For many business owners, the idea of creating a business plan is either new or overwhelming. With no clear place to start or understanding of its importance, business plans go left unwritten, and your business could be suffering because of it.

A business plan provides a roadmap to get your business running and headed in the direction of growth and profitability. Getting and keeping your business on track.

A business plan is a requirement when looking for investors. You may have a great pitch, but investors want to see the numbers and the logic behind it. A solid business plan will give investors an understanding of what to expect from your company, as well as a good indication of who you are as a creative entrepreneur.

Not looking for any investors to get your business going? You may think you are off the hook for creating a business plan, but you should think again. Writing a business plan solidifies your product offerings, your fees, expenses and projected revenues which allows for the creation of a strong plan to carry you forward. Something that you can hold yourself up to and check in with to make sure you are on track to getting where you wanted to go.

Some key concepts found in good business plans are:

• A clear purpose which explains why your business is important, which problems do you solve for? Which pain points to you alleviate for your customers?
• An identification of who your ideal customers are. Have a clear understanding of their pain points, their challenges. An explanation of why your product/services are perfect for them to help alleviate their stresses you have identified.
• A description of your product/service clearly identifying what you are offering to your customers, and what makes your business unique from competitors.
• A plan for marketing your brand. What resources will you use to promote your business and what results are expected from your efforts.
• A sustainable monetization model. How will you make money from your product/services to create a profitable business, what type of key performance indicators do you need to track to monitor your profitability.

Once your business is off the ground, you will need to make sure that you are tracking to your business plan that you spent some much time creating. This is where we can help build the content to craft your financial story, turning your passion into profits.