Turning an idea into success: The business plan

Anyone who wants to be self-employed needs a nuanced business plan in addition to a promising business concept.

What is a business plan?

A business plan presents the business concept in a comprehensive and generally accessible manner.

At a minimum, the following points should be included:

  • Business management (business concept, milestones/schedule, founder(s), legal form, range of products or services, etc.)
  • Marketing and sales (situation analysis, target groups, benefit for the customer, customer acquisition, marketing plan, sales planning, etc.)
  • Production/service (location, office premises, equipment and operating resources, staff, know-how, quality control, etc.)
  • Internal service (administration, bookkeeping, staff management, protection against risks, etc.)
  • Capital requirement and financing plan
  • Revenue plan
  • Liquidity plan
  • Capacity planning

Why have a business plan?

Primarily, you write your business plan for yourself. When working on it, many things will occur to you which you hadn’t thought of earlier. The business plan defines how you will proceed and helps prevent you from getting bogged down while dealing with the countless tasks when starting up your business.

A business plan is also helpful in acquiring customers or suppliers, as it helps give you a competent and professional appearance. Just as with investors, the customer, supplier or strategic partners should be won over by your company’s business plan. However, the addressee of the business plan is also very important! All information does not have to be shown to everyone who reads your business plan.

Furthermore, a business plan serves to procure capital. In Germany, investors, whether at the bank or the employment center (business start-up grant), demand to see a business plan before they finance a company. With this plan, they can evaluate not only the company’s potential, but also whether it has been realistically planned and whether the related risks have been assessed correctly.

We are happy to help you create an individualized business plan. Even during the creation of a business plan, public funds are available to you.