Business plan: learn how to plan to start a business

Those who dream of having their own business often do not know exactly where or how to start this trajectory. The best way to chart the way forward is to prepare the business plan, a document that details all the fundamental aspects to consider before undertaking.

The first steps of the entrepreneurial journey are decisive for the business's success and depend on a good analysis of the opportunities, risks and resources needed to make things happen. The business plan helps structure this analysis, answers a series of questions, and records the company's medium-term planning even before its opening.

What is the business plan?

The business plan is the document that records the key elements of an enterprise, describing its objectives and planning how it will work in practice. It serves as a roadmap to be followed, facilitating the execution of each step described as it previously identifies the risks and opportunities and the resources needed to carry out its purposes.

"When a new market opportunity arises, a new business or investment opportunity, the executive decision is usually based on a business plan," demonstrates the CEO of Maven Business Plans consultants. "The business plan is an analysis tool that concatenates all the variables that must be analyzed in depth to generate results for an average period of five years, depending on the type of investment."

In this way, explains Maven Business Plans, the business plan highlights "the potential for revenue, the risks and the profit of the business to be invested." These notes come from reflection on all angles of the project and contribute to qualifying the decision-making of entrepreneurs and investors. "All the lines of an income statement, cash flow projections and impact variables will be analyzed and projected to give the investor confidence that the project is well built."

Fundamental as an instrument for planning the opening of a company, the business plan must be documented and periodically reviewed, even if the enterprise is in full operation. It is possible that, over time, it will be necessary to make updates, correct aspects that have not been confirmed in practice or add facts and situations not previously foreseen. 

After all, the business plan is not a document to be kept in a drawer. In addition to guiding managers in carrying out the project, it is a resource that facilitates negotiations with foreign investors, new partners and business partners, even enhancing the chances of obtaining credit. 

Enterprises already on the market also benefit from the business plan when looking to expand, either by developing new lines of products or services or entering new markets. What Maven Business Plans calls an investment thesis must always support these decisions. "We must, through the construction of the business plan, be able to defend in depth the investment, its risks and its results."

In this way, we can highlight the main advantages of the business plan:

• describes the key elements of the business;
• identifies risks and opportunities of the enterprise;
• maps the financial, human and material resources needed to make the business viable;
• guides the decision-making of entrepreneurs and investors;
• projects result to be achieved;
• facilitates negotiations and obtaining credit;
• Structures expansion projects.

How to prepare a business plan?

The business plan is a document that should reflect all perspectives related to the venture. The structure of this document is not rigid, but usually covers points common to any project. 

We guide it to be prepared, taking into account six main points:

1. Executive Summary: briefly describes the business, its differentials, and a series of other details, from the mission to the financial indicators. It should be prepared last when all the information is already gathered, but it is presented first as an introduction;
2. Market Analysis: gathers all data related to the market in which it operates, bringing data on competitors, consumers and product or service positioning;
3. Marketing Plan: defines how the company will communicate its differentials to the public and offer products or services;
4. Operational Plan: structure in detail the processes of development and commercialization of the company's products or services;
5. Financial Plan: brings the financial calculation of all actions planned in the previous stages, serving as a basis for estimating the investment needed to launch the business on the market;
6. Scenario Analysis: predicts the risks associated with the business according to a set of possible scenarios, identifying ways to manage these threats.

For more information you should visit business plan consultants.

After gathering all this information, it's time to analyze all these points, review projections and make the investment decision. Again, Maven Business Plans emphasizes that a qualitative analysis of the market is essential to know the segment in which it operates, competitors and growth prospects "both for the company and for the products it sells." 

On the financial side, Maven Business Plans emphasizes that "the quantitative analysis must include the projection for the income statement (DRE), the projected cash flow and the balance sheet, that is, what we call the Financial Tripod." 

One of the secrets in quantitative analyses, reveals Maven Business Plans, "is knowing how to select the impact variables that deserve simulation." So, for example, if the company sells an imported product, it must simulate dollar variations, testing the upper and lower limits of the oscillation and its impacts on the financial tripod.