The Speedy Home-Based Business Plan

In many ways, writing a business plan can be a major challenge as well as a major blessing. As much as it helps you get the ball rolling on executing the steps you need to take in order to start your home business, a business plan also lets you map out exactly what your business is going to entail.  

Think back to English class in school when we were taught to create outlines before we started on an essay or project. The purpose behind the outline was to build a skeleton of what the end product will look like and allow for productive and effective brainstorming. A good business plan does just that.

The simplest way to write a great business plan is to ask yourself questions. Just like in middle school, we turn to the 5 Ws and 1 H: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. Using these basic categories you can formulate questions and areas of interest to be addressed later in the planning stage.

A business plan is also extremely important because it contains your vision for your new endeavour. The business plan in this context is like the guide with which you will plan your next steps. It's also, in many ways, the earliest form of marketing you are putting out, and as such has to follow some basic rules.
 

Here are some basic guidelines and questions for a Speedy Home-Based Business Plan.

• A good business plan will help you figure out approximately what your business will cost to get off the ground. You don’t want to guess at this. Knowing your costs will help you decide what you’re going to charge.
• Your business plan should also include information about your competition. Don’t forget about them. In one way or another they exist and you’re going to want to get to know them.
• The bottom line – most businesses fail because they don’t have a clearly spelled-out business plan. Don’t make that mistake.
• For those of you who have been in business for awhile, don’t think a business plan can’t help you. Your business plan should be taken out on a regular basis, reread and updated.

The basic questions you need to ask yourself:

1. What is your business exactly? Explain in one or two sentences. (If you can’t describe your business in a couple of sentences, rethink your business and focus your idea).
2. Is your particular business needed? List the reasons that make you thinks so and reason why you think it isn't.
3. Where do you see your business in one year? In three years? In five years? Be specific and realistic. Nothing destroys a new venture like unrealistic expectations.
4. How will you fund your business? Savings, credit cards, loans? What are the various options available? What will it cost me in the long-run? How much interest will I be paying?
5. What equipment/office supplies/licenses will you need to get your business started? Total Cost?
6. What organizations and trade publications will you need? Total Cost?
7. Who is your target customer? Describe them. Again, specifics are important. Think of this as the demographic research of your marketing plan.
8. What other businesses will you be competing with? Learn more about them and find out their history. Look into their successes and failures and try to avoid repeating them.
9. What makes your business different from your competitor’s business? (Include price, quality, unique services, etc.)
10. Where will you set up your home office? Is it going to cost me money to make a nice workable office? Will it come in the way of my family life? How can I minimize the negative effects?
11. Will you use daycare everyday or once a week? Cost?
12. How much money do you need to make each month to help my family survive? Think of a realistic and exact figure so you have a goal in mind and when you do cost-benefit analyses.

Of course, this is merely a short list of questions. But based on these, you should now have a perfect starting point for a home-based business plan. The next steps vary from situation to situation but take it slow and make sure to revisit your plan as you go on and tweak things as you become more knowledgeable.