Is a Business Plan really necessary?

If you’re thinking of starting a business, you may be deliberating whether or not a business plan is actually necessary. Writing one can seem like a lot of time and effort and may seem like an unappealing prospect if you don’t see why you even need one.

However, more often than not, a business plan is of vital importance.

Why Is A Business Plan Important?

This may be a simple metaphor but imagine you’re planning a long car journey. You know where you want to end up, but you haven’t planned how you get there. You have a vague idea of the general direction, but no idea which roads to take. Just as a map would be useful in this situation, so to is a business plan when starting up your own company.

They can serve as a tool to help you set out the goals and objectives you have for your idea. Having everything written down will more than likely help keep you on track – it will help keep you accountable to keep pursuing your objectives.

On a practical note – if you’re seeking outside investment or looking to find a business partner, you will definitely need one. Investors will want to see and assess the potential of your idea before they invest any funds in your venture. Pitching without a clear and coherent plan is not a good idea. Investors need to understand exactly what your idea is, how viable it is, and what room there is for growth. They also want to make sure that you know what you’re doing!

By writing a business plan, you can get a better idea of how our product or service fits in the market. You want to make sure that you have a product that people will actually want to buy.

It can also help you identify how much investment you will need to get off the ground.

What Are The Benefits Of A Business Plan?

The first benefit is that you’re thinking and planning in advance. While you can’t predict the future, having a plan will allow you to consider potential issues or problems that may arise in the future, and create response plans to help you deal with these situations. It will help you be prepared.

It also gives you a much clearer sense of how you are going to actually enable your company to function, and where you want to see it go. Will you need to expand your team to help cope with running the company? What areas of expansion will you home to develop?

As part of a business plan, you must think about financial projections, marketing strategy, target audience, among many other factors. Spending time looking at your marketing strategy and target audience, for example, is also an incredibly valuable exercise which may help lead to new discoveries or change the way you think about a particular product. In depth analysis of the market will also enable you to see how your idea fits in in terms of pricing - is what you’re offering competitive enough? Market research is of inordinate value and forms a significant part of your business plan. Again, not only is this clarifying for you, but it is also important for potential investors.

A more thorough understanding of each component of your company, and where it fits in amongst the competition, will only benefit you in the long run.

Writing a business plan is also helpful for allowing you to smooth out anything before you properly get going. Something may come up that you haven’t thought about before, or it may become apparent that you need to work some more on a particular area before you approach investors. It may also become clear that you need to hire in more support to help with areas of the business that lie beyond your skillset.

How Can Oxbridge Content Help?

If after reading this you’ve realised that you do need to write a business plan but have no idea how to even start, you don’t need to worry. This is where Oxbridge Content come in.

As one of the UK’s leading business plan services, we have an incredible team of experienced writers and business professionals who are on hand to offer any support or help you need, no matter what stage you are at.

We understand the importance of having a strong business that accurately conveys your passion for your idea, and is backed up by convincing supporting data and market research. As such, we make every effort to truly get to know you and understand your idea, so we can produce the best plan possible that accurately reflects your vision.

What help do I need?

Depending on what stage you are at, we have a range of services available to match your needs:

• If you’re about to embark on a Start-up business, make the most of our years of experience and wisdom with our Professional Start-up Plan.

• Already have a business plan but not sure if it’s quite up to scratch? With our Review Service, one of our experts can review your documentation to make sure you’ve got everything covered before you approach any investors.

• Companies hoping to launch in the UK require an Entrepreneur Visa . This may seem like an overwhelming challenge, but with our help you can create a UK Visa appropriate plan to start your company’s next chapter. Take a look at our Entrepreneur Visa Plan to find out more.

• Is there a particular part of your plan that you need help with? If your plan for growth is a major concern, we can help track your company’s growth and use our wisdom to create an action plan. If so, chose our Professional Growth Plan.

• Looking for investors? Then our Professional Investor Ready Plan is perfect for you. Our experts will analysis your plan through the eyes of an investor, to make sure your plan answers any questions they may have.

Having a business plan is incredibly important.