overall risk, helps you uncover your business’s potential, attracts investors, and identifies areas for growth.

Having a business plan ultimately makes you more confident as a business owner and more likely to succeed for a longer period of time.