Business Plan Elements

"Parts is parts" the saying goes. Not so when writing a business plan. The structure of a business plan is not random. It has a logical progression of thought. The marketing plan comes after the information on your product or service but before your implementation and financial information. As for the other parts, the order they appear in your plan depends upon the best way you feel you can communicate and sell your business concept.

Certain parts of a standard business plan may not apply to your business. For instance, if you're going to sell directly to the public as a retailer then your plan will need to detail where and how you will purchase your products, but your distribution or sales strategy will be pretty basic. On the other hand, if you're manufacturing a product to sell then your plan will focus more on its distribution strategy. All plans should answer two basic questions:

• Is this a product or service that people will buy?

• Are you the right person to make your idea a success?

  So let's look at the basic elements that make up a business plan. They are

• Executive Summary

• Company Mission and Objectives

• Overview of Your Company

• Description of Your Product or Service

• Marketplace

• Marketing Strategy

• Competition

• Implementation Plan

• Capital Requirements

The Executive Summary is probably the most important section of your plan. Why? Because it's the first thing that is read but the last thing you write. That's because it is a short summary of all the most important parts of your business plan, meant to sell your idea to the reader. If you can grab their interest then they will be more likely to read the details of your plan.

Since it is a summary, you have to wait until you've written all the parts of your business plan before you write the Executive Summary.

But remember, an Executive Summary is just thata summary, not a foreword. In effect, it's your entire plan in a nutshell, your elevator pitch.

The sections of your plan that deal with your company itself are the Company Mission and Objectives and Company Overview sections.

The Company Mission and Objective section details your company mission and vision statements. It describes what your business will do and why. It also lays out a vision of your company and where it wants to be in the future. The Company Overview provides a description of your companystart up, existing company, legal form, and so onand its goals and objectives.

The focus of what you intend to sell and how you will sell it is in the Product or Service Description section of your plan. Here you will not only describe what you intend to sell but also what human needs it fulfills. In other words, this section will describe your product and service in detail, and explain your unique selling position (USP).

Hand in hand with your product or service description is an analysis of the Marketplace you will sell within and the Marketing Strategy you will use to market your product or service.

Finally, the section of Distribution Channels will explain the distribution or sales channels you will use to sell your product through. In our case, the Internet through a Yahoo! store.

A business plan is not only a selling document but a planning one too. Plan your work and work your plan. It represents a roadmap that your company plans to follow to implement your business idea and forces you to look closely enough at all of the details to really understand your own business and how it will unfold. That's the purpose of the Implementation Plan. This plan describes step by step how you plan to carry out your business plan.

The last section of your business plan would deal with money and resources. It will list the Capital Requirements you will need to launch and operate your company to break even. And speaking of capital requirements, you should spend some time evaluating your funding needs and where the funds you need to launch your new business venture online will come from.

A good place to create a short but effective business plan for your parttime home business is at the website of the Wall Street Journal. It offers a free miniplan wizard at wsj.miniplan.com.

Once you have your business plan written, it's time set up the necessary accounts for your business. In the next chapter we will cover how to find and choose an ISP (Internet service provider), how to set a shipping center and accounts, and how to set up a credit card merchant account.