How To Write A One Page Business Plan
Before you start a business you are going to need a business plan, today I’m gonna go over how to put together a one page business plan. The below video is on this very topic from my YouTube Channel, feel free to check it out for more entrepreneur focused content.
What Type of Plan
Every business needs a business plan, regardless if you’re starting a new business or growing your existing one you need to put a plan together to help you map your success.
Now there are a lot of types of a business plan, and they all have value in different ways. A lot of them are larger more in depth plans that you will spend days if not weeks researching, writing and revising, That’s not what we are going to talk about today.
Today we are going to talk about the one page business plan. The one page business plan is something you can put together with a few hours of research and writing, and can be a great starting point for a new business or in developing a plan for the coming year in an existing business.
With this model of a business plan you are still doing a fair amount of research, because any good business is built on solid research, but you can summarize each section to a few sentences.
If you aren’t looking for an investment or to get a loan from a bank then in most cases the one page business plan might be all you need. But keep in mind it’s a document that you will come back to and revisit frequently.
Like any business plan, the one page business plan is a roadmap for your business, it outlines your goals and it’s going to be where you detail how you plan to achieve those goals.
Company Analysis
We are going to start out this one page business plan with your company analysis. What we need to write down here is what you are going to sell, so what’s your product or service currently, what are you going to be selling right out of the gate.
Next you need to identify any ways that this could possibly evolve going forward, what options are open to you for expanding your offerings.
Lastly in the company analysis you need to identify how your product or service is going to help your customer, what makes it so valuable that someone is going to be willing to pay you for it. Answering that question helps you to identify your unique selling point for your company.
Industry Analysis
Now that we have taken a quick look at the company we need to look at the industry you are going to be operating in.
Now keep in mind that you could be be offering a product or service that spans several industries and if that is the case you need to break out this information for each of them.
Once you identify that industry we need to start to look at what the current trends in that industry are and how that is impacting its overall growth and of course how that is going to impact businesses within that industry.
We also have to ask if those trends are going to continue or if the industry is changing how those changes will impact this current business idea. Change in any industry can be a great business opportunity, if you can identify it.
Getting that macro view of the industry as a whole really allows you to get a feel for the pulse of the industry and keep an eye on any influencing factors that could impact your business long term.
And Hopefully if you have conducted a proper analysis you are going to be able to spot those trends and make any needed adjustments.
Competitor Analysis
We have broken down what the company is going to do and we’ve taken a look at the industry as a whole, now we need to dive into who your competitors are going to be.
Unless you are building a whole new industry, which would be awesome, you are going to have competition and you need to take them seriously.
What we are looking for from this competitor analysis is not just who the competitors are but what are they good at and where are they lacking. Identifying this will help you figure out how you can get an advantage over them.
By researching your competitors you can also begin to get an idea of what price you should be charging your customers for your product or service. Look at what your competitors are charging their customers and how they stack up against you.
Price is going to take some testing to figure out, but knowing where each of your competitors fall on that spectrum is going to help you dial it in.
Ultimately your goal should be to identify where you can develop a competitive advantage over your competition so This will allow you to separate yourself from them in the market and stand out.
It should go without saying that developing a competitive advantage isn’t going to happen overnight, but identifying where you have that opportunity is a good first step.
Customer Analysis
We’ve looked at your company, the industry and your competition, that has laid the foundation for a solid business plan. But you don’t have a business if you don’t have customers.
If we are going to be in business we need to know who our customer is. Who is going to want to pay you for what you are offering, and how we are going to reach them.
Take a deep dive on this one and get as detailed as possible. The more you can narrow the field on the customer the easier it’s going to be to target your customers.
Start by identifying their demographics, develop an avatar for your customer, what’s their age, gender, economic status.
Knowing this will help you figure out the best way to market your product or service to your ideal customers. Knowing what medium to best reach them on will not just make your marketing efforts easier but save you money.
Then use that information to figure out what they want, how can your product fulfill that need. Or do you have to tweak your product or service to better fit the customer's need? That’s always a possibility, and that is a big part of what this process is for, learn and iterate.
Operations Overview
Finish off your one page business plan by laying out how you are going to operate your business, what are day to day operations going to look like, but also what are your goals and how are you going to reach them.
Start by figuring out how many, if any employees you are going to need. Are you going to be able to run as a solopreneur for now and hire someone later to help you scale, or do you need employees from the beginning.
What’s your goto market strategy and timeline, How long until you get your first customer, how are you going to go about getting them, and how quickly will you grow.
Knowing those you can then figure out what metrics you are going to have to measure to judge your success, being able to make a plan from starting off with nothing to getting your first customer
And your tenth and how to measure it will help you succeed and that is a bit part of what a business plan is meant to do, it’s your roadmap to success.
Revisit and Revise
When it comes down to it, the process of building your business plan is meant to help you explore your company idea and the market so you can identify possible obstacles and opportunities, if it did that during the process then it was a success.
Your business plan is a living document, revisit it weekly and make adjustments as needed. If you want to be successful then your business should by dynamic and so should your business plan.