So you’ve reached that stage where you’re ready to start your home business in every way except one: you need money. Whether it comes from a loan or from investors, it really doesn’t make much of a difference, as there is one thing everyone must see before they give you a dime. That thing is your business plan.
Think of your business plan as a list of answers to questions people might have about your home business. You won’t get outside funding without one, because the people who fund you want to know that you’ve thought about what you’re doing. A business plan tells them ‘I’ve looked at this from every angle, and this is what I came up with.’
What is your service? This is the first question that every business plan must answer. What are you planning to do? Tell them what industry you are going to be in and why you have chosen it.
Who are your customers? Once you know what you’re doing, the next thing you need to know is who you’re doing it for, and that’s the next thing to write in your business plan. You must also include your area here.
What makes you different? You need to say what are the ‘key factors’ that make your business different from other businesses in your industry. What are you planning to do to make the business successful?
What are your expenses? Your start-up expenses include any equipment you need before you can go live, while your day-to-day expenses are staff and supplies costs.
Finally, you should include a breakdown of your projected profit and loss by month for the first year of business, in chart form. I would figure this out by calculating a reasonable reimbursement for any one-time expenses and adding this reimbursement to daily expenses, before plotting daily expenses against projected sales. Your business plan must show that you make enough profit each month to live on; if you don’t, anyone who shows it to you will consider it unfeasible.
The best way to find out the do’s and don’ts of business plans is to find the real ones – they’re available on the internet. Once you’ve seen a few, you can start to get an idea of how much work it will take to write your own. Remember, until your business truly exists, the business plan is the only tool you have to show someone how great it will be.