A business plan is a substantial document, and as we explained in our previous blog post, How Long Should A Business Plan Be? the length of your business plan depends on a variety of factors. Whether your business plan is twenty pages long or one hundred pages, it’s important to spend the right amount of time on each section. It is easy to go overboard with details that don’t need to be in your plan, so you need to strike a balance between being concise and being thorough.
The amount of time you spend on each point or section in your business plan depends on what your business is, your individual circumstances, and what you hope to achieve. When you are writing your plan, you may find that it is natural for you to go in-depth on some points and to skim over others that require less explanation.
For example, if you know there is a particular company in your area that is going to be big competition for you, you might want to spend a little longer on your competitor analysis with regards to this company. Or if your product is particularly complex or technical, you may need to labour over your explanation a little more than if you had a more straightforward product.
There are some parts of your business plan that are naturally going to require a little more or a little less time and consideration. For example, your executive summary should be a quick overview that highlights the most important information in your business plan. As such, this only needs to be one or two pages long (depending on the length of your overall business plan). Bullet points, headings, and charts can make your document easier to skim and help you to keep things brief where you need to.
Think about your mission, and your goals, and consider what is important to your business. If you’re using your business plan to try to secure funding, what information is going to be useful or impressive to potential investors, and how much do they need to know about each aspect of your plan? It isn’t a case of leaving things out, as all parts of your business plan are important. Consider giving your business plan to someone who is not involved with your business, and asking them to read it. If they come back to you with questions, this could help you to see where you need to elaborate on things that may not be very clear or that require further explanation.
If you would like any help with writing a business plan, get in touch with the friendly, expert team at cbm. Use the form on the right or call 01604 420 420.