The Hard Part------ Making My Business Plan

Having a great idea and then translating it to paper so that you can acquire funding and have a clear vision should be motivation enough for any entreprenuer to get started on a thorough business plan. A business plan is essential to any business yet many business owners jump the gun and start companies blindly without proper planing. This is one way to ensure that you are part of the eighty percent of small businesses that fail in their first five years. This statistic should scare you if you’re thinking of starting a new business, especially since the majority of new businesses are financed first by personal savings and personally secured debt. The main reason a new business may fail is due to financial distress which usually steam from poor planning. Approximately 30 to 40 percent of new small businesses experience bankruptcy or are sold or closed to avoid further losses. Doing extensive research is key and for most actually getting started is the hardest part of making a business plan.

For my case specifically, I find that the financial breakdown is the hardest part of the business plan. You have to research everything from the industry standard for pricing of your product/service, to listing expenses for everything you need from buildings down to the office supplies you need for your secretary (and of course the cost of salaries.) Finding a company that is exactly like what Im trying to provide is difficult as well so I have to set my own standards in some areas. The best way to set your price is to  find out how much your time and product costs and mark it up 25%, however in retail i think the mark up is much more. 

The main things your business plan should translate is how your business is going to make money, how you are going to differentiate from your competitors, and why you are creating the company so you can know what to turn down so you can keep the focus of your mission statement.