No matter what kind of business you are starting, if you need to raise capital, you will need a business plan.
I remember the first time I wrote a business plan. I had no idea what I was doing.
In this article I am going to share some of the key elements that must be present in a good business plan. At the end of the article I will offer some potential solutions to developing a comprehensive business plan, that you will be confident to show to investors or banks.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS THAT MUST BE PRESENT IN ANY BUSINESS PLAN
The Mission Statement
This is the direction of your company and it help to contextualize why you are doing what you’re doing. Even your company culture, otherwise known as the internal marketing is connected to this statement. Make it concise clear and to the heart of who you are as a company.
Budget
Put as much information here about where money is going to be flowing through your business as you possibly can. Include equipment costs, company logo, website design, store design or build-out, and inventory. Even if you don’t need investors, it’s still a good idea to have all of this on paper as a map.
Customer Profile
Include here as much relevant information about the people who you think will be visiting your store. Who are they? How old are they? What are their interests? What is their average income? Where do they live? Be as detailed as possible with these descriptions.
In my experience the primary customer I was serving was women 18-35 with above average income. Of course that’s not everyone, but it could be as high as 80% of customers in some locations. Once you have all of the details about your target customers down on paper there is so much you can do with the information in terms of marketing.
Marketing strategies
Include an outline of all of the marketing strategies you will be employing at launch in this section. If you are using social media marketing be sure to include which platforms you will be focusing on and how you will be communicating across those platforms.
Something else to consider is your internal marketing. How will you communicate what your company is all about to your employees? You can say whatever you want out to the world, but none of that is real until someone visits your store. You most powerful marketing effort is the effect visiting your store will have on a person. What kind of experience are you trying to create for them?
Location
Write down all the details of your location here. How much seating will you have, if any? How many square feet is the property? What is the rent? Where will you store ingredients? What kind of foot traffic comes through this space? The space you have is connected to everything including how many employees you will hire for example.
Competitor Analysis
Based on the specifics of your location, in this section, you will outline who your direct and indirect competitors are.
Who is a direct competitor? This would be a juice or smoothie business who was close to exactly the same focus.
What are indirect competitors? This could be anything from grocery stores to coffee shops. Businesses that may not categorically be Juice Bars, but that may sell Juice or a similar product.
Even though they are not Juice Bars, their product offerings, might still affect your bottom line.
Performa – AKA Financial Projections
This is where you include all of your financial projections. How much money do you plan to make in the first year? When can investors expect to see a return? Include your margins and charts of expenses. You can even look at this section as your goals. Make them attainable.
This is a very general overview of what you need to include in your business plan. I spend a lot more time on this in my online course, because certain aspects require more attention. If you are in this phase of your business and you are struggling to create this plan I consult with people one on one all the time on the things you’re probably struggling with.
This is just to name a few. Along with these sections you will want to talk about the juice market, your competitive advantage, management team, vendors and more.
When I wrote my first business plan I had all kinds of loft visions and made so many ungrounded assumptions that it would have made you laugh.
This is because, I had literally no experience in the industry and very few real sources of information to pull from, all I could to was make assumptions and articulate my desires.
We speak to many clients who are in the begging phase of getting their juice bars off the ground. They have the drive. They have the passion, the vision, but they don’t have all the money that the need to get started.
YOUR BUSINESS PLAN IS THE TOOL YOU NEED TO RAISE MONEY FOR YOUR JUICE BAR.
1st things 1st. Your business plan is simply that a plan.
It is not a crystal ball that is predicting the future.
The way things play out in reality will likely be very different than you have planned.
With that being said, without a solid business plan you can almost forget about getting any money from private investors or banks.
So whats the solution?
1. You can invest some money in a business plan template. Spend the next month or more doing market research and financial projects, etc. Hopefully by the end of this process, you have something that, no only you feel confident about, but a business plan that paints a realistic picture of your success.
2. Contact us to discuss how we can support you in developing your business plan. We have worked with numerous Juice Bars world wide. We know this industry and can help you create a comprehensive business plan.
Click the link below and send us a message so we can discuss how we can help you develop your business plan today!