This Expert Checklist Will Make Your Small Business Plan Tick

A professional management team needs a small business plan which shows where they are taking the business, and how they are going to get there.

The main objective behind a business plan is to win the approval of stakeholders whose decisions are most likely to affect the present and future objectives of the business.

In other words, winning the plan’s approval will greatly depend on how best you sell your business strategy to people who are mostly un familiar with your inner operations .

At the heart of drafting a small business plan will be an accountant who will play the biggest role of justifying any assumptions and expectations you may want to make, in monetary returns.

This briefing outlines the key issues to consider when determining purpose and recommended format of a small business plan.
Depending on the objective of your plan, you need to decide whom the plan is intended to satisfy, and then adopt a structured professional format to justify your case.

Purpose of a business plan

The primary purpose of any small business plan is to set out the strategy and action plan of your business for the next one to three years (sometimes five years or more).

• It explains your objectives and how you intend to achieve them.


• By involving employees like your company accountant in the complete planning process, you continue to build up a successful, committed team.


• Priorities are identified. Non-priorities are discarded, saving precious time.

Once written, the small business plan is a benchmark for the performance of your business. This implies that any major variations between your projected and actual performance might influence the decision of your targeted recipients.

You may occasionally write plans aimed at people outside the business for a number of reasons:

• Raising bank or equity finance.


• Disposing of a part of your business.


• Attracting new senior management.


• Attracting business partners, such as distributors and agents.

Their individual interests in your business may differ. For example, when applying for a bank loan, your bank manager may ask for specific issues such as the personal track records of the directors in your business. Ask the intended recipient first.

Structure of the plan

Base the plan on detailed information where possible. But do not include all the detail in the plan. Leave the detail for operational or marketing plans.

Keep the small business plan short.

• Focus on what the reader needs to know.


• Cut out any un wanted waffle.


• Ensure there are no spelling mistakes.


• Put any substantial information, such as market research, in an appendix.

Detailed business plans are often quickly shelved, because they are difficult to use on an ongoing basis.

Base your small business plan on reality, or it may be counter-productive. For example .

• Showing over-optimistic sales forecasts demonstrates a need for increased selling overheads followed by a cash flow crisis and drastic cost-cutting, all of which could seriously damage employee morale.


• Be realistic, even if you are selling the business to a third party.

Financiers, business partners and employees will see through over-optimistic plans that ignore weaknesses or threats. Hence poor presentation may damage your credibility.

Present the plan professionally.

A poorly presented small business plan might fail to meet the approval of a busy CEO or bank manager simply because it failed to state what it was all about in the first 2 minutes or their time.

A busy and experienced CEO will start by checking for the key ingredients that define the basis or strength of the plan, and each factor will determine how much more interest they can derive in your plan.

• what finance is required and how will it be controlled?
• how strong is the management team?


• is the personal chemistry right?


• who are the real competitors; what barriers exist?


• how good is the marketing strategy; is it achievable?


• how will the product or service be sold?


• have all the relevant business risks been identified?

Their fore:

• Put a decent cover on the booklet and give it a visible title.


• Include a contents page, with page and section numbering.


• Start with an executive summary.
  This summarizes the key points, starting with the purpose of the business plan.


• Use graphs and charts to demonstrate performance trends, if relevant.

Even if the plan is for internal use only, write it as if an outsider was the reader.

• Include company or product literature as an appendix.


• Give details about the history and current status of your business.

Show the small business plan to your friends and expert advisers and ask for their comments.

Find out which parts of the business plan they did not understand.

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