Simple business plan

Business plans outline your business idea and explain why you think it will be successful. Even if you’re not starting a business, but rather looking to be a freelancer, self-employed or an artist, a business plan can be a great way to flesh out your idea and to think about your next steps!

Business plans can seem scary, but they don’t need to be – certain things like finances are important as your business develops, but they can be put on hold for now. If you’re making the first steps of developing your idea into a business, you don’t need to produce a full business plan just yet. For now, you can produce a Simple Business Plan. This is for you to think through your idea and to help you to consider it in full.It’s important to keep the plan short and focussed on your idea. You don’t need to share this plan with anyone – it can simply be used for you to explore and refine your idea and help you to work out your goals.

Your background

When writing your business plan, it’s important that you outline how your experiences inform your idea.

  • Do you have an academic interest in the field?
  • Have you experienced a problem you want to solve?
  • Do you have experience in the industry?

This also helps you to articulate why this idea is important to you. When seeking investment, those assessing the business want to see that you are passionate about the idea that you are pursuing.

It’s often said that investors are investing in the people behind the ideas rather than the ideas themselves, so make sure that it is clear why you’re passionate about your idea.

The Idea

Make a list of the key elements of your idea.

  • Do you want to make and sell something?
  • Do you want to offer a service?
  • Will your business be operated online?

This will help you to identify gaps or areas where there is work to do. Don’t worry about being too specific as your idea will evolve quickly and often. Try to explain what your idea is as concisely as possible. This is your Mission Statement. This will help you to identify the core aim of your enterprise.

Market Research

Market research helps you to consider who your competitors are and identify whether there is an audience for your idea. This means that you can fine-tune your list of features to ensure your idea is not too similar to something else and also figure out what is working well for other people.

You can get started by simply:

  • Googling other companies/people that have similar products to you.
  • Asking your friends, families and other people you trust for their opinion of your idea.
  • Look at what other companies (even ones that are nothing like your own) and think about what they are doing well.

This will help you to identify your own consumer values which will help you to think about what potential customers might like about your idea.

  • Who are your customers?
  • How old are they?
  • What do they do?
  • What else do they buy?
  • What companies do they buy from?
  • What will make them buy from you?
  • How is your company different to competitors?