Preliminary Information
This is normally just the general background information of the business and covers things such as the name, size, location etc. of the business as well as start up costs and projected profits. It is basically just a summary of the business to attract the attention of the person reading the plan.
Marketing Plan
A marketing plan looks at the competition and the business environment making sure that your business can stay ahead of the rest, as well as constructing a way for the business to market its new service/good to the public. This is done by creating a marketing mix which should cover all of the four P’s:
- Product
- Place
- Price
- Promotion
This marketing plan should be based on in-depth research of the market, customer’s needs and competitors.
Production Plan
The production plan is the part of the business plan that concentrates a lot more on the actual product/service, talking about what is needed to create the product and how much it is going to cost.
It also looks at how much should be produced of this product, so as to be able to meet the demand with out being under or over stocked.
Financial Plan
This just looks at all the financial implications of the whole business, setting budgets and creating breakeven cash flow predictions, overall making sure that the business is financially viable and worth setting up. It is the job of this section to make sure that all the finance works out and that there is nothing unaccounted for as this could cause a loss in profits.
Human Resource Plan
The human resource department in any business or business plan is the section that looks after its employees and anything to do with the employees.
It makes sure that there is the right number of employees needed for the business to succeed without wasting any time or money keeping the business efficient. It also looks at any skills that the employees might need to complete their tasks and provide training if needed, and its final job is to recruit the right employees for the job, e.g. a lawyer for a law suite and not a dentist.
The more in-depth and detailed research you carry-out when writing a business plan, the more realistic the plan will be so you will be able to have a better idea if the business will be successful.
