(1) detailed business plan
Do you need a detailed business plan? It depends on what you need to do with it. If you're just trying to jot down a few ideas or track your sales and marketing campaigns as they unfold, your business plan can be a fairly slim document. If it's a basic roadmap you need or you just want a place to keep notes about your local market, then sure – your business plan can be little more than an outline and you will do just fine. But what if you need funding… if what you really want is for the bank to say “you're approved for the line of credit!” or an investor to proclaim, “your idea is excellent and I want in.” In this case, then yes indeed, you need a detailed business plan.
What makes a business plan a “detailed” document? There's no one answer to that question, but experts agree that the following topics need to be covered thoroughly in order to secure funding:
(a) What is the market opportunity, specifically, and what metrics for your target market and the competition you'll face support the argument for funding?
(b) Can you prove that the marketing concepts you've designed will help bring your concept to market?
(c) What are the underlying assumptions for the working financial model, and can you demonstrate both your break-even point and the anticipated ROI?
There can be many other topics that you will have to cover in detail to have your business plan pass muster, depending on the audience and the funding requirements. Some investors/bankers expect more complete documents than others; when that occurs, bringing in outside help can be your best move. MasterPlans is a business plan writing firm that has been active in the industry for almost a decade. We have 8,000 successful business plans on our server and we know what it takes to get the job done. Call us today at 877-453-2011 or visit on the web at www.masterplans.com.
