The structure of business plans are almost the same for every company. It’s just the content and strategies that vary from business to business.
Here are 10 of the most important sections in a business plan:
- Executive Summary
- Company/Background
- Management & Team Profiles
- Business Activities
- Products & Services
- Unique Selling Points
- Marketing Strategy
- Financial Projections
- Capital Requirements
- Financing Requirements
Depending on your financial position, you may or may not need external investments to open the business. A lot of people who have the money to invest in the startup themselves, often make the mistake on not being as careful in the planning and projections, as there is no one to scrutinise them.
Even if you intend to fund the café with all of your own money, it’s a useful exercise to tighten up the plan and present it to potential investors to see their feedback. By talking to as many people as possible, you’ll get a range of comments to provide different perspectives for you to refine your plan.
Always refine your plan. Your company’s business plan is dynamic and can always be tweaked and improved as you become more experienced in the business.
Do not make the mistake of writing it once when starting up, and then never referring to it again. You business plan should be the blue print for your café that you use as a reference to grow the business and overcome problems along the way.
What should i do if i have no experience at all in writing a business plan? Should a cafe or restaurant’s business plan be a few pages only or a long detailed document?
It depends on the size of your cafe and the concept. Also, if the investment is quite large, you may want to have a more detailed plan on how you’re going to spend the money and more importantly, how you’re going to make it back.
The size of the business plan can vary and there is no set rule. For instance, there are cafes that succeed with just a back-of-the-envelope biz plan while others with countless pages that end up failing.