Even though the executive summary is the first part of your plan, you’ll typically want to write it last. It’s far easier to summarize your business plan once you’ve got the full draft in front of you. Include an executive summary even if you’re starting a small business and don’t plan on seeking any outside funding for it. Writing it helps you think constructively about your business and where you’d like to see it go.
For example, if you started making hair barrettes for your daughter and her friends and want to start selling them on the internet, you might tell the story of how all the girls in your daughter’s school wanted the barrettes. Include the nuts and bolts of your business as well, such as how you’re organized (if you’ve incorporated or formed an LLC, for example) and where you’re located. You might think location isn’t important for an internet business, but it impacts the types of funding available for your business as well as the regulations that govern you and the taxes you’ll have to pay.
For small shops with homemade items, look at similar shops on the internet and think about how your products are different from theirs (besides the fact that you made them). In business lingo, this is the section where you identify the problem your target customers have and how your products or services solve that problem. If others are offering similar solutions, describe how yours is better or different. [5] X Research source If you’re researching ways to improve your products or services, provide details about that work and how much money it will cost. [6] X Trustworthy Source U. S. Small Business Administration U. S. government agency focused on supporting small businesses Go to source For example, if you’re making hair barrettes, you might be looking into waterproof materials or elastic that doesn’t pull hair.
Your target customers are the people you think are going to buy your products or services—they might not necessarily be the people who ultimately use them. For example, if you’re selling handmade hair barrettes for little girls, your target customers would likely be their parents, not the little girls themselves. For example, if you’re planning on buying targeted advertising on social media, you might include examples of the ads you’re going to run and the types of people who will see those ads.
If you’re running your business out of your home, you might not need any additional requirements for your location. At the same time, if your business expands, you might want to move it out of your home, so take that into consideration. Include information about any shipping or delivery services you plan to use and the costs for those services. Provide information about deadlines and how you’ll get your products or services to your customers in a timely fashion. For example, in a crafts-based business, you might outline how long it takes you to complete a custom order.
As long as you’re not seeking any outside funding from banks or investors, you don’t have to worry too much about having any particular business management experience. Just keep in mind that if you want to scale up at some point, you might want to work with a professional, such as an accountant. If you’re planning to hire employees or management staff, set parameters for when new people will be added—perhaps when you reach a certain sales volume. Briefly describe your minimum requirements for new people in terms of their skills and qualifications.
Don’t forget capital expenses—things you’ll use to operate your business. For example, if you have to buy computers and software to get your business up and running, those would be considered capital expenses. Likewise, if you’re going to be selling quilts, your sewing equipment would be a capital expense (even if you’ve already purchased it). If you’re planning to launch your business on a specific date, detail the expenses required for the launch.
If you’re not seeking outside funding, financial projections aren’t as important for your business plan. At the same time, it might be a fun exercise to predict how your business might grow. Charts and graphs in this section help your reader visualize your financial plans. They’re also quick to understand simply by glancing at them so investors or banks don’t have to read a lot of dense content. If you’re asking for funding, include a funding request in this section that outlines how much money you’re looking to raise and what you’ll use the money for.
If you’re creating your business plan for yourself, it can be helpful to include documents that you might need to reference later, so you have them all in one place. For example, if you include bank account and tax ID documents as appendices to your business plan, you’ll always know where to find them when you need them.
Often, your appendices will be longer than the business plan itself. It’s possible that each section of your business plan is only a page or two, while you have 5-10 pages of documents to supplement the section. Organizing your appendices by section allows your readers to quickly find the documents they want to look at.
You might include logos and branding in this section as well, although you could also put those with your marketing materials. However, you should include documentation of any trademarks you’ve registered in this section. Include documentation for any other intellectual property your business owns or has applied for, such as patents, copyrights, or trademarks. [15] X Research source If you have a partnership or sole proprietorship, lenders might require personal tax documents or financial information as well.
You don’t have to include print-outs of all of your marketing research here—just reports that directly impacted your conclusions or were specifically referenced in your business plan.
If you’re going to have several employees in an office, you might include a layout of the floor space so your readers understand how your office will be organized.
Providing a résumé also helps you keep the plan itself short and simple because you don’t have to go into so much detail about the person’s background—you can simply refer to their résumé in the appendix.
Customer service materials you’ve created are also helpful here and will help your readers understand how you plan to maintain customers and build a relationship with them.
If you or any of your partners have run successful internet businesses in the past, you might also include financial reports from those businesses to demonstrate your expertise.
It can be helpful to have something else proofread your plan as well. They might catch an error that you would’ve missed because you know what it’s supposed to say.
If you have friends or family members that are closer in perspective to your target reader, you might have them read it over as well. Their questions or issues can help you revise your plan.
Use active language to make your executive summary really pop off the page and get your readers excited about your business. Allow your enthusiasm for your business to shine through. You might have friends or colleagues read just the executive summary. Ask them if they would invest in your business based solely on the information there. Then, use their questions and comments to tweak the executive summary further.
After you’ve created the table of contents, flip through the business plan and make sure the page numbers line up correctly. Expect your readers to use the table of contents to quickly access the sections they want to look at. If you’re delivering your business plan digitally, make the page numbers in the table of contents links so that your readers only have to click the page number to move to that page in the document. Most word processing apps will format this for you—just check the options on the editing menu.
If you have to make any changes or add page breaks, go back and check your table of contents to make sure it still lines up correctly. Use the same font and page margins throughout your business plan. This is especially important if you worked on it in pieces or farmed some of the sections out to a partner or other business associate.
If you’re giving a presentation to potential lenders or investors, create formal print copies for each person who will be in attendance—even if you submitted your plan digitally before the presentation. Don’t skimp on printing! Using quality paper and a professional printer will help your business plan stand out from the rest. This is especially important if you’re presenting the plan to banks or potential investors.
