Avoid These Common Mistakes And Write An Exceptional Business Plan

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Where To Start? 🤷

A well-written and religiously followed business plan can separate a successful business from a failing one. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs are clueless about what it takes to write an exemplary business plan.

In their defense, developing a good business plan can be a complicated process. But that shouldn’t be the case, at least not always. That is why this article will try to break down the process of writing a business plan . By listing the mistakes made at every stage, you will learn a lot about how to get your first-class business plan.

What Makes A Good Business Plan? 📃

The ever-growing world of business has brought about several modern-day business plans. These new-age plans aim at being more relevant to prevailing business situations. Despite this evolution, coming up with a business plan has never been easier. All it takes is an understanding of the basic elements of a good business plan, which include:

• The key business goals, or propositions (preferrably explained for a short, mid and long term perspective)
• The target market
• The strategies used to meet the goals or propositions
• The financial implications of meeting the business goals

Common Mistakes Made When Writing A Business Plan

If it is so easy to have a well-written business plan, why is it that many entrepreneurs fail at writing one? Simple, entrepreneurs make errors when attempting to expand the business plan’s elements. When explaining their business venture, many entrepreneurs complicate or oversimplify their ideas. This results in a document with either too much, or very little content.

So, how can you explain your business without turning it into a jig-saw puzzle or watering it down all together? For a start, try and avoid these mistakes:

Inadequate Market Research 🌍

Another common pitfall in writing a business plan is the failure to research widely. Many entrepreneurs make claims that they have workable ideas and no competitors. All the while, these entrepreneurs lack the statistics to back-up their claims. They have done no, or very little, assessment of who has a similar idea or an idea that can overtake theirs.

While it is good that they are confident in their idea, releasing a blindsided idea may not be a very smart move. To stay clear of this, an entrepreneur ought to do extensive research. They should be well informed of their intended market and potential competitors. Such research should detail:

• Who your competitors are.
• The unique selling point that distinguishes you from them.
• The strategies you can use to beat them.
• The demographics and psychographics of the people you are targeting as clients.
• Why you are targeting these people

Compile this research and write it as two sections in your business plan.

Wild Assumptions In The Financial Projections 📈

A business plan is generally an assumptive document. Its most important assumption being that your business will succeed. So why then are unrealistic financial assumptions frowned upon. Besides being unrealistic, financial analyses without facts in them appear dubious. Many investors will not want to put their money on an idea whose success relies on a mere hunch.

To deal with this, consider getting an in-depth understanding of market factors. So, leverage these factors to explain your financial projections. For instance, determining the acceptable pricing of a product based on existing data. Such data may be the market share, customer purchasing behavior or competitor benchmarks. Doing this can make your financial assumptions sound more believable.

A Lean Appendix

The visual element of your business plan is critical in making the reader, or investor buy into your idea. Now, nobody is asking you to create a volume of extra material to present in your business plan. But, having a lean appendix may cut the wind off the sails of your business plan’s success. That said, add a few reference materials to your business plan. Include product-sample images, banner Ads, a website layout, or other relevant visual element. These could go a long way into making your business idea more enticing.

General Typing Mistakes

Typos and grammatical errors to be the reason you miss out on a life-changing investment deal. It is true that investors are looking for entrepreneurs and not English majors. But, they expect a certain level of competency and standards from you. They assess these standards through your business plan. Constantly having spelling mistakes, missing page numbers, or an untitled graph could discredit you as an entrepreneur, and in extention your idea irreparably. So, give yourself enough time to write and revise your business plan. Avoid the last-minute-rush which is what often leads to such errors. However, don’t forget that done is better than perfect.

Access Personalised Entrepreneurship Information At Edventures

This article highlights some of the factors that go towards writing a solid business plan. But, this topic is extensive, with many nooks and crannies. This article is very basic. So, if you want to get more support on writing a business plan, or any other entrepreneurship-related information, Edventures is the place for you. We provide you with personalised and real-time information, tailor-made for your business needs.

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