In this article, you will get an answer to the question: “How to write a successful business plan for receiving a grant?” We will call a successful business plan that has a chance of receiving a grant with a probability of more than 90%.
In order to create a business plan, it is necessary to present its structure (which includes sections and parts), as well as the content of each section. You can read more about the typical structure of a business plan in the article: “Business plan for a grant”, as well as “Business plan for a grant: 12 typical mistakes”.
In this article, you will find some practical tips on how to write a business plan more efficiently and easily.
The sequence of actions when creating a business plan
How to start creating a business plan and finish it? This is an urgent question for someone who is seriously puzzled by the problem of obtaining a grant. Before you start writing, you need to prepare. Otherwise, it will turn out like in a song: “what I see, I sing.” And in the business plan it will be: “what I downloaded, then I write.” And 100% plagiarism is very harmful in getting a grant.
The sequence of actions is as follows:
1) Deeply delve into the topic of the project from the side of theory. To do this, you need to read 10-20 articles on a given topic. This step will give you a superficial but broad understanding of the topic. For example, you plan to organize holidays and festive events. After reading the primary information on the Internet, you will understand:
- what are the holidays;
- what is necessary for their organization;
- estimated costs for launching the project;
- the main «pitfalls» when starting a project.
2) Learn practical nuances. After reading the theory, you need to get acquainted with the practical nuances. For this, communication with people immersed in this topic is best suited. The best teacher of practice is competitor analysis. You can do the following:
- write out all the organizations that organize holidays in your city;
- call several of them under the guise of a client;
- meet and chat.
At the same time, it is not at all necessary to order, you can just talk to clarify the situation on the local market for yourself.
3) «Tie» the project to a specific situation. In a project, it is important not only to have a good understanding of the theory, but also to master the practical situation. In addition to competitors, suppliers and buyers can help in this matter. Before writing a business plan, you need to find at least 10-20 potential buyers, as well as 2-3 potential suppliers. In the example of a holiday agency, we will need to get acquainted with corporate holiday customers, as well as find at least 2-3 suppliers of various paraphernalia to create a festive atmosphere.
At this stage, the preparation is basically completed. You can start the process of creating a business plan.
The sequence of actions when writing a business plan
A business plan is a document that, depending on the requirements for it, can “weigh” from 20 to 100 or more pages. Accordingly, this is quite a voluminous work. Even if you write 10 pages a day (which is already a full-time job for 1 day), then writing a business plan will take from 2 to 5 days.
In order not to torture themselves, many Grant Applicants prepare a business plan, filling it with information as follows:
- 80% of information is downloaded from the Internet;
- the remaining 20% are also downloaded, but edited.
In fact, the correct proportion should look exactly the opposite:
- 80% of the information should come exclusively from you;
- the remaining 20% can be written based on information taken from the Internet. In this case, any text must be editable.
The sequence of actions when creating a business plan should look like this:
- Preparation of calculations according to the business plan;
- Creation of the marketing section of the descriptive part of the business plan;
- Creation of the production section of the descriptive part of the business plan;
- Creation of the financial section of the descriptive part of the business plan.
This completes the main work on the business plan.
Please note that you must first prepare the calculation. It is the figures of the calculation that will then form the basis of the descriptive part.
The following describes the marketing and production sections, which can refine the calculation. In the process of writing them, the calculations may be adjusted.
The last one is better to “close” the financial section — it describes the situation after the adjustments made during the writing of the marketing and production sections of the business plan.
The Role of the Project Summary Section
Nothing was said above about the project summary, despite the fact that the summary is the first (in a row) section of the business plan. The fact is that the summary of the project must be written after the creation of the main sections of the business plan (marketing, production, financial).
This sequence of actions is not accidental.
The project summary is not only the very first, but also the very first important section of the business plan. With a poor summary, the investor may not get to read the rest of the business plan.
In addition, the project summary should consolidate in a concise manner the most basic information about the project, which is set out in more detail in the remaining sections of the business plan. Therefore, some duplication of the information indicated in the summary and the information contained in the remaining sections is permissible.
The conclusion is the following:
It is better to write the main text of the business plan, and then present the key information in a concise manner in the project summary.
The role of the section «Appendices to the business plan»
There is another important section of the business plan, which few people pay attention to. These are attachments to the business plan.
Applications contain information that is not included in the main part. Since information that is not included in the main part is considered secondary, many people completely miss it.
This is the wrong way to write a business plan.
The information in the attachments should show how well the project has been developed:
- The attached commercial offers of suppliers — indicate how well the information on purchase prices has been worked out;
- The attached protocols of intent, agreements, draft contracts with clients — indicate how well the information on the sales volumes of finished products has been worked out;
- Attached rental agreements (draft agreements) — I testify to the accuracy of information on rental costs
Etc.
Feel free to enclose various evidence of your high-quality work on a business pan in the form of scanned documents. This will be a big plus for the selection committee to make a decision in your favor.
Preparing a successful business plan is a labor intensive process. For beginners in this business, it takes from 1 week to 1 month to prepare a high-quality business plan for a grant. To save your time and increase your chances of success:
