From the course: Creating a Business Plan

Why you need a business plan?

From the course: Creating a Business Plan

Why you need a business plan?

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- You may ask, "Why do I need a business plan? Why can't I just launch my business and get to market?" The importance of a business plan cannot be understated. First, you have to define your business and how you're going to compete. You need to understand the market and where is your business going to occupy its space in that market versus your competitors. You'll need to clearly define your product and why your customers should be interested in it. Once you've defined that product, have a good understanding of how you're going to take it to market. After you've decided how you're going to take a product to market, you need to understand and articulate how you're going to operate that business and create an operating plan to support those operations. Now, that means you're going to have people, and you'll need a plan for managing your people and the resources that come along with them. You'll also need to define the administrative responsibilities and how you're going to fulfill them. Once you've got all that down, you'll need to project your financial results and create a clear financial plan that helps you understand how should the business perform over time. Now, with all of that done, you'll need to think through what are some of the major pitfalls that you could face as you launch your business and make sure you incorporate those into your plan. Now, depending on the type of business you're running, not all of these elements will be relevant. However, these are the major components of the business plan and why you need to put them in place.

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