Writing a Business Plan

A business plan has six main sections, thus an overview, the message, marketing for the product, the production, delivery, and finally, the business goals.

The overview page

An overview page offers a basic understanding of the structure of a business and what the company does. Your business plan’s overview page includes a business name, organization structure, business location, and a brief description of business operation or the product of the business project.

Within the overview, the next critical piece of information is the company’s mission. It is essential because it acts as the driving force behind the business plan. It describes the focus of a business and what the organization intends to achieve.

The final component of the overview page is a chart of accountability. This chart describes who is accountable for which of the major tasks involved in running the business. Note that the three main areas of accountability in most businesses are sales, operations, and finance.

The company Messages

The second page of a business plan focuses on outlining the company’s message. For start-ups, proprietors must get an idea of the message they are working to communicate to your customers. u00a0The business must identify their customers and into their lives. This message should communicate to the customers the business will solve a problem they (customers) face and create the result that a customer need.

The questions a proprietor wants to answer on this section of your business plan include problems a company solves for its customers and the results the company will create for those customers. This helps to answer the question, what sets a business apart from competition, and shows customers how the organization creates results it promises, which will give clients/customers much greater confidence in the business’s ability to create the results.

Marketing and Generating Sales

To get an idea of what is expected in this section, the proprietor first must identify target market demographics and psychographics. u00a0Demographics are attributes of age, target customer income, and location. Psychographics deal with clientsu2019 interests, their desires, and their fears. Here, the planner should include an estimated size of the business target market. It is also essential for planners to identify where to find groups of those target customers. This face helps planners to be sure whether they will make money from the project.

Part of the crucial elements for the marketing and sales generation section is the visibility strategy, which explains how people will first learn about the business brand and the products, organizational lead generation strategy that explains how the firm will establish contact with the people who have discovered its brand. Once those elements are established, a conversation strategy must be documented, which is essentially the sales strategy explaining how to turn those leads into paying customers.

The product

This section would describe the business product. A product could be a physical product or a digital product for service. Some operations my find it challenging to identify their business product. To avoid the mix up, use this hint to make it clear u201cwhatever the business sells are the result of the product. u00a0After the business product, the next phase is to describe the result the product creates in clients and its impact on customer’s lives.

The Business Goalsu00a0

If you have seen a business plan, the chances are that you might have seen a section focusing on projections. Such projections include sales projections, new customer acquisition, and market share projections. It may be a challenge for star-ups to make accurate projections given the shortage of data with start-ups. Managers can comfortably rely on goals in scenarios where the available data falls short of providing reliable projections. An excellent place to start would be setting annual goals, then three-year goals where possible, the business may subdivide the goals into monthly, weekly, and daily deliverables. It is recommendable, to begin with Sales, Revenue, and profit targets. All these targets will depend on business productivity and customer service.

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Emmanuel Addo
Founder
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Emmanuel Addo is the founder of the Young Global Leaders Network, an international non-governmental organization registered in six (6) countries namely, Ghana, United Kingdom, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan and has a membership strength of over 15,000 young black professionals, students, graduates, and aspiring leaders.

The organization also operates in 25 other African countries. Emmanuel also doubles as the chief convener and founder of the Young African Leaders Summit, one of the largest continental youth summits in Africa.  

Currently works at Kingston University as a Business Engagement Team Member in their Partnerships and Engagement Department. 

He characterizes energy, integrity, result-oriented, and ground-breaking service in each detail of strategic management, change management, stakeholder management, and leadership acquaintances.
Emmanuel owns a core background in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Ghana.

Leveraging his experience as a youth activist and a dynamic young man, Emmanuel founded the Young Global Leaders Network, a youth organization that comprises young diplomats, young politicians, and aspiring politicians, business/entrepreneurial business leaders with the aim of championing a mutual agenda for the African youth and promoting youth participation in governance as well as promoting entrepreneurial culture.
Emmanuel nurtures an environment of teamwork and has expertise in data collection and analysis as well as both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Emmanuel worked as an Associate Lecturer at the London College of Advanced Management where he delivered a wide range of business management courses that involved principles of marketing, leadership, operation management, and research methods. Emmanuel has always maintained high teaching and learning standards to ensure that his students’ stand out in academic achievements and successful progression. As a stout believer and passionate key player in volunteering; Emmanuel creates quality time to giving back gladly to his community what he has learned and to educate individuals with free consultancy on career development. He is a leader anyone would love to look up to and with great integrity, commitment, and passion to make the world a better place.
Emmanuel worked as Qualifications Manager at the Open University in the UK.

Emmanuel is also the founder of Kickstart Innovation Hub Ltd, the entrepreneurial hub of Young Global Leaders Network.