Creating a business plan probably makes most creatives cringe, and they put it off until they need one and pull something together that isn’t complete. Follow this quick guide and learn some great tips for a business plan designer.
1. Create a brief executive summary: An executive summary is essentially a quick, succinct summary of your design business. Investors or banks will read this first, so it should be concise and to the point, no more than a couple of pages. The most important thing is to explain your business idea. An executive summary should include your company’s name, mission statement, details of your product or service, and basic information about your leadership team, employees, and location.
2. Describe what your design business offers: Defining the service that you’re going to offer next should be part of your design venture’s business plan. It’s important to be more specific than you might think since unless you’re planning to launch a full-fledged agency, you won’t be able to cover everything. Any bank or potential investor will probably know very little about the subject area, so make sure to describe in detail what your business will do and what its output will be.
3. Write a pitch for an elevator: In a few words, an elevator pitch describes your business to potential investors or clients. A two-minute elevator pitch should be easy to read. In an elevator, you could deliver the pitch to any potential investors, but don’t worry if that doesn’t happen to you; the pitch will still prove useful for understanding your future business’s real selling point.
4. Identify your USP: Your USP, or unique selling point, should be defined once you have conducted your SWOT analysis, including an analysis of your competitors. The importance of including this in your business plan cannot be overstated. Usually, a USP can be summed up in one or two sentences. Although this can be challenging, the shorter the better since you’ll be able to focus more on delivering it.
5. Describe your marketing strategy: What are your plans for reaching potential customers? How about word-of-mouth? Do you advertise? Is there promotional material? What about social media? Do you have your own website? Ideally, you should answer these questions after conducting market research to find out how potential clients find and contract your services. Your business plan should outline the expected costs for all of these marketing activities since, with the possible exception of word-of-mouth, none of them are free.
6. Give a brief description of yourself: In the next section of the perfect business plan, you (and your partners, if any) should describe who is behind the business. If you want to start a creative business, you should outline your experience and training, why you want to start it, and why you will make it successful. You should do the same for all partners in the business and attach their well-crafted resumes. The purpose of this section is to demonstrate to investors why you have the knowledge and skills to make your business successful and to allow you and your partners to assess your strengths.
7. Client description: Your business plan should not only describe who you are and what you will offer; it should also describe your target market clearly. What is their location? How will you meet their needs? These questions can help you figure out just how well you know the client you’re trying to reach and whether you need to do more research. You have a better chance of attracting an investor if you truly understand your target customer.
8. Assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats: Don’t forget that your customers aren’t the only ones who influence your business. The economy as a whole and competitors are also factors to consider. Defining the opportunities and threats in your market and comparing them to your business’s strengths and weaknesses is a simple SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats).
9. Plan for a backup: Last but not least, what if things don’t work out? The importance of making the perfect business plan has been stressed, but a plan is still a plan, and sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Having a backup plan is therefore important. When things don’t work out, what will you do short-term or long-term to fix them?
When writing a business plan, there are a lot of things to consider. With careful planning and ensuring you cover all the bases, as well as tailoring the plan to the person you are writing it for, it really isn’t that difficult. In addition, this article about some tips for a business plan designer will be the first step on your path to success.
