BUSINESS PLAN Tutorial
HOW TO WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN
Do you want to write a business plan or need someone to do it for you?
We will show you here how a business plan is structured, which elements are included in it and what is important in the preparation of the business plan to convince potential investors. We will also show you at what cost you can have a business plan drawn up. In many cases, you can apply for a generous state subsidy, which significantly reduces the consulting costs or, in the best case, you can even have a business plan prepared by a business consultant free of charge.
Who prepares a business plan? And as a founder, should you write a business plan yourself? With a free business plan template or a suitable business plan example, it is very possible to write a business plan yourself. However, you should keep some important things in mind.
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Do you need a business plan?
Video
So erstellen Sie einen Businessplan
What is a business plan?
A business plan shows the economic viability and feasibility of a start-up. It explains how a business idea will be implemented and which target group the product or service is aimed at. The business plan consists on the one hand of a written text part, in which the business concept is presented, and on the other hand of a financial part, which shows the financial feasibility of the business.
There are many reasons to prepare a business plan. But regardless of who it is addressed to, it is a good preparation for the start-up process.
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Why create a business plan?
For yourself
First and foremost, start-ups should prepare the business plan for themselves. A business plan makes it easy to assess whether the project is viable. In addition, by putting the idea in writing, the founding risk can be determined and you may find completely new opportunities that you have not yet considered.
However, a business plan is not only relevant before the start-up, also after a start-up it represents an important guideline for the development of the company and serves as a roadmap for the founder. Thus, with the help of the business plan, founders can recognize undesirable developments in time and counteract them.
For banks and investors
In addition to the job center, investors and banks also require the submission of a business plan. If you want to take out a business start-up loan, for example, you must submit a detailed business plan to your bank.
Investors also require a business plan before investing in a company. The best business ideas are filtered out of many submissions according to certain criteria:
- Uniqueness of the product or service
- the founding team
- attractiveness of the market
- Business idea and concept
In many cases, it can also be useful to get support in preparing the business plan, or if necessary, to have parts of the business plan professionally prepared.
Structure of a business plan
A business plan is essentially composed of a text part and a financial plan. In the text part, the company and their concept are described in more detail, the team is introduced and the strategy and company version and all necessary information are presented. In addition, factors such as competition and market analysis are presented in detail. In this way, you can become more aware of your strategy yourself but also present your business concept, especially to third parties. The second part of the business plan, financial planning, is all about pure numbers. Here you calculate costs and turnover, present the financing of your project and calculate your company’s success. You can get an idea of this yourself in a free template.
Financial plan
The heart of any business plan is the financial plan. In practice, finances determine the success or failure of your venture. Only if sufficient liquid funds are available can the operational business be driven forward at full speed. If you want to create a business plan yourself or have it created, not least the financiers should be convinced of the financing of your project: here the explanations of the finances must not disappoint, as these are often decisive. Therefore, calculate with costs and turnovers that will convince your financiers. The turnovers may be set neither too low, since otherwise it presents your enterprise as uneconomical, nor too high, since then your backers do not believe you. Therefore, calculate with realistic and convincing costs and sales.
Structure of a financial plan
If you have a business plan prepared, all data should be presented in tabular form for reasons of clarity. If possible, comparative figures from the industry should be used for the estimates. The Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) may be able to help here. Many of these figures and information for the business plan can be obtained completely free of charge on the Internet. Statistics from institutes such as the Federal Statistical Office or Statista are also useful.
Content of a financial plan
A good financial plan contains at least the following points:
- Living costs: How high do you calculate your own costs (especially relevant in the start-up phase)? Are reserves/hedges available?
- Capital requirements according to investment plan: You calculate how much start-up capital is needed for purchases and preliminary costs and how much money is needed for a necessary liquidity reserve.
- Detailed financing plan: How much equity capital is available? Is there any other collateral that will be brought in? In addition, you calculate with which funds you can implement your project.
- Detailed liquidity planning: Here you calculate whether you have sufficient capital available on a permanent basis. It is important to choose the credits and loans in such a way that you do not get into a capital bottleneck. The business plan helps you to estimate this.
So erstellen Sie einen Finanzplan
Design various scenarios
It pays to come up with different „scenarios“ when planning your finances. When starting a business, you can never know for sure how the future will unfold and how well your product or service will be received. That’s why it’s good to calculate with different sales scenarios and show different developments. In a first scenario, you can present the „expected scenario“ – i.e. a sales development that is most likely to be expected and which seems realistic for your lenders. In another “ conservative scenario“ you can show the financial development if things do not go as well as expected. Finally, a third “ optimistic scenario“ represents the version of sales that entrepreneurs hope to achieve.
Outside lenders are usually more skeptical than the founders themselves. That’s why it’s important to stay realistic.
The text part of a business plan
In the text part of the business plan, the company is presented and all important information for external parties but also for oneself is listed.
The following elements must not be missing here under any circumstances:
- the name of the company
- the business idea
- the unique selling proposition
- experience and qualifications of the founders
- description of the target group
- marketing and sales
- business goals and company vision
- Employment of staff
- as well as possible risks
The advantage of writing the business plan yourself is that you know your concept and business idea best. However, if you have difficulties finding the right words for your ideas, it may be useful to consult a business consultant or professional business plan expert. You can often get reimbursed for the costs of business plan preparation.a
Any questions?
FAQ
If you have any questions, you can reach us at any time.
Here you will find the most frequently asked questions and answers.
If you have never written a business plan before, you need to allow 1-2 weeks for the writing work, depending on the scope. However, you should also allow enough time for business plan writing to think in detail about the startup and how to continue running the business. Writing a business plan is part of the foundation process. We are happy to advise you on this.
If you want us to write a business plan for you, it will also usually take 1-2 weeks.
As a rule, we have had very good experience with the success rate of our business plans. With our business plans you will succeed in most cases to convince your lenders. We would assume a success rate of about 95%.
However, you must of course also do your part in the bank interview. We will gladly support you in your preparation.
With many management consultants and business plan experts, you pay 800 – 1700 euros to have a business plan drawn up. In most cases, you can save costs through government funding. You will be reimbursed up to 50-80% of the preparation costs through public subsidies. If you live in Stuttgart, Hamburg or Berlin, for example, you can save up to 50% of the costs with a registered consultant, since you live in the old federal states. If you live in the new federal states you even save 80% of the costs. If you are registered as a job seeker, you can receive free individual consulting thanks to an activation and placement voucher (AVGS). In contrast to most other management consultants, we offer you particularly favorable prices. If you require additional consulting services, we will be happy to provide you with a non-binding offer.
Yes, that is of course possible. Just get in touch with us. You should not place an order that you are not completely convinced of. We will be happy to show you elaborated and free templates of our business plans and examples of business plans we have already prepared.
You can have a business plan drawn up by qualified business start-up consultants or management consultants. Likewise, specialized ghostwriters or tax consultants can support you in creating a business or financial plan.
It is important that you can convince yourself of the quality of the business plans in advance using examples or templates.
Prices for our business plans
Standard
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vollständiger Businessplan
perfekt für Kleingewerbe und Einzelhandel -
vollständiger Finanzplan
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1 Finanzszenario
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staatliche Förderung in Verbindung mit AVGS möglich
(100% Erstattung)
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vollständiger Businessplan
ideal für kleinere und mittlere Unternehmen -
ausführliche Finanzplanung
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2 Finanzszenarien
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Gründungsberatung
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staatlich förderungsfähig über
"Förderung Unternehmerischer Know-Hows"
(bis zu 80% Erstattung)
Company
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detailed business plan - especially suitable for complex and large companies
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several revisions possible. -
ausführliche Finanzplanung
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bis zu 3 Finanzszenarien und mehrfache Überarbeitung
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ausführliche Gründungs- und Marketingberatung
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staatlich förderungsfähig
über "Förderung "Unternehmerischer Know-Hows"
(bis zu 80% Erstattung)
Save up to 80 percent!
Depending on the federal state, up to 80% of the costs will be financed by state subsidies for the preparation of a business plan.
