One of the best ways to describe what you business plan is for is to describe it as being a set of business goals. Your business plan is a written document that illustrates your business objectives, strategies, target market and the financial forecast of your business.

Preparing your business plan is often a daunting task but it is of extreme importance to your business. Preparing the plan draws on a wide range of knowledge from many different business disciplines, for example finance, human resources and marketing. It has been widely said that you can either plan for success or plan for failure, however not planning at all is a guarantee for failure.

You can either generate your business plan to be externally focused or internally focused. An externally focused plan targets goals that are important to stake holders and typically contains detailed information about the organisation. An internally focused plan targets intermediate goals that are required to reach external goals. It may cover the development of a new product, new service or new IT system etc.

Within your business plan there is no fixed content. The content of your plan as well as the format of your plan is determined by the goals and audience of a business. Your plan should contain information that is needed to decide whether or not to pursue a goal.

Your business plan is probably the most important document you will ever produce for your business, which is why you need to thoroughly research the content of it and ensure that you get the contents just right; remember you only have one chance to make a first impression and the same can be said about your business plan; you only have one chance to make an impression on people, i.e. investors, with the way that you have produced your business plan. The body of your business plan should provide detailed discussions of the background and purpose of your business including the status of your company. You should ensure that you research and analyse your target market as well as making sales forecasts based on your findings.

You should have sections within your business plan dedicated to product/service development as well as having aspects within it dedicated to background information, marketing plans and operational and financial plans.

Everything that your business is, has and does as well as what you want and intend for your business and how you hope to achieve it all should be focused upon in your business plan. It is also important to always keep in mind the audience of your business plan and if you are intending to use it to gain start-up finance.

Your business plan can be used in a numerous amount of ways, one of the most popular being as a means of raising finance for your business. It can be used as a means of strategic planning for your business as well.

Whatever you intend to use you’re your business plan for, it should be wrote more than anything as a guide to how you intend to run your business. You should use it as a guide to decision making and you should remember that your business plan is not just for the start of your business; it is an online document that you should add to as your business grows and expands.