Whether you are starting a home based business or an SME, you do need a business plan. It is an essential for any startup because you need it to stay focused, plan accordingly and above all to generate funding. In a nutshell, a business plan is a complete roadmap for the success of a business.
Generally, a business plan is a detailed document (see also how long should a business plan be?) focusing on all the aspects of the business, however, if this is your first business startup and you do not feel like developing a detailed business plan, for now, starting with a one-page business plan can be a great idea to kick start the business.
You must know that one-page business plan can never be a replacement of an actual detailed business plan, but it’s quite handy, especially when you are running out of time and have to get things started. It may also be useful for top executives as a handout, for sales executives and for marketing teams to develop the material accordingly.
But, when you move forward and are looking to raise capital for your startup, you must have a detailed business plan. A one-page business plan can also be helpful when developing a detailed business plan, i.e. it may serve as a business plan outline.
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This article will focus on developing a one-page business plan from scratch, but you might also be interested in knowing 12 secrets to successful startup business plan before starting writing one.
There are few things you must consider before writing a business plan; just skim through the basics and let’s start developing a single-page business plan in few easy steps.
1- Vision Comes First: Where you want your business to be at the end? Whether or not you want it to be a legay lasting for lifetime, you want to expand or not and so on. Summarize your vision in a paragraph only.
2. A Formal Mission Statement: Write in brief about what you are going to do so that the vision mentioned above can be accomplished.
3. List Objectives: A bullet list will suffice the purpose. Remember that objectives are short term goals with a timeline and measurable results, i.e. % of market share, gross sales, number of subscribers etc by the end of 1, 2 or 3 years.
4- Strategies: Although strategies cannot be documented, but you need to describe how you plan to execute the processes. Investors are keen to know this part mostly when you approach them for funding. Here’s a detailed article on writing a business plan to raise funding.
5. Action Plan: In one page business plan, the action plan can be a simple table listing tasks with approximate deadlines, responsible person, frequency/momentum, status and any specific note (if any task needs).
One page business plan cannot include the complete details of-course and so proper benchmarking may not be possible with this small document. So you must develop a proper business plan, keeping it simple. You may find the following sample business plans useful for developing your own detailed business plan.
