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.