How to Make a Business Plan

by Iain Morrison on July 30, 2015 No comments

Are you trying to start an app business?

Do you like beach holidays and analogies?

As someone who just returned from a very relaxing holiday, I have only one complaint (that leads to an analogy): the swimming pool at the hotel was freezing! It was too hot to avoid it and it was fine once I was actually in it, but the anticipation of actually getting in it was…?

… Like starting a business plan! How sad am I that that was the comparison I came up with? But hey ho: we are who we are and I am a business man.

At some point in your app building venture, you will require a business plan. The business plan could be required by a potential investor, a bank, a potential partner, or for your own peace of mind. Each of these parties usually want different information or different levels of detail in the business plan. The result of this is that the more detail you have, the more useful it will be.

Staying on the cold swimming pool thread, some like to dip their toes and then inch slowly into the water. Others prefer the shock treatment of diving straight in. When it comes to creating a business plan, it’s best to dive straight in. The feeling of dread that precedes diving in usually comes from not knowing what is required in the business plan, due to the various requirements of the differing parties.

Plot Your Journey

My advice is to forget what everyone else wants and consider your business plan as a document that describes the journey for your business. There is a starting point, there is the equipment you need for the journey, and there is the consumption of food / fuel. There are obstacles, there are risks, and there may be people that support, join, or leave you on the journey. There are people (competitors) that try to stop you or interfere with the journey and there is the destination. Keep in mind that things rarely stay the same for very long and, as a well-trodden path shifts, it may well impact you on your journey and you should have a method for managing that flexibility.

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Keep asking yourself in the creation of your journey plan: why are you undertaking the journey? Is it because you want to get to the destination? Is it because you want to have the journey? Do you want to start the journey and leave others to continue when you have achieved what you want from it? Identify this early on, because it will determine the areas that you need to focus on to realise the journey.

Create Equity

At each point of interest on your journey, you should have created equity in your business.

  • Some people just come up with ideas for products or services and sell the idea to someone else, ending their journey, but having created enough interest that someone has seen value. This usually involves some work relating to the intellectual property registration.
  • Some people may go a step further by attracting some seed funding to prototype their product or service and sell what has involved more money and effort to generate the higher value that then gets sold on.
  • Some people may go through the full process of getting their product ready to go to market and license the product for others to produce, sell, and distribute.
  • Some people may get to the point of having manufactured the product and then find others who manage the sales and distribution.
  • Some people may go all into the business and want to manage all aspects and then go on to find other products to create and expand their business further.

The last two groups of people on this list are the people who generally embark on the journey for the sake of the journey, where the others generally have a set destination in mind or realise there is a particular difficulty in the continuation of their journey, due to obstacles which are too great for them to surpass. Whatever your reason for the journey, it is a very good idea to have a roadmap for the full journey, as others will want to look at the roadmap if they are to continue in something you have begun.

Give Them a Reason

Every business partner, bank, or investor will have various reasons for joining you on your journey. A bank, for example, will initially want a short term return on money they loan to your business. They may also want a longer term relationship with your business. With this in mind, they will want to determine that your business has a future for you to maintain your repayments and that you have considered every aspect and risk to your business. This will require a lot of detail and a belief that you have the competency to manage the business.

Remember, this is a two way street. A well thought out plan for your journey will attract people and, if you are happy for them to be part of your journey, you should ensure that they provide something that supports the journey such as generic / technical / industry expertise, finance, connections, resources, etc. Once people commit something to your journey, they will support it and you should utilise that support in full.

Spend some additional thought on those competitors / risks to your journey. Nearly everyone who looks at your journey plan will want to see that you have made some carefully considered calculations to overcome these obstacles.

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My final advice? Dive in there and use every rejection or question about your journey as an opportunity to perfect it. Find as many ways as possible to bring as many people on your journey as you can and utilise their expertise, resources, and money. Above all else, enjoy the journey.

What does your app journey look like? Have you made a business plan? Spoken with investors? Do you have a team of people to help you on your journey? Share in the comments below!

Iain MorrisonHow to Make a Business Plan

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