6 months to 2 years
Long-term goals focus on the big-picture vision for the future of the organization, generally covering two years or longer. They typically don’t cover more than five years, since the business and technology environment can change drastically after that time frame.
Long-term goals are more aspirational and might not have the specificity of short-term and mid-term goals. “These goals ought to be aligned with the overall vision of the company,” says Izzy Galicia, President and CEO of global professional services firm the Incito Consulting Group and an expert in Lean enterprise transformation.
The long-term goals also must be realistic. “We know from the literature and practical experience that you want goals that are challenging, but they're also achievable. You don't want to have a goal that people don't buy into at all, or it's just so outrageous that you can't possibly achieve it,” explains Lee Frederiksen, managing partner of Virginia-based Hinge Marketing and former Director for Strategy and Organizational Development at Ernst & Young.
Here are four examples of long-term business goals:
Mid-term goals help an organization meet a long-term goal. They can take an organization six months to two years or so to reach.
Here are examples of mid-term goals that will help a company reach a specific long-term goal:
A company’s long-term goal is to open three more restaurants in the next four years. These examples are some of the mid-term goals they would need to achieve first:
A group of people have the goal of creating a successful nonprofit organization in five years. Here are some examples of mid-term goals they would set and meet first:
Short-term business goals encompass work that helps an organization reach its mid-term goals. These goals are often meant to be reached in a month or a quarter. Some might take six months or so to accomplish. Only one department — or even only one worker — might work on some short-term goals.
Some experts call short-term goals objectives. They might call the shortest short-term goals tactics . (Learn more about the differences between business goals vs. business objectives and strategies vs. tactics .)
“If one of my goals is to develop a content strategy — so that more people are aware of my company — I can't jump into Year Three and say, ‘I have a content strategy,’” shares Keith Speers, CEO of Consulting Without Limits , which provides business consulting, leadership coaching, fractional leadership, and other consulting services. “Part of that one- to three-year plan is developing my audience, curating them, creating content, and establishing myself as someone who's a thought leader in a specific field. All of that requires establishing short-term goals or objectives.”
The short-term goals or objectives are “more about the measurable steps or actions to take in order to reach that (mid- or long-term) goal,” states Marco Scanu, a business coach and CEO of Miami-based Visa Business Plans , a consulting firm providing attorneys and investors with business planning services.
Here are examples of short-term goals to build toward achieving the mid-term goals associated with expanding a company’s restaurant count from one to four:
Here are examples of short-term goals necessary for a group of people to create a successful environmental conservation nonprofit:
These examples break down how to strategically set short- and mid-term goals to achieve a company’s long-term more visionary goals. “I think of short-term and mid-term goals as stepping stones to your long-term goals, things you have to accomplish to be able to get to the next goal,” Frederiksen explains.
When setting goals, it helps to use an established framework. Experts point out that, in setting business goals, people most often use one of five goal frameworks . Those frameworks are SMART, management by objectives (MBO), objectives and key results (OKR), key results areas (KRA) , or big hairy audacious goals (BHAG). Here are details on each of these business goal-setting frameworks and which goal length they work best for:
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SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) | ||
MBOs (Management by Objectives) | ||
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) | ||
KRAs (Key Results Areas) | ||
BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) |
Learn more about goal-setting frameworks and use goal-setting and goal-tracking templates to get started working on your goals.
Download the Business Goals Worksheet Template for Excel
Use this free template to guide your team in setting long-, mid-, and short-term business goals. Identify long-term goals, and then the mid-term and short-term goals that serve them. You have room to add any tasks and actions that must be completed to reach those goals. The downloadable worksheet is fully customizable.
Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change.
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When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.
Written by Dave Lavinsky
A well-crafted business plan serves as a roadmap for entrepreneurs and businesses to achieve their objectives. One crucial aspect of a business plan is outlining clear and measurable goals. Business plan goals are the specific targets and milestones that a company aims to achieve within a defined timeframe. They provide a direction and purpose for the business, guiding decision-making, resource allocation, and strategic planning. In this article, we will explore the importance of setting business plan goals and provide examples of common goals.
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Business plan goals are essential for several reasons:
Business plan goals can vary depending on the nature, size, and stage of the business. Here are some common examples of business plan goals:
Financial Goals:
Market Penetration Goals:
Operational Goals:
Human Resources Goals:
Social Responsibility Goals:
Business plan goals are critical for defining the direction and purpose of a business. They provide measurable outcomes, motivation, and accountability, guiding decision-making and resource allocation. Examples of business plan goals can include financial, market penetration, operational, human resources, and social responsibility objectives. When setting business plan goals, it’s essential to make them SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound – to increase their effectiveness in driving business success. Regular monitoring and review of progress towards these goals can help businesses stay on track and adapt their strategies as needed to achieve their desired outcomes.
Business goals are a predetermined target that a business or individual plans to achieve in a set period of time. This article discusses the importance of business goals and reasons why you should set them for your team.
These are just a few benefits the goal setting process provides. Whether you're looking at the big picture or looking for small stepping stones, we'll explain everything you need to know to set goals for your business.
Business goals are a predetermined target that a business or individual plans to achieve in a set period of time. These goals are often split into short-term goals and long-term goals . Business goals can be general and high level, or they can focus on specific measurable actions.
A good example of a general business goal is a mission statement. Missions statements are a general goal because they don't have one metric that defines their success. They’re more often used as a guiding North Star—something your team can strive for as opposed to hitting hard numbers.
Alternatively, you can set specific goals—measurable goals that are easy to track as your team progresses towards them. When someone talks about "setting goals" or the "goal setting process," they're talking about specific goals. A common goal setting process to use is the SMART goals process .
Short-term goals are often bound by a set period of time, usually ranging from a few hours to a full year. Long-term goals can also be time-bound, but if they are, they’re typically set further into the future.
Short-term goals are often used as building blocks towards larger goals. A common strategy in business is to set multiple short-term goals to make the long-term goals more achievable.
Examples of short-term business goals:
Increase net promoter score by 10 points this quarter.
Hire 12 new support representatives by the end of the year.
Increase employee satisfaction by 20%.
Long-term goals are bigger visions—goals you want to achieve further into the future. A common long-term goal is a 10-year goal. Think about where you want your business to be 10 years from now. What business objectives do you want to have achieved by then? What new businesses do you want to break into, if any?
Long-term goals are often used as vision or mission statements —these goals serve as a compass for your business to help you move in the right direction. Think of your goals as a map to get you where you want to go. Long-term goals may not tell you how to get there exactly, but they point you in the right direction. Short-term goals are like a GPS. They provide step-by-step directions on how to get where you want to go.
Examples of long-term business goals:
Nike : To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.
Patagonia : We're in business to save our home planet.
Google : To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Setting business goals is a best practice for a reason—goals help drive businesses in the right direction. Here are a few more reasons why companies take the time to establish strong goals.
One of the easiest ways to know if your team is successful is by clearly outlining what success looks like. When you set your goals, take into consideration what you know your team is capable of, and push them slightly farther than expected.
There are a few common frameworks used to define goals. One of the most common ones used to create measurable and actionable goals is the Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) framework.
A good business strategy to get into the habit of doing is connecting your business goals to the work your team is already doing. When you connect daily work to short- and long-term goals, individual team members have a clear sense of what they need to do, when they need to complete it, and the strategies they're doing to achieve those goals.
Not only are team members more confident in what they need to do, but it gives them a sense of pride and ownership over their work. Team members are confident in how the work they’re doing impacts your business and how they’ve contributed to that success.
A key benefit of using business goals is to align teams towards a common goal. Establishing clear business objectives allows team leaders to define which tactics their individual teams should use to achieve these goals.
For example, imagine your company's overall business goal is to increase profitability by 10%. This is an overarching goal, but there are many different ways your company can achieve this. By establishing smaller, more tailored goals, business leaders can define the specific strategy you plan to take to achieve this goal. Your sales team may increase their sales quota, and your marketing team may implement a new outreach strategy. These are two different tactics that can be implemented to ultimately reach the same goal.
Once you set business goals, you can then break them down to the individual level. Using a technique like this can help maintain accountability from the leadership level all the way down to individual team members. When individual team members are responsible for their individual goals, it's easy for managers to gauge how they're performing and when they might need more support.
If your company regularly tracks its business goals, you can use past goals as a way to inform your decision making process. For example, if your team sets up a new marketing strategy to track your goals and progress, you can use that information to set your business strategy for the next year based on performance.
Now that you know the reasons why business goals are important, here are a few tips on how to establish them.
If you're on the path to setting your first business goal, it can be challenging to figure out where to start. You want to make sure that your goal is achievable, but not so easy to achieve that it's not a challenge. Goal setting frameworks like SMART goals or OKRs are a good way to establish your first set of business goals.
Your team doesn't work in a bubble. The work that your team does can affect other teams in your company and your business strategy as a whole. This is why co-creating with stakeholders is important. By working together, your team can utilize their unique knowledge and experience to set goals and create a sound business plan.
When you're establishing your goals, choosing numbers and tactics can feel overwhelming. To prevent that, start with the big picture first. Focus on answering the questions:
What do you want your company to stand for?
Why was your company created?
Where do you want to be in 10 years? What about 25 years?
Once you’ve defined a big picture mission, break it down into smaller, more actionable goals. What steps can you take to get there? What new products can you introduce to help achieve that overall, big picture mission?
With goal setting, there is no right or wrong answer. It's all about finding the strategies and methodologies that work best for your team.
There's no use in setting goals if you set them and forget them in a document somewhere, only to be opened again at the end of a quarter. Using software to regularly track goal progress is important, and what better way to do that than to use software that connects your goals to the work that needs to be done?
Connecting the work you’re doing to goals is easy. Guru aligns their company OKRs to their projects with Asana. The Guru team uses Asana as a source of truth for clarity and accountability company-wide.
All businesses start small, and setting goals is how they grow into successful companies. If you're interested in learning more about different goal strategies, how to measure them, or where to start with planning, visit the Asana goals resource page for more information.
8 min. read
Updated January 4, 2024
How happy are you with your business’s performance? Are you patting yourself on the back, having nailed every goal?
If the answer is no, you’re like many business owners who struggle to hit business targets. You know exactly what you want—a bigger business, larger per-customer sales, more leads, higher profits—but you struggle to meet your goals.
In this article, we’ll show you how to set clear and actionable business goals to help you reach your full potential as an entrepreneur.
There is always so much to do when you’re a business owner. You need to find new clients, keep your existing clients happy, manage your finances, streamline your processes, and motivate your employees—all at the same time. Here’s how you sort through all that clutter and set goals to move the needle.
To ensure you don’t waste time and money—you must know your top priorities when setting company goals for the year. These should be clear opportunities or issues that show the most significant potential to grow your business.
So, how do you identify them?
A SWOT analysis provides a simple but effective framework. You’ll look at your business and competitors to identify potential advantages and shortcomings that can set you apart.
If you’re an up-and-running business, you’ll find additional value by reviewing your financial statements and forecasts .
Answering questions like these will help you understand your current financial position. From there, you can dig deeper into specific departments, initiatives, line items, etc., and uncover what opportunities are worth tackling in the next year.
Example: You run a local salon, and during your review, there was an immediate red flag—revenue is down. Exploring a bit further, you found that the average order value of each customer had decreased and that the number of new customers was far lower than the previous year.
Considering those issues, you develop the following business goals:
Please note: These aren’t goals yet! They are your key areas to focus on. After you’ve discussed them with your team—which we’ll cover next—you’ll turn them into SMART goals (specific, measurable goals) to ensure that you’ll take action on them.
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Your team is out there every day, working on your products or talking to clients. They are the people who can tell you what’s working and what’s not, what’s holding your business back, and where you should be focusing your efforts and setting your business goals for the year ahead.
So, once you’ve selected what you think should be the top goals for your business, sit down with your employees, and get their feedback. They may agree or have valuable insights that you haven’t considered.
By involving your employees in the goal-setting process, you make them feel valued and engaged while at the same time ensuring your goals are realistic and achievable.
Dig deeper: How to set team goals that actually work
You have two to three business goals. Now, it’s time to make them actionable. While you can use several different goal-setting frameworks to do this, we recommend SMART goals:
Let’s take one of our business goals and turn it into a SMART goal.
Original idea: Increase client base by targeting local office workers.
Dig deeper: How to set SMART business goals
The SMART goal format should give you an idea of your timeline and what it will take to achieve your goal. However, you need to establish how you’ll measure your progress. One of the most common ways to do this is by adopting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) .
These numerical values, like the number of new clients from a specific campaign or monthly sales targets, indicate whether the goal is within reach. While creating SMART goals, you’ll define relevant KPIs, ensuring they align with company and individual objectives.
For example, a salon might have overall KPIs related to customer acquisition from a campaign, while a stylist might focus on customer satisfaction and spending KPIs.
Dig deeper: 12 tips for choosing effective KPIs
If you want to make something happen, you need to create a schedule and build good habits around it.
If you want to get healthier, you need to add exercise to your schedule, plan time to cook healthy meals, and so on. You should treat your business goals the same way. You need to schedule the actions you’ll take to reach your KPIs.
It’s a great idea to put regular (possibly monthly) business plan review meetings on your company calendar now This will help you set, revisit and revise specific short-and-long-term business goals and objectives.
To make these meetings less overwhelming, try and automate as much as possible. Use a calendar for both you and your staff, and add reminders and online task management software to organize tasks, set deadlines, and prompt you for repeat actions.
Dig deeper: How to develop a strategic action plan
Why are goals important? Here are a few reasons:
There are plenty of things that you want to accomplish as a business owner. But what tasks are most important? How do you know if you’re making progress?
Setting well-structured goals will help you prioritize work, establish a direction, and provide a framework to measure success. No more random assignments or distractions—just a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you’ll get there.
Aimlessly taking on work does not lead to success. Without a set goal, there’s no shining beacon ahead that you’re trying to reach. And no milestones on the way there to celebrate and keep you going.
Having company and team goals provides greater motivation. It also makes it far easier to set individual goals that connect each employee’s work to that larger objective.
Setting goals requires you to consider what metrics you’ll use to measure success. Doing this upfront makes tracking your progress much more manageable and lets you know if you’re still on track.
Skipping the goal-setting process means your ideas of success will remain vague and aimless. You’ll be more likely to run down unproductive rabbit holes and may never actually realize your aspirations.
Much like writing a business plan increases your chances of successfully launching a business —setting goals increases your chances of achieving regular business growth. You’ll have well-structured ideas of where you want to go, how to get there, and if you’re progressing.
And by continuing to set, review, and revise your goals—you’ll speed up the process and avoid costly mistakes.
The goal-setting process in this article focused primarily on long-term business performance goals—the kind you’ll set once a year. These broader goals may focus on any of the following:
Whether it’s achieving a specific net profit margin or finding ways to cut back on certain expenses—these goals focus on growing or maintaining financial health.
These goals are all about better serving your target customer. This may include improving customer service, increasing repeat purchases, or expanding your clientele.
Sometimes, you’ll find savings by optimizing current workflows. This could mean reducing product production times, eliminating error rates, or streamlining your supply chain.
Marketing and sales goals can be broad, like boosting brand awareness, or very specific, like improving specific channel sales or launching a new marketing campaign.
These are goals focused on reducing employee turnover, boosting team spirit, or furthering education to keep everyone at the top of their game.
These are goals that may not directly impact your bottom line. Instead, they focus on accomplishing an altruistic mission such as shrinking your carbon footprint or giving back to the community.
Far more opportunistic and research-based goals that could include launching a new product, embracing the latest tech, or venturing into new markets.
Goals to ensure your operations meet all legal requirements and have strategies in place to dodge financial and operational pitfalls.
Selecting goals and creating a plan to reach them takes time. Even by following the steps in this article, there’s no guarantee that you’ll select the best opportunity and be able to efficiently pursue it.
That’s why the review process is so crucial. Rather than pursuing a goal that won’t make an impact, you can quickly pivot if you realize something isn’t working.
Goal setting is just the start, and plenty of other ways to better manage and grow your business.
Kody Wirth is a content writer and SEO specialist for Palo Alto Software—the creator's of Bplans and LivePlan. He has 3+ years experience covering small business topics and runs a part-time content writing service in his spare time.
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Setting business goals and objectives is important to your company’s success. They create a roadmap to help you identify and manage risk , gain employee buy-in, boost team performance , and execute strategy . They’re also an excellent marker to measure your business’s performance.
Yet, meeting those goals can be difficult. According to an Economist study , 90 percent of senior executives from companies with annual revenues of one billion dollars or more admitted they failed to reach all their strategic goals because of poor implementation. In order to execute strategy, it’s important to first understand what’s attainable when developing organizational goals and objectives.
If you’re struggling to establish realistic benchmarks for your business, here’s an overview of what business goals and objectives are, how to set them, and what you should consider during the process.
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Business objectives dictate how your company plans to achieve its goals and address the business’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. While your business goals may shift, your objectives won’t until there’s an organizational change .
Business goals describe where your company wants to end up and define your business strategy’s expected achievements.
According to the Harvard Business School Online course Strategy Execution , there are different types of strategic goals . Some may even push you and your team out of your comfort zone, yet are important to implement.
For example, David Rodriguez, global chief human resources officer at Marriott, describes in Strategy Execution the importance of stretch goals and “pushing people to not accept today's level of success as a final destination but as a starting point for what might be possible in the future.”
It’s important to strike a balance between bold and unrealistic, however. To do this, you must understand how to responsibly set your business goals and objectives.
Related: A Manager’s Guide To Successful Strategy Implementation
While setting your company’s business goals and objectives might seem like a simple task, it’s important to remember that these goals shouldn’t be based solely on what you hope to achieve. There should be a correlation between your company’s key performance indicators (KPIs)—quantifiable success measures—and your business strategy to justify why the goal should, and needs to, be achieved.
This is often illustrated through a strategy map —an illustration of the cause-and-effect relationships that underpin your strategy. This valuable tool can help you identify and align your business goals and objectives.
“A strategy map gives everyone in your business a road map to understand the relationship between goals and measures and how they build on each other to create value,” says HBS Professor Robert Simons in Strategy Execution .
While this roadmap can be incredibly helpful in creating the right business goals and objectives, a balanced scorecard —a tool to help you track and assess non-financial measures—ensures they’re achievable through your current business strategy.
“Ask yourself, if I picked up a scorecard and examined the measures on that scorecard, could I infer what the business's strategy was,” Simon says. “If you've designed measures well, the answer should be yes.”
According to Strategy Execution , these measures are necessary to ensure your performance goals are achieved. When used in tandem, a balanced scorecard and strategy map can also tell you whether your goals and objectives will create value for you and your customers.
“The balanced scorecard combines the traditional financial perspective with additional perspectives that focus on customers, internal business processes, and learning and development,” Simons says.
These four perspectives are key considerations when setting your business goals and objectives. Here’s an overview of what those perspectives are and how they can help you set the right goals for your business.
1. financial measures.
It’s important to ensure your plans and processes lead to desired levels of economic value. Therefore, some of your business goals and objectives should be financial.
Some examples of financial performance goals include:
“Businesses set financial goals by building profit plans—one of the primary diagnostic control systems managers use to execute strategy,” Simons says in Strategy Execution . “They’re budgets drawn up for business units that have both revenues and expenses, and summarize the anticipated revenue inflows and expense outflows for a specified accounting period.”
Profit plans are essential when setting your business goals and objectives because they provide a critical link between your business strategy and economic value creation.
According to Simons, it’s important to ask three questions when profit planning:
By mapping out monetary value, you can weigh the cost of different strategies and how likely it is you’ll meet your company and investors’ financial expectations.
To ensure your business goals and objectives aid in your company’s long-term success, you need to think critically about your customers’ satisfaction. This is especially important in a world where customer reviews and testimonials are crucial to your organization’s success.
“Everything that's important to the business, we have a KPI and we measure it,” says Tom Siebel, founder, chairman, and CEO of C3.ai, in Strategy Execution . “And what could be more important than customer satisfaction?”
Unlike your company’s reputation, measuring customer satisfaction has a far more personal touch in identifying what customers love and how to capitalize on it through future strategic initiatives .
“We do anonymous customer satisfaction surveys every quarter to see how we're measuring up to our customer expectations,” Siebel says.
While this is one example, your customer satisfaction measures should reflect your desired market position and focus on creating additional value for your audience.
Related: 3 Effective Methods for Assessing Customer Needs
Internal business processes is another perspective that should factor into your goal setting. It refers to several aspects of your business that aren’t directly affected by outside forces. Since many goals and objectives are driven by factors such as business competition and market shifts, considering internal processes can create a balanced business strategy.
“Our goals are balanced to make sure we’re holistically managing the business from a financial performance, quality assurance, innovation, and human talent perspective,” says Tom Polen, CEO and president of Becton Dickinson, in Strategy Execution .
According to Strategy Execution , internal business operations are broken down into the following processes:
While improvements to internal processes aren’t driven by economic value, these types of goals can still reap a positive return on investment.
“We end up spending much more time on internal business process goals versus financial goals,” Polen says. “Because if we take care of them, the financial goals will follow at the end of the day.”
Another consideration while setting business goals and objectives is learning and growth opportunities for your team. These are designed to increase employee satisfaction and productivity.
According to Strategy Execution , learning and growth opportunities touch on three types of capital:
Employee development is a common focus for learning and growth goals. Through professional development opportunities , your team will build valuable business skills and feel empowered to take more risks and innovate.
To create a culture of innovation , it’s important to ensure there’s a safe space for your team to make mistakes—and even fail.
“We ask that people learn from their mistakes,” Rodriguez says in Strategy Execution . “It's really important to us that people feel it’s safe to try new things. And all we ask is people extract their learnings and apply it to the next situation.”
Business goals aren’t all about your organization’s possible successes. It’s also about your potential failures.
“When we set goals, we like to imagine a bright future with our business succeeding,” Simons says in Strategy Execution . “But to identify your critical performance variables, you need to engage in an uncomfortable exercise and consider what can cause your strategy to fail.”
Anticipating potential failures isn’t easy. Enrolling in an online course—like HBS Online’s Strategy Execution —can immerse you in real-world case studies of past strategy successes and failures to help you better understand where these companies went wrong and how to avoid it in your business.
Do you need help setting your business goals and objectives? Explore Strategy Execution —one of our online strategy courses —and download our free strategy e-book to gain the insights to create a successful strategy.
Every successful business has one thing in common, a good and well-executed business plan. A business plan is more than a document, it is a complete guide that outlines the goals your business wants to achieve, including its financial goals . It helps you analyze results, make strategic decisions, show your business operations and growth.
If you want to start a business or already have one and need to pitch it to investors for funding, writing a good business plan improves your chances of attracting financiers. As a startup, if you want to secure loans from financial institutions, part of the requirements involve submitting your business plan.
Writing a business plan does not have to be a complicated or time-consuming process. In this article, you will learn the step-by-step process for writing a successful business plan.
You will also learn what you need a business plan for, tips and strategies for writing a convincing business plan, business plan examples and templates that will save you tons of time, and the alternatives to the traditional business plan.
Let’s get started.
Businesses create business plans for different purposes such as to secure funds, monitor business growth, measure your marketing strategies, and measure your business success.
One of the primary reasons for writing a business plan is to secure funds, either from financial institutions/agencies or investors.
For you to effectively acquire funds, your business plan must contain the key elements of your business plan . For example, your business plan should include your growth plans, goals you want to achieve, and milestones you have recorded.
A business plan can also attract new business partners that are willing to contribute financially and intellectually. If you are writing a business plan to a bank, your project must show your traction , that is, the proof that you can pay back any loan borrowed.
Also, if you are writing to an investor, your plan must contain evidence that you can effectively utilize the funds you want them to invest in your business. Here, you are using your business plan to persuade a group or an individual that your business is a source of a good investment.
A business plan can help you track cash flows in your business. It steers your business to greater heights. A business plan capable of tracking business growth should contain:
A good business plan should guide you through every step in achieving your goals. It can also track the allocation of assets to every aspect of the business. You can tell when you are spending more than you should on a project.
You can compare a business plan to a written GPS. It helps you manage your business and hints at the right time to expand your business.
A business plan can help you measure your business success rate. Some small-scale businesses are thriving better than more prominent companies because of their track record of success.
Right from the onset of your business operation, set goals and work towards them. Write a plan to guide you through your procedures. Use your plan to measure how much you have achieved and how much is left to attain.
You can also weigh your success by monitoring the position of your brand relative to competitors. On the other hand, a business plan can also show you why you have not achieved a goal. It can tell if you have elapsed the time frame you set to attain a goal.
You can use a business plan to document your marketing plans. Every business should have an effective marketing plan.
Competition mandates every business owner to go the extraordinary mile to remain relevant in the market. Your business plan should contain your marketing strategies that work. You can measure the success rate of your marketing plans.
In your business plan, your marketing strategy must answer the questions:
1. create your executive summary.
The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans . Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.
Generally, there are nine sections in a business plan, the executive summary should condense essential ideas from the other eight sections.
A good executive summary should do the following:
The executive summary is the make-or-break section of your business plan. If your summary cannot in less than two pages cannot clearly describe how your business will solve a particular problem of your target audience and make a profit, your business plan is set on a faulty foundation.
Avoid using the executive summary to hype your business, instead, focus on helping the reader understand the what and how of your plan.
View the executive summary as an opportunity to introduce your vision for your company. You know your executive summary is powerful when it can answer these key questions:
Writing the executive summary last although it is the most important section of your business plan is an excellent idea. The reason why is because it is a high-level overview of your business plan. It is the section that determines whether potential investors and lenders will read further or not.
The executive summary can be a stand-alone document that covers everything in your business plan. It is not uncommon for investors to request only the executive summary when evaluating your business. If the information in the executive summary impresses them, they will ask for the complete business plan.
If you are writing your business plan for your planning purposes, you do not need to write the executive summary.
The company overview or description is the next section in your business plan after the executive summary. It describes what your business does.
Adding your company overview can be tricky especially when your business is still in the planning stages. Existing businesses can easily summarize their current operations but may encounter difficulties trying to explain what they plan to become.
Your company overview should contain the following:
When creating a company overview, you have to focus on three basics: identifying your industry, identifying your customer, and explaining the problem you solve.
If you are stuck when creating your company overview, try to answer some of these questions that pertain to you.
After answering some or all of these questions, you will get more than enough information you need to write your company overview or description section. When writing this section, describe what your company does for your customers.
The company description or overview section contains three elements: mission statement, history, and objectives.
The mission statement refers to the reason why your business or company is existing. It goes beyond what you do or sell, it is about the ‘why’. A good mission statement should be emotional and inspirational.
Your mission statement should follow the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). For example, Shopify’s mission statement is “Make commerce better for everyone.”
When describing your company’s history, make it simple and avoid the temptation of tying it to a defensive narrative. Write it in the manner you would a profile. Your company’s history should include the following information:
When you fill in this information, you use it to write one or two paragraphs about your company’s history.
Your business objective must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.) Failure to clearly identify your business objectives does not inspire confidence and makes it hard for your team members to work towards a common purpose.
The third step in writing a business plan is the market and competitive analysis section. Every business, no matter the size, needs to perform comprehensive market and competitive analyses before it enters into a market.
Performing market and competitive analyses are critical for the success of your business. It helps you avoid entering the right market with the wrong product, or vice versa. Anyone reading your business plans, especially financiers and financial institutions will want to see proof that there is a big enough business opportunity you are targeting.
This section is where you describe the market and industry you want to operate in and show the big opportunities in the market that your business can leverage to make a profit. If you noticed any unique trends when doing your research, show them in this section.
Market analysis alone is not enough, you have to add competitive analysis to strengthen this section. There are already businesses in the industry or market, how do you plan to take a share of the market from them?
You have to clearly illustrate the competitive landscape in your business plan. Are there areas your competitors are doing well? Are there areas where they are not doing so well? Show it.
Make it clear in this section why you are moving into the industry and what weaknesses are present there that you plan to explain. How are your competitors going to react to your market entry? How do you plan to get customers? Do you plan on taking your competitors' competitors, tap into other sources for customers, or both?
Illustrate the competitive landscape as well. What are your competitors doing well and not so well?
Answering these questions and thoughts will aid your market and competitive analysis of the opportunities in your space. Depending on how sophisticated your industry is, or the expectations of your financiers, you may need to carry out a more comprehensive market and competitive analysis to prove that big business opportunity.
Instead of looking at the market and competitive analyses as one entity, separating them will make the research even more comprehensive.
Market analysis, boarding speaking, refers to research a business carried out on its industry, market, and competitors. It helps businesses gain a good understanding of their target market and the outlook of their industry. Before starting a company, it is vital to carry out market research to find out if the market is viable.
The market analysis section is a key part of the business plan. It is the section where you identify who your best clients or customers are. You cannot omit this section, without it your business plan is incomplete.
A good market analysis will tell your readers how you fit into the existing market and what makes you stand out. This section requires in-depth research, it will probably be the most time-consuming part of the business plan to write.
To create a compelling market analysis that will win over investors and financial institutions, you have to carry out thorough market research . Your market research should be targeted at your primary target market for your products or services. Here is what you want to find out about your target market.
The purpose of carrying out a marketing analysis is to get all the information you need to show that you have a solid and thorough understanding of your target audience.
Only after you have fully understood the people you plan to sell your products or services to, can you evaluate correctly if your target market will be interested in your products or services.
You can easily convince interested parties to invest in your business if you can show them you thoroughly understand the market and show them that there is a market for your products or services.
How to Quantify Your Target Market
One of the goals of your marketing research is to understand who your ideal customers are and their purchasing power. To quantify your target market, you have to determine the following:
What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?
Your business does not exist on its own, it can only flourish within an industry and alongside competitors. Market analysis takes into consideration your industry, target market, and competitors. Understanding these three entities will drastically improve your company’s chances of success.
You can view your market analysis as an examination of the market you want to break into and an education on the emerging trends and themes in that market. Good market analyses include the following:
The market analysis section is not just for talking about your target market, industry, and competitors. You also have to explain how your company can fill the hole you have identified in the market.
Here are some questions you can answer that can help you position your product or service in a positive light to your readers.
Basically, your market analysis should include an analysis of what already exists in the market and an explanation of how your company fits into the market.
In the competitive analysis section, y ou have to understand who your direct and indirect competitions are, and how successful they are in the marketplace. It is the section where you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, the advantage(s) they possess in the market and show the unique features or qualities that make you different from your competitors.
Many businesses do market analysis and competitive analysis together. However, to fully understand what the competitive analysis entails, it is essential to separate it from the market analysis.
Competitive analysis for your business can also include analysis on how to overcome barriers to entry in your target market.
The primary goal of conducting a competitive analysis is to distinguish your business from your competitors. A strong competitive analysis is essential if you want to convince potential funding sources to invest in your business. You have to show potential investors and lenders that your business has what it takes to compete in the marketplace successfully.
Competitive analysis will s how you what the strengths of your competition are and what they are doing to maintain that advantage.
When doing your competitive research, you first have to identify your competitor and then get all the information you can about them. The idea of spending time to identify your competitor and learn everything about them may seem daunting but it is well worth it.
Find answers to the following questions after you have identified who your competitors are.
If your competitors have a website, it is a good idea to visit their websites for more competitors’ research. Check their “About Us” page for more information.
If you are presenting your business plan to investors, you need to clearly distinguish yourself from your competitors. Investors can easily tell when you have not properly researched your competitors.
Take time to think about what unique qualities or features set you apart from your competitors. If you do not have any direct competition offering your product to the market, it does not mean you leave out the competitor analysis section blank. Instead research on other companies that are providing a similar product, or whose product is solving the problem your product solves.
The next step is to create a table listing the top competitors you want to include in your business plan. Ensure you list your business as the last and on the right. What you just created is known as the competitor analysis table.
Direct vs Indirect Competition
You cannot know if your product or service will be a fit for your target market if you have not understood your business and the competitive landscape.
There is no market you want to target where you will not encounter competition, even if your product is innovative. Including competitive analysis in your business plan is essential.
If you are entering an established market, you need to explain how you plan to differentiate your products from the available options in the market. Also, include a list of few companies that you view as your direct competitors The competition you face in an established market is your direct competition.
In situations where you are entering a market with no direct competition, it does not mean there is no competition there. Consider your indirect competition that offers substitutes for the products or services you offer.
For example, if you sell an innovative SaaS product, let us say a project management software , a company offering time management software is your indirect competition.
There is an easy way to find out who your indirect competitors are in the absence of no direct competitors. You simply have to research how your potential customers are solving the problems that your product or service seeks to solve. That is your direct competition.
Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition
There are three main factors that any business can use to differentiate itself from its competition. They are cost leadership, product differentiation, and market segmentation.
1. Cost Leadership
A strategy you can impose to maximize your profits and gain an edge over your competitors. It involves offering lower prices than what the majority of your competitors are offering.
A common practice among businesses looking to enter into a market where there are dominant players is to use free trials or pricing to attract as many customers as possible to their offer.
2. Product Differentiation
Your product or service should have a unique selling proposition (USP) that your competitors do not have or do not stress in their marketing.
Part of the marketing strategy should involve making your products unique and different from your competitors. It does not have to be different from your competitors, it can be the addition to a feature or benefit that your competitors do not currently have.
3. Market Segmentation
As a new business seeking to break into an industry, you will gain more success from focusing on a specific niche or target market, and not the whole industry.
If your competitors are focused on a general need or target market, you can differentiate yourself from them by having a small and hyper-targeted audience. For example, if your competitors are selling men’s clothes in their online stores , you can sell hoodies for men.
The next step in your business plan is your business and management structure. It is the section where you describe the legal structure of your business and the team running it.
Your business is only as good as the management team that runs it, while the management team can only strive when there is a proper business and management structure in place.
If your company is a sole proprietor or a limited liability company (LLC), a general or limited partnership, or a C or an S corporation, state it clearly in this section.
Use an organizational chart to show the management structure in your business. Clearly show who is in charge of what area in your company. It is where you show how each key manager or team leader’s unique experience can contribute immensely to the success of your company. You can also opt to add the resumes and CVs of the key players in your company.
The business and management structure section should show who the owner is, and other owners of the businesses (if the business has other owners). For businesses or companies with multiple owners, include the percent ownership of the various owners and clearly show the extent of each others’ involvement in the company.
Investors want to know who is behind the company and the team running it to determine if it has the right management to achieve its set goals.
The management team section is where you show that you have the right team in place to successfully execute the business operations and ideas. Take time to create the management structure for your business. Think about all the important roles and responsibilities that you need managers for to grow your business.
Include brief bios of each key team member and ensure you highlight only the relevant information that is needed. If your team members have background industry experience or have held top positions for other companies and achieved success while filling that role, highlight it in this section.
A common mistake that many startups make is assigning C-level titles such as (CMO and CEO) to everyone on their team. It is unrealistic for a small business to have those titles. While it may look good on paper for the ego of your team members, it can prevent investors from investing in your business.
Instead of building an unrealistic management structure that does not fit your business reality, it is best to allow business titles to grow as the business grows. Starting everyone at the top leaves no room for future change or growth, which is bad for productivity.
Your management team does not have to be complete before you start writing your business plan. You can have a complete business plan even when there are managerial positions that are empty and need filling.
If you have management gaps in your team, simply show the gaps and indicate you are searching for the right candidates for the role(s). Investors do not expect you to have a full management team when you are just starting your business.
1. Avoid Adding ‘Ghost’ Names to Your Management Team
There is always that temptation to include a ‘ghost’ name to your management team to attract and influence investors to invest in your business. Although the presence of these celebrity management team members may attract the attention of investors, it can cause your business to lose any credibility if you get found out.
Seasoned investors will investigate further the members of your management team before committing fully to your business If they find out that the celebrity name used does not play any actual role in your business, they will not invest and may write you off as dishonest.
2. Focus on Credentials But Pay Extra Attention to the Roles
Investors want to know the experience that your key team members have to determine if they can successfully reach the company’s growth and financial goals.
While it is an excellent boost for your key management team to have the right credentials, you also want to pay extra attention to the roles they will play in your company.
Adding an organizational chart in this section of your business plan is not necessary, you can do it in your business plan’s appendix.
If you are exploring funding options, it is not uncommon to get asked for your organizational chart. The function of an organizational chart goes beyond raising money, you can also use it as a useful planning tool for your business.
An organizational chart can help you identify how best to structure your management team for maximum productivity and point you towards key roles you need to fill in the future.
You can use the organizational chart to show your company’s internal management structure such as the roles and responsibilities of your management team, and relationships that exist between them.
In your business plan, you have to describe what you sell or the service you plan to offer. It is the next step after defining your business and management structure. The products and services section is where you sell the benefits of your business.
Here you have to explain how your product or service will benefit your customers and describe your product lifecycle. It is also the section where you write down your plans for intellectual property like patent filings and copyrighting.
The research and development that you are undertaking for your product or service need to be explained in detail in this section. However, do not get too technical, sell the general idea and its benefits.
If you have any diagrams or intricate designs of your product or service, do not include them in the products and services section. Instead, leave them for the addendum page. Also, if you are leaving out diagrams or designs for the addendum, ensure you add this phrase “For more detail, visit the addendum Page #.”
Your product and service section in your business plan should include the following:
In the products and services section, you have to distill the benefits, lifecycle, and production process of your products and services.
When describing the benefits of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.
When describing the product life cycle of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.
When describing the production process for your products or services, you need to think about the following:
1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords
The products and services section of your business plan should clearly describe the products and services that your company provides. However, it is not a section to include technical jargons that anyone outside your industry will not understand.
A good practice is to remove highly detailed or technical descriptions in favor of simple terms. Industry buzzwords are not necessary, if there are simpler terms you can use, then use them. If you plan to use your business plan to source funds, making the product or service section so technical will do you no favors.
2. Describe How Your Products or Services Differ from Your Competitors
When potential investors look at your business plan, they want to know how the products and services you are offering differ from that of your competition. Differentiating your products or services from your competition in a way that makes your solution more attractive is critical.
If you are going the innovative path and there is no market currently for your product or service, you need to describe in this section why the market needs your product or service.
For example, overnight delivery was a niche business that only a few companies were participating in. Federal Express (FedEx) had to show in its business plan that there was a large opportunity for that service and they justified why the market needed that service.
3. Long or Short Products or Services Section
Should your products or services section be short? Does the long products or services section attract more investors?
There are no straightforward answers to these questions. Whether your products or services section should be long or relatively short depends on the nature of your business.
If your business is product-focused, then automatically you need to use more space to describe the details of your products. However, if the product your business sells is a commodity item that relies on competitive pricing or other pricing strategies, you do not have to use up so much space to provide significant details about the product.
Likewise, if you are selling a commodity that is available in numerous outlets, then you do not have to spend time on writing a long products or services section.
The key to the success of your business is most likely the effectiveness of your marketing strategies compared to your competitors. Use more space to address that section.
If you are creating a new product or service that the market does not know about, your products or services section can be lengthy. The reason why is because you need to explain everything about the product or service such as the nature of the product, its use case, and values.
A short products or services section for an innovative product or service will not give the readers enough information to properly evaluate your business.
4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers
Your business will rely on vendors or suppliers to supply raw materials or the components needed to make your products. In your products and services section, describe your relationships with your vendors and suppliers fully.
Avoid the mistake of relying on only one supplier or vendor. If that supplier or vendor fails to supply or goes out of business, you can easily face supply problems and struggle to meet your demands. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships for better business stability.
5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers
The primary goal of your business plan is to convince your readers that your business is viable and to create a guide for your business to follow. It applies to the products and services section.
When drafting this section, think like the reader. See your reader as someone who has no idea about your products and services. You are using the products and services section to provide the needed information to help your reader understand your products and services. As a result, you have to be clear and to the point.
While you want to educate your readers about your products or services, you also do not want to bore them with lots of technical details. Show your products and services and not your fancy choice of words.
Your products and services section should provide the answer to the “what” question for your business. You and your management team may run the business, but it is your products and services that are the lifeblood of the business.
Answering these questions can help you write your products and services section quickly and in a way that will appeal to your readers.
You can also hint at the marketing or promotion plans you have for your products or services such as how you plan to build awareness or retain customers. The next section is where you can go fully into details about your business’s marketing and sales plan.
Providing great products and services is wonderful, but it means nothing if you do not have a marketing and sales plan to inform your customers about them. Your marketing and sales plan is critical to the success of your business.
The sales and marketing section is where you show and offer a detailed explanation of your marketing and sales plan and how you plan to execute it. It covers your pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success, and the benefits of your products and services.
There are several ways you can approach your marketing and sales strategy. Ideally, your marketing and sales strategy has to fit the unique needs of your business.
In this section, you describe how the plans your business has for attracting and retaining customers, and the exact process for making a sale happen. It is essential to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales plans because you are still going to reference this section when you are making financial projections for your business.
The sales and marketing section is where you outline your business’s unique selling proposition (USP). When you are developing your unique selling proposition, think about the strongest reasons why people should buy from you over your competition. That reason(s) is most likely a good fit to serve as your unique selling proposition (USP).
Plans on how to get your products or services to your target market and how to get your target audience to buy them go into this section. You also highlight the strengths of your business here, particularly what sets them apart from your competition.
Before you start writing your marketing and sales plan, you need to have properly defined your target audience and fleshed out your buyer persona. If you do not first understand the individual you are marketing to, your marketing and sales plan will lack any substance and easily fall.
Marketing your products and services is an investment that requires you to spend money. Like any other investment, you have to generate a good return on investment (ROI) to justify using that marketing and sales plan. Good marketing and sales plans bring in high sales and profits to your company.
Avoid spending money on unproductive marketing channels. Do your research and find out the best marketing and sales plan that works best for your company.
Your marketing and sales plan can be broken into different parts: your positioning statement, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising, public relations, content marketing, social media, and strategic alliances.
Your positioning statement is the first part of your marketing and sales plan. It refers to the way you present your company to your customers.
Are you the premium solution, the low-price solution, or are you the intermediary between the two extremes in the market? What do you offer that your competitors do not that can give you leverage in the market?
Before you start writing your positioning statement, you need to spend some time evaluating the current market conditions. Here are some questions that can help you to evaluate the market
After answering these questions, then you can start writing your positioning statement. Your positioning statement does not have to be in-depth or too long.
All you need to explain with your positioning statement are two focus areas. The first is the position of your company within the competitive landscape. The other focus area is the core value proposition that sets your company apart from other alternatives that your ideal customer might consider.
Here is a simple template you can use to develop a positioning statement.
For [description of target market] who [need of target market], [product or service] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [top competition], it [most essential distinguishing feature].
For example, let’s create the positioning statement for fictional accounting software and QuickBooks alternative , TBooks.
“For small business owners who need accounting services, TBooks is an accounting software that helps small businesses handle their small business bookkeeping basics quickly and easily. Unlike Wave, TBooks gives small businesses access to live sessions with top accountants.”
You can edit this positioning statement sample and fill it with your business details.
After writing your positioning statement, the next step is the pricing of your offerings. The overall positioning strategy you set in your positioning statement will often determine how you price your products or services.
Pricing is a powerful tool that sends a strong message to your customers. Failure to get your pricing strategy right can make or mar your business. If you are targeting a low-income audience, setting a premium price can result in low sales.
You can use pricing to communicate your positioning to your customers. For example, if you are offering a product at a premium price, you are sending a message to your customers that the product belongs to the premium category.
Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering
Setting a price for your offering involves more than just putting a price tag on it. Deciding on the right pricing for your offering requires following some basic rules. They include covering your costs, primary and secondary profit center pricing, and matching the market rate.
Pricing Strategy
Your pricing strategy influences the price of your offering. There are several pricing strategies available for you to choose from when examining the right pricing strategy for your business. They include cost-plus pricing, market-based pricing, value pricing, and more.
After carefully sorting out your positioning statement and pricing, the next item to look at is your promotional strategy. Your promotional strategy explains how you plan on communicating with your customers and prospects.
As a business, you must measure all your costs, including the cost of your promotions. You also want to measure how much sales your promotions bring for your business to determine its usefulness. Promotional strategies or programs that do not lead to profit need to be removed.
There are different types of promotional strategies you can adopt for your business, they include advertising, public relations, and content marketing.
Advertising
Your business plan should include your advertising plan which can be found in the marketing and sales plan section. You need to include an overview of your advertising plans such as the areas you plan to spend money on to advertise your business and offers.
Ensure that you make it clear in this section if your business will be advertising online or using the more traditional offline media, or the combination of both online and offline media. You can also include the advertising medium you want to use to raise awareness about your business and offers.
Some common online advertising mediums you can use include social media ads, landing pages, sales pages, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, emails, Google Ads, and others. Some common traditional and offline advertising mediums include word of mouth, radios, direct mail, televisions, flyers, billboards, posters, and others.
A key component of your advertising strategy is how you plan to measure the effectiveness and success of your advertising campaign. There is no point in sticking with an advertising plan or medium that does not produce results for your business in the long run.
Public Relations
A great way to reach your customers is to get the media to cover your business or product. Publicity, especially good ones, should be a part of your marketing and sales plan. In this section, show your plans for getting prominent reviews of your product from reputable publications and sources.
Your business needs that exposure to grow. If public relations is a crucial part of your promotional strategy, provide details about your public relations plan here.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a popular promotional strategy used by businesses to inform and attract their customers. It is about teaching and educating your prospects on various topics of interest in your niche, it does not just involve informing them about the benefits and features of the products and services you have,
Businesses publish content usually for free where they provide useful information, tips, and advice so that their target market can be made aware of the importance of their products and services. Content marketing strategies seek to nurture prospects into buyers over time by simply providing value.
Your company can create a blog where it will be publishing content for its target market. You will need to use the best website builder such as Wix and Squarespace and the best web hosting services such as Bluehost, Hostinger, and other Bluehost alternatives to create a functional blog or website.
If content marketing is a crucial part of your promotional strategy (as it should be), detail your plans under promotions.
Including high-quality images of the packaging of your product in your business plan is a lovely idea. You can add the images of the packaging of that product in the marketing and sales plan section. If you are not selling a product, then you do not need to include any worry about the physical packaging of your product.
When organizing the packaging section of your business plan, you can answer the following questions to make maximum use of this section.
Your 21st-century business needs to have a good social media presence. Not having one is leaving out opportunities for growth and reaching out to your prospect.
You do not have to join the thousands of social media platforms out there. What you need to do is join the ones that your customers are active on and be active there.
Businesses use social media to provide information about their products such as promotions, discounts, the benefits of their products, and content on their blogs.
Social media is also a platform for engaging with your customers and getting feedback about your products or services. Make no mistake, more and more of your prospects are using social media channels to find more information about companies.
You need to consider the social media channels you want to prioritize your business (prioritize the ones your customers are active in) and your branding plans in this section.
If your company plans to work closely with other companies as part of your sales and marketing plan, include it in this section. Prove details about those partnerships in your business plan if you have already established them.
Strategic alliances can be beneficial for all parties involved including your company. Working closely with another company in the form of a partnership can provide access to a different target market segment for your company.
The company you are partnering with may also gain access to your target market or simply offer a new product or service (that of your company) to its customers.
Mutually beneficial partnerships can cover the weaknesses of one company with the strength of another. You should consider strategic alliances with companies that sell complimentary products to yours. For example, if you provide printers, you can partner with a company that produces ink since the customers that buy printers from you will also need inks for printing.
1. Focus on Your Target Market
Identify who your customers are, the market you want to target. Then determine the best ways to get your products or services to your potential customers.
2. Evaluate Your Competition
One of the goals of having a marketing plan is to distinguish yourself from your competition. You cannot stand out from them without first knowing them in and out.
You can know your competitors by gathering information about their products, pricing, service, and advertising campaigns.
These questions can help you know your competition.
3. Consider Your Brand
Customers' perception of your brand has a strong impact on your sales. Your marketing and sales plan should seek to bolster the image of your brand. Before you start marketing your business, think about the message you want to pass across about your business and your products and services.
4. Focus on Benefits
The majority of your customers do not view your product in terms of features, what they want to know is the benefits and solutions your product offers. Think about the problems your product solves and the benefits it delivers, and use it to create the right sales and marketing message.
Your marketing plan should focus on what you want your customer to get instead of what you provide. Identify those benefits in your marketing and sales plan.
5. Focus on Differentiation
Your marketing and sales plan should look for a unique angle they can take that differentiates your business from the competition, even if the products offered are similar. Some good areas of differentiation you can use are your benefits, pricing, and features.
You may want to include samples of marketing materials you plan to use such as print ads, website descriptions, and social media ads. While it is not compulsory to include these samples, it can help you better communicate your marketing and sales plan and objectives.
The purpose of the marketing and sales section is to answer this question “How will you reach your customers?” If you cannot convincingly provide an answer to this question, you need to rework your marketing and sales section.
If you are writing your business plan to ask for funding from investors or financial institutions, the funding request section is where you will outline your funding requirements. The funding request section should answer the question ‘How much money will your business need in the near future (3 to 5 years)?’
A good funding request section will clearly outline and explain the amount of funding your business needs over the next five years. You need to know the amount of money your business needs to make an accurate funding request.
Also, when writing your funding request, provide details of how the funds will be used over the period. Specify if you want to use the funds to buy raw materials or machinery, pay salaries, pay for advertisements, and cover specific bills such as rent and electricity.
In addition to explaining what you want to use the funds requested for, you need to clearly state the projected return on investment (ROI) . Investors and creditors want to know if your business can generate profit for them if they put funds into it.
Ensure you do not inflate the figures and stay as realistic as possible. Investors and financial institutions you are seeking funds from will do their research before investing money in your business.
If you are not sure of an exact number to request from, you can use some range of numbers as rough estimates. Add a best-case scenario and a work-case scenario to your funding request. Also, include a description of your strategic future financial plans such as selling your business or paying off debts.
When making your funding request, specify the type of funding you want. Do you want debt or equity? Draw out the terms that will be applicable for the funding, and the length of time the funding request will cover.
Case for Equity
If your new business has not yet started generating profits, you are most likely preparing to sell equity in your business to raise capital at the early stage. Equity here refers to ownership. In this case, you are selling a portion of your company to raise capital.
Although this method of raising capital for your business does not put your business in debt, keep in mind that an equity owner may expect to play a key role in company decisions even if he does not hold a major stake in the company.
Most equity sales for startups are usually private transactions . If you are making a funding request by offering equity in exchange for funding, let the investor know that they will be paid a dividend (a share of the company’s profit). Also, let the investor know the process for selling their equity in your business.
Case for Debt
You may decide not to offer equity in exchange for funds, instead, you make a funding request with the promise to pay back the money borrowed at the agreed time frame.
When making a funding request with an agreement to pay back, note that you will have to repay your creditors both the principal amount borrowed and the interest on it. Financial institutions offer this type of funding for businesses.
Large companies combine both equity and debt in their capital structure. When drafting your business plan, decide if you want to offer both or one over the other.
Before you sell equity in exchange for funding in your business, consider if you are willing to accept not being in total control of your business. Also, before you seek loans in your funding request section, ensure that the terms of repayment are favorable.
You should set a clear timeline in your funding request so that potential investors and creditors can know what you are expecting. Some investors and creditors may agree to your funding request and then delay payment for longer than 30 days, meanwhile, your business needs an immediate cash injection to operate efficiently.
The funding request section is not necessary for every business, it is only needed by businesses who plan to use their business plan to secure funding.
If you are adding the funding request section to your business plan, provide an itemized summary of how you plan to use the funds requested. Hiring a lawyer, accountant, or other professionals may be necessary for the proper development of this section.
You should also gather and use financial statements that add credibility and support to your funding requests. Ensure that the financial statements you use should include your projected financial data such as projected cash flows, forecast statements, and expenditure budgets.
If you are an existing business, include all historical financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements .
Provide monthly and quarterly financial statements for a year. If your business has records that date back beyond the one-year mark, add the yearly statements of those years. These documents are for the appendix section of your business plan.
If you used the funding request section in your business plan, supplement it with a financial plan, metrics, and projections. This section paints a picture of the past performance of your business and then goes ahead to make an informed projection about its future.
The goal of this section is to convince readers that your business is going to be a financial success. It outlines your business plan to generate enough profit to repay the loan (with interest if applicable) and to generate a decent return on investment for investors.
If you have an existing business already in operation, use this section to demonstrate stability through finance. This section should include your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements covering the last three to five years. If your business has some acceptable collateral that you can use to acquire loans, list it in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.
Apart from current financial statements, this section should also contain a prospective financial outlook that spans the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and capital expenditure budget.
If your business is new and is not yet generating profit, use clear and realistic projections to show the potentials of your business.
When drafting this section, research industry norms and the performance of comparable businesses. Your financial projections should cover at least five years. State the logic behind your financial projections. Remember you can always make adjustments to this section as the variables change.
The financial plan, metrics, and projection section create a baseline which your business can either exceed or fail to reach. If your business fails to reach your projections in this section, you need to understand why it failed.
Investors and loan managers spend a lot of time going through the financial plan, metrics, and projection section compared to other parts of the business plan. Ensure you spend time creating credible financial analyses for your business in this section.
Many entrepreneurs find this section daunting to write. You do not need a business degree to create a solid financial forecast for your business. Business finances, especially for startups, are not as complicated as they seem. There are several online tools and templates that make writing this section so much easier.
The financial plan, metrics, and projection section is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business. Charts and images make it easier to communicate your finances.
Accuracy in this section is key, ensure you carefully analyze your past financial statements properly before making financial projects.
Keep your financial plan, metrics, and projection realistic. It is okay to be optimistic in your financial projection, however, you have to justify it.
You should also address the various risk factors associated with your business in this section. Investors want to know the potential risks involved, show them. You should also show your plans for mitigating those risks.
The financial plan, metrics, and projection section of your business plan should have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first year. It should also include annual projections that cover 3 to 5 years.
A three-year projection is a basic requirement to have in your business plan. However, some investors may request a five-year forecast.
Your business plan should include the following financial statements: sales forecast, personnel plan, income statement, income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and an exit strategy.
1. Sales Forecast
Sales forecast refers to your projections about the number of sales your business is going to record over the next few years. It is typically broken into several rows, with each row assigned to a core product or service that your business is offering.
One common mistake people make in their business plan is to break down the sales forecast section into long details. A sales forecast should forecast the high-level details.
For example, if you are forecasting sales for a payroll software provider, you could break down your forecast into target market segments or subscription categories.
Your sales forecast section should also have a corresponding row for each sales row to cover the direct cost or Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The objective of these rows is to show the expenses that your business incurs in making and delivering your product or service.
Note that your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) should only cover those direct costs incurred when making your products. Other indirect expenses such as insurance, salaries, payroll tax, and rent should not be included.
For example, the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a restaurant is the cost of ingredients while for a consulting company it will be the cost of paper and other presentation materials.
2. Personnel Plan
The personnel plan section is where you provide details about the payment plan for your employees. For a small business, you can easily list every position in your company and how much you plan to pay in the personnel plan.
However, for larger businesses, you have to break the personnel plan into functional groups such as sales and marketing.
The personnel plan will also include the cost of an employee beyond salary, commonly referred to as the employee burden. These costs include insurance, payroll taxes , and other essential costs incurred monthly as a result of having employees on your payroll.
3. Income Statement
The income statement section shows if your business is making a profit or taking a loss. Another name for the income statement is the profit and loss (P&L). It takes data from your sales forecast and personnel plan and adds other ongoing expenses you incur while running your business.
Every business plan should have an income statement. It subtracts your business expenses from its earnings to show if your business is generating profit or incurring losses.
The income statement has the following items: sales, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), gross margin, operating expenses, total operating expenses, operating income , total expenses, and net profit.
4. Cash Flow Statement
The cash flow statement tracks the money you have in the bank at any given point. It is often confused with the income statement or the profit and loss statement. They are both different types of financial statements. The income statement calculates your profits and losses while the cash flow statement shows you how much you have in the bank.
5. Balance Sheet
The balance sheet is a financial statement that provides an overview of the financial health of your business. It contains information about the assets and liabilities of your company, and owner’s or shareholders’ equity.
You can get the net worth of your company by subtracting your company’s liabilities from its assets.
6. Exit Strategy
The exit strategy refers to a probable plan for selling your business either to the public in an IPO or to another company. It is the last thing you include in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.
You can choose to omit the exit strategy from your business plan if you plan to maintain full ownership of your business and do not plan on seeking angel investment or virtual capitalist (VC) funding.
Investors may want to know what your exit plan is. They invest in your business to get a good return on investment.
Your exit strategy does not have to include long and boring details. Ensure you identify some interested parties who may be interested in buying the company if it becomes a success.
Your financial plan, metrics, and projection section helps investors, creditors, or your internal managers to understand what your expenses are, the amount of cash you need, and what it takes to make your company profitable. It also shows what you will be doing with any funding.
You do not need to show actual financial data if you do not have one. Adding forecasts and projections to your financial statements is added proof that your strategy is feasible and shows investors you have planned properly.
Here are some key questions to answer to help you develop this section.
Adding an appendix to your business plan is optional. It is a useful place to put any charts, tables, legal notes, definitions, permits, résumés, and other critical information that do not fit into other sections of your business plan.
The appendix section is where you would want to include details of a patent or patent-pending if you have one. You can always add illustrations or images of your products here. It is the last section of your business plan.
When writing your business plan, there are details you cut short or remove to prevent the entire section from becoming too lengthy. There are also details you want to include in the business plan but are not a good fit for any of the previous sections. You can add that additional information to the appendix section.
Businesses also use the appendix section to include supporting documents or other materials specially requested by investors or lenders.
You can include just about any information that supports the assumptions and statements you made in the business plan under the appendix. It is the one place in the business plan where unrelated data and information can coexist amicably.
If your appendix section is lengthy, try organizing it by adding a table of contents at the beginning of the appendix section. It is also advisable to group similar information to make it easier for the reader to access them.
A well-organized appendix section makes it easier to share your information clearly and concisely. Add footnotes throughout the rest of the business plan or make references in the plan to the documents in the appendix.
The appendix section is usually only necessary if you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, or hoping to attract partners.
People reading business plans do not want to spend time going through a heap of backup information, numbers, and charts. Keep these documents or information in the Appendix section in case the reader wants to dig deeper.
The appendix section includes documents that supplement or support the information or claims given in other sections of the business plans. Common items you can include in the appendix section include:
Avoid using the appendix section as a place to dump any document or information you feel like adding. Only add documents or information that you support or increase the credibility of your business plan.
To achieve a perfect business plan, you need to consider some key tips and strategies. These tips will raise the efficiency of your business plan above average.
When writing a business plan, you need to know your audience . Business owners write business plans for different reasons. Your business plan has to be specific. For example, you can write business plans to potential investors, banks, and even fellow board members of the company.
The audience you are writing to determines the structure of the business plan. As a business owner, you have to know your audience. Not everyone will be your audience. Knowing your audience will help you to narrow the scope of your business plan.
Consider what your audience wants to see in your projects, the likely questions they might ask, and what interests them.
Writing a business plan from scratch as an entrepreneur can be daunting. That is why you need the right inspiration to push you to write one. You can gain inspiration from the successful business plans of other businesses. Look at their business plans, the style they use, the structure of the project, etc.
To make your business plan easier to create, search companies related to your business to get an exact copy of what you need to create an effective business plan. You can also make references while citing examples in your business plans.
When drafting your business plan, get as much help from others as you possibly can. By getting inspiration from people, you can create something better than what they have.
Many business owners make use of strong adjectives to qualify their content. One of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make when preparing a business plan is promising too much.
The use of superlatives and over-optimistic claims can prepare the audience for more than you can offer. In the end, you disappoint the confidence they have in you.
In most cases, the best option is to be realistic with your claims and statistics. Most of the investors can sense a bit of incompetency from the overuse of superlatives. As a new entrepreneur, do not be tempted to over-promise to get the interests of investors.
The concept of entrepreneurship centers on risks, nothing is certain when you make future analyses. What separates the best is the ability to do careful research and work towards achieving that, not promising more than you can achieve.
To make an excellent first impression as an entrepreneur, replace superlatives with compelling data-driven content. In this way, you are more specific than someone promising a huge ROI from an investment.
When writing business plans, ensure you keep them simple throughout. Irrespective of the purpose of the business plan, your goal is to convince the audience.
One way to achieve this goal is to make them understand your proposal. Therefore, it would be best if you avoid the use of complex grammar to express yourself. It would be a huge turn-off if the people you want to convince are not familiar with your use of words.
Another thing to note is the length of your business plan. It would be best if you made it as brief as possible.
You hardly see investors or agencies that read through an extremely long document. In that case, if your first few pages can’t convince them, then you have lost it. The more pages you write, the higher the chances of you derailing from the essential contents.
To ensure your business plan has a high conversion rate, you need to dispose of every unnecessary information. For example, if you have a strategy that you are not sure of, it would be best to leave it out of the plan.
A perfect business plan must have touched every part needed to convince the audience. Business owners get easily tempted to concentrate more on their products than on other sections. Doing this can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business plan.
For example, imagine you talking about a product but omitting or providing very little information about the target audience. You will leave your clients confused.
To ensure that your business plan communicates your full business model to readers, you have to input all the necessary information in it. One of the best ways to achieve this is to design a structure and stick to it.
This structure is what guides you throughout the writing. To make your work easier, you can assign an estimated word count or page limit to every section to avoid making it too bulky for easy reading. As a guide, the necessary things your business plan must contain are:
Some specific businesses can include some other essential sections, but these are the key sections that must be in every business plan.
When writing a business plan, you must tie all loose ends to get a perfect result. When you are done with writing, call a professional to go through the document for you. You are bound to make mistakes, and the way to correct them is to get external help.
You should get a professional in your field who can relate to every section of your business plan. It would be easier for the professional to notice the inner flaws in the document than an editor with no knowledge of your business.
In addition to getting a professional to proofread, get an editor to proofread and edit your document. The editor will help you identify grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inappropriate writing styles.
Writing a business plan can be daunting, but you can surmount that obstacle and get the best out of it with these tips.
1. hubspot's one-page business plan.
The one-page business plan template by HubSpot is the perfect guide for businesses of any size, irrespective of their business strategy. Although the template is condensed into a page, your final business plan should not be a page long! The template is designed to ask helpful questions that can help you develop your business plan.
Hubspot’s one-page business plan template is divided into nine fields:
Bplans' free business plan template is investor-approved. It is a rich template used by prestigious educational institutions such as Babson College and Princeton University to teach entrepreneurs how to create a business plan.
The template has six sections: the executive summary, opportunity, execution, company, financial plan, and appendix. There is a step-by-step guide for writing every little detail in the business plan. Follow the instructions each step of the way and you will create a business plan that impresses investors or lenders easily.
HubSpot’s downloadable business plan template is a more comprehensive option compared to the one-page business template by HubSpot. This free and downloadable business plan template is designed for entrepreneurs.
The template is a comprehensive guide and checklist for business owners just starting their businesses. It tells you everything you need to fill in each section of the business plan and how to do it.
There are nine sections in this business plan template: an executive summary, company and business description, product and services line, market analysis, marketing plan, sales plan, legal notes, financial considerations, and appendix.
My Own Business Institute (MOBI) which is a part of Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship offers a free business plan template. You can either copy the free business template from the link provided above or download it as a Word document.
The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.
There are lots of helpful tips on how to fill each section in the free business plan template by MOBI.
Score is an American nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs build successful companies. This business plan template for startups by Score is available for free download. The business plan template asks a whooping 150 generic questions that help entrepreneurs from different fields to set up the perfect business plan.
The business plan template for startups contains clear instructions and worksheets, all you have to do is answer the questions and fill the worksheets.
There are nine sections in the business plan template: executive summary, company description, products and services, marketing plan, operational plan, management and organization, startup expenses and capitalization, financial plan, and appendices.
The ‘refining the plan’ resource contains instructions that help you modify your business plan to suit your specific needs, industry, and target audience. After you have completed Score’s business plan template, you can work with a SCORE mentor for expert advice in business planning.
The minimalist architecture business plan template is a simple template by Venngage that you can customize to suit your business needs .
There are five sections in the template: an executive summary, statement of problem, approach and methodology, qualifications, and schedule and benchmark. The business plan template has instructions that guide users on what to fill in each section.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two free business plan templates, filled with practical real-life examples that you can model to create your business plan. Both free business plan templates are written by fictional business owners: Rebecca who owns a consulting firm, and Andrew who owns a toy company.
There are five sections in the two SBA’s free business plan templates.
The one-page business plan by the $100 startup is a simple business plan template for entrepreneurs who do not want to create a long and complicated plan . You can include more details in the appendices for funders who want more information beyond what you can put in the one-page business plan.
There are five sections in the one-page business plan such as overview, ka-ching, hustling, success, and obstacles or challenges or open questions. You can answer all the questions using one or two sentences.
The free business plan template by PandaDoc is a comprehensive 15-page document that describes the information you should include in every section.
There are 11 sections in PandaDoc’s free business plan template.
You have to sign up for its 14-day free trial to access the template. You will find different business plan templates on PandaDoc once you sign up (including templates for general businesses and specific businesses such as bakeries, startups, restaurants, salons, hotels, and coffee shops)
PandaDoc allows you to customize its business plan templates to fit the needs of your business. After editing the template, you can send it to interested parties and track opens and views through PandaDoc.
InvoiceBerry is a U.K based online invoicing and tracking platform that offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats for freelancers and small businesses.
Before you can download the free business plan template, it will ask you to give it your email address. After you complete the little task, it will send the download link to your inbox for you to download. It also provides a business plan checklist in .xlsx file format that ensures you add the right information to the business plan.
A business plan is very important in mapping out how one expects their business to grow over a set number of years, particularly when they need external investment in their business. However, many investors do not have the time to watch you present your business plan. It is a long and boring read.
Luckily, there are three alternatives to the traditional business plan (the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck). These alternatives are less laborious and easier and quicker to present to investors.
The business model canvas is a business tool used to present all the important components of setting up a business, such as customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance in a single sheet. It provides a very focused blueprint that defines your business initially which you can later expand on if needed.
The sheet is divided mainly into company, industry, and consumer models that are interconnected in how they find problems and proffer solutions.
The business model canvas was developed by founder Alexander Osterwalder to answer important business questions. It contains nine segments.
The lean canvas is a problem-oriented alternative to the standard business model canvas. It was proposed by Ash Maurya, creator of Lean Stack as a development of the business model generation. It uses a more problem-focused approach and it majorly targets entrepreneurs and startup businesses.
Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept as the business model canvas, however, they have been modified slightly to suit the needs and purpose of a small startup. The key partners, key activities, customer relationships, and key resources are replaced by new segments which are:
While the business model canvas compresses into a factual sheet, startup pitch decks expand flamboyantly.
Pitch decks, through slides, convey your business plan, often through graphs and images used to emphasize estimations and observations in your presentation. Entrepreneurs often use pitch decks to fully convince their target audience of their plans before discussing funding arrangements.
Considering the likelihood of it being used in a small time frame, a good startup pitch deck should ideally contain 20 slides or less to have enough time to answer questions from the audience.
Unlike the standard and lean business model canvases, a pitch deck doesn't have a set template on how to present your business plan but there are still important components to it. These components often mirror those of the business model canvas except that they are in slide form and contain more details.
Using Airbnb (one of the most successful start-ups in recent history) for reference, the important components of a good slide are listed below.
It is important to support your calculations with pictorial renditions. Infographics, such as pie charts or bar graphs, will be more effective in presenting the information than just listing numbers. For example, a six-month graph that shows rising profit margins will easily look more impressive than merely writing it.
Lastly, since a pitch deck is primarily used to secure meetings and you may be sharing your pitch with several investors, it is advisable to keep a separate public version that doesn't include financials. Only disclose the one with projections once you have secured a link with an investor.
Business plans are important for any entrepreneur who is looking for a framework to run their company over some time or seeking external support. Although they are essential for new businesses, every company should ideally have a business plan to track their growth from time to time. They can be used by startups seeking investments or loans to convey their business ideas or an employee to convince his boss of the feasibility of starting a new project. They can also be used by companies seeking to recruit high-profile employee targets into key positions or trying to secure partnerships with other firms.
Business plans often vary depending on your target audience, the scope, and the goals for the plan. Startup plans are the most common among the different types of business plans. A start-up plan is used by a new business to present all the necessary information to help get the business up and running. They are usually used by entrepreneurs who are seeking funding from investors or bank loans. The established company alternative to a start-up plan is a feasibility plan. A feasibility plan is often used by an established company looking for new business opportunities. They are used to show the upsides of creating a new product for a consumer base. Because the audience is usually company people, it requires less company analysis. The third type of business plan is the lean business plan. A lean business plan is a brief, straight-to-the-point breakdown of your ideas and analysis for your business. It does not contain details of your proposal and can be written on one page. Finally, you have the what-if plan. As it implies, a what-if plan is a preparation for the worst-case scenario. You must always be prepared for the possibility of your original plan being rejected. A good what-if plan will serve as a good plan B to the original.
A good business plan has 10 key components. They include an executive plan, product analysis, desired customer base, company analysis, industry analysis, marketing strategy, sales strategy, financial projection, funding, and appendix. Executive Plan Your business should begin with your executive plan. An executive plan will provide early insight into what you are planning to achieve with your business. It should include your mission statement and highlight some of the important points which you will explain later. Product Analysis The next component of your business plan is your product analysis. A key part of this section is explaining the type of item or service you are going to offer as well as the market problems your product will solve. Desired Consumer Base Your product analysis should be supplemented with a detailed breakdown of your desired consumer base. Investors are always interested in knowing the economic power of your market as well as potential MVP customers. Company Analysis The next component of your business plan is your company analysis. Here, you explain how you want to run your business. It will include your operational strategy, an insight into the workforce needed to keep the company running, and important executive positions. It will also provide a calculation of expected operational costs. Industry Analysis A good business plan should also contain well laid out industry analysis. It is important to convince potential investors you know the companies you will be competing with, as well as your plans to gain an edge on the competition. Marketing Strategy Your business plan should also include your marketing strategy. This is how you intend to spread awareness of your product. It should include a detailed explanation of the company brand as well as your advertising methods. Sales Strategy Your sales strategy comes after the market strategy. Here you give an overview of your company's pricing strategy and how you aim to maximize profits. You can also explain how your prices will adapt to market behaviors. Financial Projection The financial projection is the next component of your business plan. It explains your company's expected running cost and revenue earned during the tenure of the business plan. Financial projection gives a clear idea of how your company will develop in the future. Funding The next component of your business plan is funding. You have to detail how much external investment you need to get your business idea off the ground here. Appendix The last component of your plan is the appendix. This is where you put licenses, graphs, or key information that does not fit in any of the other components.
The business model canvas is a business management tool used to quickly define your business idea and model. It is often used when investors need you to pitch your business idea during a brief window.
A pitch deck is similar to a business model canvas except that it makes use of slides in its presentation. A pitch is not primarily used to secure funding, rather its main purpose is to entice potential investors by selling a very optimistic outlook on the business.
Business plan competitions help you evaluate the strength of your business plan. By participating in business plan competitions, you are improving your experience. The experience provides you with a degree of validation while practicing important skills. The main motivation for entering into the competitions is often to secure funding by finishing in podium positions. There is also the chance that you may catch the eye of a casual observer outside of the competition. These competitions also provide good networking opportunities. You could meet mentors who will take a keen interest in guiding you in your business journey. You also have the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs whose ideas can complement yours.
Martin luenendonk.
Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.
This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.
4 goal frameworks with examples, manage business goals in weekdone.
For more than 10 years Weekdone has provided tens of thousands of teams from startups to Fortune 500 with world leading goal-setting software called Weekdone . These are our lessons learned.
Organizations invest time and resources in determining where to target their collective efforts. Whether your business goals and objectives center on strategic planning, expansion, or sustainability, they are a pivotal point in the expansion of any organization. They assist in several ways, from enhancing customer service to boosting revenues. In the end, they contribute to establishing the company’s main goal.
You may have come across many long-term and short-term goal-setting methodologies or frameworks in the business sector, such as Objectives and Key Results (OKR) , Balanced Scorecard (BSC), SMART goals, and so on.
It’s time to advance with a proactive, strategic strategy that prioritizes pressing problems and helps us avoid making snap judgments in the future. Let’s go through the ultimate strategies for setting great business goals for 2024 and beyond.
Business goals are the aims that a company expects to achieve within a specific time frame. You may define business goals for your entire organization as well as specific departments, staff, management, and/or clientele.
Goals often indicate the wider purpose of a firm and seek to set an ultimate goal for staff to strive toward. The time period you set your goal for will determine whether it’s considered short-term or long term.
Short term goals are usually those which can be achieved in one or two working quarters (3-6 months) sometimes maybe a year, depending on how committed the organization is.
Further, when thinking of a long term goal – it’s typically one set with a date to accomplish within one year or more.
📚 What’s the difference between goals and objectives ?
A goal framework is a systematic way of defining goals. Although these frameworks vary in terms of precise rules and methods, they are all intended to simplify the goal management process to maximize the probability of achievement. This generally entails breaking down larger and more complicated goals into smaller steps and activities that should be completed within a specific period.
The 4 goal-setting frameworks listed below are among the most widely used and successful frameworks available today.
OKR stands for “ Objectives and Key Results .” This popular goal management framework focuses on development and progress by setting proper quarterly goals – leveraging the ability of your teams to achieve results. Weekdone is a tool to implement OKRs in your team.
Using OKRs is critical for attaining collaborative success and fulfilling the organization’s bigger vision. This framework helps businesses to keep alignment and engagement on the quantifiable metrics that actually matter!
OKR methodology entails defining objectives, involving individuals in the goal-setting exercise, and fostering an open and transparent culture. Maintaining this culture requires persistent and regular OKR check-ins to keep you on track and ensure you never lose sight of your priorities. OKRs have been embraced by many big corporations and charitable groups, including Netflix and Code for America.
Learn more about the best practices for tracking OKRs , why it is important, and how to use OKRs effectively throughout the company.
Get 14-day trial of Weekdone . Invite your teams and set better business goals with OKRs. Try it now .
Writing OKRs at the Company or Team level lets you clearly view your core challenges and improvement possibilities and separate them from day-to-day activities. Good objectives bring teams together, foster long-term growth habits, and propel you to success. If you start using Weekdone , you can take advantage of the OKR examples in the software .
To create OKRs, you must first understand how to do them correctly. OKRs are composed of one main goal at the top and 3-5 accompanying key results. They may be expressed in the form of a statement.
Crafting Company Objectives
To begin, you need to create a corporate objective. The corporate goal should be wide enough to allow all teams to develop the most successful team goals. On the other hand, it should be detailed, so everyone understands the company’s direction.
Ultimately, the company objective helps to establish a quarterly focus for the entire organization. Team objectives are then developed based on this high-level focus.
Developing Team Objectives
Once the company’s Objective(s) is established, individual teams should work together to discuss their relative objectives. These motivating goals should be consistent with the general direction of the firm. They should create focus, a sense of urgency, and a sense of collective purpose. Furthermore, they are intended to represent challenges to be solved or possibilities for progress to be pursued during the quarter.
Pro Tip: In Weekdone , we recommend linking your team objectives to the company objective – creating the company OKR. This goal alignment tactic ensures that everything is moving as one cohesive organism.
Creating Key Results for Your Objectives
Objectives on all levels are subdivided into quantifiable key results used to track your success and progress toward the “O”. As a result, key results they must be time-bound, detailed, attainable, and quantifiable. While the goal is to fix or enhance the problem, crucial findings indicate whether the problem was successfully solved.
Keep in mind: Efficient Key results are lofty but attainable metrics -they are not KPIs or projects. KR’s are always tied to both the quarter and the objectives.
By identifying some OKR examples to model and practice with, it will be much simpler to adopt the framework in your business effectively. Here are some example Objectives and their Key Results for different business departments:
Example okr #1:.
Objective: Improve our overall sales performance. Key Result 1: Maintain a sales pipeline of quality leads worth at least $400K each quarter. Key Result 2: Increase the closure rate from 20% to 23%. Key Result 3: Increase the number of planned calls per sales rep from three to six per week. Key Result 4: Increase the average contract size from $12,000 to $124,000.
Objective: Build a netbook of business recurring revenue to stabilize the firm. Key Result 1: Achieve $300,000 in monthly recurring revenue ($MRR) before the end of Q1. Key Result 2: Increase the proportion of subscription services sold against one-time contracts to 60%. Key Result 3: Increase the average paid subscription value to at least $400. Key Result 4: Increase the percentage of yearly renewals to 70%.
Objective: Bring in as many high-quality leads to assist the sales team. Key Result 1: Develop three new case studies aimed at new consumer categories. Key Result 2: Update the normal sales deck and discussion track with new products/offers. Key Result 3: Try to double the number of online form leads. Key Result 4: Organize two sales training sessions.
Objective: Improve the quality of our outbound sales strategy. Key Result 1: Ensure that at least 75% of prospective parties are contacted directly within three working days. Key Result 2: Consult with productive team members to determine what works in the sales process and develop a sales cheat sheet. Key Result 3: Publish a best practices sales process document with the lowest permitted service levels
Objective: Generate sales leads of greater quality. Key Result 1: Create a set of lead metrics and prepare queries for CRM collection. Key Result 2: Ensure that at least 75% of leads performed mandatory questions/answers. Key Result 3: Streamline the gathering of data from our database to CRM. Key Result 4: Redesign the user interaction form by adding three additional mandatory structured questionnaires.
Objective : Extend our reach and brand recognition beyond our present geographic boundaries. Key Result 1: Improve signups from transformational change leadership articles by 3% Key Result 2: Boost publication subscriptions by 300 Key Result 3: Enhance web traffic from additional target areas by 12%.
Objective : Improve our SEO. Key Result 1: Get 20 fresh backlinks from relevant sites each quarter if your domain score exceeds 50. Key Result 2: Optimize our on-page optimization and improve ten pages every quarter. Key Result 3: Increase the speed of our website to improve our speed score. Key Result 4: Write one new blog article weekly optimized for our list of targeted search terms.
Objective : Foster a sense of community among our clients. Key Result 1: Develop a best-practices-based customer community approach. Key Result 2: During the first half of the year, produce 20 articles showing client satisfaction. Key Result 3: We get 25% of our clients to engage in the community using discount opportunities. Key Result 4: Earn five favorable PR mentions for our consumers this quarter.
Objective : Increase brand exposure and reputation. Key Result 1: Roll out a new weekly magazine with valuable material and thought leadership. Key Result 2: Deliver five new value-added posts with over 250 words of content every month. Key Result 3: This quarter, obtain two favorable media exposure PR spots in our community. Key Result 4: Amass 10 reviews with five stars on Google and Yelp this quarter.
Objective : Deliberately and consistently enhance the competencies of our staff. Key Result 1: Every member of the team has a personal growth plan. Key Result 2: All workers have received 360-degree feedback. Key Result 3: Every manager has a one-on-one at least every other week. Key Result 4: Create a strategy for effective intervention opportunities to address capacity shortfalls.
SMART business goals give you the blueprint to make your overarching business aspirations a reality.
James Cunningham, Arthur Miller, and George Doran initially presented this method for defining goals in 1981. Setting SMART goals allows you to articulate your thoughts, organize your efforts, use your time and resources better, and enhance the odds of reaching your goal. Questions to ask when setting SMART goals:
SMART goals do not have a certain cadence or use case; they are suggestions and a descriptive set of criteria to use while considering what you want to accomplish. You may establish them for certain periods, departments, individuals, or tasks.
Consider using the SMART steps to help you reach your goals:
SMART goals can be implemented in any section of a business. If you’re unsure whether it’s worthwhile to plan it out for your organization, consider using free online goal-setting tools.
1. i want to boost my revenue.
OKRs and SMART goals may appear to be very comparable on the surface. However, they have entirely different use cases. OKR is regarded as a more advanced method for creating corporate-wide goals.
OKRs are intended to propel firms to growth and long-term progress. They operate best with a quarterly goal-setting cycle and regular weekly check-ins to keep track of progress and stay on target. SMART goals are one-time objectives created for smaller initiatives without a direct or established link to higher-level objectives.
Management by Objectives, abbreviated “MBO,” is a management concept created by Peter Drucker in the late 1960s as he began to propose better methods for managing skilled workers over agricultural and industrial employees who came before them.
Staff objectives are set using the main business goals, with this framework. MBO enables everyone in the firm to evaluate what they have done concerning the company’s key objectives and priorities while completing duties. This demonstrates how action and outcome are linked and how they may significantly boost productivity.
MBO can be used and possibly benefit a variety of sectors. Here are some real-world applications for MBO:
Human Resources: MBO may improve employee happiness, hold workplace events, and increase staff participation.
Company Performance: Using MBO to boost gross margins, minimize carbon footprints, enhance sales, and so on.
Marketing: MBO may help you reach goals like boosting email subscriptions, expanding social media followers, and tripling online traffic.
Customer Service: Minimizing incident rates, boosting associate accessibility to assist in customer disagreements, and speeding up a dispute resolution.
Sales: Reduce the sales cycle from six to three months, boost average revenues to $10,000, and acquire 15 new clients over a certain period.
In reality, a clear objective setting in areas where the organization may now fall short may assist all facets of a company, from human resources to marketing to sales to information technology and everything in between.
The most notable difference between these two frameworks is that OKR is about outcomes, rather than outputs. OKR has been known to foster more important cross-departmental and team discussions to get to the greater problem or big picture ideas. Management by Objectives has been linked to performance management and is driven by outputs – both of which are very different from the Objectives and Key Results goal management framework.
Read more on the difference between OKR and MBO .
BHAG stands for ‘big, hairy, audacious goals’ and refers to lofty ambitions that may appear impossible in the short term but give a crucial feeling of aspiration and emotional energy to propel the business to the top.
The concept, coined by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, often defines long-term strategies tied to your company’s fundamental beliefs and ideals. BHAGs are long-term in nature, with a time frame of 10 to 25 years optimal. They should be based on the goal and guiding principles of your company.
Here are some helpful hints for developing a BHAG for your company:
Without rhyme or reason, implementing a new framework or not – you can always begin with some statement areas for improvement. We’ve created a list of example goals you can work with immediately in your organization. These are great to get started in your free Weekdone trial .
This goal is customer driven. The idea is to sell more of your product to your target consumers, thus, increasing overall market share for your product for investors. For example, if you operate a B2B company, your goal should be to reach out to more company heads or HR departments. If you operate a small business that focuses on building computers, you’ll want more of the local population to come to you for your services.
Becoming part of the community is a fantastic way to connect from the B2C side. Whether you are a large company contributing to community efforts through sponsorship or a small company that volunteers to help for Little League Baseball, community outreach is an excellent goal for new and established organizations alike. Increasing community outreach is especially important if your company or organization doesn’t have a good reputation with a particular group (I.E.: environmentalists).
Likewise, community outreach is essential if you are providing human necessities. For example, if you run a small scale grocery store, community outreach is what’s gonna keep you above water when competing with larger corporations.
Financial goals are one of the most useful top-level objectives you can have. By nature, they are both aspirational and measurable, which equally makes financial-driven objectives essential for getting the goal setting process started for young businesses.
Maintaining profits (as opposed to increasing revenue) calls for a balance between profitability and investments. Investments are necessary to test out changes in the market and expand the business, so by establishing a balanced goal, you can reason how much money can go into growth and new projects/tools/campaigns while still reaching a paired profit goal.
This is a double-sided issue. If you are providing a service or product that requires being PHYSICALLY, cutting back on using that energy to save money means you can put that money to things that are more useful and productive (such as expanding or improving the product). This can be as minimal as cutting down on electricity.
If your product isn’t physical, this goal equally applies to cutting out company tools by trying to find software or systems that maximize your company’s alignment and productivity. Aiming for 1-2 communication tools, for example, cuts out company miscommunication by having conversations spread out over several apps, messaging programs, and document sharing platforms.
Increasing shareholder value is an extension of increasing profit for consumers. Increasing the overall value of your organization can refer to reputation, profit, or any other classification of “value.” The most important aspect of this goal is to specify what that value is and structure your Key Results, projects, KPIs, etc. around this.
When developing new products or features, promoting them so sales can close more deals/sell more of the new product should be one of your main priorities for increasing profit. This justifies the expenses from investing in the new product or feature in the first place and aims to ensure that the investment was worth it and will turn a profit.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is all about continuing to reduce manufacturing error and streamlining a supply chain with physical products. It equally applies to both when dealing with improving customer experience and training staff. Improving quality across a wide variety of areas is a great company level goal that’s easy to align since each team or department can be held accountable for their own work.
Training employees is one thing, making them comfortable so they can speak for themselves and encouraging creative, out-of-the box behavior is another. If your company wants more input from lower levels, then this is important.
Implementing employee goals will increase their independence and confidence in the workplace. We have a post to explain how this works.
Easily measurable, this category falls under finances as well. Maintaining a certain amount of financial debt is important… especially for businesses that are just getting started and may not have the profits to cover debt costs.
Balancing a budget is a great top level goal for non-profits. Likewise, this goal is a great for teams who may get a set amount to invest in campaigns or projects quarterly or annually.
This is on marketing and sales, so is a better team goal example than a company goal. The idea is to focus on selling customers that they are getting the best deal. Whether you’re selling something top of the line for high cost or a cheap, low-cost alternative that doesn’t have the polish of a different brand, you need to highlight to your customers why your product balances value and cost.
Making your product more reliable is a great way to gain customers while maintaining pre existing ones. This short term goal can be worked on quarter after quarter – split up the tasks by first reviewing existing value points, competitors and current positioning – then continue forward as you learn and explore more to prepare for development.
So, you have people buying a product of yours. A good goal for sales is to sell them on more products. This builds brand loyalty.
Dealing with the external face of your company, offering the best customer service means that consumers are happier with the overall experience of buying or using your product.
A classic in HR teams, team building and diversity training focuses on employee satisfaction to prevent turnover and allow environments where everyone is comfortable enough to share their ideas.
It’s now time to sign up for your free Weekdone trial and get going.
The first step is to set up a goal for your firm or team. Each goal you establish has an impact on the next. As a result, ensure that your business goals and objectives are adaptable. Whether you are a small firm or an expert in your profession, consistently analyzing your work, raising your work standards, and expanding your goal list is the way to progress.
Efficient goal alignment promotes a greater sense of participation and direction among employees in a firm. The OKR process is at the forefront of assisting companies in aligning their aims through important results and activities.
Weekdone is your leading OKR software for status reporting, aligning team OKRs with business goals, and visualizing weekly and quarterly achievements. The fundamental concepts of appropriate alignment, structure, and connectivity are important to us. From the ground up, we can make your organization feel more connected by achieving business goals together. Sign up now .
14 day free trial – invite your team and start setting better business goals!
Georgina Guthrie
March 23, 2022
As a project manager, setting strategic goals for your team is an absolute must. By establishing objectives, you can ensure everyone (including yourself) is productive and moving in the right direction. It also means you can track progress and make real-time adjustments — which is incredibly difficult to do without clear metrics . In fact, without measurable goals, it’s near impossible to determine whether initiatives are working or not.
But what should these goals be?
A strategic goal is a broad, long-term objective that a company strives to achieve. It can be something as general as becoming the top player in your industry or as specific as increasing market share by 20%.
There are different types of strategic goals (which we’ll explore in a little more detail later on), and each goal will involve metrics — the criteria you’ll use to measure progress.
Metrics are important because they provide concrete evidence of whether a goal is being achieved. Without metrics, it can be difficult to determine whether things are working and how well. Metrics also help to identify areas of improvement and allow for targeted action.
Here are some common strategic goals metrics:
While both strategic goals and strategic management are important, they’re not the same thing.
Think of strategic goals as the long-term outcome you envision — the things you want to achieve in three to five years. To achieve your goals, you need a well-defined process for developing and monitoring them. That’s where strategic management comes in.
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are a popular framework for setting strategic goals. But there are some key differences between OKRs and strategic goals.
Firstly, OKRs are typically shorter-term compared to strategic goals. Secondly, OKRs are more specific and quantitative, while strategic goals are broader and qualitative. Thirdly, OKRs are often used in performance-driven organizations, while strategic goals can be used in any organization.
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are a popular framework for measuring performance. Here’s where they differ from strategic goals.
KPIs are usually more narrow in scope than strategic goals. And while KPIs are highly specific and quantitative, strategic goals are more broad and qualitative. Also, KPIs are best suited for measuring operational performance , while strategic goals are better for measuring business performance overall.
There are some key similarities between strategic goals and business goals. Both are important for driving organizational success and must be measurable and achievable to offer the most value. But here’s where they differ:
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. The right goal-setting framework depends on your company’s size, culture, and industry. If unsure which model is right, speak with a business advisor or consultant for guidance. They can help you understand which operational factors impact your organization and choose a framework to drive progress.
Now that we’ve covered some differences between strategic goals and other popular frameworks, let’s take a closer look at how to set effective strategic goals.
Start by thinking about the overall vision and mission of your company. What are you trying to achieve? Where do you want to be in three to five years? Once you have a general idea of where you want to go, you can start thinking about specific goals to help you get there.
All goals should be SMART : that’s Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Your goals must be specific enough to be quantified and measured, achievable (not too easy or too difficult), and relevant to the company’s overall vision and mission. They should also have a specific timeframe for completion.
Make sure to communicate your goals to all employees, not just management. Employees need to understand what the company’s trying to accomplish and their role in achieving those objectives.
Holding employees accountable for meeting their goals is important to success. Use a system of rewards and penalties to motivate employees to stay on track.
Regularly evaluating progress is essential for managing the pace and success of your goals. If necessary, make changes based on what you learn from one milestone to the next.
Now, let’s get to some real-world examples.
We’ve split this list by goal type to make it easier to follow. Please note: the examples do not reflect Nulab’s goals; they’re here for educational purposes.
1) Increase revenue by 20% in the next three years 2) Reduce costs by 15% in the next 12 months 3) Invest in new technology that will improve our overall efficiency 4) Increase our market share by 5% in the next two years 5) Create a new product that will generate $1 million in revenue in the next 12 months 6) Diversify our revenue streams into two new markets 7) Become financially sustainable by 2023 8) Grow shareholder value by 20% in the next two years 9) Reduce marketing costs by 10% over the next year
10) Increase website traffic by 25% in the next three months 11) Generate 1,000 leads through our website in the next six months 12) Double our social media following in the next six months 13) Increase customer satisfaction by five points in the next year 14) Increase brand awareness by 25% in the next year 15) Launch a new marketing campaign that generates a 10% ROI 16) Reach 10,000 people through our email list in the next six months 17) Secure two major partnerships in the next 12 months 18) Attend three industry tradeshows in the next year
19) Develop a new product that will be in the market in 12 months 20) Patent our new technology by the end of the year 21) Increase our R&D budget by 15% in the next year 22) Hire two new senior scientists in the next six months 23) Double our current market share in the next three years 24) Develop a product that is fives times more efficient than our current products 25) Reduce the time to market for new products by 50% in the next year 26) Increase our customer base by 20% in the next year 27) Collaborate with two other companies in the next year
28) Increase average billable hours per employee by 20% in the next three months 29) Streamline our billing process so that it takes employees less time to bill clients 30) Reduce customer support inquiries by 20% in the next month 31) Improve team productivity by 10% in the next three months 32) Implement a new CRM system that will make it easier for employees to find customer information 33) Create a training program for new employees that will shorten the learning curve 34) Hire two new customer service representatives in the next month 35) Allow employees to work from home one day a week 36) Give employees a 5% raise in the next three months
37) Develop a new product that will be in the market in 12 months 38) Patent our new technology by the end of the year 39) Increase our R&D budget by 15% in the next year 40) Hire two new senior product designers in the next six months 41) Double our current market share in the next three years 42) Develop a product that is five times more efficient than our current products 43) Reduce the time to market for new products by 50% in the next year 44) Increase our customer base by 20% in the next year 45) Collaborate with two other companies in the next year
46) Increase customer satisfaction by five points in the next year 47) Decrease website bounce rate by 25% in the next three months 48) Generate 1,000 customer product reviews in the next six months 49) Secure a rating of 75% five-star reviews on Tripadvisor by the end of the quarter 50) Reduce refund time by one week by the end of next quarter 51) Host two focus groups in December to get feedback about the new product 52) Reduce customer call time wait by an average of three minutes in the next two months 53) Secure two major influencer partnerships in the next 12 months 54) Increase newsletter subscriptions by 20% by the end of 2022
55) Increase average billable hours per employee by 20% in the next three months 56) Develop and implement new company core values by December 2023 57) Reduce staff turnover by 25% in the next six months 58) Increase employee satisfaction by 10% in the next six months 59) Implement a new training program for new employees 60) Give employees a raise of 5% in the next three months 61) Hire two new customer service representatives in the next month 62) Allow employees to work from home one day a week 63) Reduce the time it takes to process invoices by 50% in the next month 64) Implement new software that will improve team communication
65) Secure a new office space that is twice the size of our current one 66) Implement a new sales strategy that generates a 20% increase in sales in the next six months 67) Increase our customer base by 20% in the next year 68) Double our market share in the next three years 69) Collaborate with two other companies in the next year 70) Launch a new marketing campaign that generates a 10% ROI 71) Reach 10,000 people through our email list in the next six months 72) Secure two major partnerships in the next 12 months 73) Invest in a new advertising campaign
Developing effective strategic goals is essential for any business, regardless of size or industry. By setting measurable, achievable objectives, you can ensure your company is moving fully ahead in the right direction and achieving its long-term goals.
As your organization or team grows and changes, choose tools that make collaborating and tracking your goal metrics as convenient as possible. By doing so, you’ll be able to work together as a team toward the success you and your business deserve.
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Published Nov.05, 2023
Updated Apr.23, 2024
By: Jakub Babkins
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Table of Content
Every business needs a clear vision of what it wants to achieve and how it plans to get there. A business plan is a document that outlines the goals and objectives of a business, as well as the strategies and actions to achieve them. A well-written business plan from business plan specialists can help a business attract investors, secure funding, and guide its growth.
Business objectives are S pecific, M easurable, A chievable, R elevant, and T ime-bound (SMART) statements that describe what a business wants to accomplish in a given period. They are derived from the overall vision and mission of the business, and they support its strategic direction.
Business plan objectives can be categorized into different types, depending on their purpose and scope. Some common types of business objectives are:
For example, a sample of business goals and objectives for a business plan for a bakery could be:
Business objectives are important for several reasons. They help to:
For example, by setting a revenue objective, a bakery can focus on increasing its sales and marketing efforts, monitor its sales data and customer feedback, motivate its staff to deliver quality products and service, communicate its unique selling points and benefits to its customers, and adjust its pricing and product mix according to market demand.
Outlining business objectives is a crucial step in creating a business plan. It serves as a roadmap for the company’s growth and development. Outlining business objectives has several advantages, such as:
For example, by outlining its business objective for increasing the average revenue per customer in its business plan, a bakery can:
Setting goals and objectives for a business plan is not a one-time task. It requires careful planning, research, analysis, and evaluation. To set effective goals and objectives for a business plan, one should follow some best practices, such as:
OPTION 1: Use the SMART framework. A SMART goal or objective is clear, quantifiable, realistic, aligned with the company’s mission and vision, and has a deadline. SMART stands for:
For example, using the SMART criteria, a bakery can refine its business objective for increasing the average revenue per customer as follows:
OPTION 2: Use the OKR framework. OKR stands for O bjectives and K ey R esults. An OKR is a goal-setting technique that links the company’s objectives with measurable outcomes. An objective is a qualitative statement of what the company wants to achieve. A key result is a quantitative metric that shows how the objective will be achieved.
OPTION 3: Use the SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for S trengths, W eaknesses, O pportunities, and T hreats. A SWOT analysis is a strategic tool that helps the company assess the internal and external factors that affect its goals and objectives.
For example, using these frameworks, a bakery might set the following goals and objectives for its SBA business plan :
Objective – To launch a new product line of gluten-free cakes in the next quarter.
Key Results:
Weaknesses:
Opportunities:
To illustrate how to write business goals and objectives for a business plan, let’s use a hypothetical example of a bakery business called Sweet Treats. Sweet Treats is a small bakery specializing in custom-made cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and other baked goods for various occasions.
Here are some examples of possible startup business goals and objectives for Sweet Treats:
Profitability is the ability of a company to generate more revenue than expenses. It indicates the financial health and performance of the company. Profitability is essential for a business to sustain its operations, grow its market share, and reward its stakeholders.
Some possible objectives for earning and preserving profitability for Sweet Treats are:
Cash flow is the amount of money that flows in and out of a company. A company needs to have enough cash to cover its operating expenses, pay its debts, invest in its growth, and reward its shareholders.
Some possible objectives for ensuring consistent cash flow for Sweet Treats are:
Efficiency is the ratio of output to input. It measures how well a company uses its resources to produce its products or services. Efficiency can help a business improve its quality, productivity, customer satisfaction, and profitability.
Some possible objectives for creating and maintaining efficiency for Sweet Treats are:
Clients are the people or organizations that buy or use the products or services of a company. They are the source of revenue and growth for a company. Therefore, winning and keeping clients is vital to generating steady revenue, increasing customer loyalty, and enhancing word-of-mouth marketing.
Some possible objectives for winning and keeping clients for Sweet Treats are:
A brand is the name, logo, design, or other features distinguishing a company from its competitors. It represents the identity, reputation, and value proposition of a company. Building a recognizable brand is crucial for attracting and retaining clients and creating a loyal fan base.
Some possible objectives for building a recognizable brand for Sweet Treats are:
An audience is a group of people interested in or following a company’s products or services. They can be potential or existing clients, fans, influencers, or partners. Expanding and nurturing an audience with marketing is essential for increasing a company’s visibility, reach, and engagement.
Some possible objectives for expanding and nurturing an audience with marketing for Sweet Treats are:
Expansion is the process of increasing a company’s size, scope, or scale. It can involve entering new markets, launching new products or services, opening new locations, or forming new alliances. Strategizing for expansion is important for diversifying revenue streams, reaching new audiences, and gaining competitive advantages.
Some possible objectives for strategizing for expansion for Sweet Treats are:
A template for writing business objectives is a format or structure that can be used as a guide or reference for creating your objectives. A template for writing business objectives can help you to ensure that your objectives are SMART, clear, concise, and consistent.
To use this template, fill in the blanks with your information. Here is an example of how you can use this template:
Our business is a _____________ (type of business) that provides _____________ (products or services) to _____________ (target market). Our vision is to _____________ (vision statement) and our mission is to _____________ (mission statement).
Our long-term business goals and objectives for the next _____________ (time period) are:
S pecific: We want to _____________ (specific goal) by _____________ (specific action).
M easurable: We will measure our progress by _____________ (quantifiable indicator).
A chievable: We have _____________ (resources, capabilities, constraints) that will enable us to achieve this goal.
R elevant: This goal supports our vision and mission by _____________ (benefit or impact).
T ime-bound: We will complete this goal by _____________ (deadline).
Repeat this process for each goal and objective for your business plan.
After setting goals and objectives for your business plan, you should check them regularly to see if you are achieving them. Monitoring your business objectives can help you to:
Some of the tools and methods that you can use to monitor your business objectives are:
To achieve your business objectives, you need more than setting and monitoring them. You need strategies and actions that support them. Strategies are the general methods to reach your objectives. Actions are the specific steps to implement your strategies.
Different objectives require different strategies and actions. Some common types are:
To implement effective strategies and actions, consider these factors:
We at OGSCapital can help you with your business plan and related documents. We have over 15 years of experience writing high-quality business plans for various industries and regions. We have a team of business plan experts who can assist you with market research, financial analysis, strategy formulation, and presentation design. We can customize your business plan to suit your needs and objectives, whether you need funding, launching, expanding, or entering a new market. We can also help you with pitch decks, executive summaries, feasibility studies, and grant proposals. Contact us today for a free quote and start working on your business plan.
What are the goals and objectives in business.
Goals and objectives in a business plan are the desired outcomes that a company works toward. To describe company goals and objectives for a business plan, start with your mission statement and then identify your strategic and operational objectives. To write company objectives, you must brainstorm, organize, prioritize, assign, track, and review them using the SMART framework and KPIs.
Examples of goals and objectives in a business plan are: Goal: To increase revenue by 10% each year for the next five years. Objective: To launch a new product line and create a marketing campaign to reach new customers.
The 4 main objectives of a business are economic, social, human, and organic. Economic objectives deal with financial performance, social objectives deal with social responsibility, human objectives deal with employee welfare, and organic objectives deal with business growth and development.
Setting goals and objectives for a business plan describes what a business or a team wants to achieve and how they will do it. For example: Goal: To provide excellent customer service. Objective: To increase customer satisfaction scores by 20% by the end of the quarter.
At OGSCapital, our business planning services offer expert guidance and support to create a realistic and actionable plan that aligns with your vision and mission. Get in touch to discuss further!
OGSCapital’s team has assisted thousands of entrepreneurs with top-rate business plan development, consultancy and analysis. They’ve helped thousands of SME owners secure more than $1.5 billion in funding, and they can do the same for you.
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Published: July 01, 2024
I believe that reading sample business plans is essential when writing your own.
As you explore business plan examples from real companies and brands, it’s easier for you to learn how to write a good one.
So what does a good business plan look like? And how do you write one that’s both viable and convincing? I’ll walk you through the ideal business plan format along with some examples to help you get started.
Table of Contents
Business plan format, sample business plan: section by section, sample business plan templates, top business plan examples.
Ultimately, the format of your business plan will vary based on your goals for that plan. I’ve added this quick review of different business plan types that achieve differing goals.
For a more detailed exploration of business plan types, you can check out this post .
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Startup business plans are for proposing new business ideas. If you’re planning to start a small business, preparing a business plan is crucial. The plan should include all the major factors of your business.
You can check out this guide for more detailed business plan inspiration .
Feasibility business plans focus on that business's product or service. Feasibility plans are sometimes added to startup business plans. They can also be a new business plan for an already thriving organization.
You can use internal business plans to share goals, strategies, or performance updates with stakeholders. In my opinion, internal business plans are useful for alignment and building support for ambitious goals.
A strategic business plan is another business plan that's often shared internally. This plan covers long-term business objectives that might not have been included in the startup business plan.
When a business is moving forward with an acquisition or repositioning, it may need extra structure and support. These types of business plans expand on a company's acquisition or repositioning strategy.
Growth sometimes just happens as a business continues operations. But more often, a business needs to create a structure with specific targets to meet set goals for expansion. This business plan type can help a business focus on short-term growth goals and align resources with those goals.
I’m going to focus on a startup business plan that needs to be detailed and research-backed as well as compelling enough to convince investors to offer funding. In my experience, the most comprehensive and convincing business plans contain the following sections.
This all-important introduction to your business plan sets the tone and includes the company description as well as what you will be exchanging for money — whether that’s product lines, services, or product-service hybrids.
Information about gaps in your industry’s market and how you plan to fill them, focused on demand and potential for growth.
An overview of your competitors that includes consideration of their strengths and how you’ll manage them, their weaknesses and how you’ll capitalize on them, and how you can differentiate your offerings in the industry.
Descriptions of your ideal customers, their various problems that you can solve, and your customer acquisition strategy.
This section details how you will market your brand to achieve specific goals, the channels and tactics you’ll utilize to reach those goals, and the metrics you’ll be using to measure your progress.
This is where you’ll use plain language to emphasize the value of your product/service, how it solves the problems of your target audiences, and how you’ll scale up over time.
This section describes your pricing strategy and plans for building revenue streams that fit your audiences while achieving your business goals.
This is the final section, communicating with investors that your business idea is worth investing in via profit/loss statements, cash flow statements, and balance sheets to prove viability.
Okay, so now that we have a format established, I’ll give you more specific details about each section along with examples. Truthfully, I wish I’d had this resource to help me flesh out those first business plans long ago.
I’d say the executive summary is the most important section of the entire business plan. It is essentially an overview of and introduction to your entire project.
Write this in such a way that it grabs your readers' attention and guides them through the rest of the business plan. This is important because a business plan can be dozens or hundreds of pages long.
There are two main elements I’d recommend including in your executive summary: your company description and your products and services.
This is the perfect space to highlight your company’s mission statement and goals, a brief overview of your history and leadership, and your top accomplishments as a business.
Tell potential investors who you are and why what you do matters. Naturally, they’re going to want to know who they’re getting into business with up front. This is a great opportunity to showcase your impact.
Need some extra help firming up your business goals? I’d recommend HubSpot Academy’s free course to help you set meaningful goals that matter most for your business.
Products and Services
Here, you will incorporate an overview of your offerings. This doesn’t have to be extensive, as it is just a chance to introduce your industry and overall purpose as a business. I recommend including snippets of information about your financial projections and competitive advantage here as well.
Keep in mind that you'll cover many of these topics in more detail later on in the business plan. The executive summary should be clear and brief, only including the most important takeaways.
This example was created with HubSpot’s business plan template . What makes this executive summary good is that it tells potential investors a short story while still covering all of the most important details.
Our Mission
Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels offers gluten-free bagels, along with various toppings, other gluten-free breakfast sandwich items, and coffee. The facility is entirely gluten free. Our team expects to catch the interest of gluten-free, celiac, or health-conscious community members who are seeking an enjoyable cafe to socialize. Due to a lack of gluten-free bagel products in the food industry currently, we expect mild competition and are confident we will be able to build a strong market position.
The Company and Management
Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels was founded in 2010 by Maria Jones, who first began selling her gluten-free bagels online from her home, using social media to spread the word. In 2012 she bought a retail location in Hamilton, MA, which now employs four full-time employees and six part-time employees. Prior to her bagel shop, Maria was a chef in New York and has extensive experience in the food industry.
Along with Maria Jones, Gluten Free Bagel Shop has a board of advisors. The advisors are:
Our Product
We offer gluten-free products ranging from bagels and cream cheese to blueberry muffins, coffee, and pastries. Our customers are health-conscious, community-oriented people who enjoy gluten-free products. We will create a welcoming, warm environment with opportunities for open mic nights, poetry readings, and other community functions. We will focus on creating an environment in which someone feels comfortable meeting a friend for lunch, or working remotely.
Our Competitive Advantages
While there are other coffee shops and cafes in the North Shore region, there are none that offer purely gluten-free options. This restricts those suffering from gluten-free illnesses or simply those with a gluten-free preference. This will be our primary selling point. Additionally, our market research [see Section 3] has shown a demand for a community-oriented coffee and bagel shop in the town of Hamilton, MA.
Financial Considerations
Our sales projections for the first year are $400,000. We project a 15% growth rate over the next two years. By year three, we project 61% gross margins.
We will have four full-time employees. The salary for each employee will be $50,000.
Start-up Financing Requirements
We are seeking to raise $125,000 in startup to finance year one. The owner has invested $50,000 to meet working capital requirements, and will use a loan of $100,000 to supplement the rest.
Example 2 :
Marianne and Keith Bean have been involved with the food industry for several years. They opened their first restaurant in Antlers, Oklahoma in 1981, and their second in Hugo in 1988. Although praised for the quality of many of the items on their menu, they have attained a special notoriety for their desserts. After years of requests for their flavored whipped cream toppings, they have decided to pursue marketing these products separately from the restaurants.
Marianne and Keith Bean have developed several recipes for flavored whipped cream topping. They include chocolate, raspberry, cinnamon almond, and strawberry. These flavored dessert toppings have been used in the setting of their two restaurants over the past 18 years, and have been produced in large quantities. The estimated shelf life of the product is 21 days at refrigeration temperatures and up to six months when frozen. The Beans intend to market this product in its frozen state in 8 and 12-ounce plastic tubs. They also intend to have the products available in six ounce pressurized cans. Special attention has been given to developing an attractive label that will stress the gourmet/specialty nature of the products.
Distribution of Fancy's Foods Whipped Dream product will begin in the local southeastern Oklahoma area. The Beans have an established name and reputation in this area, and product introduction should encounter little resistance.
Financial analyses show that the company will have both a positive cash flow and profit in the first year. The expected return on equity in the first year is 10.88%
For more guidance, check out our tips for writing an effective executive summary .
2. Market Opportunity
This is where you'll detail the opportunity in the market. Ask and answer: Where is the gap in the current industry, and how will my product fill that gap?
To get a thorough understanding of the market opportunity, you'll want to conduct a TAM, SAM, SOM analysis , a SWOT analysis , and perform market research on your industry to get some insights for this section. More specifically, here’s what I’d include.
I like this example because it uses critical data to underline the size of the potential market and what part of that market this service hopes to capture.
Example: The market for Doggie Pause is all of the dog owners in the metropolitan area and surrounding areas of the city. We believe that this is going to be 2/3 of the population, and we have a goal of gaining a 50% market share. We have a target of a 20% yearly profit increase as the business continues.
Since we’re already speaking of market share, you‘ll also need to create a section that shares details on who the top competitors are. After all, your customers likely have more than one brand to choose from, and you’ll want to understand exactly why they might choose one over another.
My favorite part of performing a competitive analysis is that it can help you uncover the following:
I like how the competitive landscape section of this business plan shows a clear outline of who the top competitors are. It also highlights specific industry knowledge and the importance of location. This demonstrates useful experience in the industry, helping to build trust in your ability to execute your business plan.
Competitive Environment
Currently, there are four primary competitors in the Greater Omaha Area: Pinot’s Palette Lakeside (franchise partner), Village Canvas and Cabernet, The Corky Canvas, and Twisted Vine Collective. The first three competitors are in Omaha and the fourth is located in Papillion.
Despite the competition, all locations have both public and private events. Each location has a few sold-out painting events each month. The Omaha locations are in new, popular retail locations, while the existing Papillion location is in a downtown business district.
There is an opportunity to take advantage of the environment and open a studio in a well-traveled or growing area. Pinot’s Palette La Vista will differentiate itself from its competitors by offering a premium experience in a high-growth, influential location.
Use this section to describe who your customer segments are in detail. What is the demographic and psychographic information of your audience? I’d recommend building a buyer persona to get in the mindset of your ideal customers and be clear about why you're targeting them. Here are some questions I’d ask myself:
I like the example below because it uses in-depth research to draw conclusions about audience priorities. It also analyzes how to create the right content for this audience.
The Audience
Recognize that audiences are often already aware of important issues. Outreach materials should:
Message Content
Here, you‘ll discuss how you’ll acquire new customers with your marketing strategy. I think it’s helpful to have a marketing plan built out in advance to make this part of your business plan easier. I’d suggest including these details:
This business plan example includes the marketing strategy for the town of Gawler. In my opinion, it works because it offers a comprehensive picture of how they plan to use digital marketing to promote the community.
You’ll also learn the financial benefits investors can reap from putting money into your venture rather than trying to sell them on how great your product or service is.
This business plan guide focuses less on the individual parts of a business plan, and more on the overarching goal of writing one. For that reason, it’s one of my favorites to supplement any template you choose to use. Harvard Business Review’s guide is instrumental for both new and seasoned business owners.
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Setting business goals is one of those concepts that all business owners and managers know they should work on, but very few actually do.
The problem isn’t seeing the value of setting goals — we can all agree on that — but, rather, understanding how to get started and what to do next.
In this article, the experts at Sling discuss some of the more common business goals and how to go about setting — and achieving — your own.
Common small business goals, how to achieve your own business goals, reach your business goals the smart way.
Every business can benefit from spending less. But not every business will go about it in the same way.
Common cost-cutting business goals include:
Your business may benefit from striving for one or two — or all — of these business goals, but you won’t know unless you take a good, hard look at the way your company operates.
We’ll discuss that concept a bit further in point one of the How To Set Your Own Business Goals section later on in this article.
Like the cost-cutting business goal, improving productivity takes many forms and is often unique to your operation.
Your business may find more productivity from large-scale operational changes while, at the same time, benefit from more personal, individualized “tweaks” such as:
For more suggestions on how you can improve the productivity of your teams, check out this article from the Sling blog: How To Be Productive At Work And Home.
Hiring high-potential — and high-performing — employees can mean the difference between reaching your other business goals and coasting along without improvement.
Identifying high-potential employees is a priority that all HR departments should strive for, and consists of asking such questions as:
Once you’ve identified — and hired — a high-potential employee, be sure to do everything you can to keep them working for your team.
That brings us to our next business goal.
It costs a lot to find and hire a new employee. Your business is better served by working to reduce employee turnover in order to keep the employees it’s got.
There are many ways to reach this business goal, including:
Find a combination of strategies that work to reduce turnover, and your HR department can turn their attention to other, more beneficial tasks .
Employee burnout — or just burnout for short — is mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion that leads to a lack of enthusiasm, decreased motivation , and a general sense of displeasure with the job.
Preventing such brain drain is often high on most managers’ list of business goals, but few ever get around to addressing it.
Start by watching out for the signs of burnout, including:
Then, once you’ve identified an at-risk employee, take steps to alleviate the burden and prevent full-scale burnout.
Profitability is the cornerstone — and the ultimate goal — of most businesses, but many managers may struggle with reaching the profitability they need to be successful.
Why? Because they might leave it up to chance rather than setting a business goal and focusing on the changes they need to make to get there.
There are many ways to try to increase profitability, including:
The list goes on and on, but even with so many options, it may still take some time to reach the profitability numbers you’d like.
Don’t let that deter you. Make a plan, be patient, and keep working toward the goal.
Customer service can often be one of those components that fly under the business radar because it lacks the flash and immediate impact of some of the other goals on this list.
But don’t let that fool you. Improving customer service may be one of the best ways to improve the overall operation of your business.
A strong customer service program can help your business maintain a stable income level through customer loyalty and the addition of new clientele.
With a stable income base to work from — and a good reputation for treating your customers right — reaching your other business might come just a bit easier.
Your company’s core values are embodied and described in its mission statement and vision statement. At first glance, a mission statement and a vision statement may sound like the same thing. And, while they’re closely related, they explain different parts of your business.
A vision statement is the where of your business — where you want the company to be and where you want your customers, your community, and your world to be as a result of your product or service.
The mission statement, on the other hand, is the who, what, and why of your business. Think of your mission statement as a roadmap or action plan for making your vision statement a reality.
For more information on how to write a mission statement and express your core values, check out this article from the Sling blog: How To Write Your Ideal Restaurant Mission Statement + 15 Inspiring Examples.
Growing the business is often at the top of most owners’ and managers’ lists. And why wouldn’t it be? It’s one of the pillars of success.
If a part of your company isn’t growing in some way — even very slightly — the entire organization may run the risk of sliding backward.
When you set this as one of your business goals, don’t restrict yourself to external factors like growing your customer base (though this is certainly important).
Instead, think about growing your business from within as well by analyzing and improving aspects like:
If you focus on both the internal and external aspects of your business, you might find even more ways to make it grow.
While you’re in the midst of running your operation, it can be hard to focus outward and identify the financing opportunities your business needs to grow.
In many cases, the first step toward gaining the financing you need is making a commitment and setting a goal to seek it out.
Once you’ve got the goal in mind, it serves as a framework for your actions and a motivation to keep searching, pushing, and stretching for the financing sources you need to take your business to the next level.
Marketing is a big part of what makes your business successful, so setting a goal to achieve certain milestones is well worth your time.
Whether you’re focusing on traditional marketing (e.g., print, radio, and television), social media marketing, or even guerilla marketing, putting in the time and energy to dial in your advertising can often pay off in the long run.
For ideas and advice to help you reach your marketing and business goals, take a few minutes to read these articles from the Sling blog:
Becoming more eco-friendly is a lofty goal that all businesses should strive for, and even small steps can make a huge difference for the environment.
Implementing and executing eco-friendly policies, procedures, and practices is not only fulfilling for your employees — which is a great morale booster — but it’s also great for your brand image.
Because there are so many similar products on the market these days, customers often make the decision to purchase one over the other based on variables like where the product is made and how much recycled material the business uses.
If you’re struggling for ways to meet this business goal, consider one or all of these options to get you started:
Don’t feel like you have to go full-bore right away. Make the changes that feel right to you, and then look for additional ways to create an eco-friendly organization.
The first step in setting business goals is to perform a thorough examination of the way your company works.
Investigate all levels of operation including:
Get familiar enough with the active processes and procedures at each level that you can see ways to adjust and modify how things work for the better.
With a full understanding of your business, you can now identify what you want to accomplish.
If, for example, you discover that there are issues with the C-suite structure and function, you can set a goal to revise and streamline the way these employees work.
Or, if you see room for improvement in the way your front-line employees operate, you can set your sights on refining the way they work.
Sometimes, it’s tempting to set general goals, such as “provide better customer service” or “have more fun with the team.” Those are excellent business goals, but they’re too subjective to be of any real use.
How do you know if your team is providing better customer service? How do you know if they’re having more fun?
The best way to set goals that work is to make them measurable. Once you know how you want to quantify them, you can assign a target number so it will be more objective and less up to interpretation.
For example, you might set a goal to reach a 30% increase in customer satisfaction through the last six months of the year.
With a measurable target like this, you can quickly and easily see whether your business has achieved its goals or not.
Once you’ve created your specific business goals , it’s time to compose a strategic plan to get you there. Start by creating a written document that details the steps and processes your business needs to reach the goals you’ve set.
Be as detailed as possible, but also be willing to go back and change the plan if you see that something isn’t working or if someone has a better idea.
After you’ve composed your strategic plan, use that information to allocate any and all resources necessary to reach the business goal.
Don’t overlook such variables as:
All of these resources can have a dramatic effect on the success of your plans.
With your plans set and your resources dedicated to the task at hand, it’s time to assemble your team and go to work.
Assign individual tasks and set deadlines to adhere to the timeline you’ve established in your strategic plan. Once you’ve made the necessary changes to head in the right direction, get everyone involved.
While only a few individuals may be working toward a specific business goal, success depends on getting everyone in your business engaged and working toward the same end result.
Often, the most efficient and effective way to reach your business goals may be by using the SMART framework.
It doesn’t matter what type of business you run, the size of the organization, the number of employees, or the industry in which you operate, the SMART system can be a powerful tool.
SMART is an acronym for:
Here’s how each one contributes to the success of the whole.
When setting business goals, make sure they’re specific. Making goals as specific as possible will help clarify everything that comes next and give you insight into which steps you need to take to reach your objective.
To test whether or not your goal is specific enough, ask yourself these questions:
There’s no way to know if you’re moving toward your goal or away from it — or even if you’ve reached it already — unless you establish some way of measuring progress.
That’s where the M in SMART comes in. Before putting your goal into action, create a set of metrics you can use as parameters for success and failure. These metrics should allow you to quantify your progress toward achieving the goal you’ve set.
The A in SMART stands for attainable or, sometimes, achievable.
Whichever word you use, it means that it must be possible for you or your team to reach the goal in the time period that you set.
If your team lacks the support, the resources, the finances, the skills, or any of several other variables, their ability to achieve the goal can be seriously reduced.
Take the time to ensure that the objective is attainable by redirecting the necessary resources where they need to go to get the job done.
When setting your business goals and plotting the path to success, make sure the objective is relevant (or realistic). Building a relevant goal means that it’s not overly ambitious but is worth the time it’s going to take to get there.
If you set your sights too high, it can demotivate your team because they won’t see and experience the necessary progress to keep them motivated and on track.
That said, you can create an ambitious goal and keep your team engaged in the process by setting smaller goals — milestones — along the way that give your employees a sense of accomplishment and the drive to continue.
In terms of motivation, achievement, and success, an open-ended goal with no end date is just as demotivating as an overly-ambitious, irrelevant goal.
When planning the goals you want to reach, always abide by the T in SMART: timely, time-bound, time-based, or time-sensitive (choose your favorite).
Regardless of the term you use, it’s essential to set a deadline for your team’s activities. Establish a reasonable deadline — one that’s not too close but not too far away — and make sure everyone involved is aware of the date.
If you make the turnaround time too tight, you’ll likely put undue stress on those who are doing the most work.
On the other hand, if you make the turnaround time too broad, your team can lose sight of the overall progress against the background of their other day-to-day activities.
A significant part of conquering your business goals in a timely manner is assigning tasks to specific sub-teams or individual employees.
As the business owner or project manager, you’re going to need to coordinate the long-term activities of your team as well as their day-to-day work.
Without the ability to schedule effectively, you leave everything up to chance. That’s why tools like Sling are so important.
The Sling suite of cloud-based tools streamlines the scheduling process and helps you keep track of both the business goals you’ve set and the steps your team needs to take to reach those goals.
Try Sling for free and discover just how easy it is to streamline your operations and keep your business on the road to success.
For more resources to help you manage your business better, organize and schedule your team, and track and calculate labor costs, visit GetSling.com today.
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Disclaimer: This content is provided for informational purposes only and is not legal, accounting, tax, HR, or other professional advice. Contact your attorney or other relevant advisor for advice specific to your circumstances.
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Need support creating your business plan? Check out these business plan examples for inspiration.
Any aspiring entrepreneur researching how to start a business will likely be advised to write a business plan. But few resources provide business plan examples to really guide you through writing one of your own.
Here are some real-world and illustrative business plan examples to help you craft your business plan .
The business plan examples in this article follow this template:
Your executive summary is a page that gives a high-level overview of the rest of your business plan. It’s easiest to save this section for last.
In this free business plan template , the executive summary is four paragraphs and takes a little over half a page:
You might repurpose your company description elsewhere, like on your About page, social media profile pages, or other properties that require a boilerplate description of your small business.
Soap brand ORRIS has a blurb on its About page that could easily be repurposed for the company description section of its business plan.
You can also go more in-depth with your company overview and include the following sections, like in the example for Paw Print Post:
Your mission statement may also make an appearance here. Passionfruit shares its mission statement on its company website, and it would also work well in its example business plan.
The market analysis consists of research about supply and demand, your target demographics, industry trends, and the competitive landscape. You might run a SWOT analysis and include that in your business plan.
Here’s an example SWOT analysis for an online tailored-shirt business:
You’ll also want to do a competitive analysis as part of the market research component of your business plan. This will tell you who you’re up against and give you ideas on how to differentiate your brand. A broad competitive analysis might include:
This section of your business plan describes your offerings—which products and services do you sell to your customers? Here’s an example for Paw Print Post:
It’s always a good idea to develop a marketing plan before you launch your business. Your marketing plan shows how you’ll get the word out about your business, and it’s an essential component of your business plan as well.
The Paw Print Post focuses on four Ps: price, product, promotion, and place. However, you can take a different approach with your marketing plan. Maybe you can pull from your existing marketing strategy , or maybe you break it down by the different marketing channels. Whatever approach you take, your marketing plan should describe how you intend to promote your business and offerings to potential customers.
The Paw Print Post example considered suppliers, production, facilities, equipment, shipping and fulfillment, and inventory.
The financial plan provides a breakdown of sales, revenue, profit, expenses, and other relevant financial metrics related to funding and profiting from your business.
Ecommerce brand Nature’s Candy’s financial plan breaks down predicted revenue, expenses, and net profit in graphs.
It then dives deeper into the financials to include:
You can use this financial plan spreadsheet to build your own financial statements, including income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement.
A one-page business plan is meant to be high level and easy to understand at a glance. You’ll want to include all of the sections, but make sure they’re truncated and summarized:
A startup business plan is for a new business. Typically, these plans are developed and shared to secure outside funding . As such, there’s a bigger focus on the financials, as well as on other sections that determine viability of your business idea—market research, for example.
Your internal business plan is meant to keep your team on the same page and aligned toward the same goal.
A strategic, or growth, business plan is a bigger picture, more-long-term look at your business. As such, the forecasts tend to look further into the future, and growth and revenue goals may be higher. Essentially, you want to use all the sections you would in a normal business plan and build upon each.
Your feasibility business plan is sort of a pre-business plan—many refer to it as simply a feasibility study. This plan essentially lays the groundwork and validates that it’s worth the effort to make a full business plan for your idea. As such, it’s mostly centered around research.
Building a good business plan serves as a roadmap you can use for your ecommerce business at launch and as you reach each of your business goals. Business plans create accountability for entrepreneurs and synergy among teams, regardless of your business model .
Kickstart your ecommerce business and set yourself up for success with an intentional business planning process—and with the sample business plans above to guide your own path.
How do i write a simple business plan, what is the best format to write a business plan, what are the 4 key elements of a business plan.
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You've decided to write a business plan, and you're ready to get started. Congratulations. You've just greatly increased the chances that your business venture will succeed. But before you start drafting your plan, you need to--you guessed it--plan your draft.
One of the most important reasons to plan your plan is that you may be held accountable for the projections and proposals it contains. That's especially true if you use your plan to raise money to finance your company. Let's say you forecast opening four new locations in the second year of your retail operation. An investor may have a beef if, due to circumstances you could have foreseen, you only open two. A business plan can take on a life of its own, so thinking a little about what you want to include in your plan is no more than common prudence.
Second, as you'll soon learn if you haven't already, business plans can be complicated documents. As you draft your plan, you'll be making lots of decisions on serious matters, such as what strategy you'll pursue, as well as less important ones, like what color paper to print it on. Thinking about these decisions in advance is an important way to minimize the time you spend planning your business and maximize the time you spend generating income.
To sum up, planning your plan will help control your degree of accountability and reduce time-wasting indecision. To plan your plan, you'll first need to decide what your goals and objectives in business are. As part of that, you'll assess the business you've chosen to start, or are already running, to see what the chances are that it will actually achieve those ends. Finally, you'll take a look at common elements of most plans to get an idea of which ones you want to include and how each will be treated.
Determine Your Objectives Close your eyes. Imagine that the date is five years from now. Where do you want to be? Will you be running a business that hasn't increased significantly in size? Will you command a rapidly growing empire? Will you have already cashed out and be relaxing on a beach somewhere, enjoying your hard-won gains?
Answering these questions is an important part of building a successful business plan. In fact, without knowing where you're going, it's not really possible to plan at all.
Now is a good time to free-associate a little bit--to let your mind roam, exploring every avenue that you'd like your business to go down. Try writing a personal essay on your business goals. It could take the form of a letter to yourself, written from five years in the future, describing all you have accomplished and how it came about.
As you read such a document, you may make a surprising discovery, such as that you don't really want to own a large, fast-growing enterprise but would be content with a stable small business. Even if you don't learn anything new, though, getting a firm handle on your goals and objectives is a big help in deciding how you'll plan your business.
Goals and Objectives Checklist If you're having trouble deciding what your goals and objectives are, here are some questions to ask yourself:
It doesn't necessarily take a lot of money to make a lot of money, but it does take some. That's especially true if, as part of examining your goals and objectives, you envision very rapid growth.
Energetic, optimistic entrepreneurs often tend to believe that sales growth will take care of everything, that they'll be able to fund their own growth by generating profits. However, this is rarely the case, for one simple reason: You usually have to pay your own suppliers before your customers pay you. This cash flow conundrum is the reason so many fast-growing companies have to seek bank financing or equity sales to finance their growth. They are literally growing faster than they can afford.
Start by asking yourself what kinds of financing you're likely to need--and what you'd be willing to accept. It's easy when you're short of cash, or expect to be short of cash, to take the attitude that almost any source of funding is just fine. But each kind of financing has different characteristics that you should take into consideration when planning your plan. These characteristics take three primary forms:
Almost any source of funds, from a bank to a factor, has some guidelines about the size of financing it prefers. Anticipating the size of your needs now will guide you in preparing your plan.
Believe it or not, part of planning your plan is planning what you'll do with it. No, we haven't gone crazy--at least not yet. A business plan can be used for several things, from monitoring your company's progress toward goals to enticing key employees to join your firm. Deciding how you intend to use yours is an important part of preparing to write it.
Do you intend to use your plan to help you raise money? In that case, you'll have to focus very carefully on the executive summary, the management, and marketing and financial aspects. You'll need to have a clearly focused vision of how your company is going to make money. If you're looking for a bank loan, you'll need to stress your ability to generate sufficient cash flow to service loans. Equity investors, especially venture capitalists, must be shown how they can cash out of your company and generate a rate of return they'll find acceptable.
Do you intend to use your plan to attract talented employees? Then you'll want to emphasize such things as stock options and other aspects of compensation as well as location, work environment, corporate culture and opportunities for growth and advancement.
Do you anticipate showing your plan to suppliers to demonstrate that you're a worthy customer? A solid business plan may convince a supplier of some precious commodity to favor you over your rivals. It may also help you arrange supplier credit. You may want to stress your blue-ribbon customer list and spotless record of repaying trade debts in this plan.
For most of us, unfortunately, our desires about where we would like to go aren't as important as our businesses' ability to take us there. Put another way, if you choose the wrong business, you're going nowhere.
Luckily, one of the most valuable uses of a business plan is to help you decide whether the venture you have your heart set on is really likely to fulfill your dreams. Many, many business ideas never make it past the planning stage because their would-be founders, as part of a logical and coherent planning process, test their assumptions and find them wanting.
Test your idea against at least two variables. First, financial, to make sure this business makes economic sense. Second, lifestyle, because who wants a successful business that they hate?
Answer the following questions to help you outline your company's potential. There are no wrong answers. The objective is simply to help you decide how well your proposed venture is likely to match up with your goals and objectives.
Sources: The Small Business Encyclopedia , Business Plans Made Easy, Start Your Own Business and Entrepreneur magazine.
Continue on to the next section of our Business Plan How-To >> Elements of a Business Plan
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Updated: May 4, 2024, 4:37pm
Why business plans are vital, get your free simple business plan template, how to write an effective business plan in 6 steps, frequently asked questions.
While taking many forms and serving many purposes, they all have one thing in common: business plans help you establish your goals and define the means for achieving them. Our simple business plan template covers everything you need to consider when launching a side gig, solo operation or small business. By following this step-by-step process, you might even uncover a few alternate routes to success.
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Whether you’re a first-time solopreneur or a seasoned business owner, the planning process challenges you to examine the costs and tasks involved in bringing a product or service to market. The process can also help you spot new income opportunities and hone in on the most profitable business models.
Though vital, business planning doesn’t have to be a chore. Business plans for lean startups and solopreneurs can simply outline the business concept, sales proposition, target customers and sketch out a plan of action to bring the product or service to market. However, if you’re seeking startup funding or partnership opportunities, you’ll need a write a business plan that details market research, operating costs and revenue forecasting. Whichever startup category you fall into, if you’re at square one, our simple business plan template will point you down the right path.
Copy our free simple business plan template so you can fill in the blanks as we explore each element of your business plan. Need help getting your ideas flowing? You’ll also find several startup scenario examples below.
Download free template as .docx
Whether you need a quick-launch overview or an in-depth plan for investors, any business plan should cover the six key elements outlined in our free template and explained below. The main difference in starting a small business versus an investor-funded business is the market research and operational and financial details needed to support the concept.
Start by declaring a “dream statement” for your business. You can call this your executive summary, vision statement or mission. Whatever the name, the first part of your business plan summarizes your idea by answering five questions. Keep it brief, such as an elevator pitch. You’ll expand these answers in the following sections of the simple business plan template.
These answers come easily if you have a solid concept for your business, but don’t worry if you get stuck. Use the rest of your plan template to brainstorm ideas and tactics. You’ll quickly find these answers and possibly new directions as you explore your ideas and options.
This is where you detail your offer, such as selling products, providing services or both, and why anyone would care. That’s the value proposition. Specifically, you’ll expand on your answers to the first and fourth bullets from your mission/vision.
As you complete this section, you might find that exploring value propositions uncovers marketable business opportunities that you hadn’t yet considered. So spend some time brainstorming the possibilities in this section.
For example, a cottage baker startup specializing in gluten-free or keto-friendly products might be a value proposition that certain audiences care deeply about. Plus, you could expand on that value proposition by offering wedding and other special-occasion cakes that incorporate gluten-free, keto-friendly and traditional cake elements that all guests can enjoy.
Here is where you explore bullet point number three, who your business will benefit. Identifying your ideal customer and exploring a broader audience for your goods or services is essential in defining your sales and marketing strategies, plus it helps fine-tune what you offer.
There are many ways to research potential audiences, but a shortcut is to simply identify a problem that people have that your product or service can solve. If you start from the position of being a problem solver, it’s easy to define your audience and describe the wants and needs of your ideal customer for marketing efforts.
Using the cottage baker startup example, a problem people might have is finding fresh-baked gluten-free or keto-friendly sweets. Examining the wants and needs of these people might reveal a target audience that is health-conscious or possibly dealing with health issues and willing to spend more for hard-to-find items.
However, it’s essential to have a customer base that can support your business. You can be too specialized. For example, our baker startup can attract a broader audience and boost revenue by offering a wider selection of traditional baked goods alongside its gluten-free and keto-focused specialties.
Thanks to our internet-driven economy, startups have many revenue opportunities and can connect with target audiences through various channels. Revenue streams and sales channels also serve as marketing vehicles, so you can cover all three in this section.
Revenue Streams
Revenue streams are the many ways you can make money in your business. In your plan template, list how you’ll make money upon launch, plus include ideas for future expansion. The income possibilities just might surprise you.
For example, our cottage baker startup might consider these revenue streams:
Sales Channels
Sales channels put your revenue streams into action. This section also answers the “where will this happen” question in the second bullet of your vision.
The product sales channels for our cottage bakery example can include:
Channels that support other income streams might include:
Nowadays, the line between marketing and sales channels is blurred. Social media outlets, e-books, websites, blogs and videos serve as both marketing tools and income opportunities. Since most are free and those with advertising options are extremely economical, these are ideal marketing outlets for lean startups.
However, many businesses still find value in traditional advertising such as local radio, television, direct mail, newspapers and magazines. You can include these advertising costs in your simple business plan template to help build a marketing plan and budget.
This section of your simple business plan template explores how to structure and operate your business. Details include the type of business organization your startup will take, roles and responsibilities, supplier logistics and day-to-day operations. Also, include any certifications or permits needed to launch your enterprise in this section.
Our cottage baker example might use a structure and startup plan such as this:
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Your final task is to list forecasted business startup and ongoing costs and profit projections in your simple business plan template. Thanks to free business tools such as Square and free marketing on social media, lean startups can launch with few upfront costs. In many cases, cost of goods, shipping and packaging, business permits and printing for business cards are your only out-of-pocket expenses.
Cost Forecast
Our cottage baker’s forecasted lean startup costs might include:
Business Need | Startup Cost | Ongoing Cost | Source |
---|---|---|---|
Gross Profit Projections
This helps you determine the retail prices and sales volume required to keep your business running and, hopefully, earn income for yourself. Use product research to spot target retail prices for your goods, then subtract your cost of goods, such as hourly rate, raw goods and supplier costs. The total amount is your gross profit per item or service.
Here are some examples of projected gross profits for our cottage baker:
Product | Retail Price | (Cost) | Gross Profit |
---|---|---|---|
Putting careful thought and detail in a business plan is always beneficial, but don’t get so bogged down in planning that you never hit the start button to launch your business . Also, remember that business plans aren’t set in stone. Markets, audiences and technologies change, and so will your goals and means of achieving them. Think of your business plan as a living document and regularly revisit, expand and restructure it as market opportunities and business growth demand.
You can copy our free business plan template and fill in the blanks or customize it in Google Docs, Microsoft Word or another word processing app. This free business plan template includes the six key elements that any entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a new business.
A simple business plan is a one- to two-page overview covering six key elements that any budding entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a startup. These include your vision or mission, product or service offering, target audience, revenue streams and sales channels, structure and operations, and financial forecasts.
Start with our free business plan template that covers the six essential elements of a startup. Once downloaded, you can edit this document in Google Docs or another word processing app and add new sections or subsections to your plan template to meet your specific business plan needs.
When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business, an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.
Krista Fabregas is a seasoned eCommerce and online content pro sharing more than 20 years of hands-on know-how with those looking to launch and grow tech-forward businesses. Her expertise includes eCommerce startups and growth, SMB operations and logistics, website platforms, payment systems, side-gig and affiliate income, and multichannel marketing. Krista holds a bachelor's degree in English from The University of Texas at Austin and held senior positions at NASA, a Fortune 100 company, and several online startups.
For entrepreneurs and business owners, crafting a well-thought-out business plan is a fundamental step toward achieving success. A robust plan not only guides the business internally but also serves as a powerful tool to attract investors and other key stakeholders. Importantly, written business plan examples can be invaluable, providing a blueprint from which to draw both inspiration and structure. By scrutinizing these examples, one can gain a clearer understanding of how to effectively communicate business goals and strategies.
Understanding what makes a business plan effective is crucial. Each section of the plan should be meticulously detailed yet concise, offering a compelling narrative that holds the reader’s attention. The following article delves into the key components of successful business plans, highlighting sections such as the executive summary, company description, and market analysis. By breaking down these elements, we aim to provide actionable insights that can help you create a business plan that stands out.
Creating a business plan is a crucial step for any entrepreneur or business owner. Written business plan examples can serve as invaluable resources for those looking to craft compelling documents. By examining effective samples, individuals can gain insights into structure, content, and style that resonate with investors and stakeholders alike.
The foundation of a successful business plan lies in its key components. Each section should be detailed yet concise, ensuring clarity and purpose. Below are the essential elements often found in strong written business plan examples:
By analyzing various written business plan examples, several strategies emerge that contribute to their effectiveness:
While analyzing written business plan examples, it is equally important to learn from common mistakes that can detract from their effectiveness:
Using effective written business plan examples as a guide provides entrepreneurs with a clearer path to success. Here are steps to consider when applying these lessons:
Ultimately, successful written business plan examples serve as a springboard for entrepreneurs to craft documents that can attract investment and lead to business growth. By studying effective samples, individuals can better understand how to structure their own plans to communicate their vision clearly and effectively.
Creating a business plan is like building a roadmap for your venture. A comprehensive written business plan lays the groundwork for success by outlining the essential components that can guide your decisions and help secure funding. Any effective business plan enables you to communicate your vision and strategy clearly, making it easier to attract investors, guide your team, and establish a benchmark for future growth. Here’s what you need to include to create a powerful document.
The executive summary serves as the opening of your business plan, offering a concise overview of your business concept, goals, and the financial outlook. While this section comes first, consider writing it last to encapsulate all the main points. Readers should walk away with a clear understanding of what your business does, your target market, and why it stands out.
This section dives deeper into the specifics of your business, covering the following:
Understanding your market is crucial. A comprehensive market analysis will include:
Your marketing strategy outlines how you plan to attract and retain customers. This should include:
The operations plan details the day-to-day operations of your business, from location and facilities to equipment and technology. Key elements to cover include:
Investors want to know who is behind the business. Highlight the management team by including:
A robust financial section will outline your business’s financial health and forecast its future performance. Include:
If you are seeking funding, clearly outline how much you need and how you plan to use it. Specify if you’re looking for grants, loans, or investments, and provide a repayment timeline if applicable.
The appendix is a valuable space for supplementary materials that support your business plan. This may include charts, graphs, resumes, and other documents, which can enhance understanding and credibility.
By including these core components in your business plan, you’ll create a structured, comprehensive document that can guide your business towards achieving its goals. This strategic approach not only serves as a blueprint for you but also demonstrates your preparation and potential to investors and stakeholders.
Creating a business plan is a vital first step in building a successful venture. However, many entrepreneurs fall into various traps that can undermine their plans. Understanding common mistakes can help you navigate these pitfalls and create an effective business strategy.
One of the first missteps is neglecting thorough market research. Many entrepreneurs assume they know their target audience without delving deeply into demographics, preferences, and behaviors. This oversight can lead to products or services that fail to resonate with potential customers.
By investing time in research, you can tailor your offerings to meet actual market needs rather than perceived demands.
Another frequent mistake is setting financial projections that lack realism. While optimism is essential for entrepreneurship, your business plan should be grounded in data. Overestimating sales can lead to cash flow issues and unexpected operational obstacles.
To avoid this pitfall:
Your executive summary is often the first section investors read, and a poorly crafted summary can deter potential support. It’s essential to convey the essence of your business succinctly and compellingly. A vague or overly complex executive summary won’t capture attention.
Keep the following in mind when writing your summary:
Many business plans focus on high-level strategies without detailing the steps needed for implementation. Skipping this part can create ambiguity and lead to a lack of accountability. Investors want to see how you plan to execute your idea.
Include the following elements in your implementation strategy:
Ignoring potential risks can significantly undermine business credibility. Every venture involves risk, and outlining a comprehensive risk management plan shows that you’re prepared for challenges. A failure to address risks can raise red flags for investors.
To counter this mistake:
Once a business plan is crafted, many entrepreneurs consider it a finished product. However, the business environment is dynamic; conditions change, and so should your plan. Failing to revisit and revise your business plan is a significant error.
Make it a habit to:
A business plan should not exist in a vacuum; validating your ideas through real-world feedback is crucial. Relying solely on internal discussions without seeking external validation can misguide your planning process.
To ensure you’re on the right track:
By avoiding these common mistakes, you can develop a robust and effective business plan that serves as a roadmap for your future success. Ultimately, a strategic approach that focuses on understanding your market, setting realistic goals, and regularly revisiting your plan will position your business for growth and sustainability.
Creating a business plan is a critical step for any entrepreneur. However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all document. Tailoring your business plan for different audiences is essential to effectively convey your vision and goals. Each audience brings unique expectations and interests, making it necessary to adapt your messaging accordingly.
When preparing your business plan, consider who will read it. Common audiences include investors, lenders, partners, and even employees. The goals and motivations of each group differ, so you’ll want to craft your content to resonate with them. Here are some key strategies to tailor your business plan to meet the needs of various stakeholders.
Before jumping into the writing, take a moment to identify your primary audiences. Each type typically looks for specific information:
Your business plan typically consists of several components, such as the executive summary, market analysis, and sales strategies. Here’s how to adjust each section for different audiences:
For investors, your executive summary should open with an attention-grabbing statement that outlines the investment opportunity. Clearly define the problem your business solves and how it stands out in the market.
When presenting to lenders, provide thorough research on industry trends and market size. Highlight stability and risk factors to showcase your understanding of the landscape. Investors, on the other hand, may appreciate a more aggressive tone, focusing on the potential for rapid growth and market share expansion.
This section can be particularly technical. For investors, emphasize major growth milestones and ROI. For lenders, provide detailed projections with clarity on how funds will be utilized and income generated to meet repayment.
The narrative style should reflect your audience’s preferences. Investors often appreciate a formal yet persuasive tone, while employees might respond better to an engaging and motivational approach. Here are some pointers:
Including visuals in your business plan can enhance understanding and retention. Tailor diagrams, graphs, and charts to highlight what matters most to your audience:
In the end, a well-tailored business plan can bridge the gap between your vision and your audiences’ needs. By understanding your stakeholders and customizing your content, you can create a compelling case that resonates on multiple levels. Start with your audience in mind, craft your narrative, and remember: clarity and connection matter most in conveying your entrepreneurial ambitions.
In the evolving landscape of business, the significance of market research cannot be overstated, especially when creating a structured business plan. A well-crafted business plan necessitates a deep understanding of market dynamics, customer preferences, and competitive positioning. Without comprehensive research, any business plan falls flat, lacking the necessary data to make informed decisions.
Market research serves as the backbone of a solid business plan. It provides essential insights that guide entrepreneurs through the various stages of their business journey. By analyzing trends and customer behaviors, businesses can align their offerings with market demands. This analytical process involves several key components:
By integrating these elements into a business plan, entrepreneurs can create a document that not only outlines their goals but also provides a realistic path for achieving them. Additionally, here are the primary roles market research plays in shaping a compelling business plan:
The methodology of conducting market research can vary, but it typically includes qualitative and quantitative methods. Surveys, focus groups, interviews, and field trials are some effective strategies to gather relevant data. While qualitative research offers in-depth insights into consumer attitudes, quantitative research provides the statistical backing needed to make informed decisions.
Moreover, many entrepreneurs overlook the importance of continuous market research. The business environment is constantly changing due to technological advancements, shifting economic indicators, and evolving consumer preferences. Regular updates to market research allow business owners to stay ahead of the curve and adapt their strategies in real time.
Consider a case where a start-up aims to introduce a new product into a saturated market. Through detailed market research, the entrepreneur uncovers a gap in the market for eco-friendly options. This pivotal insight not only helps craft a unique selling proposition but also shapes the marketing strategy, product design, and even pricing structure. In this scenario, the business plan is not just a document; it becomes a roadmap informed by robust data.
In addition to informing the strategic elements of a business plan, market research also aids in the monitoring of performance. As businesses launch and begin operations, they can align their performance metrics with the insights gathered during the research phase. This alignment ensures that the business remains on track to meet its objectives, allows for the adjustment of tactics when necessary, and facilitates informed decision-making.
The role of market research in crafting a business plan is essential. It provides the foundation for understanding the market, identifying customer needs, and analyzing competition. By leveraging data-driven insights, entrepreneurs can develop a business plan that not only articulates their vision but also serves as a practical guide to achieving sustainable growth and success.
Utilizing market research effectively ensures that business plans are not just theoretical documents but actionable strategies built on a profound understanding of the marketplace. Entrepreneurs who embrace this approach position themselves for greater success, making informed decisions that resonate with their target audience.
When it comes to crafting a business plan, the approach often differs significantly between startups and established businesses. Each type of venture has unique needs, goals, and methodologies, which greatly influence how their business plans should be structured. Recognizing these distinctions is vital for entrepreneurs aiming for success, whether they’re laying the groundwork for a new enterprise or refining their strategy for an existing one.
Startups usually focus on innovation, market entry strategies, and funding, while established businesses concentrate on growth, optimization, and market retention. Below are some key areas where their business plans diverge:
The target audience for each type of business plan can differ widely:
The structure and content of a business plan for a startup versus an established business varies in the following ways:
In general, startup business plans often include:
Conversely, established businesses tend to emphasize:
Another notable disparity lies in the length and depth of content. Startups usually create succinct, high-level plans that can fit into one to fifteen pages. This brevity captures attention quickly, as they need to engage busy investors. Established businesses, however, generally produce more extensive plans, sometimes exceeding 50 pages. This is because they need to provide ample data and history to back their claims, establishing a context that reassures stakeholders of their ongoing stability and growth potential.
A vital difference is the flexibility in adaptability:
In a startup plan, convincing stakeholders often relies on the strength of the idea and the founding team’s experience. Drawing successful parallels, comparisons to industry trends, or utilizing potential market data strengthens this claim. On the other hand, established businesses can leverage real-world performance metrics and historical data. This empirical evidence provides reassurance and credibility regarding their path forward, leading to more confidence from investors and stakeholders.
Understanding these distinctions in crafting business plans ensures clearer communication and better alignment with company goals. Whether launching a new venture or optimizing an existing one, tailoring the business plan to the unique attributes of the business type is essential for success. In the dynamic world of entrepreneurship, recognizing these nuanced differences can be the key to unlocking potential and fostering sustainable growth.
In the world of business, having a solid plan is crucial for success. Among the many components of business planning, financial projections stand out as one of the most impactful elements. They serve not just as a roadmap for a company’s potential financial future, but also as a tool for decision-making, investment attraction, and performance assessment.
Understanding financial projections is essential for any entrepreneur or business leader. These projections provide estimates of future revenue, expenses, and profitability based on historical data and market analysis. They help you gauge how well your business might perform over a specific period, typically three to five years. By incorporating realistic assumptions and quantifiable metrics, you enhance the reliability of these projections.
Here’s how financial projections influence business planning:
Creating accurate and helpful financial projections involves several key steps:
The impact of financial projections extends beyond just numbers; they represent the story of your business. For example, when contemplating a new product launch, financial projections can help assess whether the anticipated return on investment justifies the cost. By presenting these projections to stakeholders, you can foster collaboration and aligned focus towards common business goals.
Moreover, as businesses confront dynamic environments and uncertainties, having precise financial projections aids in strategic planning. It empowers leaders to make informed decisions, allocate resources effectively, and prioritize initiatives that yield the best financial outcomes. Hence, as you develop your business plan, prioritize crafting strong financial projections that align with your vision.
Ultimately, financial projections play a pivotal role in steering any business toward future success. They not only inform and facilitate strategic planning but also reinforce credibility and enhance stakeholder trust. A well-structured financial projection can transform an ordinary business plan into a powerful narrative that attracts investors and guides the organization toward sustainable growth.
Crafting an effective business plan is crucial for entrepreneurs and business owners who wish to navigate the complexities of starting and running a successful business. The analysis of effective written business plan examples allows us to see firsthand what distinguishes a standout plan from the rest. These examples not only serve as templates but also highlight innovative approaches to problem-solving, strategic thinking, and market insights that can dramatically influence a business’s trajectory.
Key components of a successful business plan include a well-defined executive summary, a clear description of the business model, a thorough market analysis, and detailed financial projections. Each element must cohesively link to the others, providing a holistic view of the company’s potential. A business plan isn’t just a document but a roadmap that outlines both the vision and the practical steps needed to achieve it.
However, many entrepreneurs stumble on common pitfalls when drafting their plans. Frequent mistakes include lack of clarity, vagueness about target audiences, and insufficient financial analysis. To avoid these traps, it’s essential to prioritize precision in language, ensuring that every section conveys a clear and compelling narrative. This means clearly defining your unique value proposition and being specific about the challenges your business aims to solve.
Tailoring your business plan for different audiences is another critical strategy for success. Investors, stakeholders, and potential partners often seek specific information that aligns with their interests. For example, an investor may want to delve deeper into financial projections and return on investment, while a partner may focus more on operational details and collaborative initiatives. Adjusting the tone and emphasis of your plan can significantly enhance its appeal and effectiveness for each target reader.
The role of market research cannot be overstated in crafting a business plan. Comprehensive research informs every segment of the plan, from understanding the competitive landscape to identifying customer segments and predicting market trends. It substantiates claims made in the business plan and demonstrates to potential investors that the entrepreneur has a solid grasp of the market dynamics. The more grounded your business plan is in data and analysis, the more credible it becomes.
When distinguishing between the plans for startups and established businesses, it’s essential to recognize that the former needs to emphasize potential and vision, while the latter should reflect a history of achievement and growth. Startups may focus on innovation and market entry strategies to capture attention, whereas established businesses can leverage their track record and existing market share to attract investment and support for expansion initiatives. Understanding these distinctions ensures that the plan speaks appropriately to its context and audience.
The impact of financial projections in business planning cannot be overlooked. These projections not only convey how much money is expected to flow in and out of the business but also provide insights into future profitability, funding requirements, and the fiscal health of the company. Including well-researched, realistic financial forecasts is essential. It reassures readers that you have considered how to manage finances responsibly and sustainably.
Creating a written business plan that effectively communicates your vision requires attention to detail, strategic insight, and a deep understanding of your audience. the elements discussed above ensures that your plan serves its intended purpose while minimizing common pitfalls. Remember, a business plan is an evolving document that should grow alongside your business, adapting to new challenges and opportunities. By leveraging effective examples, avoiding common mistakes, tailoring the plan for various stakeholders, conducting thorough market research, and providing solid financial projections, you set the stage for your business not just to survive, but to thrive in the competitive marketplace. Embrace the journey of planning with creativity, research, and adaptability, and you’ll find that the exercise cultivates not only a road map for success but also a richer understanding of your business landscape.
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An action plan is an important element in the sphere of project management. It is a management document that describes the project's aims and objectives, the tasks that need to be accomplished, and the resources required to achieve these objectives. It defines how to conduct the project and performs the tasks, which is described in the action plan. Components that should be incorporated in the process of writing action plans are the project resources, the project deliverables, and the project timeline. The project action plan is an important strategy map in the process of strategic planning and contributes to the formulation of an effective strategic action plan.
An action plan is an important component of project management since it is a component of project planning and project implementation.
It not only outlines tasks that comprise a project, what the output of those tasks should look like, and when those tasks are due, but it also outlines the resources that will be used within a project and how they will be properly utilized. These are in concordance with the project objectives and therefore an action plan is useful in strategic management. A good action plan, whether it is a project action plan or a strategic action plan, is useful in the management of tasks. It provides guidelines when it comes to goal setting, at the same time giving an idea of the whole project flow. For this reason, it is a very helpful tool in any project management venture that one may undertake.
An action plan, important in project management, is a roadmap that provides an illustration of the various activities that are required to be accomplished in order to meet particular project objectives. Indeed, it can be safely stated that it is one of the most critical aspects of project management and implementation. The plan consists of aspects like the schedule of the project, resource usage, and management of tasks which assist the organization in monitoring of responsibilities and achievements. A strategic action plan is similar to a project and may contain project deliverables, resources, and, of course, strategic planning. In other words, a project action plan gives direction on how to set and accomplish goals in the attainment of project objectives.
The existence of action plans is crucial in project management and they are considered as a critical component of project implementation. These are the action plans that provide the roadmap of the project, the tasks to be accomplished, the resources needed, and the time frame within which these tasks have to be completed. This helps in time management and utilization of resources towards completion of tasks.
Goal setting: With the help of goals, action plans help in defining the project objectives and outcome in a detailed manner. Organizations can map the project strategic plan with the project action plan to make sure that everyone working on the project is in tune with the goals of the project. Therefore, a strategic action plan is a necessity for the accomplishment of the business goals as well as for the successful completion of any work. Keep the following things in mind:
It has been established that for any action plan to work it requires three undertakings namely; strategizing, project development, and goal setting. It means that due to strategic planning, the assignment of the project resources and time can be done in a proper sequence. Task management is also a part of project management, and it helps in the planning of project work and directing the work thus facilitating the accomplishment of project tasks and deliverables. Lastly, goal setting assists in developing clear project goals that relate to the strategic action plan; it establishes the overall direction of the project action plan.
There is always a need for goals and objectives when it comes to project management, and these are vital components of strategic intents and goals. These make it possible to guide all future project planning so that proper resource allocation for the project can be done and also to provide an action plan. Consequently, key project tasks and project deliverables are contingent on these goals.
When the goals of the project are not clearly defined, the timeline of the project may not be as structured and may cause the project to be interrupted. Further, management of the tasks becomes quite difficult which may in turn lead to wastage of the resources that have been utilized in executing the project.
Therefore, it is required that one should develop a strategic action plan that targets to meet the set and measurable project objectives which in turn increases the efficiency of project management.
Role and responsibilities play a vital role in project planning and implementation in project management. Out of them, it helps in managing the tasks of the project and the proper distribution of resources for effective working of the projects. This makes it possible for the project tasks to be aligned with the project goals within the stipulated project timeline. The action plan of a project indicates who is to do what in a project. This assists in the process of goal definition because people are aware of what they are supposed to offer as a result of the project. This strategic action planning also enables the distribution of project resources fairly which also improves the project execution. Thus, the definition of roles and responsibilities is crucial to any project action plan and, thereby, reasserts the project management process to enhance the project’s timeline.
Project management entails an action plan of project tasks, resources, and time schedule for the project. Of great importance in the process of planning is the identification of goals that are in line with the general strategic plan. This involves such things as the identification of resources to be used in the execution of a project within certain time frames to meet certain project objectives. The project execution phase is all about being very careful with the way tasks are addressed. Here, resources are assigned to the tasks according to the action plan of the project. Schedules are very important at this phase; the tasks must correspond to the strategic action plan, and the project should not be off course.
This is the reason, why project resource management is considered so vital in any project management. It also has a central position in the formulation of action plans and implementation of projects. Time and again when planning for a project, resource management such as the financial aspect must be given adequate priority to accomplish project assignments. The use of the project action plan to assess every activity by looking at it in the context of the established project goals and objectives is a perfect illustration of the concept of strategic planning. Monitoring project deliverables and controlling the project schedule is in tandem with the requirements of the strategic action plan. In addition, effective scheduling leads to goal setting and finally the accomplishment of the project goals and objectives. Sufficient financial resources mean a lack of problems in the project’s functioning.
An action plan is created by going through a strategic planning process. First, define the objectives of the project on hand and then find out the activities that are required to complete the project’s objectives. Resource management is also important in project management for the availability of project resources for proper project undertaking. The other significant factor is how the tasks are done and ensuring that the project has a timeline. It provides an indication of how long the execution of each task will take so as to deliver the project outcomes on time. Taken together, this constitutes your project action plan.
Remember, a strategic action plan contains more than just planned actions it also has the function of the roadmap, of tracking progress, and of making changes.
Defining the objectives is very important in project planning and it is here that strategic planning is born. It defines the role through which the project management can lead the action plan, and identify the project resources needed. It is also used in the creation of the project schedule, which is used in the monitoring and tracking of tasks. Strategic objectives assist in defining the deliverables of a project and the tasks constituting the project action plan. It is one of the key steps of resource management within projects, defining stages of the project implementation. Lack of clearly defined project objectives means that the project action plan may miss some components and thus compromise the success of the project.
The success of the projects depends therefore on the strategic planning and the achievement of organizational goals. This involves defining a directory project implementation plan which is a clear and concise document that details how project objectives will be achieved and in the process defining the project tasks. Here are the steps:
First of all, one should define the required project resources and be able to allocate the resources effectively. These resources could be men and equipment required to perform each of the tasks or materials required in the performance of each task. Then, define what is to be produced at the end of the project or what is expected to be achieved when a particular task is done—an aspect of project implementation. Finally, create a project schedule that is important in the management of tasks and the achievement of coherence in the overall strategic action plan.
In order to avoid chaos during the execution of the projects it is important that there is a clear definition and understanding of the responsibilities of each of the stakeholders. Resource management, strategic direction, and work scheduling are some of the processes in this category. This includes defining who is accountable for the resources management, who is accountable for defining the strategic action plan, and how the project tasks are monitored. The project action plan details each team member and how he or she will contribute towards the achievement of the project objectives. This includes the determination of the time frame within which deliverables of the project should be completed, putting in place the project management strategy, and assessing the level of compliance. It is very important to determine responsibilities and tasks when planning a project. Clear lines of distinction are not only useful when it comes to attaining the project objectives but also when it comes to the management of the projects.
In project management, scheduling is crucial in the accomplishment of set project objectives as it helps in the development of project milestones. This entails scheduling and defining the project and the individual tasks in order to optimize the use of the project resources. The strategic action plan is made as a result of which the project execution process is defined. The project timeline is used as a map that shows activities to be done and the time they are supposed to be done. It shows the project activities the time frame within which each activity is expected to be accomplished and the resources to be used. This makes it possible to plan the resources effectively and also monitor the achievement of the intended project. Finally, the strategic planning process calls for a time frame and project schedule so that the project is accomplished in the expected time.
Resources are very important when it comes to managing and executing a project; thus the a need to allocate them properly. It is the process that seeks to plan how the available resources are to be utilized to the greatest benefit of the project. In the project planning phase goal setting helps in the identification of project activities and what needs to be accomplished and this is followed by the process of resource estimation.
An action plan can then be developed as a part of the overall strategic action plan, with the timeline of the project as a framework. This plan also includes task management that states the accountability of every project member and the tasks that would be completed within the project. Here are a few things to note:
In the context of project management, the action plan could be used by the team to lay out the specific tasks in the project and their relation to the general objectives of the project. This may involve elaboration of how the project will be implemented – the resources to be used and the expected dates of completion among other things in order to meet the project deliverables. In strategic planning, an action plan can help to support the identification of main goals and determine the activities that would help to achieve them. It might include planning, scheduling, and controlling tasks and the overall utilization of project resources.
Every project activity requires the formulation of a project action plan or strategic action plan to achieve the project objectives. It helps to navigate the team to the project’s successful end while keeping all the team members motivated.
The first component of our action plan is project planning, the definition of our project objectives, and the definition of activities. This will involve planning to ensure the marketing campaign that we are to embark on has the right goals and objectives for the business. Coordination is important for this stage where we ensure that our team is in harmony when it comes to handling tasks.
After that, it will be resource management that will be a key focus on how our project resources will be utilized to the greatest effect. Schedules will be set in order to achieve the above plan and conduct the project in the expected time. Last of all, we will present the details of our project in terms of what we shall deliver at the end of each phase of the project to enhance accountability, and this will produce a sound project action plan. All these steps will serve to develop a strategic action plan for the marketing campaign that will be successful.
The action plan for the product launch will begin with strategic planning, which will be centered on our project goals and the target population. We will define project tasks, their consequences that are dependent on other tasks, and a project schedule, which will allow us to manage the task completion optimally based on the project planning.
Resource acquisition is another explicit factor here; the resources that are to be used in the project will be allocated according to some of the following factors: their aptitude toward the skills that are deemed necessary for the task at hand. The action plan for our project will include project management, whereby project execution will continue apace and will glide straight through to the project deliverables as per the set timeline. The contingency plan implies the possibility of adapting and making changes to the plan for strategic action to meet the client’s needs and demands, as well as current trends in the market, without losing the quality of the result.
The project action plan is very important in the management of crises because it presents the project’s strategic plan, the tasks, and the resources needed to achieve the goals of the project. This action plan should indicate what activities are to be accomplished in the project and the project resources needed for its implementation.
Project deliverables and project timelines should be identified and elaborated if the planning of a project is done effectively. The other factor that is critical in the process is goal setting so as to have a perfect synchronization with the overall strategy of the project execution.
To solve this problem, a strategic action plan which comprises identifying the threats and risks that might lead to the crisis, developing the response, putting into practice the action plan, and evaluating the plans should be performed.
Incorporation of software tools in the development of action plans can go a long way in simplifying project management. They help in controlling tasks, planning, and organizing resources, and hence serve to enhance the efficiency of the project. They also assist in the determining of project objectives and the scheduling of the project as well as the management of resources in the project. Besides, these software tools facilitate the effective implementation of projects and organize the project outcomes according to the level of importance. In this way, they make it possible to develop a concrete project action plan and strategic action plan, as well as to improve project planning and goal setting.
Microsoft Project is a wonderful tool used in the management of projects and the planning of strategies that may be used in the implementation of the tasks. As a result of its use, this software enables teams to have improved control over the project resources and time thus improving the completion of the work.
Microsoft Project also allows teams to have a system for tracking their project tasks, setting the goals of the project, and planning for the specific course of action. All the project deliverables are captured and management makes sure that the right resources are channeled towards the achievement of each set timeline.
Key features include:
Asana also transforms work assignments and their accomplishment by combining the work planning, work doing, and work controlling processes to come up with an enormous action plan. I like this outstanding tool as its input, output, and time frames of projects are integrated in the best way for working efficiently.
As you have seen, Asana makes strategic planning very easy. This supports proper planning of the project resources, and planning of your project action plan, and also helps to categorize project resources that are essential for the achievement of an excellent result on the completion of the tasks. Say goodbye to the stress of task management – welcome Asana!
Trello is a great tool in strategic planning and tasking that is perfect for all your project objectives. From this, it provides you with a graphical interface in which you can develop an action plan, hire project resources, and determine the timeline of the project. It helps in the successful management of projects by enabling one to monitor the tasks under a project, helps in the development of goals and objectives, and gives a detailed description of what is expected in each project.
In resource management, Trello makes work easier and the planning of action in accordance with the strategies has better visualization in it. In general, Trello enhances the implementation of a project action plan by ensuring that the targeted teams stay on course, and project planning is quite easy.
Committing to project management should be done with an action plan to guide the next steps. As a critical tool, it assists you in the process of incorporating your project’s objectives into the strategic planning process. Start with the definition of project activities, the definition of project objectives as well as creation of a feasible project schedule. Task control is of great importance. Explain the resources that are needed for the project, so that resources can be properly distributed to enhance the functioning of the project. A project action plan provides a way to get from project planning to the accomplishment of the strategic action plan. Take note that a good action plan creates the environment to integrate all the components of a project leading to successful project completion. It is also important to revise from time to time so that it can always be relevant to the general goals.
It is very important to have a well-formulated action plan, especially in the management of projects. It is useful in planning for projects, defining the objectives of the projects, and even in the allocation of resources. Some of the free templates that can be useful are the ones that can help in creating the project action plan, creating the project task list, deciding the resources required, defining the deliverables, and the project calendar.
Such templates aid in strategic planning to ensure the right approach is made in the project. These are invaluable no matter whether a given document is a strategic action plan or a simple to-do list.
Thus, all these aspects being taken into consideration and incorporated, your project is oriented towards a successful outcome and there are comprehensible steps to accomplish the objectives.
Google Sheets allows for easy and flexible templates for your strategic action plan. These templates help out in project management since they provide templates for structured project planning, goal setting, and resource management. They assist you in writing down your project objectives, outlining the necessary resources needed for the project, and tabulating the anticipated project outputs in a systematic manner.
With these templates, it is easy to manage tasks as you can easily lay down a project schedule and an in-depth project action plan. The templates are of very big help in managing your projects since they facilitate the execution and the strategic planning of your project tasks while keeping a record of the tasks at hand for accountability purposes.
In the field of project management, perhaps the most important element is the detailed action plan which is to be executed. Hence, it gives a framework for the implementation of projects, which can be useful in project management and in the formulation of strategies. When a project is scheduled and all the resources are properly deployed in line with the project timeline, a well-structured project action plan enhances the completion of project tasks in relation to the overall project objectives. This is especially important in the achievement of project deliverables which epitomizes the importance of a strategic action plan in formulating goals.
Discover what PERT is, its benefits, and the tools you need for effective project management. Learn how PERT charts help in accurate time and cost estimation to improve project delivery.
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Running a small business is no small feat. With countless tasks demanding your attention, it’s easy to overlook the importance of having a solid social media strategy . Yet, a well-crafted marketing plan for small businesses is essential—the strategic foundation ensures your efforts are effective and your resources are well spent.
Why is a Marketing Plan Essential for Small Businesses?
When you think about marketing, your mind might immediately jump to social media posts, flyers, or even local ads. However, these activities might not bring the results you need without a guiding plan. A marketing plan for small businesses serves as your roadmap, steering your efforts toward your goals and helping you navigate the complex landscape of customer acquisition and retention.
According to a McKinsey report in 2024, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that actively engage in strategic planning, including a well-defined marketing plan, significantly outperform those that do not. Specifically, businesses with a comprehensive marketing plan see up to a 40% increase in growth potential compared to those without such a plan. Without a clear plan, your marketing efforts can feel like trying to drive without a map—constantly turning but never knowing if you’re on the right track.
A marketing plan for small business clarifies your goals, identifies your target audience, and aligns your tactics with your business objectives. This alignment is critical for small businesses, where resources are often limited. Instead of spreading yourself thin across multiple channels, you focus on what truly matters, maximizing your impact.
If you’re interested in optimizing your social media presence as part of your marketing plan for small business, this blog will provide valuable insights that tie directly into your overall marketing plan.
A deep understanding of your market is the cornerstone of any successful marketing plan for small businesses. The process starts with thorough market research and analysis, which helps you understand the environment in which you operate.
What is Market Research?
Market research involves gathering data about your industry, competitors, and customers. It comes in two forms: primary & secondary research . Primary research is data you collect through surveys, interviews, or observations. Secondary research involves analyzing existing data, like reports, studies, or statistics from credible sources. Consequently, you can get more clients for your digital marketing agency as a service provider.
Understanding your market helps you identify opportunities and threats. For example, if you discover a competitor struggling with customer satisfaction. Such mishaps might allow you to differentiate your business by emphasizing superior customer service within a marketing plan for small businesses.
Start by segmenting your audience into groups based on demographics, psychographics, and behavior. Creating customer personas—detailed profiles of your ideal customers—can make this process more tangible and direct in a marketing plan for small businesses.
Another key component of your marketing plan for small businesses is understanding your competitors. A competitive analysis helps you identify your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)—the key factor that sets your business apart. Your UVP should be a focal point of your marketing plan for small business marketing messages. This approach can help you get cost-effective marketing tips .
Now that you understand your market, it’s time to set goals. Without clear goals, you won’t know if your marketing plan for small businesses is paying off.
The SMART framework is a popular method for setting Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals. For example, instead of saying, “I want more customers,” a SMART goal within your marketing plan for small businesses would be: “Increase website traffic by 20% in the next three months through targeted email campaigns.”
Your marketing goals should directly support your broader business objectives. For example, if your business goal is to increase sales by 15% this year, your marketing goal within the marketing plan for small businesses could focus on lead generation or customer retention strategies that contribute to that target.
Setting short-term and long-term goals helps you stay focused and measure progress over time. Remember, your goals should be flexible enough to adapt to changes in the market, ensuring that your marketing plan for small businesses remains effective.
With your goals in place, the next step in your marketing plan for small business is crafting a strategy that will help you achieve them. Utilize a social media strategy template to fulfill your marketing purpose.
Your brand is more than just a logo or a tagline. It’s the overall impression you leave on your customers. Key elements include the brand’s voice, messaging, and visual identity. Consistency across all these elements is crucial to building brand recognition and trust, and these should align with your marketing plan for small businesses.
For small businesses, a strong brand can make a significant difference. It sets the tone for all your marketing efforts and helps you stand out in a crowded market, a crucial factor in your marketing plan for small business.
There are many marketing channels to choose from—social media, email marketing, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and more. However, not all channels will be right for every business, so you must carefully design a marketing plan for small businesses and select the most appropriate channels. Understanding the dynamics of social media marketing for different industries is vital for this step.
Choosing the proper channels depends on where the target audience spends their time and the content they engage with. For example, if your target audience is younger, platforms like Instagram or TikTok might be more effective than traditional advertising methods, which should be reflected in your marketing plan for small businesses.
To dive deeper into this, consider reading our blog on the best social media management tools .
Your USP is what makes your business unique. It’s the reason customers should choose you over your competitors. Your USP should be clear, compelling, and prominently featured in all your marketing communications as part of a marketing plan for small businesses.
No marketing plan for small businesses is complete without a budget. Budgeting ensures your marketing efforts are sustainable and aligned with your financial resources. If you are a digital marketing service provider, utilize our social media pricing calculator to provide your clients with detailed and accurate budget information.
A common rule of thumb is to allocate 5-10% of your revenue to marketing. However, this can vary depending on your business goals, industry, and growth stage. For startups or businesses looking to grow aggressively, a higher percentage may be necessary within their marketing plan for small businesses.
Once you’ve determined your budget, the next step in your marketing plan for small business is to allocate it across different channels. Consider factors like the cost of each channel, the expected return on investment (ROI), and the goals you’ve set. For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you might allocate more funds to social media advertising or influencer partnerships.
For small businesses with limited budgets, it’s important to maximize every dollar in your marketing plan for small businesses. This might involve focusing on organic growth strategies like SEO or content marketing, which require time but have lower upfront costs. Additionally, leveraging free or low-cost email marketing tools, content marketing tools , automation tools , digital marketing tools , social media marketing tools , and social media analytics tools can help stretch your budget further.
For more ideas on cost-effective marketing strategies, check out the blog on must-have marketing agency tools .
Content is the fuel that powers many of your marketing channels. A well-thought-out content plan is essential for engaging your audience and driving traffic within a marketing plan for small businesses.
Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and engage your target audience . This process can include blog posts, videos, infographics, ebooks, and more. The key is to provide content that answers your audience’s questions or solves their problems as part of your marketing plan for small business.
Start by brainstorming social media content ideas that align with your audience’s interests and your marketing goals. For example, if you’re launching a new product. You might create a series of blog posts, videos, and social media updates highlighting its features and benefits, all coordinated within a marketing plan for small businesses.
Once you have a list of ideas, organize them into a content calendar. A content calendar helps you plan and schedule your content in advance, ensuring a consistent flow of material that keeps your audience engaged as part of your marketing plan for small business.
Creating great content is just the first step. You also need a strategy for getting it in front of your audience. This might involve sharing it on social media, optimizing it for search engines, or promoting it through email marketing—all vital parts of a marketing plan for small businesses.
If you are new to the digital marketing business, you can easily target clients who find content creation overwhelming. By using the social media campaign proposal generator , you can become affluent in gaining such client accounts.
With everything in place, it’s time to put your marketing plan for small business into action.
Start by breaking down your marketing plan for small business into actionable steps. Assign tasks to team members, set deadlines, and ensure everyone is clear on their responsibilities. Multiple tools can help you manage projects and track progress.
As you execute your plan, you must monitor your performance closely. Track key metrics like website traffic, conversion rates, social media engagement , and social media positioning to see if your efforts are delivering the desired results.
If something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to pivot. Adapting to new information is one of the strengths of a well-managed marketing plan for small businesses. Regularly reviewing and updating your plan ensures it stays aligned with your business goals.
Managing a marketing plan for small businesses can be complex, but the right tools can make it easier. Consider using marketing automation software to streamline your efforts. For example, RecurPost offers social media scheduling and content management features that can save you time and keep your marketing on track.
Creating a marketing plan for small businesses might seem daunting at first, but it’s one of the most important steps you can take to ensure the success of your business. Social media optimization will become easy by following the steps outlined in this guide and you’ll be well on your way to achieving your business goals.
Don’t wait to get started. The sooner you have a marketing plan for small businesses in place, the sooner you can begin seeing the results. Take the first step today and start crafting your marketing plan.
Ideally, you should review your marketing plan for small business quarterly to ensure it remains relevant and effective. However, major business changes or shifts in the market may require more frequent updates.
If your efforts aren’t working, start by reviewing your goals and metrics. Identify any areas where performance is lagging and adjust your strategy accordingly. It might involve changing messaging, targeting a different audience segment, or reallocating your budget to more effective channels within your marketing plan for small business.
Focus on organic strategies like SEO, content marketing, and social media. These can be low-cost but highly effective if done correctly. Additionally, make the most of free tools and resources available online, which can be part of a cost-effective marketing plan for small businesses.
The best approach depends on your audience. Digital marketing offers precise targeting and tracking, often ideal for small businesses. However, traditional methods like print advertising or direct mail might still be effective if your audience is local or less tech-savvy. These should be considered within your marketing plan for small businesses.
Ruchi Dhimar is a skilled content writer with 4 years of experience. She is passionate about crafting compelling narratives, specializing in writing content for different industries.
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Did you have a dream of one day owning your business ? If so, what was your dream about? When I was young, I always dreamed of owning my own business and seeing it flourish . I told myself that one day, I would be able to own a business that involved a hybrid of a coffee and tea shop with a library and a place where animal lovers could simply hang out. Of course that dream is still in the air as it takes a lot of planning and a lot of resources like financial and material resources to make it happen. Another thing to also take into consideration is to have your own plans. Not just one plan but if possible a lot of back up plans that go along with it. Even if your plan may seem or look fool proof, there is still a possibility that you may need to redo it or to have at least a back up plan along with your original plan. What am I even talking about? A business plan of course. Your personal business plan. The difference between a business plan and a personal business plan is found in the article below. So check it all out right now.
1. personal financial business plan template.
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A lot of people would associate a business plan to a business or a company. But they may never associate the term business plan with personal . However, you can make your own business plan, and it does not have to be focused on a business or a company that you own. It can also focus on you, your family life, personal life, and your development. So what is a personal business plan? A personal business plan is a tool . This tool helps you by giving you a tour, a guide or serves as a road map for you to know how and where you can start out by changing what you want to do in life, or to change something in your business to make it better. For this case, a personal business plan is more associated with how you view yourself and your goals to achieve them. The importance of a personal business plan is to simply help you. Help you by giving you directions. A step by step plan that shows you or how you want to see your future in specific years to come. To show if there is any development that you have made or none at all.
Here’s a fun fact for you. Did you know that having a personal business plan can help you ? Apart from having a positive mindset, having a personal development plan or a personal business plan is also quite helpful. Though it may depend on how you perceive it and use it, but it really is a helpful tool. Something to help you get started on writing are these simple yet easy to do tips.
What this means is, brainstorm. What do you want to write, what do you expect to write and what do you really want to see in your personal development? These are just basic questions to help you when you brainstorm on what you want to place in your personal business plan. The topics could range from family, your dreams, your goals, anything that is achievable. Start from there.
Know your goals and know your objectives . Understand the factors when picking your goals. Always choose an attainable goal. In addition to that, always choose an attainable objective or a series of attainable objectives. This is going to be your guide when you choose what goal you want to achieve. So to make that happen, you must make it happen. It must be achievable. Something possible, not impossible.
One thing you may have noticed is why should you make your goals very specific ? The reason for this is because if you do not make your goals specific, you may end up getting frustrated or end up not bothering to achieve the goal you want. For this to be avoided, it is always best to make every single thing in your plan specific, especially your goals.
In addition to the tips above, here is another tip I can give you. Set up deadlines . For each goal you plan on doing, set up a deadline. Not only will this encourage you to do better and to really find ways to achieve them, it also gives you a sense of accomplishment and responsibility. This is where your development should already be showing.
Last but not the least, update on the progress you have made. Whether it be a huge milestone or a smaller and simple one. Each milestone you have made is considered progress and should be updated to your plan. This is to show you how far you have gone to reach the goal you decided to do and how far you still need to go and push through to achieve it.
A personal business plan can also be coined as a personal development plan. This kind of plan is used as a personal growth plan for a person. It helps by outlining your goals and objectives and to record every milestone that has been accomplished at a certain amount of time.
A personal business plan can be used in a way to help you reach your full potential. It helps by showing you the steps and the things that you can do to reach it.
Not at all. Planning on making your own business plan is quite easy. It only takes a few simple steps. To know more about these steps, you can simply check the How to write a personal business plan found in this article.
When you want your dreams to come true, you work hard for it. When you want your goals in life to be achieved, you work hard for it. But there are times that we often mistake what we think we can do to what we can actually do. Always remember that you can achieve those dreams if they are realistic and doable. As well as adding a personal business plan to the mix.
Text prompt
Create a study plan for final exams in high school
Develop a project timeline for a middle school science fair.
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Here are three sample short-term business goals: Increase Your Market Share: When companies increase their market share, they increase the percentage of their target audience who chooses their product or service over competitors. This is a good short-term goal for companies that have long-term expansion goals.
Step 2: Choose specific and measurable goals. Setting clear and specific goals is essential. Use the SMART goal framework to ensure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example, instead of setting a vague goal like "increase revenue," set a specific goal like "increase revenue by 15% in the next ...
Economic Business Objective: Also called financial objectives, economic objectives relate to the financial health and growth of the company. These objectives can involve profits, revenue, costs, cash flow, sustainable growth, debt management, and investments. Example: Reduce spending on paid advertisements by 20 percent.
Here are four examples of long-term business goals: Increase Sales: A common long-term goal is to increase sales significantly. A company might establish a long-term goal of increasing total sales by 40 percent in three years. ... The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team ...
Strategic goals vs. business goals. Business goals are predetermined targets that organizations plan to achieve in a specific amount of time. Technically, strategic goals—along with BHAGs, OKRs, and KPIs—are a type of business goal. Read: OKR vs. KPI: Which goal-setting framework is better? 65 example strategic metrics and goals
A good business plan guides you through each stage of starting and managing your business. You'll use your business plan as a roadmap for how to structure, run, and grow your new business. It's a way to think through the key elements of your business. Business plans can help you get funding or bring on new business partners.
Here are some common examples of business plan goals: Financial Goals: Achieve a specific revenue target within a defined timeframe. Increase profitability by a certain percentage or dollar amount. Reduce costs or increase efficiency in a particular area of the business. Secure funding or investment to support business growth.
A common strategy in business is to set multiple short-term goals to make the long-term goals more achievable. Examples of short-term business goals: Increase net promoter score by 10 points this quarter. Hire 12 new support representatives by the end of the year. Increase employee satisfaction by 20%. Read: The importance of setting short-term ...
Most business plans also include financial forecasts for the future. These set sales goals, budget for expenses, and predict profits and cash flow. A good business plan is much more than just a document that you write once and forget about. It's also a guide that helps you outline and achieve your goals. After completing your plan, you can ...
By involving your employees in the goal-setting process, you make them feel valued and engaged while at the same time ensuring your goals are realistic and achievable. Dig deeper: How to set team goals that actually work. 3. Make your goals SMART. You have two to three business goals.
4. Learning and Growth Opportunities. Another consideration while setting business goals and objectives is learning and growth opportunities for your team. These are designed to increase employee satisfaction and productivity. According to Strategy Execution, learning and growth opportunities touch on three types of capital: Human: Your ...
1. Create Your Executive Summary. The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans. Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.
Describe Your Services or Products. The business plan should have a section that explains the services or products that you're offering. This is the part where you can also describe how they fit ...
Develop a time-bound plan. SMART goals can be implemented in any section of a business. If you're unsure whether it's worthwhile to plan it out for your organization, consider using free online goal-setting tools. SMART Business Goals Examples 1. I want to boost my revenue. Specific: I plan to boost revenue while decreasing spending ...
Strategic goals to promote growth. 65) Secure a new office space that is twice the size of our current one. 66) Implement a new sales strategy that generates a 20% increase in sales in the next six months. 67) Increase our customer base by 20% in the next year. 68) Double our market share in the next three years.
Social objectives. For example, a sample of business goals and objectives for a business plan for a bakery could be: To increase its annual revenue by 20% in the next year. To reduce its production costs by 10% in the next six months. To launch a new product line of gluten-free cakes in the next quarter.
You can use internal business plans to share goals, strategies, or performance updates with stakeholders. In my opinion, internal business plans are useful for alignment and building support for ambitious goals. 4. Strategic Initiatives. A strategic business plan is another business plan that's often shared internally.
Investing in technology to streamline operations. Managing inventory more effectively. Optimizing fleet management. Maximizing human capital. Your business may benefit from striving for one or two — or all — of these business goals, but you won't know unless you take a good, hard look at the way your company operates.
7 business plan examples: section by section. The business plan examples in this article follow this template: Executive summary. An introductory overview of your business. Company description. A more in-depth and detailed description of your business and why it exists. Market analysis.
Examples of short-term business goals. Here are a few examples of short-term business goals: Increase product prices by 3% over the next three months. Hire three new marketing employees over the next five months. Increase traffic on your company's blog. Implement monthly giveaways for customers on social media.
Now that you know what business goals are and their importance let's examine 6 broad types of business goals. Social Media Business Goals. Social media business goals are goals you set to ensure the time and money invested in social media aren't wasted.With over 4.7 billion social media users today, it's a no-brainer to set business goals that maximize how you can use social media ...
To plan your plan, you'll first need to decide what your goals and objectives in business are. As part of that, you'll assess the business you've chosen to start, or are already running, to see ...
This section of your simple business plan template explores how to structure and operate your business. Details include the type of business organization your startup will take, roles and ...
6. Be logical. Think like a banker and write what they would want to see. 7. Have a strong management team. Make sure it has good credentials and expertise.
The analysis of effective written business plan examples allows us to see firsthand what distinguishes a standout plan from the rest. These examples not only serve as templates but also highlight innovative approaches to problem-solving, strategic thinking, and market insights that can dramatically influence a business's trajectory.
Organizations can map the project strategic plan with the project action plan to make sure that everyone working on the project is in tune with the goals of the project. Therefore, a strategic action plan is a necessity for the accomplishment of the business goals as well as for the successful completion of any work.
For example, instead of saying, "I want more customers," a SMART goal within your marketing plan for small businesses would be: "Increase website traffic by 20% in the next three months through targeted email campaigns." Aligning Goals with Business Objectives. Your marketing goals should directly support your broader business objectives.
8+ Personal Business Plan Examples 1. Personal Financial Business Plan Template. Download. 2. Personal Trainer Business Plan Template. Details. File Format. MS Word; Google Docs; Apple Pages; Download. 3. Sample Personal Business Plan Template ... For each goal you plan on doing, set up a deadline. Not only will this encourage you to do better ...