Plan Plan and Plan again

The business plan is used in a couple of different ways. Mainly it is used internally as planning for the business starters or as a tool to gain financial help, or investment.

Me? Well I was using it for a bit of both I need to plan, a lot, it might be something ingrained from my military service. I have enough capital for start up, but I am willing to offer a small % of the company to someone with the right experience in accounting and tax, ideally someone with their own business, so they can take control of the financial matters, leaving me to concentrate on the product.

Where do you begin when writing a business plan? I had never done anything like this before, so I started to search online for free templates of business plans. The first one I found, I followed, and produced my own plan. It had lots of graphs and tables, but it had no flow. It took a solid week to produce. But in truth it was rubbish. The titles of each major section were unclear and even I never fully understood them.

I went back online and must have looked at over 50 templates of plans. I found one that was simple, unfussy and had clearly defined titles that made sense. I copied it, inserted my own words and added logos and my fonts to the titles and main headings. This took about 3 hours to complete but I was infinitely happier with this one.

The headings under which my new plan was formed were:

Introduction
This was a basic summary of what the company was, the products we offer, why it will work and a paragraph on financials.

Management
This is a short section on who is going to be running the business, and how the business would be structured. We are a partnership, so this was a short explanation of the experience and qualifications held by my partner and myself.

Products & Services
This is a more detailed brief on the types of classes offered by Boot Camp and the other services which we plan to offer.

Marketing
Covered in this section is market size, future growth, market sector expected client profile and a report on our competitors. We also outline how we shall be delivering out marketing strategy, and how we target the particular clients that we believe will be the lifeblood of our business.

Sales
Under this heading we cover in more detail our advertising and promotion, with figures and costings. This is also where we highlight our unique selling points. It is important to include this in your plan, even if your plan is only for your reference, as it re-affirms your confidence in your unique-ness.

Operational
Here is how the actual day to day operations of the company will work. I have included details of the location, full details of equipment and expected costs, for the entire start up, and also the roles of each of the staff.

Short – Medium Term Trading
It is vital to have a direction in which you want to steer your business, but it is important to look beyond the brick wall that starting up can be. I used this to produce some attainable objectives that would grow the business, in our case, a second location within 12 months, and having a class average of 15 within 6 months. I also devised a “What if” and contingency plan.

Financials
Clearly you will need to produce some conservative forecasts for how much money you expect your business to make. I worked out total spending and expected income for the first year, and included a hypothetical expansion of a second location in my second year forecast. This is absolutely vital if you wish to attract investment, and useful for your own reference.



Whether you use a plan or not, it cannot harm your chances to create one. In making my own business plan it forced me to research my competitors further, and it gave me a fuller understanding of my business. I would recommend it. If you wish to see my plan or use it as a template, please get in touch, email me at info@bootcampacademy.com

Thanks for reading

Stephen Howson