Content of a business plan
A business plan can be seen as a collection of sub-plans including a marketing plan, financial plan, production plan, and human resource plan.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_plan
The business plan has many forms. There is however a format that is typical:
- Executive summary
- explains the basic business model
- gives rationale for the strategy
- Background
- gives short history of company (unless it is a new company)
- provides background
details such as:
- age of company
- number of employees
- annual sales figures
- location of facilities
- form of ownership
including
- sole proprietor
- partnership
- entrepreneurial startup
- private corporate startup
- publicly traded corporation
- limited liability company
- public utility
- Non Profit Organization
- background of key
personnel including
- owners
- senior managers
- head scientists and researchers
- Marketing
- the macroenvironment
- the competitive environment
- the industry
- the customers priorities
- product strategy
- pricing strategy
- promotion strategy
- distribution strategy
- Production and
manufacturing
- describe all processes
- production facility requirements - size, layout, capacity, location
- inventory requirements - raw materials inventory, finished goods inventory, warehouse space requirements
- equipment requirements
- supply chain requirements
- fixed cost allocation
- Finance
- source of funds
- existing loans and liabilities
- projected sales and costs
- break even analysis
- expected return
- monthly pro-forma cash flow statement
- Human resources
- assign responsibilities
- training required
- skills required
- union issues
- compensation
- skills availability
- new hiring
Specialized sections such as product research and development, legal strategies, marketing research, or inter-company collaborations, are added to deal with unique features or characteristics of the business or its markets.