People becoming involved with any new venture want to know that the person in charge - the guy running the business knows what he's doing, will not lose his cool when problems arise, and has what it takes to make money for all of them. After showing the "muscle" of this person, go on to outline the other key positions within your business; who the persons are you've selected to handle those jobs and the sources as well as availability of any other help you might need.
If you've been in business on any kind of scale, the next chapter is a picture of your financial status - a review of your operating costs and income from the business to date. Generally, this is a listing of your profit & loss statements for the past six months, plus copies of your business income tax: records for each of the previous three years the business has been an entity.
The chapter on the explanation of your plans for the future growth of your business is just that - an explanation of how you plan to keep your business growing - a detailed guide of what you're going to do, and how you're going to increase your profits.
These plans should show your goals for the coming year, two years, and three years. By breaking your objectives down into annual milestones, your plans will be accepted as more realistic and, be more understandable as a part of your ultimate success.
Following this explanation, you'll need to itemize the projected cost and income figures of your three year plan. It'll take a lot of research, and undoubtedly a good deal of erasing, but it's very important that you list these figures based upon thorough investigation. You may have to adjust some of your plans downward, but once you've got these two chapters on paper, your whole business plan will fall into line and begin to make sense. You'll have a precise "map" of where you're headed, how much it's going to cost, when you can expect to start making money, and how much.
Now that you know where you're going, how much it's going to cost and how long it's going to be before you begin to recoup your investment, you're ready to talk about how and where you're going to get the money to finance your journey. Unless you're independently wealthy, you'll want to use this chapter to list the possibilities and alternatives.
Make a list of friends you can approach, and perhaps induce to put up some money as silent partners. Make a list of those people you might be able to sell as stockholders in your company - in many cases you can sell up to $300,000 worth of stock on a "private issue" basis without filing papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Check with a corporate or tax attorney in your area for more details. Make a list of relatives and
friends that might help you with an outright loan to furnish money for the development of your business.
Then search out and make a list of venture capital organizations. Visit the Small Business Administration office in your area - pick up the loan application papers they have - read them, study them, and even fill them out on a preliminary basis - and finally, check the costs, determine which business publications would be best to advertise in, if you were to advertise for a partner or investor, and write an ad you'd want to use if you did decide to advertise for monetary help. Continued - How to Prepare a Business Plan That Guarantees Big Profits... Part 5
Previous Articles:
Previous Articles:
How to Prepare a Business Plan That Guarantees Big Profits... Part 1
How to Prepare a Business Plan That Guarantees Big Profits... Part 2
How to Prepare a Business Plan That Guarantees Big Profits... Part 3
No comments:
Post a Comment