before you can start a business you're going to need a business plan today I'm going to show you how to put together a one-page business plan that's going to jumpstart your entrepreneurial journey let's talk about it every business needs a plan regardless if you're starting a new business or you're growing your existing one you're going to need a plan to help you map your success there are actually a lot of different types of business plans most of them are much longer they're so long you're going to spend weeks you know researching writing and revising it that's not what we're going to talk about today today we're talking about the one-page business plan something you can put together in a day maybe eight hours and it's going to help you jump-start that business the one-page business plan has a lot of benefits one it's quick to put together in two it can be a great starting point if you're just starting a business it helps you to do that initial research put the plan together have it in place and if you already have a business and you want to grow it or you want to go into a new direction the one-page business plan is a great tool for that as well with this model with the one-page business plan it's still a lot of work though don't get me wrong it's still going to take you eight hours plus to do this you're still doing a lot of research because any business any good business is built on that research the difference here is you're summarizing each section down to one or two sentences that's making this one page business plan very concise now for your business you're not looking for an investment or to get a loan from a bank then the one-page business plan may actually be all you need you're not going to need the larger you know more in-depth document that takes a long time to write isn't as concise as this one-page model now keep in mind though it's a living document any business plan has to be dynamic you're going to come back to it frequently for reference and you're going to update it when you need to and just like every other business plan every other type of business plan the one-page business plan is a roadmap for your business's success this is where you outline your goals and you say how you're going to get there what are the steps you're going to need to take we're going to start out this one-page business plan with your company analysis and this is actually really simple it's what you're going to sell is it a product or service what is that are you selling it right now what is it going to possibly evolve into and if you're starting a new business is this the often you're going to be making rate out the gate is this the very first thing you're going to be offering to customers or you're going to start with a different version of it those are the first couple things in the company analysis and because we're looking at the current version we have to ask ourselves how could this potentially evolve going for right are there different verticals we could expand this into other is there a different customer base we can tap into those are the types of things we want to look at here lastly in the company analysis we need to identify why it is your product is unique what is it offering your customers it's going to make them want to give you money for that product or service this is going to really help you identify your unique selling point so that you can market this product to your customer and we'll go over some of that later in the business plan now that we've taking a quick look at the company we need to take a look at the industry you're going to be operating and now keep in mind we talked about in the previous section you could be looking at more than one industry your company could be serving more than one industry and so we need to look at those individually once you've identified writing down that industry now we need to look at the trends in that industry what's going on there what's going to be impacting your business how are the current businesses in that industry impacted by the current trend these are all important questions you need to really be asking yourself once you're getting ready to launch into that industry you're going to want to know this it's going to help you to navigate some of the issues you might come across now identifying those trends is great but we have to also be asking ourselves are these trends going to continue and if they are what impact is that going to have long term and short term and how are we going to try to get an advantage from the current trends in the industry change in any industry can be a great business opportunity you just have to be able to identify where it is going through this industry analysis really allows you to get a macro view and get your finger on the pulse of the industry so you can see what those influencing factors are within the industry at the moment identify those trends and see how it's going to help you shape and manage your business long term long term is always the key the whole pair is of course that you've done a great analysis of the industry and you're going to be able to use that analysis to take advantage of those trends and make adjustments to your business model as needed again I can't stress enough that this is actually a very dynamic document your business plan is dining it's not a static thing you wouldn't use a business model from 1900 to run your business today and you wouldn't use your business model in a month or six months to run your business the same way you need to be making adjustments we've broken down the company and we've taken a look at the industry as a whole but now we need to take a look at who your competitors are gonna be once you launch your business or going forward with your existing business we have to know who your competitors are so that we can try to get an advantage on them unless you're building a whole new industry which I have to say would actually be awesome but you're probably not so you're going to have competitors you're gonna have people who are going to compete with you in the market you have to take them seriously you have to be ready to try to take advantage when they make mistakes so knowing who they are knowing what their strengths and the weaknesses are is going to help in this competitor analysis like I said we're not just looking for who they are but we need to know what they're good at what are their strengths where are they killing it in the market right now and then we also need to know where they're lacking where can we take advantage of them kind of dropping the ball where can we pick it up and run with it that's what we want to know what are their strengths what are the weaknesses what threats are they to us and what opportunities can we get from them so that's really what this competitor analysis added Foundation is another good thing that comes out of the competitor analysis is that you're going to start to get an idea for price you're going to see where your competitors are priced in the market and that's going to help you determine where you might fit knowing where your competitors fit allows you to figure out what customer segments you're going to be going after if you know that you have a competitor that really has the high end market locked up you might want to come in just below that if you see an opportunity there so this is really a big part of that research looking at all these aspects of your competitors putting it together along with the industry analysis and knowing from your company analysis what you're going to be doing so you can start to figure out where you're going to fit where on that kind of graph of the industry that you're going to be operating in do you fit where do you have the best opportunity ultimately your goal should be to identify opportunities within your market look at where your competitors are weak as a whole where no one is doing something figure out if there's a reason why because it may just very well be that there is no opportunity there but if there is take advantage of it that's what this analysis is all about one last thing I competitor analysis guys it should go without saying that developing a competitive advantage is not something that's going to happen overnight it's going to take time and hard work but if you put the work into it you're going to be able to separate yourself from everyone else we've laid a really good foundation for this one-page business plan we've looked at the company the industry and competitors but you don't have a business if you don't have customers so that's really what this next section is we're looking at a customer analysis trying to figure out who our customers are going to be and how we reach them you want to take a deep dive on the customer analysis the more you can narrow the field on who your customer is going to be the easier it's going to be for you to target them and get them to exchange their cash for your product or service which is your ultimate goal the way I start my customer analysis by looking at their demographic information I wanted their age gender how much they make and use that to start building an avatar of who my customer is going to be that allows me to try to get a better view of them and figure out how I'm going to reach them that avatar is your ideal customer knowing that ideal customer allows you to figure out better ways to reach them so you'll know what social networks are on you'll know what magazines they read what kind of social economic circles they travel in that is information is going to help you reach your customer more effectively and better lower that cost of customer acquisition one of the other things you can use it to avatar for that's really fantastic as far as your customer research in your company research is what are the needs of your customer and does your product or service fill that need or do you have to tweak it a little bit make small adjustments so that you better fit the needs that they have which will again increase your chance of getting them to exchange their money for your product or service hopefully lowering your cost of customer acquisition that's one of the great things about this research process you're able to look at your customers needs kind of figure out what they are in more detail and tweak your product or service to better fit that learning from this process and iterating to improve your business plan is one of the keys to doing this it's going to help you improve your business make it more effective the last section in your one-page business plan is where you kind of call on all of that previous research you're going to lay out here your operations how are you going to run your business you want to lay out your day-to-day operations you also want to set your goals for your business what are your sales goal is going to be for the first quarter for the first year what are your employment goals going to be how many people do you want to have on staff how are you going to get there how are you going to reach those sales goals how are you going to attract the talent that you need these are the things you lay out in that final section another thing I like to lay out here is what's my market strategy how long until I get my first customer how long should I get my second customer how am I going to do that how am I going to attract those customers am I going to reach them on Facebook or do I use video on YouTube to reach those customers and like targeting them through Instagram or am i putting Flyers on windshields at local grocery stores knowing that marketing plan no matter what it is how you're going to execute it and how that's going to help you attract your customer is an important part in the last section of this one-page business plan of course knowing all of those things allows you to figure out the metrics you're going to use to measure your business by so is it what's your cost of customer acquisition do you want to try to drive that lower is it total sales quarterly sales yearly how are you going to measure that are you looking at revenue or profit these are the things that you want to measure your business against if you have a social company are you looking at reach engagement those are other questions you want to ask having metrics to measure your success against is very important laying all that out in this last section of the one-page business plan allows you to go back to this make sure that you're on track and make adjustments if you need to when it comes down to it guys the process of building your business plan is meant to help you explore your idea the market obstacles and opportunities if it did that if it helped you make that exploration into your business idea in the market and find some opportunities identify obstacles to help you avoid them then it did its job keep in mind guys like I said it's beginning of the video your business plan is dynamic it's a living document it needs to change it is your roadmap to success but sometimes you find a better route so you have to be ready to change course make a pivot if you need if you like this video guys if it helps you go ahead like comment share and subscribe and don't forget to click that little Bell icon next to subscribe button so you don't miss any videos and until next time keep taking action and make your ideas real you.
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