Ross Sanner On The Importance Of A Business Plan

Regardless of their medium, every artist strives to find the best way to convey their emotions, intentions, and desires through their craft. Writers struggle to weave pictures with words. Painters work meticulously to fill out a canvas. Dancers grapple with the best way to tell a story through physicality.

However, even businesspeople can encounter difficulties in bringing their vision to others. Even if they are passionate about their pursuits, it can be difficult to persuade the public that their new idea is worth consideration, not to mention potential audiences. For any individual looking to start a business, a plan is necessary.

Enter the—what else?—business plan. Now, the intention of writing a business plan can and should be to make others, particularly investors, understand what your idea is about and why it is economically viable. But it should also be for you. In an age of startups, you should be painstakingly aware of your market space and what advantage you offer over others. If you can’t find that, then, well, your idea may not have actual merit.

Writing a business plan can be a great way to determine your own strengths and weaknesses, and to workshop your idea before trying to sell it to investors.

So what goes into a solid plan? As a general rule, they start wide, and then work their way in. This is related to the concept of an elevator pitch; if you can’t sell your business in a paragraph or two, how will you be able to advertise to customers? This is the executive summary, which should be brief, unambiguous, and always immediately follow your title page. I’m not going to get too far in depth on the components of a business plan, but Entrepreneur has a good summary of its different elements.

Once you’ve established the main concept of your business, it’s time to delve into the details that will be necessary going forward. As with anything else, things will go better for you if you’re more prepared, and this means doing your research. I recommend starting with market research, as if you discover that another company occupies the same competitive space as you, you’ll have to either tweak or abandon your idea.

Consider a variety of factors when doing this. Location, startup costs, market size, and demographics are just a few of the things you’ll need to have a handle on when you write your business plan. All of this information is included over the course of several sections. Start with a business description, which provides a brief overview of your industry along with an analysis of what opportunities or challenges the future can hold, and how your business will address these.

Further unpack your market analysis by discussing your overall strategies and then transitioning into the tactics you plan on using (again, start wide and work your way in). Though you are dealing in detail here, remember to always keep things as short as possible. Minimize your use of numbers and statistics; though they may be useful to you, this is likely not the case for anyone reading your business plan.

Additionally, you should be working to subdivide whenever possible. Again, there are plenty of resources available online to guide you through the writing process, but as an overview, you’ll want sections for competitive analysis, product specifications, organizational logistics, and yes, a bit of finance data.

Just as important as the plan itself is how you present it. If you plan on sharing it with investors, consider distilling it even further into a simple web presentation. Make it visually appealing, easy to read, and easier to distribute. Another thing that can help give your pitch some weight is to provide a sample of product, if relevant. Demonstrating to investors that you have a polished prototype ready for deployment is a great sign to them; waiting for a product to get off the ground is a risk that most will not take.

And give it character; your business will have its own set of values and culture, so make those shine through whenever you talk about it.

There’s no one “right” way to write a business plan. However, good research and presentation can help create a strong foundation for your business—and attain the difficult goal of accurately imparting your vision on others.

About The Author: Ross Sanner is a Burlington-based education and finance professional. Ross has extensive experience working in a variety of verticals, and helps bring businesses together through his consulting firm, Think Growth. His work at the Orme School has attracted national media attention, including stories from Fox, PBS, and Bloomburg.

Ross Sanner and his wife, Casey, enjoy the outdoors and spending time with their young daughter, Logan.