Writing a Business Plan

A business plan is a very detailed plan that outlines how your business will establish itself, develop and then (hopefully) grow over the next two, three or five years.

The plan itself should include all the projections about turnover, income, profits and any threats to your market place. It should also cover all the costs for equipment, running the business and general operating costs.

It will contain details of your marketing strategy, how you will engage with your customers or clients and will ensure that you capture the market. It should also have some market research evidence to back up any claims that you make about how your product or business will be received within the marketplace. Projections about how the business can develop should also be included.

There is therefore a lot of information which needs to be drawn into a business plan. However, there are two fundamental points that people often overlook: English grammar and punctuation.

Business plans are often well produced in terms of being glossy, lots of graphics and very smart, but then there are sentences that don’t make sense, due to poor grammar or the whole plan is littered with bad spelling mistakes. So regard the way that you write the plan, its structure and language as being of equal importance to the facts and figures of your business. Careful and appropriate use of words, excellent grammar and proper spelling will show an eye for detail that will show that you are methodical and thorough and therefore are worthy of investment.