After several demands and questions, I have decided to officially start a business section on my blog. A quick disclaimer before we start: I AM NOT AN EXPERT. Everything I will be sharing in this section comes from what I’ve learnt, read about and practice myself.
I have always loved anything related to business which made me to study Fashion marketing & branding (It basically business development) in University. If there is any book or website you can catch me reading, it has to be about business/entrepreneurship in a whole. While in Uni, I can remember writing at-least 4 – 5 business plan a year as I didn’t have exams but continuous course works which usually is around new start-up and business developing.
So, let’s dive into it. How do you write a great business plan for your new business idea? Firstly, what is a business plan?
A business plan is a draft which explains what your new business will be about and how you intend to achieve your business goals, aims and objectives. This document/draft should be able to help anyone at all understand your business.
Why is it important?
A business plan is very vital for every business as it helps you structure your business. It helps you understand the direction of your business including your customers, competitors, production, distribution and keep your team on track.
How To Write A Great Business Plan For Your New Business
Key sections of a Business plan:
- A description of your business: Quick overall description of your business and exactly what you want to do. The best way to break down this part is having 3 major aims that summarise what your business will stand for.
- Your objectives: Just ask yourself: What do you intend to achieve with this business? What message do you want to pass with your business? When people think of your brand, what are the first few words you want them to associate with your business? Then write it all down, thats your objectives.
- Your business owned or needed skills/tools: What do you have now to achieve your business objectives? What skills or tools will you be needing excluding money. For example to have a Digital primarily based business like The Blogger Point, at the beginning, tools owned where laptop, camera but then I needed to open a website to start: domain name (I can do another post of picking the right name for your business later. If you want it, please comment below), hosting, social media profiles etc.
- Your target audience: Who do you want to sell or push your products or services too? Age, gender, class, status etc (I can do another post on ‘How to determine your target audience if requested, trust me NO BUSINESS target everyone)
- Your competitors: You are not aiming to know your competitors to copy them but to study what they are doing, what’s already in the market and find a GAP. your aim is to tamper into this section no-one is paying attention to and make things happen differently
- Your market/industry: This is just basic. Before you start any business, you need to study the market, know whats going on and what businesses are doing. This isn’t just a one time thing, throughout your business, you should stay updated with your market/industry activities both globally and locally.
- Operational plan: How do you intend to pass your message and products/services out? Think about promotion, marketing distribution, and branding (If you understand the marketing and branding of your business, trust me, you will go a long way)
- Financial/Cash-flow: This is one of the most interesting and not-so-fun part. You need to have a break down of how much you will need to start up, detailing what exactly you will spend money on and most especially, how you intend to make this money back. Its called your business cash-flow (I can do a breakdown post of what exactly should be in your cash-flow, just comment below if you want it)
Thank you for reading!
Don’t forget to let me know your thoughts about this post below – COMMENT-COMMENT-COMMENT
xoxo – Instagram: @itsmaryamsalam | Read previous post here
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Could you please give a breakdown of target audience and how the cash flow works. Thank you Great piece.
Author
Sure, I will work on that for the next post…Thank you for reading
you look fabulous in this outfit. i m quite impressed by your style statement.
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Author
Thanks , I appreciate
First off, you’re putting on my kind of slippers and that makes me smile. Back to the point, I’m not a business minded person as such but I loveee every part of this post. Its very beneficial. Thank you!
Author
Anwwwww, we twinning! Thank you, I am glad you find it helpful
This is great. I love the points you shared here. Can you make it a series?
Author
Thank you…Of-course, its not stopping here. I will definitely be doing more post related to business…
This post was very helpful , would love to see a post on cash flow and picking a business name.
Author
Thank you. Glad you find it helpful…Will surely work…
Hello Fashion by Daisy…
As always you look good and your head wraps/turbans are goals.
I nominated you for the sunshine blogger award
Check my blog for details
http://www.giftcollins.com/i-got-nominated-for-the-sunshine-blogger-award/
Lovely outfit!
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