You’ve taken the first step to start a new business. You’ve got a good idea that you feel passionate about. You’ve done the research and you know there is a market for it. Great – you’re on your way!
Or, you may have a business already and you want to go back to the drawing board to do some restructuring. You want to find out what’s working, what’s not, or you may want to raise finance to help you grow your business with more staff or other assets. It’s never too late to create a business plan that will help steer your business in a new direction, no matter how long you’ve been running it.
The process of writing a business plan will help you to make sense of everything that is going on in your head and bring logic and structure to it.
A business plan will help you:
- Define your visions and goals.
- Give you direction by mapping out how you will go about achieving your goals.
- Be a blueprint that you can refer to as you come across challenges.
- Identify your market presence and competitive position.
- Highlight your strengths and opportunities through a SWOT analysis.
- Help you get finance if you need it.
At Colledges, we’re here to help you develop and grow your business. We’ve provided the steps to develop a business plan with free resources below.
Step 1:
Describe the vision for your business. Writing it down will help you stay close to your original intention for the business. Your vision can get lost in among the day to day challenges of starting and growing a business. Write a few sentences on your vision for the business.
Step 2:
Define the goals for your business with a timeline. Make them realistic so that you and your staff can work toward achieving and celebrating them together. Define short term, mid term and long term goals not only for revenue, but for the type of customers you want, for new staff, for new skills required by the business, and for product development.
Step 3:
What is your unique selling proposition (USP)? Find out where you stand in your market. What do you offer that is different to your competition? How do you stand out from your competition. Define your 30 second elevator pitch. This is an excellent process to help you distil your business value in one sentence.
Step 4:
Find out as much as you can about your market. Do your research online by having look at online groups, social media and forums. Understand as much as you can about the conversation and narrative around your product. How many other companies are in the market? How well are they doing? What challenges does the industry have?
Step 5:
Conduct a SWOT analysis at this point.
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This tool gives you an analytical and strategic process to understand these four areas of your business. Developing a SWOT analysis helps to refine your business strategy and prioritise areas for business growth to achieve your business goals.
A free SWOT analysis template is available here: https://business.gov.au/planning/business-plans/swot-analysis
Step 6:
Who is your ideal customer? Find out as much as you can about your target audience and describe an ideal customer profile. What are your ideal customers asking for? What are they struggling with that your products will help? Customers will connect with your product when they know you understand their needs.
Related article: 10 steps you need to take to set up a small business
Step 7:
Your marketing goals – what are these? Do you have a product development strategy? How will you handle stock, delivery, and promotion? What is the price of your product? How does this compare with other companies offering the same and what is your target market willing to pay?
Step 8:
What is your marketing and advertising strategy? Develop a plan and a budget to promote your products. Where can you grow your business initially? Will you generate leads from your website, paid advertising or SEO? Will you attend networking events or go to industry conferences? Find out where your lowest hanging fruit is, in other words, where you can most easily grow revenue for the business.
Step 9:
Talk to Colledges Accountants + Advisors. Your accountant will provide plenty of information to help you start and grow a business. They will help you make decisions such as: How will you achieve your goals? Do you need finance? Are your financial goals realistic? When is the right time to employ staff? What other obligations do you have as a business owner?
This informative 4 minute video by Business Victoria provides a good summary.
How to write a business plan – by Business Victoria
We’re here to help – call us to discuss your business
We’ve helped many businesses start and grow and are proud to have been part of the journey to see dreams come alive for our clients. Sometimes all you need is someone to bounce ideas off, or you may want help with your finances and getting ready for investment. Whatever stage you’re at with your business, we’re here to help.
Call us on (03) 9851 6500 or email us at hello@colledges.com.au.
