What Should My Business Plan Look Like?
Once Joe realized he needed to slow down and think through his business start-up by creating a business plan he decided to keep running while he completed his planning. Even though that Kenworth still looked realllly good at the dealership there would be other trucks just as cool. Joe wanted to do this right.
Joe looked at his watch, that last stretch of construction had really put him behind. Twenty four miles of one lane road and not one construction worker…Joe looked at his watch again and sighed. He was scheduled to visit with his uncle again soon and he was running behind. Finally, Joe made it to the new Flying J in Siloam, Ga. He had just enough time to put in 100 gallons of fuel, clean up a little, eat some dinner and had five minutes to collect his thoughts before it was time to call his uncle.
Joe and his Uncle talked about the many different types of business plans. It was obvious to Joe that there was no such thing as a cookie cutter business plan. Joe had been wondering if he could just copy someone else’s plan and save himself the trouble of writing his own. Uncle John felt, while you could learn from reading other plans, the best plans were done from scratch.
After an hour of discussion Joe and his uncle agreed on a general format which would be detailed enough to be a good plan without going overboard for Joe’s one truck company. Here is what Joe wrote on his legal pad:
Executive Summary: overview of most important points of business plan and what would make my company special or stand out.
Company Description: mission statement, company overview, general information about trucking industry, legal structure.
Products & Services: which sector of the trucking industry the company will be serving and pricing info.
Marketing & Sales: type of customers the company will market to, customer profile, competitive, sales strategy.
Operations: Legal, license & insurance issues and other milestones.
Management: responsibilities, organizational chart, advisors.
Financials: Profit & loss, cash flow, balance sheet, financing, debt schedule, use of funds and assumptions, break-even analysis.
When Joe hung up the phone he wasn’t totally intimidated by this business plan stuff. OK, maybe it was a little intimidating but Joe trusted his uncle that this was the right move. Uncle John promised Joe if he took each section of the business plan one at a time it would make the whole process seem easier. What was the joke his uncle told him&emdash;how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
Check in on Joe soon as he starts creating an outline for the Executive Summary of his business plan.
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