7 No-Stress Tips On How To Write Your Business Plan

Writing any type of formal document can give you flashbacks to high school English class—and that’s not always a good thing. For many entrepreneurs, creating a business plan is an intimidating task, particularly because it’s often used as the primary document for convincing investors and lenders to fork over their money. If you don’t consider yourself to be a strong writer, the task might be even more daunting. For example, how can you convince your reader to see your business as a success? What critical pieces of info absolutely need to be included in your business plan?

Don’t sweat it. Take a look at these seven no-stress tips that make writing a business plan surprisingly simple:

1. 1. First, start with your executive summary. No need to get super fancy here. Your executive summary can be as simple as outlining a one-to-two sentence description about yourself, your company, and why you think it’s going to be successful. Think of it as a written elevator pitch, where you only have a minute to grab the attention of your audience. Make it captivating and engaging, but don’t go into too many details just yet.
   2. Describe your company. Here’s where you’re really going to capture the reader’s attention, because this section of the plan is designed to shine the spotlight right on your business.
      Start out by describing the problem your business is trying to solve. For example, if you’re launching a restaurant, it might be worth mentioning that you’re bringing a new type of cuisine to the area, or the town you’re in has a huge demand for your type of restaurant that is currently not being met. Ideally, you want to position your business as a powerful solution to a persistent problem that your customers are currently experiencing.
      Want to take this part of your business plan to the next level? Include some testimonials and reviews from actual customers, or people who are interested in working with your business once it launches. If your actual customers are describing how your business solves their problems, it can be enough to get investors, lenders, and other financial folks excited about what you’re doing.
   3. Show why you’re different from your competition. You’ll definitely want to show that you’ve looked into what your competition is up to, and if they pose any threat to your business. In this section of your business plan, list out a few of your biggest competitors, the products and services they of-fer, their price points, and how they position themselves in the market. You should be able to use this information to show why you’re different, and why investors and lenders shouldn’t be worried if there is competition in your particular space.
      In addition to competitive research, show that you’ve looked into your local market. For example, if you have an interior design business, find research that demonstrates how this service is starting to become trendy in your area. The more trends and demands that point in favor of your business, the more likely it is that you can use this plan to get funding, loans, and other forms of support.
   4. Give some of the more minute details. From your legal structure to your business insurance policy provider, you’ll want to use this section to outline the nitty-gritty of how your company operates.
      If you have co-founders, managers, other employees, or even subcontractors, consider adding an organizational chart that shows who’s at your company. It’s helpful for others to know who’s in your company!
   5. Talk about your products and services. Describe the product or service your business specializes in and use a few lines to talk about why these offerings will be a big hit with your customers. This messaging can be especially useful if you’re using your business plan to get funding, as you’re continuing to show investors why your business will be successful.
      If you have any patents, copyrights, or any other legal documentation that protects your product or service, be sure to mention it in this section of the plan. You should also point out any re-search that you’ve done to help develop your product or service, like customer surveys, focus groups, or anything else that shows your business is in demand.
   6. Figure out what you want your business plan to accomplish.
      • If you’re looking for funding… If your business plan is taking on a more traditional form and you’re using it to get money, this is where you should start introducing information about sales projections, marketing strategies, and other financial info. Let’s break this down to see what it looks like.
        In the first paragraph, you should immediately dive into how much money you’re asking for. Specify the ask in either a lump sum form (ideal for business loans), or a series of payments over a set period of time (great for investors).
        After making the ask, use the next paragraph to outline how you’ll be using the money to launch, grow, and maintain your business. This is where you should go into specifics, like the equipment you need to buy, store leases, and bills you’ll need to pay until you start making a profit.
        Finally, include a paragraph that specifies when you expect your business to be making revenue, and how you’ll use that money to pay back the investor or lender. Show financial projections to support your claims regarding when you’ll start making profits.
      • If you’re looking for advice… Some entrepreneurs may not want to use their business plan to find funding, perhaps they’re already making a decent amount of money or they have their own capital. In that case, the business plan could act as a document that can be shown to consultants, advisors, or even your neighbor down the street who’s got that knack for growing businesses.
        If this is the case, your business plan can take a bit more of a casual approach. You can opt to include the financial information previously listed, or you can outline key milestones that will help guide your growth. For ex-ample, you could list where you’d like your business to be in six months, one year, and five years. Each milestone can contain info about the number of customers you’d like to have, the amount of revenue you’ll be producing, and other key business metrics.

      Even if you don’t show this business plan to anyone, listing out your key milestones can help keep you on track. If you’re not hitting the goals you set out for yourself, you can quickly piv-ot so your business stays on target.

   7. Edit, edit, edit! Even if you consider yourself to be a strong writer, do yourself a favor: pass your business plan on to some-one who can read over what you wrote. Ideally, you’re looking for the person to give you feedback on how clear the plan is, if it makes sense, and if you’ve present-ed a compelling case for your business. Hand your plan over to a trusted friend or family member with an eye for editing, but who also won’t be afraid to give you direct feedback.

Still not feeling confident about writing up a business plan? SBA’s Business Plan Builder is a great tool that can help you with the basic steps of creating a plan. Just create a free ac-count, and you’ll be provided a guided walk-through that you can do at your own pace.