Business Plan

It is an indispensable tool for the creation of a company as descriptively explains its operation, collecting all the aspects related to it on a time horizon normally located between 3 to 5 years.

The business plan helps entrepreneurs define and realize their business idea and makes possible to verify its viability and how will be the image of the company's future. It is a tool used to attract support and financing for public and private.

The business plan should be done in an objective manner, reflecting both the strong and weak aspects of the project and trying to express the best business ideas of their promoters. Its presentation must be clear and attractive.

There are a variety of formats for business plans, as a good business plan should be flexible, adaptable to the characteristics of each company. In general, the standard script to follow is:

1. Introduction: description of the overall project. It presents the idea and defines the mission of the company. In this first stage the project should be defined, including the products or services that can be offered, the market environment and the peculiarities of the company as well as the motivations and expectations of the team sponsor.
2. Situation analysis: understanding the environment, the setting in which entrepreneurs will present the market and competition to find the real possibilities of the company and determine the feasibility of the project. This external review should be based on the most generic, overall business environment, through a sectoral analysis to determine the competitive position of the company:
   • Macroenvironment: socio-economic, cultural, legislation, trends, target population, cultural preferences, technology, etc.
   • Microenvironment: an analysis of the sector in which to carry out the activity, barriers to entry and exit, target audience, potential suppliers, competition, potential partners, distribution channels, bargaining power, substitute products, response strategies of competitors, etc.
3. Internal Analysis: analysing the capabilities of the entrepreneurial team to fill the market gap detected. This stage is an internal debate to identify the strengths of entrepreneurship. A critical analysis should be done and focused on the weaknesses of the project to determine the limits of the company's ability to achieve its objectives.
   The internal factors may be divided into functional areas, for example: production, marketing, organization and personnel, finance and accounting.
4. SWOT Analysis: it is the balance of the whole situation resulting from the external and internal analysis done. Its goal is to help raise the basic guidelines and strategic objectives of entrepreneurship and to analyse the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats posed by the implementation of the project.
   The SWOT analysis is a management tool, in summary allows to have a very clear and timely information on the internal situation of the business project and the environment in which we operate. The opportunities and threats relate to external situations of the company that affect all companies in the sector. The strengths and weaknesses are internal characteristics of the business project.
   Complementary to the SWOT analysis is to establish key success factors in the sector and assess the extent to which the business plan has these critical factors. Furthermore, it should raise strategic alternatives that can be put in place to seize opportunities, enhance strengths, correct weaknesses and address the threats that arise.
5. Strategic lines and objectives: it corresponds to make decisions based on conclusions from the SWOT and is based on an estimate of revenue, costs and expenses. This will involve taking a set of decisions for the company, which will translate into actions, quantified with a time horizon of several years, and establishing action plans for possible contingencies.
6. Plans of action: it is the tactical and operational planning that will allow to achieve agreed goals. The action plans will be divided into each of the functional areas and should be viewed holistically.
   The most common actions plans are:
   • Marketing Plan: the aim is to define the best strategy for reaching customers and position in the market. This will have to establish clear and precise objectives and design an appropriate action plan to achieve them. It can be structured on the basis of the following:
     • Market: description of size, performance, and features segments thereof.
     • Product / Service: Defining the staple of the company and its main characteristics, physical and of performance.
     • Price: definition of the pricing policy of the company and the system of determining those based on variables such as cost, profit margins, how much you be willing to pay the client, competition offers, etc.
     • Description of the collection system to be employed by the company.
     • Distribution: channel choice based on variables such as cost, quality, performance, limitations.
     • Business strategy and communication plan: to establish communication objectives, designing the message and choose the most appropriate means and media. Among them, sales promotions, discounts, after-sales service and warranty, social media presence, etc.
   • Operations Plan: to clarify how the company will create its products or services. Among them:
     • Development of the product or service: technical description and its key characteristics and how it development were carried out .
     • Supplies.
     • Manufacturing of products and implementation services.
     • Material resources: plant, machinery or equipment needed, material and other assets.
     • Human Resources: staffing requirements, both quantitative and qualitative (required profiles, job descriptions, internal organization, etc.).
     • Processes.
     • Quality control plans.
     • Production capacity of the company.
   • Legal Plan, Fiscal and Labour: establishing the specific legal form to take the company to develop its activity and define the company's fiscal regime. It should also be studied the basic characteristics of major contracts and agreements that are going to be signed.
   • Organization Plan and Human Resources: the internal organization of the business project is one of the key factors in determining the success of the project. It is important to cover the shortcomings in the staff development team incorporating a different profile to compensate for these shortcomings (eg profile management with managers, administrators, etc.).. It should be defined the template and personal profiles of each area of the enterprise and the wage policy to be adopted from the beginning, etc..
   • ICT plan and Internet presence: to determine infrastructure, hardware, software, communications and Internet presence needs.
   • Economic and Financial Plan: from the needs identified above, it should be calculated credible estimations that reflect the financial results and forecasts that approximately determine the financial viability of the project. These estimates are:
     • Investment plan: investment in fixed and current assets.
     • Plan of financing: equity, borrowed funds, grants or support.
     • Accounting amortization schedule for the first years of activity.
     • Profit and loss accounts.
     • Cash or cash flows.
7. Schedule: to determine the highest priority activities and the date is expected to happen, and the responsible for each activity.
8. Overview: highlighting the most important results to start the project.

On Internet there are many tools to develop a good business plan. However, it is essential to have support and advice from the beginning. Access to experts with extensive professional experience allows dispel serious doubts on specific issues (financial, administrative, intellectual property, communication skills, etc.) And also it is the begin to establish professional contacts.