I’ve been asked many times what makes a good business plan and I’ve seen many people get bogged down in unnecessary complications in trying to formulate one.

The big problems most people need to figure out are things like, “How am I going to find people who want my products or services? How will I convince them I’m worth buying from? What should I even focus on selling?”

Well, I want to help with a simple, no-fluff business plan that you can just copy and paste into Word and start plugging your answers in. I think this will help you achieve your business goals.

Who am I going to sell to?

Dig in and get specific here. You may want to read the following article first to get some pointers.

Relationship Marketing: Connect with One Person

How will these people find my products or services?

How are people going to get the chance to give you money? How will you go find them?

What will this service or product look like once complete?

What will be the final form that you will offer to people?

What problem or difficulty does this solve for these people? Do they actually want to solve this?

I’ve seen many people fail in business simply because they didn’t have a good answer to this question. They were selling things that people didn’t really care about or trying to solve problems that didn’t really exist.

How will I get this thing created?

What kind of tools, materials, or services will you need to buy? What kind of research will need to be done?

Can I quickly create a proof of concept?

Is there any way to create a “good enough” prototype to test and prove that it’s actually a sellable idea?

Who else will be involved with me on this project? Why?

What partners will you take and why? What will they do?

How will the money be split amongst the partners?

How will the split work? Will it be on overall income or will the splits be different depending on the income source?

Who’s going to do the work?

Who’s going to manage the project? How long will it take to get up and running? Who’s going to do the marketing? Who’s going to handle sales?

Here’s what the product or service will need to do:

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Here’s how this project will make money:

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Here’s some other stuff we could sell our customers later:

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Here are the expenses:

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What potential problems can we foresee now and need to avoid?

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What needs to happen next?

What are the next steps to kicking it off?

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Put these steps on your priority list and just get moving. And if you get started and feel a bit overwhelmed, uncertain, and afraid that it’ll fail…

That just means you’re going in the right direction. Or at least that you’re only human like the rest of us. Keep moving and you’ll have wins

 

What did you think of this simple business plan? Have anything else to share? Let me know in the comments below!