Business Plan Creation:

About your Business:

1. What is your business proposition and why do you think it’s a good idea?

2. How did you come up with the idea?

For example, have you seen this done elsewhere? Have you done this for
someone else already? Did you try and find a product or service and couldn’t?
Do you think you can do it better or cheaper than what’s already out there?

3. How have you confirmed there is a need for your business?

a. Big picture research
Give us an overview of the industry you’re going to be operating in. Are there
any trends in the industry? What’s the potential size of the market? Who are
the key players in this market?

1
 b. Focused research
The specific research you’ve carried out with your target customers and
market. For example, have you conducted any surveys? What did they tell
you? Have you done any test trading? What were the findings?

About you and why you are starting up:

4. Please give us details of your relevant work experience, including: dates,

position held, location, any qualifications gained and references who can
vouch for your experiences and skills.

5. Explain why you believe you are the right person to be doing this,
including any additional information that you think can demonstrate you
have what it takes to turn your idea into a successful business.

2
About your Customers:

6. Who are your customers and how will you reach them?
Your business’ success is ultimately down to whether you can attract sufficient
paying customers. You need to be clear who your customers are and what the
best way is to reach them and to make them buy from you.

a. Customer profile
Break your target customers down into groups, perhaps based on
demographics, what they do, where they shop, their household income,
whether they have kids, etc. Rank your customer profiles by priority for your
business.

b. Why are you targeting them?

For each of the groups you’ve identified, why is your business relevant to
them?

c. How are you going to get their attention?

What specific things will you do to get target customers’ attention? E.g. adverts
placed in particular places, specific social networks etc.

3
 d. How are you going to convince them to buy from you?
What techniques are you going to use to ensure that interest in your
product/service translates to a sale? E.g. attractive offers, sharing reviews or
maybe just the price or features of your product/service.

e. What specific activities does this mean you need to do?

Translate the information in the previous 4 questions into activities. E.g.
creating Facebook page and building audience, producing leaflets, buying
advertising space etc.

f. What are the costs associated with these activities?

Make sure the costs you put down are realistic, achievable and necessary.

4
About your Competitors:

7. Who are you competing with and how will you beat them?
No matter how good your idea is, there will always be other businesses fighting
for the same customers – either on price or features or quality. You need to
make sure you understand your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.

a. Competitor profile
Provide a short profile of each of your competitors/groups of competitors.

b. What will you be competing with them on?

Is it price, features, quality, location or something else?

c. Why do customers buy from them?

Competitors already have paying customers so you need to identify what
makes customers buy from them.

d. Why would customers switch and buy from you?

5
You have already identified the area that you are competing on, now identify
what sets you apart, e.g. what’s going to get customers to choose you over
them?

e. What specific activities does this mean you need to do?

Translate the information in the previous 4 questions in to activities e.g.
product quality control, quick delivery and others

f. What are the costs related to each activity?

Make sure the costs put down are realistic, achievable and necessary.

6
About your Operations

8. How will your product be produced/how will your service be carried

out? If this is a product based business, please explain the
manufacturing process/supply chain – you may find a flow chart helpful
for illustrating this.

9. Which third parties are involved in the operational side of the business?
Please include a list of suppliers and any agreements you have with third
parties.

10. How much do the product(s)/services(s) cost to produce/deliver?

7
 11.How will the product(s)/service(s) be delivered to the customer?

12.Please describe your quality control process.

Think what checks you will have in place to ensure the product or service you
offer is delivered to the required quality.

13.How will payments be accepted?

For example cash, credit cards, online payments. Will you offer credit terms?
When might you offer refunds?

14.How many staff will you have in the business? What will their roles be?
What hours will they work? What is the cost to the business?

8
Sales and Marketing
You have worked out the costs to get you product/service made/sourced, and
how it will get to your customer. Now you need to plan your sales and
marketing plan.

15.Product/Service

16.Price you will charge

17.Why is your price set at this level?

18.Where does your price level fit vs the competition?

19.Are you planning to use discounting? If yes, what will it be? How will it
be offered?

9
Sales Quantity
Your sales forecast should be realistic and achievable.

20.Product/Service

21.How have you used your market research or test trading to build your
sales forecast

Legal/Regulatory matter

22.What licence you need to operate your business? How will you obtain
this?

23.Do you need any specific qualifications? If you do not already hold these,
how and when will you obtain them? Is there any cost associated with
these?

24.What is your tax, insurance and any other contractual requirements for
your businesses? How have you ensured these are addressed?

25.Are there any health and safety requirements and how you plan to
address these?

10
 26. Have you considered whether you need to protect your product/brand
(IP protection, trademarks, copyright, patent etc…) You can check.

What does it take to get your Business off the ground?

Even starting the simplest of businesses requires a lot of preparation before
you begin trading. Whether you’re starting from scratch, or already going, we
need you to identify the steps you need to take and the milestones you need
to hit before your business can operate. For example, do you need to buy
machinery, secure premises, sort licenses, buy stock, recruit staff and plan
launch marketing

27. Activity, eg., secure premises

28. Details, eg., sign lease agreement( expected by xx/xx/xxxx), pay deposit
(by xx/xx/xxxx)

29. By When

30. Cost associated with activity (if applicable). Eg, $XX Rent up front

What is success for your business?

The success of a business is often about ‘keeping your eye on the prize’ – Can
you identify an aspiration for where you want your business to be in 12

11
months, 3 years’ time and beyond? This information will help you understand
more about your long-term goals.

12