There are many books and articles about business plan writing. Many will go into pages and pages of detail about what should be included in each section.

However, there is no requirement to do this.

But, it’s good practice to write down what you’re going to do so you know when you’ve got to where you want to be.

5 Steps to creating a business plan on a page

Taking the time and effort to document your business ideas will help you focus on your objectives and once committed to paper are more likely to be achieved.

Having a business plan brings professionalism through defining the business, setting the goals and a means to measure your performance against these goals.

A business plan need not be endless pages of impenetrable information, make it sharp, make it punchy by putting it onto one page. But it should consist of the following :

1. Vision Statement

What’s your company’s big vision? What are you trying to achieve? Write a sentence or two, which describes what you envision for the business. Show it people you know and ask their opinion and whether they understand what you’re trying to achieve.

2. Company Mission

Focus the company mission together with the vision, describe what it does it and how and to whom the company serves.

3. Marketing Strategies

Under marketing strategies write your growth strategies and to what goods and service opportunities will be provided. Think of points, which reflect both the Vision and the Mission.

4. Financial Objectives

Under Financial objectives detail the one and two year projections for income, costs, profit and cash and what metrics you will use to measure the success of the business.

5. Timetable

Under timetable detail the major plans for hiring, development, marketing activities and new product launches. etc together and that there are no spelling errors or mistakes.

Finally, review your business plan and read it through, checking that it all hangs together and that there are no mistakes or spelling errors.

Regularly review your business plan (at least once a quarter) and check that the objectives still hold true and if there’s anything that if changed would bring about greater success.

For further guidance please read the book by Jim Horan, the One Page Business Plan.

Here’s a sample single page business plan we prepared for one of our coaching clients:

Sample Business Plan

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2. The Bus – Getting the right people on it.
3. How to Write your ebook part 5
4. How to Start a Business on a Budget
5. How to set up a business in 2010: Best of Big Red Company 2009