Good business idea, bad road.
You might have a brilliant idea, which is absolutely fine, but still, there is a chance that you will take the wrong way toward that brilliant idea, and it is not your beautiful idea’s problem; it is you who took that wrong. So, how can you reduce this risk? You need to plan, which is called a business plan (A terminology given already).
A plan clarifies whether you will be trapped in some of the mentioned pitfalls of the market or not. But how?
Business planning definition in brief
What is a business plan, and how it helps you with your idea?
This is a document that ensures you take the right steps toward your dream idea by ensuring:
- You ensure you will have customers (Market Size Estimation Tool),
- You ensure your product matches the needs of those customers,
- You have a production plan,
- You have a plan that takes your product to your customers
- You know what are costs and revenues and you can cover them
But how to measure each of these steps? Is there a way to do this?
Business Plan Types
Of course, there are lots of business plan types that say what to do in which step (there is a lovely post here about this here), from very lean and summary versions to a detailed one, but almost all of them try to cover the mentioned steps with different perspectives.
- Startup Plan: for potential investors, lenders, and partners.
- Internal Plan: for internal management and employees.
- Strategic Plan: for internal stakeholders and potential partners.
- Operational Plan: for internal management.
- Growth or Expansion Plan: for investors, lenders, and internal management.
- Feasibility Plan: for potential investors, stakeholders, and internal management.
- What-If Plan: for internal management.
- One-Page Plan: for quick presentations for potential investors or partners.
- Lean Startup Plan: for entrepreneurs and internal stakeholders.
Business plan road map
The following figure covers the main steps in making a plan for your business. Bear in mind, from all, you need to at least ensure about the first step, which is whether you will have users and which group of users.
