Five Things to Do Before Writing a Business Plan

Writing a business plan is not an easy task. Most people spent days or even weeks to write a 20- or 30-page business plan. Sure, there are many websites that provide information on how to write a business plan. But before you start writing yours, there are five simple things that you need to do. These five things will make writing your business plan much easier.

1. Describe your product or service
You need to make sure that you can really tell people exactly what your business is going to produce or do. You can start by making a list of the features that your product will have and deciding what your product will look like. After you are sure that you have a perfect understanding of your product or service, you are ready to start writing your business plan.

2. Create a list of your business' sources of income
You should write a list of the things that will be the sources of income for your business. If you plan to build a website that provides recipes for free, for example, you can sell advertising space and products from Clickbooth and Amazon.


3. Create an organizational chart
You should draw a simple organizational chart for your business so that you can describe the perfect team for it. Make sure that you include sales, operations and finance because these are important.

4. Create a list of your expenses
You need to include two things in your business plan: startup costs and operating costs. Startup costs are things like machines, computers, and tools. Operating costs are things like rent and salaries. You need to be sure about the cost of everything. Do not make rough estimates.

5. Make a list of people and companies to convince
Before you build your business plan, it is necessary to make a list of people and companies that you will approach. You also need to determine how you are going to win their support.