Business Plan purpose

I have written about this topic earlier as well. In my opinion the Business Plan is a single most important document, provided done correctly, for a business in any industry.

The structure of the document could vary from purpose to purpose.

If the target is actual business development and personal improvement, the business plan can be a simple straight forward document.

In my opinion regardless of the purpose, the business plan should serve the one realistic purpose – giving you the roadmap of what to do and when to do it.

As long as this primary purpose is embedded in the plan and the rest of the document can be tailored to fit any other business purpose.

In the event your business plan is for personal development, enhancement, better management or whatever the case may be, as long as the “purpose” is personal you would only need a few things – the core or the heart of the business plan.

1. List of your target market with objectives and goals
2. Point wise list of your Marketing initiatives to target the market
3. Key Sales initiatives to obtain the “revenue” results from your marketing initiatives
4. List of operational, managerial, and administrative initiatives
5. Sales Targets
6. Pro forma Cash Flow and income statement, and balance sheet – these documents will serve as your budget as well.

This is more than enough for a small business (or even a small department within a large organization to meet or exceed its targets.

I believe that personal is the only real purpose of the business plan, everything else is the reason why the exercise is being conducted, for instance Bank Loan, and regardless of the reason the core elements of the business plan should be developed with the objective personal success objective.

Once you have this core completed you can construct a business plan for any audience and any purpose.