A good business plan will help guide you through each stage of starting and managing your business. You’ll use your business plan as a roadmap for how to structure, run, and grow your new business. It’s a way to think through the key elements of your business and can be used to seek funding, investment or as a tool to help promote your business capabilities.
Business planning is a journey. When you have worked through your initial plan, it is easy to just pop it on the shelf and think “well that’s done!”. However, change is the one constant factor when you are running a business so, revisiting, reviewing and revising your plan is best done regularly to make sure your business is performing profitably and effectively.
A Lean Business Plan is an excellent starting point if you are seeking to explain or start your business quickly, your business is relatively simple or if you plan to regularly update your business plan.
Use these steps as a starting point to help develop your plan:
- Your business details
- Your Business – your ‘why’, vision, mission, operations
- The market – target markets, promotion, pricing, etc
- Risk management
- Goals and actions
- Your finances
Of course, these are just headings and a starting point! If you are seeking help to further develop your business idea, and would like more information on lean business plans, contact the Business LEAP team on 1300 249 482.