Author: Harvard Business School Faculty
Summary of the Book "How to Write a Business Plan"
Any business or major project needs a business plan, a roadmap to navigate the expected and unexpected opportunities and obstacles that the future holds, and to successfully navigate the unique competitive business environment.
The book "How to Write a Business Plan" tells us that preparing a business plan is part of preparing the business itself. This plan is not just a document hastily written, presented once, and then shelved. It is not just a slightly modified template taken from a book or a website. It is a highly focused activity that requires correct and honest thinking about your business idea, its opportunity, competitive environment, key success factors, and the people involved. Your analysis will result in more questions than answers. The next step in this process is to research answers to these questions.
The book adds that preparing, developing, and writing a business plan can take varying amounts of time depending on the size and nature of your business or project. Once completed, you should use it and revisit it repeatedly to ensure that your basic assumptions about the success factors have become realities. Before you immerse yourself in the work, think about several key issues that may contribute to your business plan preparation. Ask yourself at the outset: Why am I preparing this plan? What do I intend to achieve?
The book continues by stating that if your business plan serves as a proposal to a large company with rich resources, some aspects of this plan—like marketing or operational plans—may be less detailed than others. However, if you are in a resource-constrained environment using the plan to raise money for a risky investment, you need to focus on aspects that readers consider critical, such as the business opportunity itself, competitive analysis, management team, and financial projections.
The book emphasizes that you should know who will be reading your plan and why. There are various types of interested parties (or readers) looking for specific information in a business plan. Knowing the type of readers allows you to provide them with the information they deem most important.
The book further explains that if your project is within a large corporation, your plan should be directed to the board of directors or the management committee responsible for making capital investment decisions. If your project is entrepreneurial, regardless of the scenario, the fair audience will assess your work based on the financial aspects as well as the thoroughness of your business plan—its market opportunity, products or services, involved people, competitive environment, and most importantly, the expected financial returns.
The book advises asking yourself: What do you expect from each type of reader? Do you seek a commercial endorsement, active support from senior management, independent funding, connections with other investors, or business partners? Do you prefer a loan with a due date, or are you open to shared ownership and profits?
Before starting to draft the business plan, ensure you have all the necessary information. You may need to conduct some preliminary research, such as verifying the production costs of your product, exploring workspace options, updating your competitive analysis, and choosing the best legal formats suitable for your business.
Relationship Between DocSuite HR System and "How to Write a Business Plan"
The DocSuite HR system aims to facilitate human resource management processes within organizations, such as managing payroll, attendance, and performance evaluations, including preparing strategic and personal plans for employees. The book "How to Write a Business Plan," on the other hand, is a practical guide that takes you step-by-step through creating an effective business plan for your project or personal business.
The relationship between them lies in the fact that the DocSuite HR system can help you identify your human resource needs, while the book "How to Write a Business Plan" helps you set goals, analyze the competitive environment, and develop strategies. DocSuite HR can be used to analyze employee strengths and weaknesses and determine training needs, which aligns with the steps outlined in the book for analyzing external and internal environments and identifying opportunities and threats.
You can download "How to Write a Business Plan" directly from here.