Common business plan structure

The structure of the business plan has a generally accepted form, despite the uniqueness of each business separately. To fully characterize the business plan, it is necessary to consider each of the items, which requires detailed decoding.

So, the structure of a complex business plan is built on a certain sequence of generally accepted items. The main section that should be the first is the company's capabilities, characterized in a concise manner, and setting tasks in the future. The content of this section should be stated concisely, simply and clearly. After all, this part of the business plan is paid special attention to potential investors or partners.

Here, the information that characterizes the firm and its activities should be placed. At the same time, in each direction goals must be defined, ways of achieving them should be described and responsible persons should be indicated.

This section should answer two main questions:

1. What benefit will the investors who have invested a certain amount of money in the company get?
2. What are the risks for investors with participation in the financing of the enterprise?

The structure of the business plan should contain in the second section a description of the types of goods or services provided. At the same time, there should be a clear delineation of the directions for the main and secondary.

The main areas include: the name of products or services with a detailed description of them and, preferably, with pictures or photographs. Also indicated are: a list of needs for which the products or services displayed in the section are intended; Characteristic of demand; Comparison of price and quality; Where it is planned to sell goods or provide services; The dignity of this product in comparison with the analogues of other companies; List of shortcomings and ways to overcome them; Presence of copyright for the goods; Prime cost and possible profit.

The structure of the business plan can not but contain a section characterizing the sales markets. This section can be attributed to a sufficiently serious part in this document, since it is the study of the existing sales market that allows an entrepreneur to determine his own niche in the consumption market.

To do this, you need to reflect the answers to the following questions:

- Where is the potential market?

- Which segments of this market are preferred?

- What factors have an impact on the demand for this product?

- What was done to study the sales markets?

Also in this section it is necessary to evaluate the potential market assortment and the actual sales volume

Each company that cares about the results of its activities creates a business plan, the structure of which should also include, in addition to those listed above, other sections:

- Production plan ;

- Evaluation of competition in the sales market;

- Marketing plan ;

- Financial plan;

- Emergence of possible risks.

Sometimes the last two sections are combined into one, since the execution of a financial plan is sometimes associated with the occurrence of risks.

The financial plan contains planning to ensure the activities of the company finances in order to effectively use available cash. Within the framework of this section, a certain package of financial documents should be developed:

- an operational plan that reflects the company's interaction with the target markets for each product;

- an estimate of income and expenditure, which is designed to help in determining the expected profit and calculating the estimated costs from the sale of a particular product;

- a statement of cash flows (income and expenses during business activities);

- balance sheet, which is the final document of any activity of the enterprise for a specific period.

Thus, this article briefly outlines the structure of the business plan and its role in the performance of the company's activities. It is necessary to note the confidentiality of this document, which contains unique ideas, achievements in marketing, etc. Therefore, it should be shown only to those people in whom the enterprise has an interest.