How can it help me?

Creating a business plan will provide you and your stakeholders or funders with operational and financial details of how you will make your idea a reality. It is often an essential tool for securing funding. Your business plan should cover the problem that your idea will address, how you intend to do this and what makes you well placed to do it.

How do I use it?

The worksheet shows you the structure and content of an effective business plan.

Tips

• Get started by writing the overview of your business, which should include the main idea and its market.
• Don’t worry about getting it ‘just right’. Create the plan in draft and continue to re-draft it. This enables the plan to develop and will make you well versed in explaining your idea.
• For funders, make sure you include why you need the money, what it will be spent on and how it will be earned back.
• It is easier to write the executive summary after you have completed your first draft.
• Get someone else to read your business plan once you’ve written it.