How to Write a Useful Internal Business Plan

You can use a business plan as an internal management tool to help you run your business. This doesn’t mean you have to write a full business plan for fundraising or pitching investors. 

Keep your internal business plan simple so it’s easy to communicate.
What’s the deal with internal business plans?

Your business plan keeps your team on track with your strategy, sets financial goals, and tracks performance so you can manage it better. This kind of document is easy to share across multiple channels, encourages employee engagement, and uncovers issues.

Make an internal business plan using a growth planning method. Using this method, business plans are simpler, shorter, and designed for internal communication. 

Growth plans are great for internal business planning because they’re short, easy to update, and describe your business strategy succinctly. Basically, it’s an executive summary that should be analyzed, updated, and referenced consistently. 

What’s the difference between an internal and an external business plan?

An internal business plan is a tool that helps you run your business better. It’s the best business plan for internal analysis, and it should be at the center of regular strategy meetings. New business ideas are often explored with internal business plans to see if they’re viable. 

Internal business plans are usually for your partners and employees. In most cases, it’s just shared with people involved in your business on a day-to-day basis. Internal business plans are usually less formal since they’re aimed at business strategy and management. Business plans don’t include much of what external ones do. 

In contrast, external business plans are for people outside your company. They’re typically part of the fundraising process and communicate your business strategies to lenders and investors. Business plans are also used when you’re buying or selling a company.

Since external business plans are meant to educate outsiders about your business, they usually include more info about the team behind your business, the business history, and milestones you’ve hit. It’s also more formal and usually a little longer than an internal business plan.

Why do you need a business plan?

Business Plan is the first document that an investor request. It contains all the plans that you execute in next five years. Mostly the investors are concern with how they will get their return. For this Marketing and Financial Plan section holds a very vital importance. Most business plan writers oversee those sections. For example, you show a great marketing strategy and when you read the financial plan section you see that the marketing budget is only $500 per month this would leave the investor in doubt. 

There’s a lot of value in creating a simple internal business plan for existing businesses:

1.Make a Business Plan

The key to a successful business is a solid strategy. Defining your strategy helps you stay focused as you grow. The world is full of opportunities. As a business owner, you need to know what your strategy is so you can evaluate whether or not an opportunity matches it. 

There are also times when you’ll want to shift your strategy, but it has to be done thoughtfully. A business strategy gives you the guidance you need to steer your business to success.

2.Get everyone up to speed

Source:https://www.surfoffice.com/blog/teambuilding-statistics

Everybody on your team needs to be on the same page, especially when your team grows. Different people can have different visions of where your business is going. Different visions can make your business less efficient, because different goals make people work in different directions. 

A good internal business plan keeps everyone on the same page and makes employee communication easier. It’s the document that defines your internal communications strategy and even your company culture. You’ll be able to engage your customers and grow your business more easily if you have a clear vision.

3.Performance and forecasts are key

Financial forecast is the heart of any business pan. Most experts who creates business plan always starts with financial numbers. For this they usually prepare a financial model with assumptions related to that particular business model. The financial model if it contains market validation and competitor analysis it will result in a very accurate forecasted financial statement from which you can drive a financial metrics. Financial ratios gives a clear picture of the business and tells the startup owner what to do and write in the business plan. Sometimes the numbers are not favurrable this is a an alarming bell for the owner and then even before the start of the business he/she can take decision which could mitigate the risk of future loss. So therefore, the performance of any business can be judged from financial analysis which isan integral part of any startup. 

According to investopedia most business fail due to lack of financial planning. And half of the businesses in US fails in first year. Let us suppose if the have financial planning they would have mitigate the risk of loss. If you ask any financial or business expert they would always tell you the importance of finance.  

Business Plan writing tips

The internal business plan is simple and direct. Instead of long paragraphs and lengthy explanations, make it simple and bulleted. Don’t forget, the plan is for you, so make it something you’ll use often and update regularly. One-page business plans are easy to keep current and use, compared to long documents.

Here’s what you need to include:

1.The value proposition

This is a one-sentence summary of your business. Who do you serve and what value do you provide? In this section, you can share your mission statement – it’s a reminder to your team about what you’re all about.

2.What you can do about it

Your products and services are usually easy to describe. You’ll define the problem your company solves for your customers in this section. Defining the problems you help your customers solve will keep you focused as you explore new revenue streams.

3.Market and competition

Determining your target customers is just as important as defining your customers’ problems. It helps make sure your marketing campaigns are targeted and your team knows who you’re trying to reach. Track what alternatives your customers might consider and why they might choose a competitor over you.

4.Marketing channels and campaigns

You should define how you’re going to sell your products and services and how you’re going to reach customers in your internal business plan. You can use your internal business plan to guide your expansion into new markets.

5.Projection of financials

Make sure your team knows how much to expect in terms of sales and expenses. Besides that, cash flow forecasts can help you decide when to raise additional funding or open a line of credit. 

6. Achievements

Each milestone defines your team’s key goals and objectives. Setting a few key goals for the upcoming months isn’t about setting day-to-day tasks. With milestones, you’ll keep your team focused.

7. Teamwork

The internal business planning section can be skipped if your team isn’t growing. Consider your key team growth areas if hiring and adding staff is a key part of your business strategy.

Looking for a great business plan ?

Most business owners don’t know what they need to convince investors. They think they need a business plan. The business plan doesn’t mean you write strategies in it. It just means you follow old traditional ways of writing one. You should always start with a financial plan. Once the numbers are approved, you can start writing the business plan. You have good content, but your presentation isn’t great. Therefore, you need a business plan template too. Myinvestorchoice.com has it all. Financials with deep research and analysis, a business plan based on target market, and then a presentation. Please download our brochure below  

You can design your own website. The easiest way to make sure your website can accomplish all of these goals is to hire a pro. You’ll have more time to run and grow your business.

Please download your brochure for your business plan below – Myinvestorchoice is ranked the number 1 Agency on Upwork for preparing business plans