Over the years I’ve drafted and helped with some business plans. You can find loads of advice out there, I wholeheartedly recommend the guide to preparing a business plan by Business Link. If you are in the South East (UK that is) also try to visit the Business and IP Centre at the British Library, they offer advice on planning and seeking funding.
From my experience though there are two things that most people tend to forget about before they start putting pen to paper. That’s function and audience and how these change over time.
Function
By that I mean what is the function of the business plan. Is it there to provide a road-map, to set-up processes, to measure success in the future, to secure external funding? By deciding on the function it is easier to draft but never forget that the function could change in the future.
Audience
Once you have deciced the current function then the current audience will also be clear. For example it could be just an internal audience, you and your partner or your employees. By all means make it relevant to them but remember that in the future things may change.
Changes in function and audience
You may not want to ask for funding now but you may want to do so in the future. Think about that from the outset and include it in your consideration of function and audience. This will help you find out if you have any weak arguments and address them from the outset.
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It’s a bit cheeky of me to be writing this post since Manolis is actually drafting our business plan, but I’ll do one better and send it to him as a ‘keep in mind when drafting’. It’s all fun over here at SoMaFusion.
