Who Needs A Business Plan? (You Do)

Sections of this topic

    The benefits of having a business plan include:

    • Helping you to clarify your vision and deciding whether or not to forge ahead with the idea.
    • Determining if your product and/or service has a sufficient market to support it and whether or not it will be profitable.
    • Providing an estimate of your start-up costs and how much you’ll need to invest or finance.
    • Convincing investors and lenders to fund your business.
    • Defining your target market (who your customers are or will be) and how to best reach them through strategic marketing actions or expanding market coverage or reach.
    • Establishing or reevaluating your competitive position within the marketplace, by conducting a thorough analysis of the competition (finding out where your competitor’s weaknesses are and how you can take advantage of them).
    • Defining corporate objectives and programs to achieve those objectives.
    • Helping your business make money from the start by developing effective operational strategies.
    • Understanding the risks involved and anticipating potential problems so you that can solve them before they become disasters.
    • Setting a value on a business for sale or for legal purposes.

    [Source: Wikipedia]

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    For more resources, see our Library topic Business Planning.