Every entrepreneurial journey begins with an idea that awakens within us a desire to undertake, but it is only the seed of a promising future. From the moment we have the idea of the business until the moment we "lift the shutter" of our promising future, there are a series of steps that will help us to achieve the professional take-off with total security. The Business Plan helps us to set the path to success.
The first and most important when it comes to receiving aid from subsidies (European, State, Autonomous Communities or local entities such as Town Councils or Provincial Councils), credits, loans, etc., is to have an Business Plan.
This Business Plan is the document that will mark the "personality" of our company; we could compare it to the assembly instructions of our own business.
In the Plan you will find all the steps to follow to open our business and to make our own employees understand that we need to be able to (employees, partners, potential investors nearby...) as outsiders (grant-giving bodies, financial institutions, business angels...) how our new company will operate, manage and ultimately succeed.
If we divide this Business Plan in different "parts" or chaptersWe will undoubtedly encounter the following chapters:
- The idea: This is where we will present our business idea, why we want to carry it out, and what makes it different from what already exists in our environment, we will also point out what our objective is, and what our business mission and vision will be, as well as who will be part of it.
- External Analysis: Where the environment surrounding our new business is studied and analysed in detail. The direct competition (through an in-depth study of what they sell, how they sell it, when and to whom they sell it), the clientele (with a market study, to find out what their real needs are and whether our product will satisfy them or not), the sector (to find out in depth about the progress of this business, major competitors, suppliers, trends) are just some of the aspects to be analysed at this point in the Business Plan.
- Internal Analysis: In this internal analysis, emphasis is placed on the entire operation of our new business. What we sell, how we sell it, how much we sell it for, and how we are going to communicate the product we sell, actions related to the 4Ps of the Marketing Mix. We must also indicate who we will have and what tasks each position will perform (staff, organisation chart, functions to be carried out).
- Feasibility Analysis: All Business PlanThe financial analysis must be accompanied by an economic-financial analysis, also known as an economic-financial analysis. Feasibility PlanThe business plan, which will show what is really going to make our company work. The estimate of sales and income for at least 3 years, estimate of start-up costs (initial investment), cost of sales, expenditure on personnel... It must also be accompanied by a calculation of the necessary investment and how this is going to be financed (through own capital, contributions from partners, investment from third parties, subsidies and aid, loans, credits...).
- Finally, to raise a small executive overviewThe report is a summary of the main conclusions about our business.
Once With all this information in our Business Plan, we will have more accurate and reliable information about what we want to do and how we are going to do it.In an orderly and structured way, as we named before, an instruction book about our new entrepreneurial journey.
So, once our Business Plan has been drawn up, in future articles we will go on to explain the different parts of it in depth. In the next article we will talk about Market Research.
