How to Write a Business Plan for a Service Company

The business world is changing rapidly and is full of ambitious companies striving to capture most of their industry`s market share. In monthly evening sessions, the forum evaluates the business plans of companies accepted for presentation in segments of 60 to 90 minutes where no locks are excluded. The format allows each moderator 20 minutes to verbally summarize a business plan. Each panelist reviews the written business plan prior to meetings. Then, each of the four panelists – venture capitalists, bankers, marketers, successful entrepreneurs, MIT professors or other experts – spends five to ten minutes assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the plan and the company and suggesting improvements. Even for experts, it`s easy to overlook this basic idea. At a session at the MIT Enterprise Forum, an entrepreneur spent most of his 20-minute presentation time touting his company`s product – a tool for controlling aspects of the production process in the textile industry. He concluded with some financial projections in five years. It may be useful to look at how other service companies have written their business plans.

Check out our free library of sample plans and templates for service businesses. You can download any of these documents in Word form and get a structure for your own plan. A good business plan can help you clarify your strategy, identify potential hurdles, decide what resources you need, and assess the viability of your idea before you learn how to start a business. A summary should not exceed one page. Admittedly, this space constraint can make compressing all the important information a bit stressful – but it`s not impossible. Here`s what your business plan summary should include: After taking into account the projection discount factor, investors can apply that after five years, a company will generate annual revenue of $20 million and net income of $1.5 million. Based on a traditional multiplier for acquisitions at ten times profit, the company would be worth $15 million in five years. The panelists advised him to focus first on prototyping and build a management team with marketing and financial expertise to complement his expertise in product development. They explained that since he had never started a company before, he needed to make great visible strides in building his business to allay investor concerns about his inexperience. Noah is currently COO COO at Palo Alto Software, the creators of the LivePlan online business plan app.

You can follow Noah on Twitter. If you`re interested in a product-focused business, you may want to describe your product in more detail. If you`re selling a product that`s readily available in the market, you may want to focus more on your core strength (like competitive pricing) rather than the product itself. However, if you are making a new product, it may be more important to explain the product and its use in detail. You need to convincingly predict the adoption rate of the product or service and the rate at which it is likely to sell. From this market research data, you can start building a credible sales plan and forecasting your asset and workforce needs. If you`re starting a business that sells a service, writing a business plan is one of the first steps to take. Whether you`re starting a consulting business, auto repair shop, or construction company, a business plan will help you understand your strategy, develop your marketing plan, and determine the financial forecasts that are important for success. You can receive user letters even if the product is only in the prototype stage. You can install it experimentally with a potential user to whom you sell it at cost or cost, in exchange for information about its benefits and an agreement to talk to potential prospects or investors. In an appendix to the business plan or in a separate volume, you can include letters confirming the value of the product from experimental customers.

Before you start your business plan, you may ask yourself, “Where do I start? How am I supposed to format this? A business plan should not exceed 40 pages.