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Home Based Businesses For Women Article
Your home business requires a solid business plan just like any other
business. Period.
A well thought out business plan will help you to charter your home business
safely ahead. You will have a clear idea on, how to go about conducting
business.
Writing a Business Plan.
So you’ve reached that stage where you’re ready to get your home business
started in every way except one: you need money. Whether it comes from a loan or
from investors doesn’t really make too much difference, since there’s one thing
that they all need to see before they’ll give you a cent. That thing is your
business plan.
What’s a Business Plan?
Think of your business plan as being like a list of answers to questions that
people might have about your home business. You will not get outside funding
without one, because the people giving you the funding want to know that you’ve
thought through what you’re doing. A business plan says to them I’ve
considered this from every angle, and here’s what I’ve come up with.
But what should your business plan include?
What is Your Particular Service? This is the very first question every home business plan should try to answer! Just what is it that you plan to do? Mention which industry you’re going to be in.
And, what is the reason that made you choose this particular industry for
your home business. Mention your strengths and weaknesses too. How much
profit potential you can expect for your home business from running this
service.
Who are Your Target Customers? Once you are clear on what you do, the next thing
you have to ascertain is, who you’re going to be doing it for, and so that’s the
next thing that should be written on the business plan. You should also include
your special areas here.
Its also advise to include how your are going to reach your home business customers? That is what is the marketing strategy to reach your target customers.
What Makes Your Home Based Business Different? You need to say what the
key factors are that make your business different to other businesses in its
sector. What is it that you’re planning to do to make the business succeed?
What are Your Expenses? Your start-up expenses include any equipment that you
need before you can get up-and-running, while your day-to-day expenses are staff
costs and supplies.
An Example.
What we are trying to do is, just to give you a basic idea how a business plan
should be drawn up to run your home business smoothly. An outline of how you
should go about developing a business plan.
Note that this is a very short and sweet business plan: in real life, each
one of these sections would be closer to a page in length. That said, it is a
bad idea to go into too much detail in your plan. You’re not trying to tell the
reader everything, just the basics of the business and why they should give you
money to help you build it. Always focus on profit.
The Catering & Cake Co.
Nature of Business: The business will be a home-based catering company,
producing luxury food for special occasions such as birthdays and weddings. We
will provide a comprehensive catering service, with a special line in cakes,
which have a higher profit margin than other foods.
Target Market: Our catering business will be aimed at middle-market
customers who want luxury catering but still care about the cost. To begin with,
our target area is within a ten-mile radius of Anytown, to include the affluent
area of Othertown.
Key Factors: We will use industrial-quality ingredients but provide
bespoke-quality design and service. This will allow us to provide food that
looks excellent and tastes acceptable, while keeping costs low.
Expenses: Since I will be using my kitchen for the business and making
the food myself, there are only two real expenses: the one-off cost of a larger
cooker, and then the day-to-day cost supplies. A suppliers’ letter listing
prices is attached -- enquiries with others in the catering industry have shown
this supplier to be the best value for my business.
Note: When you talk about expenses, it is always a
good idea to double what you have calculated for. This will make sure that you
won't run out of cash in conducting your home business smoothly. Another point
to mention is -- cutting costs. In the initial days of your home business, put
the breaks on outgoing expenses as much as possible.
To finish it all off, you should include a breakdown of projected profit and
loss per month for the first year of the business, in the form of a graph. You
would work this out by working out a reasonable repayment of any one-off
expenses and adding this repayment to the day-to-day expenses, before graphing
day-to-day expenses against projected sales. Your business plan should show you
making enough of a profit each month to live -- if you doesn’t, then it will be
considered unfeasible by anyone you show it to.
Find Real Business Plans.
The best way to figure out the dos and don’ts of business plans is to find real
ones -- they’re out there on the Internet. Once you’ve seen a few, you can start
to get some idea of how much work is going to be involved to write one of your
own. Remember, until your business exists for real, the business plan is the
only tool you have to show anyone how great it’s going to be.
Hope you enjoyed this article on writing a business plan for your home business.
There are many more articles on home business lurking under this site! You
are sure to pick up tips and free resources from them.
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