How to Write a Business Plan - Entrepreneurship 101

Summary

In this insightful video, Gillian Perkins shares her journey from starting a business with no resources to developing a streamlined process for creating effective business plans. She outlines six essential sections, including an overview, company message, marketing strategy, product description, production details, and goals. Perkins emphasizes the importance of clarity, strategic planning, and simplicity, offering a free template to help entrepreneurs organize their business and grow strategically.

Takeaways

• 🚀 Starting a business with no money, skills, or plans can be challenging, but it's possible to create success through perseverance and clarity of objectives.
• 📝 Writing a business plan, even if initially messy and time-consuming, helps in creating clarity about the business's objectives and strategies.
• 🔑 After two years of working on a business plan, the speaker was able to double the size of their business, demonstrating the power of planning and strategic growth.
• 🛠️ The speaker has developed a streamlined system for writing business plans, making the process faster, simpler, and more practical.
• 📚 A business plan should consist of six main sections: Overview, Message, Marketing, Product, Production and Delivery, and Goals.
• 🏢 The Overview section should include the company's structure, location, basic operations, mission, and a chart of accountability for major tasks.
• 📣 The Message section is crucial for defining the company's communication to customers, including the problem solved, the result created, and the company's unique selling proposition.
• 🎯 In the Marketing section, it's important to define the target market, including demographics, psychographics, and where these customers can be found.
• 📈 The Product section should focus on the main product, describing what it is, the result it creates, and the impact it has on customers' lives.
• 🎯 Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART), and can include sales numbers, revenue, profit, customer impact, and development.
• 📝 The speaker emphasizes the importance of writing a business plan to identify unknowns and to keep the business organized and strategic, rather than avoiding it due to perceived complexity.

Q & A

What was the initial condition when the speaker started their first business?

The speaker started their first business with no money, no skills, no plans, and barely any ideas.

What did the speaker realize was essential after working for several years?

The speaker realized that having a plan was essential, even though the initial plan was messy and not very useful, it helped them create clarity about their business objectives.

How did the speaker's business grow within two years after creating a plan?

Within two years, the speaker's business more than doubled in size, they hired a staff of a dozen people and attracted hundreds of new customers.

What are the six main sections of a business plan according to the speaker?

The six main sections of a business plan are: 1) Overview, 2) Message, 3) Marketing, 4) Product, 5) Production and Delivery, and 6) Goals.

What should be included in the overview section of a business plan?

The overview section should include the company's business, structure, location, a brief description of the company's activities, its mission, and a chart of accountability.

Why is the company's mission important in a business plan?

The company's mission is important because it is the driving force behind the business plan, focusing all plans towards achieving it.

What is the purpose of defining the company's message in the business plan?

Defining the company's message is crucial for communicating clearly with customers, understanding who the customers are, how the company fits into their lives, and how it can help solve their problems.

What are the key elements to include when defining the target market in the marketing section of the business plan?

The key elements to include are demographics, psychographics, estimated size of the target market, and where these customers can be found.

What is the significance of having a visibility strategy, lead generation strategy, and conversion strategy in the marketing section?

These strategies are significant for explaining how potential customers will learn about the brand, how contact will be established with them, and how to turn leads into paying customers.

Why does the speaker recommend focusing on one main product in the product section of the business plan?

Focusing on one main product simplifies business development and allows for a more structured approach to selling and marketing the product.

What should be the approach to setting goals in the final section of the business plan?

Goals should be specific, measurable, and have a deadline. It's recommended to set both one-year and five-year goals to have both short-term and long-term objectives.

What advice does the speaker give regarding the length and complexity of a business plan?

The speaker advises to keep the business plan short and relatively simple to ensure it remains useful and is more likely to be referred back to.

What is the speaker's final recommendation for those who are yet to write their business plan?

The speaker recommends downloading and printing out the provided business plan outline, scheduling time to fill it out, and not to put off writing the business plan as it can have a significant long-term impact.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Starting a Business from Scratch

The speaker shares their journey of starting a business with no initial resources, skills, or concrete plans. After years of self-employment, they developed a business plan that, despite being messy and time-consuming, provided clarity on business objectives and strategies. This process led to significant business growth within two years, including expanding the team and customer base. The speaker has since refined the business planning process, making it more streamlined and practical. They introduce a six-section business plan and suggest starting by jotting down ideas for each section before compiling them into a cohesive document.

05:02

📝 Crafting a Business Plan: Structure and Strategy

The speaker outlines the six main sections of a business plan: an overview, marketing, product, production and delivery, and goals. They emphasize the importance of starting with a clear understanding of the company's mission as the driving force behind the plan. The overview should include company structure, location, and a brief description of operations. The speaker also details the need for a chart of accountability, defining who is responsible for key tasks. The second section focuses on the company's message, targeting customers, and how the company fits into their lives by solving problems and creating desired results. The third section delves into marketing strategies, including visibility, lead generation, and conversion strategies, highlighting the importance of identifying target customers and effective marketing channels.

10:03

🎯 Defining Products and Setting Business Goals

The speaker advises focusing on a primary product for the business, describing its results and impact on customers' lives. They recommend identifying the main product and detailing its benefits and effects, followed by an overview of other products offered. The final section of the business plan should include setting specific, measurable goals with deadlines rather than attempting complex projections, which can be challenging for new or small businesses. The speaker encourages simplicity and practicality in the business plan to ensure it remains a useful tool for strategic growth and organization.

🌟 Final Thoughts on Business Planning

The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of not overcomplicating the business plan and keeping it concise to ensure it remains a useful document. They acknowledge that it's normal not to know all the answers when starting the planning process and view the business plan as a tool for discovery and clarity. The speaker provides a free, neatly organized outline for viewers to download and use as a template for their own business planning. They also encourage viewers to take action by scheduling time to complete the plan, as it can significantly impact the organization and strategic direction of their business.

Keywords

💡Business Plan

A business plan is a formal document that outlines a company's goals, strategies, market positioning, and financial forecasts. In the video, it is the central theme, with the speaker detailing the process of creating one, emphasizing its importance for organizing a business and strategically increasing profits. The speaker provides a step-by-step guide on the six main sections of a business plan, illustrating its practical application in growing a business.

💡Objectives

Objectives refer to the specific goals or aims that a business intends to achieve. In the context of the video, the speaker mentions that writing a business plan helped in creating clarity about the objectives of the business and how to reach them, which is crucial for the direction and focus of entrepreneurial efforts.

💡Marketing

Marketing is the process of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising. The video discusses the importance of defining a marketing strategy within a business plan, which includes understanding the target market, visibility, lead generation, and conversion strategies to attract and retain customers.

💡Target Market

The target market consists of the specific group of potential customers toward whom marketing efforts are directed. In the script, identifying the target market by demographics and psychographics is highlighted as a critical step in the marketing section of the business plan, essential for tailoring products and messages to the right audience.

💡Product

A product can be a physical good, a digital item, or a service offered by a business. The video emphasizes the need to identify and focus on a primary product that creates a specific result and impact on customers' lives, which is central to structuring the business's marketing message and strategy.

💡Result

In the context of the video, a result refers to the outcome or benefit that a customer receives from using a product or service. The speaker advises describing the result created by the product as part of the business plan to communicate the value proposition to the target market.

💡Impact

Impact refers to the effect or influence that a product or service has on a customer's life beyond the immediate result. The video script uses the example of a vacuum cleaner, where the result is clean floors, but the impact is a cleaner, healthier living environment and increased confidence in hosting guests.

💡Accountability

Accountability in a business context means holding individuals responsible for specific tasks or outcomes. The video mentions creating a chart of accountability in the business plan to outline who is in charge of major tasks such as marketing, operations, and finances, ensuring clear responsibility分配.

💡Mission

A mission statement defines the core purpose of a business and its primary goals. The video script emphasizes the importance of including a mission in the business plan as it serves as the driving force behind all business activities and plans, providing a clear direction and focus.

💡Strategic Growth

Strategic growth involves expanding a business in a planned and systematic way to achieve long-term objectives. The video encourages viewers to use the business plan as a tool for organizing and strategically increasing profits and growing towards set goals, illustrating the script's emphasis on strategic planning for business development.

💡Profits

Profits refer to the financial gain or positive financial outcome achieved by a business. In the video, the speaker discusses the business plan's role in organizing a business to increase profits strategically, highlighting the practical benefits of a well-thought-out business plan for financial success.

💡Goals

Goals are the specific, measurable objectives that a business aims to achieve within a certain timeframe. The video suggests setting both one-year and five-year goals in the business plan, such as sales numbers, revenue, and customer impact, to provide a clear path for the business's short-term and long-term development.

Highlights

Starting a business with no money, skills, or clear ideas can be challenging but rewarding.

Creating a business plan, even if initially messy and time-consuming, can provide clarity on objectives and strategies.

After two years with a plan, the business had doubled in size, with a staff of twelve and hundreds of new customers.

Developing a streamlined system for business planning makes the process faster, simpler, and more practical.

A business plan consists of six main sections: Overview, Message, Marketing, Product, Production and Delivery, and Goals.

The Overview section should include the company's structure, location, and a brief description of its operations.

A company's mission is crucial as it defines the driving force and goals of the business plan.

The Accountability chart outlines who is responsible for major tasks in marketing, operations, and finances.

Defining the company's message is key to communicating effectively with customers and standing out in the market.

Identifying the problem your company solves and the results it creates for customers is essential for a clear value proposition.

The Marketing section should detail the target market's demographics, psychographics, and where they can be found.

A visibility strategy, lead generation strategy, and conversion strategy are vital for turning leads into customers.

Writing a business plan helps uncover unknowns and areas that require further research or development.

Focusing on a primary product simplifies the business development process and marketing message.

Describing the product's result, impact, and how it affects customers' lives is more important than the product itself.

Setting specific, measurable goals with deadlines is more practical than making sales or customer acquisition projections for small businesses.

Keeping the business plan concise and simple ensures it remains a useful tool rather than an overly complicated document.

A neatly organized business plan outline is available for free download to assist in the planning process.

Writing a business plan is a strategic long-term investment that can significantly impact the organization and success of a business.

Transcripts

twelve years ago I started my first

business and I started with absolutely

nothing I don't just mean I started with

no money I started with no money no

skills no plans barely even any ideas

and let's just say that was a tough way

to start it's tough to build something

successful when you don't even know what

you're trying to build after working for

myself for several years I finally got

around to coming up with a plan it was

messy it took me forever to write and

honestly not really that useful of the

finished document but in the process of

writing the plan allowed me to create a

lot of clarity for myself about what my

objectives for the business were and how

I would reach them within the next two

years I had more than doubled the size

of my business

hiring a staff of a dozen people to run

it for me and attracting hundreds new

customers since that time I've written

quite a few business plans both for my

own companies and for those of my

clients and at this point I've developed

a system to streamline the entire

process not only making it faster and

simpler but also way more useful in a

really practical way if you want to get

your business organized and start

strategically increasing your profits

and growing towards your goals then keep

on watching this business plan has six

main sections and I'd recommend that you

start by scribbling your ideas for each

on a separate blank piece of paper once

you get your ideas worked out you can

create one cohesive document the six

pages of your business plan are one

overview to message three marketing for

product five production and delivery and

finally it's six goals the first page of

your business plan will be an overview

it's going to give a basic understanding

on what your company does and the

structure of your company now you're

seeing me write it down here in my

sloppy messy handwriting however I typed

up a nice neat version for you to use

for yourself so if you want a copy of

that just check the description down

below it's completely free and you can

use it to write your own business plan

in that first overview page of your

business plan you want to include your

business

your company structure the location

where you do business and also a brief

description of exactly what your company

actually does the next piece of

information for your company's overview

is your company's mission and this is

really important because it's the

driving force behind your business plan

it's what all your plans are focused

towards achieving and if you don't have

a mission it's like trying to make plans

to reach a goal without having the goal

so make sure you don't skip this step

the final component of the overview page

is your chart of accountability now this

chart describes who is accountable for

which of the major tasks involved in

running the business and the three main

areas of count ability and most

businesses are marketing and sales

operations and finances the second page

of your business plan will focus on

outlining your company's message it's

really important if you want your

business to be successful that you have

a clear idea of what message you are

working to communicate to your customers

who are those customers how do you fit

into their lives and how can you help

them solve a problem that they're facing

and create a result that they're looking

for as you can see here the questions

that you'll want to answer on this page

of your business plan include what

problem does your company solve for your

customers what result does your company

create for those customers how does your

company create those results who does

your company serve why do you do what

you do why should your customers choose

you over your competition and then

finally what is your company's step by

step plan for creating those results for

the customer or what is your proprietary

system this both helps to answer the

question what sets you apart from your

competition and it also shows your

customers how you're going to create

those results that you're promising

which will give them much greater

confidence in your ability to create the

results okay now let's move on and talk

about the third page of your business

plan this page focuses on marketing and

generating sales first of all you'll

want to define your target market by

their Democrat

and their psychographics demographics

are attributes such as their age their

income where they live

whereas psychographics have to do with

their interests their desires and their

fears here you'll also want to include

an estimated size of your target market

and even more important that that is

where you have identified that you can

find groups of those target customers

and here's a little big hint if you

haven't yet figured out where you can

find groups of those customers be it

online or off you're probably going to

have trouble successfully marketing your

product or service that you sell so if

you come to this part in the business

plan and you don't know what to put here

you're probably gonna want to do some

research and make sure that this target

customer that you have defined with the

demographics and the psychographics if

someone who you actually can find groups

of because if you can't find a group of

them then you might want to consider

redefining that target customer and

slightly pivoting your marketing

position the final three pieces of

information that I recommend you include

on this page of your business plan are

your visibility strategy which explains

how people will first learn about your

brand and about your products your lead

generation strategy which explains how

you will establish contact with the

people who have discovered your brand

and then finally your conversion

strategy which is essentially your sales

strategy explains how you're going to

turn those leads that you've generated

into paying customers

here is a quick aside as you're working

through this business plan for yourself

it's more than likely that you won't

know the answers to all of these

questions and you won't have all these

things figured out yet and I just want

to let you know that that is completely

alright and actually one of the main

purposes of writing your business plan

is

to become aware of those things that you

haven't thought about yet or that you

haven't figured out that you don't know

because only once you're aware of what

you don't know will you be able to

figure those things out so don't put off

writing the business plan because you

don't know everything yet but rather

write the business plan so that you can

get very clear on exactly what you do

know and what you need to figure out all

right

now let's move on to the fourth page of

your business plan this page describes

the product or products that you sell

and just so we're clear here a product

could be a physical product or a digital

product or a service but I'm just using

the term product in a general sense on

this page I highly recommend that you

choose just one a product as your

business's primary product you might

sell several different things you might

even sell hundreds of different things

but determine what your main product is

that you're going to Center your

business's marketing message around and

really try to structure your business

around selling the reason that I

recommend that you do this is that many

different parts of your business

development will be much easier if you

do have one product that is the focus on

this page of the business plan start by

first of all identifying what that

product is and then describing the

result that the product creates and

here's a little hint what your company

sells is really the result of the

product creates not the product itself

after describing the results describe

the impact of the product create this is

different than the result itself it's

instead how the customers life is

affected by the result of the product

creates for example if the product that

you're selling physically is a vacuum

cleaner then the result of the product

creates is clean floors but the products

impact is that your prospect feels

better about the state of their house

has a cleaner healthier living

environment and perhaps feels more

confident inviting company over once

you've described those three things for

your main product you can move on to

other products that your company sells

describing first of all what the product

is

second the result that it creates and

finally the impact that it has on

customers lives the sixth and final page

of your business success plan has to do

with your goals now if you look at any

examples of business plans in the past

or read a guide on how to write a

business plan you might have seen a

section that focused on projections so

sales projections or new customer

acquisition projections or market share

projections and if you've tried to write

a business plan in the past and you

tried to write a section you may have

found it very difficult and chances are

that's because you're running a small

business or maybe you've just started

your business and it's really difficult

to make accurate projections or

projections at all for that matter if

you don't have any data to base them on

and that's why I'd recommend that if you

are just starting your company or you've

only been in business for a couple of

years then instead of trying to create

projections you instead simply set goals

you can decide exactly how long you want

to make your goals for but a good place

to start would be to set some one-year

goals and also some five-year goals that

way you know what you need to work on

right now but you also know where you're

aiming longer-term for each time frame

you can set whatever goals you'd like

however some that I might recommend our

number of sales total revenue profit

impact in terms of the number of

customers who you help or how wide you

spread your message and development

which could be the extent to which

you've advanced the product that you

create and offer or to what extent

you've built your company and of course

when setting goals it's always important

to set specific measurable goals and to

set a deadline for when you're planning

to reach somebody all right that's

everything you need to include in your

business plan as you can see it's six

simple pages and you probably already

know most of the information that will

be going into this business plan already

there are many other pieces of

information that you may want to include

in your business plan and of course

you're more than welcome to include any

relevant information that describes how

you successfully run your

and how you plan to reach your goals

however my final piece of advice for you

is to make sure that you don't over

complicate things more words are not

better in fact your business plan will

be the most useful if you keep it short

and relatively simple because if you

write a document that's 20 40 or more

pages long chances are high that nobody

will ever even go back and read it ever

again as I mentioned earlier on I put a

neatly organized outline of this

business plan together for you there's a

link in the description below where you

can download it for free if you have any

feedback on it be sure to let me know

I'd recommend that you download it and

print it out now and to schedule some

time on your calendar so that you

actually get around to filling it out

because writing a business plan is one

of those things that can have a big

long-term impact on your business but

because it isn't actually urgent you

might put it off indefinitely and until

you make the time to write your business

plan your business will continue to be

disorganized and not as strategic as it

could be all right well that is

everything for today's video if you

enjoyed this video or found it helpful

then please hit that like button to let

me know and also consider subscribing to

my youtube channel I make two videos

here every single week about

entrepreneurship success and personal

development and if you like this video

and you won't want to miss the next one

thank you so much for watching my name

is Gillian Perkins and I look forward to

seeing you again next time

[Music]

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