Small Business Business Plan, Sample Structure & Tips for Drafting

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

So you've decided to start your own business. The most important tool to start your business is business planning. What is a business plan for a small business, an example of designing plan summary tables, what an effective and understandable plan should consist of, how to correctly describe goals and key indicators - you can find out the answers to all these questions right now.

What is a business plan for?

A carefully thought-out business plan describes the idea of the project, its goals, various aspects of the activity, main financial and economic indicators, actions to achieve the set goals, analyzes possible problems and suggests ways to solve them.

Drawing up a business plan should be aimed at solving the most important question: is it worth it for an entrepreneur to invest in a business, after what time will all the funds spent pay off and whether this business will bring real income. Such a plan is drawn up both for yourself (to understand whether it is worth doing this business), and for prospective investors.

The laws of the Russian Federation do not provide for a clear structure of a business plan. It all depends on the nature of the business you are going to do (manufacturing, sales, provision of services, etc.), on your goals and desired income. But every small business business plan is about the same in some sections.

Structure

When writing a business plan for any line of business, you can use the following structure:

1. Summary of the idea.
2. Market analysis.
3. Marketing.
4. Project financing.
5. Production plan.
6. Economic evaluation of indicators.

Project overview

This is a short summary, a possible biography of the project, intended to help the entrepreneur and his investors (if any) understand how effectively this business can operate. This is a brief description of all those indicators that will be discussed below. In a short review, you need to provide the most important materials in order to interest investors in investing money in your business.

The topics of business plans depend on the category of activity that you are going to represent. This can be a plan to create a cafe, restaurant, store, organize a workshop, call center, spa salon, carry out production activities, etc.

Market Analysis

This section should reflect the situation on the market of that segmentbusiness in which you intend to start work. You need to clearly understand what market you are going to conquer in order to understand what goals your small business business plan is aimed at. Examples of markets in Russia are:

• consumer (intended for ordinary people who buy goods or use services for personal consumption);
• intermediate (intended for further use of goods and services in the form of wholesale and retail sales, franchising, dealership);
• state (purchase of goods and services for state needs or through government programs and tenders);
• international market.

In this section, you need to analyze the market of the segment, reveal as fully as possible the characteristics of the main market players, their strengths and weaknesses, and also prove that there will really be demand for your product or service.

Marketing

The business plan of the enterprise should provide for all your marketing moves in advance. It should reflect the following indicators:

• ways to promote products or services;
• product sales scheme (through own network, through other organizations, issuance for sale);
• types of advertising;
• pricing methods;
• payment terms (prepayment, credit, after the fact);
• availability of discounts, cumulative and one-time bonuses;
• existence of preliminary agreements with future consumers.

Project financing

In thissection, it is necessary to calculate all possible means in order to launch the project into action. These can be their own sources of income, possible investments, the need for loans and credits, government support.

Table 1. Project Financing

	Attachment name	Cost in thousand rubles.
1	Own funds
2	Borrowed funds, including loans
3	Investments raised
4	Public funds
5	Other funds

Production plan

In this section, it is necessary to analyze all production indicators in order to understand how this business can be carried out with minimal cost of production capacity.

The production plan has two parts.

Production costs

1. Premise and its costs (rent, property, maintenance costs, utilities, taxes).
2. Equipment for the enterprise (composition, terms of purchase or provision, cost).
3. Capacities and technologies (composition, price, terms of provision).
4. Additional costs (the cost of purchasing the original product or material for its manufacture, the composition and cost of funds that are not considered equipment, including stationery and materials forhousehold needs).
5. Staffing, staff salaries, taxes, bonuses.
6. Specific requirements (purchase of a license, patent, additional taxes, etc.).
7. Other costs.

Income from production

1. Number of goods sold (services rendered).
2. Average price per unit of goods (services).
3. Total total operating income.
4. Provision of additional services, sale of additional (non-core) goods.
5. Other income.

Economic evaluation of indicators

After collecting all the indicators, you need to analyze them and draw up a project schedule to understand how effectively your small business business plan will be implemented. An example of a schedule-plan is presented in the table below.

Table 2. Economic evaluation of indicators

	Name	Unit	Per month	Per year
1	Total cost of the project, including:	thous. rub.
	- own funds	thous. rub.
	- raised funds	thous. rub.
2	Total income:	thous. rub.
	- from core business	thous. rub.
	- from extra activities	thous. rub.
	- other income	thous. rub.
3	Costs:	thous. rub.
	- Registration fees	thous. rub.
	- renting or buying real estate	thous. rub.
	- equipment and capacities	thous. rub.
	- purchase of goods and materials	thous. rub.
	- staff salary (with taxes)	thous. rub.
	- advertising and promotion expenses	thous. rub.
	- shipping costs	thous. rub.
	- taxes and fees	thous. rub.
	- stationery and household items. needs	thous. rub.
	- payment on loans and borrowings	thous. rub.
	- other expenses	thous. rub.
4	Net income (income minus expenses)	thous. rub.
5	Payback period	years
6	Profitability	%

Thus, drawing up a business plan is a serious matter that requires certain skills in the field of legislation, economics and finance. In any case, this document will allow you to see the whole picture of your future business in numbers and decide whether it is worth doing this business or whether it makes sense to correct something in it.