The very first step of your business career should be to start creating a highly focused Business Plan. Without a business plan you are setting out on the route to failure – guaranteed!

Look at it this way, when your build a house you must lay the foundations for the house to stand. The same rules apply for any business; whether it’s a home based business, high street business, or even an internet business; you simply MUST HAVE a business plan.

The problem is for the majority of aspiring entrepreneur’s, they do not know what to include in their business plane, or if they do, they put the business plan at the bottom of their drawer, never to be seen again!

So, the first step in writing a business plan that is guaranteed to bring you success is to get down the basics. The basics should include details of you as the primary business owner, and also any other ‘key players’ in the business. Within these details you should include contact details for every relevant person, just in case you need to contact them in an emergency. Once you have gained all of the relevant details should now start to focus on the following areas:

Your business idea Within this section you should write down your business ideas. Don’t worry, a business plan is a working document, and therefore you can change the business plan as your ideas and creativity progress.

The aim of the business Within this section of the plan try to detail what the main aim/objectives of the business are. You should try to include short, medium and long term aims of the business. Where do you want to be in 3 months time? Where do you want to be in 12 months/36 months and 60 months time etc?

Your product and services Within this section you should concentrate on providing details that are relevant to your product or service. Always, and I mean always, aim for quality in everything that you do. Who’s going to make your product? Who’s going to deliver the service and are they capable of delivering the same high standards that you expect? Remember, without other’s help, you will not succeed in business.

Trade accounts Within this section you should include define details that relate to your trade accounts. Are you going to meet with them face-to-face, or are you going to communicate b telephone and e mail? It is very important that you meet up with your trade accounts from time to time in order to build up a relationship/

Business funding Within this section of the business plan, try to define details that relate to the funding of your business. Are you going to fund the expansion yourself, or are you going to seek capital from a third party such as a bank or venture capitalists? Whichever you choose, make sure you can afford the repayments!

Other areas of your plan should include Business premises, staff details, further costs and expenses, inventory and action for progress.

There are four major reasons why business planning is used for a company. The first reason is for the start up of a new venture, the second reason is for an existing organization that needs to expand, the third reason is for the purchase of an existing service, product or company, and the fourth reason is to improve an existing company, service or product

The most important part of a Business Plan is the Executive Summary. The Executive Summary is generally only two pages and is an overview of the pertinent information contained within the business plan itself. Generally Venture Capital Executives, Angle Investors, or Investment Bankers will read these two pages and either put you into ‘sounds interesting pile’ or ‘trash can pile.’ Your executive Summary must be complete, honest, and it must be compelling.

Many times entrepreneurs will write a rough draft Executive Summary and then write their business plans. Then go back and re-write the Executive Summary after re-considering all the important points. You should be able to give your executive summary to just about any competent person and after they read it, they should not have more than one or two questions. Below is a sample Executive Summary I have prepared for this discussion on an non-existent product, which is under consideration by at least one entrepreneur to make this widget a reality and available to the public.

2005 Business Plan for The JoggingLight

The JoggingLight is a Brand Name of the parent company, “The Human Group, LLC. of Alpine Meadows, CA. The JoggingLight is a new innovation in miniaturization of LED lighting using electromagnetic induction for increased visibility while walking or jogging. These lights will require no battery source, but rather work of the vibrational energy, which comes from human movement while walking.

The JoggingLight will provide light and safety to consumers who want piece of mind while exercising at night. We also intend sell these units to industry, neighborhood watch groups, military and security professionals as well. By increasing the light while engaged in such activities we will reduce injury, crime and allow folks to exercise after dark to stay at their ideal weight, thus improving their health.

We intend to sell these items to consumers through Internet sales, Television Infomercials, specialty high-tech stores, as our primary strategy for consumer sales. Industrial, military and security sales will be done through direct sales meetings with purchasing agents, procurement officers as well as bidding on official solicitations.

We will start by producing the first units in-house and may later expand such operations or outsource the manufacturing within the United States or US Territories as needed.

Our mission is to sell these units to anyone wishing to own them anywhere in the world and making the JoggingLight easy to purchase online and in selective retail outlets. We also intend to explore other possible markets when and where we see demand, which we can fulfill, while making a significant profit. We will strive to provide quality lighting for the human endeavor, which uses no external power source such as batteries and constantly explore additional market sectors to sell our JoggingLight Concept in, while continuously innovating.

The Human Group is a closely held corporation with Mr. Bob Smith as President.

Other than small flashlights, miner’s hats and hand held lights, which generally use batteries there is currently little competition in this sector. Jogging and walking lights, which have harnesses are cumbersome, irritating and too heavy, with poor battery life. There is one flashlight company with a “Shaking Light” however it too is cumbersome and too heavy to use while jogging and there is no way to attach it. We do, however, expect copy companies to start up. This is not too alarming, since they will go through a similar learning curve and we do not plan on letting up on our new market exploits or innovations including space and NASA.

When selling to retailers we will require timely payments, upfront initial orders and intend to continually ramp up efforts online and through infomercials to maintain adequate cash flows incase of extended receivables as we expand.

Our target price to consumers will be $29.95 plus shipping and handling on our e-commerce website and Infomercial sales campaign. At this price we can expand without excessive capital requirements after the initial capitalization. Phase II will be to enter the selective retail sales market with companies such as Sharper Image with retail and catalog sales.

To finance this operation, we will need $ 300,000 of capital, which will come from investors, personal friends and family. This will enable Kevin Humphrey to remain in complete control of The JoggingLight Brand throughout its development. It is very important for start-up personal high-tech products companies to remain in control until they reach critical mass and are large enough to afford adequate payroll to attract experienced executives and build a corporate structure. This money will be used for;

Before a business plan is presented to funders, they would like to see that at least some low cost steps have been taken by the founders. One of these is to choose a legal structure for the business and to incorporate it, a process which generally costs only hundreds of dollars.

There are three major issues to consider when choosing a legal structure: control, liability, and taxes. Different legal structures have pros and cons on these three issues and you must seek what you are comfortable with and what will work best for the business both now and throughout its projected growth. The major legal structures to consider are sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited partnerships, corporations, and S corporations.

Control

A sole proprietorship retains the greatest amount of control for the founder (100% of ownership control to be exact). Structures that allow for investors to take part mean an increasing loss of control from the founder. These include partnerships, corporations and S corporations. A limited partnership may be a good option for a founder who wants to retain control while bringing in outside investment. Limited partners (also called silent or sleeping partners) of the business have no say in how the business operates, while the general partners keep control.

Liability

It is important for a founder to discuss legal structures with a lawyer to understand their legal liability in various structures. Generally, as control is spread out from the owner, liability is also lowered. For example, a sole proprietorship has unlimited personal liability for the owner, as are partners in a partnership and general partners in a limited partnership. Limited partners are only liable to the extent of their investment and corporations and S corporations limit the liability of stockholders as well.

If you own a business that in, you must have a safety plan. You have the responsibility as business owner to keep your employees safe. The last thing you want to be doing is dealing with accidents on site. This certainly is not a good thing to experience.

A plan, will communicate to your team the important things about keeping safe. This is critical for any project or business. You may own a business all run an organization, it does not matter you need to keep your employees safe.

If you are trying to achieve certification, then you will also need standard documents such as a safety plan. A plan is a document that should be easily accessible, to all of your team members. It is also a document that should be updated on a continual basis. This is the only way to keep it current and keep your employees say.

Really, a plan is one of the most important tools your business can have. If you work in a dangerous environment, will you deal with children, or you’re on a construction site, you really need to consider having a safety plan for your business. The good news is, you can get hold of a plan quite easily. What you need to look for, is a safety plan template. This will give you the background of a safety plan. Then all you need to do, is customized to suit your business.

How easy is this? In fact you could have a plan generated in a few hours. Consider your team, and make sure you implement safety plans in your business.