Select Page

The significance of a business plan document needs no separate highlighting. It is the blueprint of a business idea from concept to implementation and eventually landing in the hands of potential investors for funding purposes. Business plans have evolved to have shades of technicalities of modern-day business concepts, terminologies, and understandings. This blog highlights how professional business plan writers can help develop and write robust business plans for sustenance and success.

Knowledge and Finesse

Fewer entrepreneurs pre-possess the required level of in-depth knowledge and finesse to come up with a robust business plan. For example, someone with a family business background is likely to have a much better understanding of markets and supply chains of related products and services. The same could be said for someone with specialised qualifications and rich experience of working in a particular industry. Even if they do not possess the exact knowledge and insights, it is not difficult for them to pick up the ins and outs of the game in a short time. However, for a large majority of startups, gaining a sound awareness and understanding of markets and all the variables at play is still a challenge.

A premium-quality and robust business plan is the script for taking an enterprise to the highways of triumph. Think of a business plan as writing an exam. It is only when we have sound knowledge and understanding of the subject matter involved in questions that we can answer them properly and convincingly. For example, in both developing and writing a business plan, it is important to emphasise value propositions. Two competitors may offer the same set of products. It is the element of value that adds more meaning to their offerings. These value propositions must be first established and then highlighted in a business plan.

Experienced business plan writers often carry an insightful understanding of markets, industries, competition, prevalent business models, products and offerings, pricing strategies, and other relevant aspects that get covered in developing and writing a business plan. Another edge of working with professional and experienced business plan writers is their proven methodologies and solutions. For example, instead of building base templates, they can start their work with proven templates. Their solutions and processes are refined over time and adjusted to address a wide range of needs. The work and quality of knowledge and finesse they put into a business plan plays a decisive role in, what we mentioned earlier as, scripting the roadmap to business growth and success.

Expert and Outside Perspective

The significance of fresh perspectives cannot be undermined in any field. When we work on creating and improving something for too long, it keeps on becoming difficult for us to see it differently. Suppose you watch a movie 10 times a week, your evaluation of it will keep on getting more restricted. Eventually, you will not be able to add any new perspective. It is natural for entrepreneurs too to fall for this trap as they tend to work very hard in a very involved manner in developing and fine-tuning their business plans.

An expert and fresh outlook on any piece of work can elevate it to the highest of standards. This relates to business plan development and writing too. There are many areas in business planning where a fresh perspective by experts or professionals can help bring cutting-edge improvisations. It is not just improvements, they can also shed light on loopholes or weaknesses in a business plan. They can also suggest better ways to present the facts and figures keeping in mind the perspective of diverse stakeholders in business plans like investors, shareholders, suppliers, buyers, etc.

We can use an example to understand the above phenomenon better. In the ‘About Company’ section, most startups share the same standard information in one or the other way and make it more pleasant to the eyes of the readers with the element of graphics. As experienced business plan writers, we often see that the ‘about company’ section misses out on a significant milestone. This milestone is lending credibility and authenticity. After pointing this out, nobody disagrees. Think of it as an insurance agent sharing their visiting card that does not contain their registration number. It immediately lowers their credibility and authenticity especially, if you do not know them already. Compare this with another insurance agent having their registration number printed on their card. The second one has shared only one additional piece of information but it is making all the difference.

It is also common for reputed and experienced business plan writers to have strong networking within the business community and industry that can prove to be helpful in finding suitable business associates.

Saving Valuable Time

Developing and writing a business plan is often a time-consuming process. The vast majority of activities essential to business planning like market research, identifying and fine-tuning value propositions, competition analysis, operations planning, organisational design and structuring, and financial and commercial planning end up taking a lot of time. For those new to business planning, the process takes even longer as they have to pick up from the basics. For example, in market research, an extensive range of variables have to be studied covering demographics, competition, market size, gaps and voids, target segments, trends and developments, regulatory environment, impact of technology, future projections, etc. Even if we consider the aspect of value propositions, it is not so straightforward. To come up with the right value propositions, one has to also understand the customer journey. Omnichannel makes this task even more diversified. Similarly, each activity mentioned earlier has its own requirements. Time is a luxury startups cannot afford especially, in the business planning stages. They need to come up with a good business plan within a justifiable time range. Not being able to do so could mean losing an identified edge or market gap.

Business plan writers can provide the much-needed nudge in the process. Experienced professionals maintain and follow established strategies, methodologies, and processes. It helps them identify what approach and roadmap is to be adopted for each client. Instead of starting from scratch, they start right away with the best-fit set of solutions available to them making the necessary improvisations along the process. This gives a two-fold advantage to entrepreneurs. First, they get prompt access to adept resolutions. Second, they can focus on other aspects while keeping an eye on their business process development process. It is important for entrepreneurs to choose their business associates with due prudence and have frank and open discussions about the deliverables and timelines.

Investment Perspective

One of the critical objectives of a business plan document is to showcase the brilliance of business ideas and the prospects of returns from investments. In today’s global economic scenario, raising funds has become a challenging task. Factors like inflation, interest rates, and geopolitics make investors averse to moving out of their comfort zones. Secondly, investors are not always willing to invest heavily in any one startup. It does not let them diversify their risks. Thirdly, in the last decade or so, there has been a massive proliferation of startups. The presence of too many players leaves a market fragmented into pieces causing each player to have only a small share. It takes something out of the ordinary for startup ventures to capture an attractive market share. Fourthly, rapidly changing consumer behaviour, the quick evolution of technologies like AI and IoT, and the dynamics of ease of doing business have made investors tread carefully when it comes to investing.

Professional business plan writers have the advantage of evolutionary knowledge and expertise. Experts in this field are cognizant of the prevailing dynamics. They tend to carry more updated insights on the elements of a business plan from the perspective of attracting investment. We can use the example of a practising doctor. A practising doctor tends to remain aware of any emerging common and seasonal disease (e.g. cold, fever). There is a sudden spike in the number of patients with the same set of symptoms. Similarly, qualified and established business plan writers also tend to remain aware of the latest concerns and developments in the field of startup investment. This allows them to craft business plans reflecting and addressing the areas of concern and interest affecting the prospects of attracting investment. Experts can also fine-tune business plans concerning other stakeholders like shareholders, suppliers, clients, etc.

Expert-Level Financial and Commercial Projections

From the perspective of attracting investment interests, expert-level financial and commercial projections are critical to business plans. On the top of the list, potential investors are interested in knowing the prospects of revenue generation and profitability and the ROI and break-even time for their investments. Potential investors are also interested in knowing how an enterprise is going to use their funds. The quality of financial management and the tenacity for financial discipline are two important areas of interest for investors. Without these two, the bigger financial and commercial objectives cannot be achieved. Investors do check if there is a system of controls to keep costs and the utilisation of funds within the established budgetary limits.

In the context of financial and commercial planning, some of the important areas of work ideally covered by business plan writers are:

  • Valuation of capital and operating outlays
  • Demand estimates
  • Sales and revenue forecasts
  • Cash flow and working capital
  • Pricing and margin analysis
  • ROI and break-even analysis
  • Calculation of financial ratios as applicable
  • Estimated P/L statements (5 years at least)
  • Estimated balance sheets (5 years at least)
  • Internal and external funding

Presenting the Funding Requirements

Presenting the funding needs is one of the most straightforward elements in a business plan if the clarity of vision and implementation has been well-conveyed to potential investors. This section should be less of an effort and more of an outcome of what has been communicated in a business plan thus far. The convincing part is not to be addressed here but everywhere else in a business plan document. This should be the most confident and sincerest part of a business plan.

For startups, this often turns out to be the most anxious section of their business plans. Business plan writing for investors demands an experienced and sincere approach. That is why it is often recommended to go for professional business plan writing services or outsourced business plan writing solutions.

Summing up

A well-crafted business plan is the outline for taking an enterprise to the roads of triumph. Every entrepreneur need not necessarily have the required level of in-depth knowledge and finesse to come up with a solid business plan. Experienced business plan writers tend to have a core understanding of markets, industries, competition, prevalent business models, products and offerings, pricing strategies, and other relevant aspects that get covered in developing and writing a business plan. There are many areas in business planning where a fresh perspective by experts or professionals can help bring big improvisations. They can also bring attention to weaknesses in business plans. With their expertise and resources, business plan writers can leapfrog in the process and help save time. This, in turn, would create the scope of focusing better on other important areas of work. Professional business plan writing experts can develop and draft business plans emphasising the areas of concern and interest to various stakeholders including investors.

About Your Retail Coach

With a rising global presence, we are a retail and eCommerce consulting firm with expertise in solutions for business management and growth. With over a decade of experience, YRC has designed and delivered solutions to over 5 hundred clients in more than 25 sectors with a feat ratio of +94%.

For any kind of assistance in business plan writing, please drop us a message and one of our business plan consultants will shortly reach out to you.

FAQs

What is the structure of a business plan?

A standard business plan model has 10 constituents:

  1.       Executive Summary
  2.       Company/Enterprise Description
  3.       Market Analysis
  4.       Offerings: Products, Services, and Value Propositions
  5.       Competition Analysis
  6.       Marketing Strategies including Sales Strategy
  7.       Management and Organisational Structure
  8.       Operations Plan
  9.       Financial and Commercial Planning
  10.   Funding Needs and Prospects
What financial and commercial briefs should be included in a business plan?

The following financial and commercial factors are ideally highlighted in a business plan:

  •         Valuation of capital and operating outlays
  •         Demand estimates
  •         Sales and revenue forecasts
  •         Cash flow and working capital
  •         Pricing and margin analysis
  •         ROI and break-even analysis
  •         Calculation of financial ratios as applicable
  •         Estimated P/L statements (5 years at least)
  •         Estimated balance sheets (5 years at least)
  •         Internal and external funding
Why hire the services of professional business plan writers?

Not all entrepreneurs have the required level of in-depth knowledge and finesse to come up with a strong business plan. Experienced business plan writers tend to have an insightful comprehension of markets, industries, competition, prevalent business models, products and offerings, pricing strategies, and other relevant aspects that get covered in developing and writing a business plan.

A fresh look from external experts can play a crucial role in the process of business plan development and business plan writing to fine-tune a business plan to the highest of standards.

With their standing skills and tools, business plan writers can leapfrog in the process and help save time. This, in turn, would create the scope of focusing better on other important areas of work.

Author Bio

Rupal Agarwal

Rupal Agarwal

Chief Strategy Officer

Dr. Rupal’s “Everything is possible” attitude helps achieve the impossible. Dr. Rupal Agarwal has worked with 300+ retail e-commerce brands and companies from various sectors, since 2012, to define their growth strategy, push their limits and improve performance efficiency. Rupal and her team have remarkable success stories of helping brands achieve 10X growth.

Get In Touch


    PROCESS AUTOMATION

    The idea of having Ecommerce Consultants on-board from the beginning itself points towards reducing the involvement of the promoters in daily operations. Ecommerce Businesses willing to be a brand reaping profits & sustaining the competition must ensure that most of their processes should be automated. The more the manual intervention, the more would be the errors.

    In Ecommerce business, you get only 1 chance to impress the customer & if you mess up there, you lose the customer for long.

    Process automation in respect to all the activities pertaining to customers from order receiving to order fulfilment is a must for a seamless experience for the customers.

    Task Management is another grey area where most deadlines fail as 90% of the tasks are assigned manually & are forgotten, unheard, misunderstood or mistaken.

    YRC Team of Ecommerce Management Consultants helps to make maximum of the processes system-driven to ensure minimalistic manual intervention.

    VIDEOGRAPHY & PHOTOGRAPHY

    No matter how good your product is, the customer would know only if it looks good.

    Photography includes the following steps:

    • Cataloguing your products
    • Cataloguing your images
    • Backup your images (A few cloud storage solutions include Dropbox, Google Drive, Bitcasa, Apple’s Cloud Storage etc.)
    • Choose the right camera & lens (You may also outsource the photography to a third party agency)

    DIGITAL MARKETING

    Digital Marketing includes SEO & SMM. SEO i.e. Search Engine Optimization includes activities like back-linking, meta tags, blog-writing etc. to ensure your website ranks on the 1st page on Google Search.

    Next comes SMM i.e. “Social Media Marketing” which as the name suggests including promoting your products on all the social media sites, email marketing, influencer marketing & several other BTL activities.

    These activities are going to be recurring & would decide the traffic on the website, the conversions, whether the right target market is tapped, the likes, the views, the orders, the reviews & much more. YRCs Ecommerce Consultants create a budget for digital marketing right from pre-launch to launch & for each month thereafter.

    Building digital marketing strategies in coordination with the agency, selecting them to signing them off would be the role of YRC.

    This ensures seamless coordination, detailed interactions & desired execution as it is always advisable to work with a single agency than multiple of them.

    IT INTEGRATION

    Selection of the right software for smooth functioning of back-end operations right from production to webstore display would be suggested and integrated by YRC Team.

    YRC’s Team defines SOPs of Product Movement, maps it with the locations & people. They then create a blueprint of all the features required in the software & help in shortlisting & selection.

    IT Integration involves connecting your offline inventories with real-time online webstore so when a sale occurs, inventories get deducted real time across offline as well as online platforms.

    This helps in accurate inventory management, maintaining the MOQs, re-order levels & achieving the optimum inventory levels.

    Some popular software include unicommerce, viniculum for your front-end website management & Genisys for your entire back-end Purchase, Production, Accounting, Invoicing etc. management.

    WAREHOUSE & LOGISTICS PLANNING

    • How many cities or countries you wish to sell in?
    • Where should your Warehouse be located?
    • Should you have one warehouse in each country or city?
    • Should you be having your own delivery team in your base city?
    • Would the 3rd party vendors be reliable? What happens when they lose or misplace your product during delivery?
    • How should I manage the logistics if my goods are coming from different countries?
    • How should the goods be stored and barcoded?
    • How much space do I require for warehouse?
    • I am sure several such questions must be haunting you while you think of starting your own fashion ecommerce brand.

     

    At YRC, our warehousing and logistics experts can help you devise a strategy for all of the above mentioned queries and much more.

    We design the layout of the Warehouse considering the inward, goods processing, software entry, barcoding, outward, goods return, scrap storage, goods stacking & much more.

    Logistics route plan is devised considering the manufacturer to your warehouse and from there to last mile delivery locations.

    UI & UX DESIGNING

    This Step involves 03 distinct parts:

    Part 1: Choosing the right Platform:

    From several platforms available in the market right from Shopify to magento, woocommerce, prestoshop, wordpress etc. you must choose the one that fits best for your business

    Part 2: UX Designing:

    “UX” denotes User Experience, which if put in simple language is building the functional requirements of the website.

    UX Designing includes designing the features required in the website, customer journey map, website features, the browsing features, navigation features, ecommerce order management process flow, checkout cart features, catalogue management, ecommerce payment system, cross selling features & much more.

    “As per statistics, 68% of the customers abandon the carts before payment”

    An interesting UX ensures the customer sticks on to the website for a longer time.

    Part 3: UI Designing:

    UI stands for User Interface, which means designing the look and feel of the website. UI includes using the right colours, elements and the entire aesthetics of the website.

    A good User Interface ensures the user completes the task that he has come for. It navigates the user through the journey of the brand in the simplest but most effective way.

    The UX designer maps out the bare bones of the user journey; the UI designer then fills it in with visual and interactive elements.

    If User experience is the bare bone, user interface wraps it up with an attractive cape.

    At YRC, our team if experts can help you develop the entire User Journey to ensure it is engaging!

    SAMPLING & PRODUCTION

    This step follows the “Designing” Phase, whether you have an in-house design team, freelance designers or an outsourced design company. It is one of the most exciting phases, as here you see your designs turning into products & your ideas turning into reality.

    In most start-up cases, production is outsourced i.e. brands tie-up with the established manufacturers/ job-workers to get their products manufactured.

    Sampling involves multiple 04 Stages, Fit-Sample, Prototype Sample, Pre-Production Sample & the Production Sample.

    Prototype Sample is the first sample provided to the buyer. It can be in any fabric/ colour. This sample is just to understand whether the product design looks equally great in reality.

    Fit Sample, as the name suggests is prepared to check the fit of the garment i.e. the various sizes, length, width etc.

    Pre-production is made by the actual production line. Here the stitching quality and other aspects related to manufacturing are checked. This is the last stage where rejection can be accepted.

    Production Sample is made before the production which is the replica of what is going to be finally produced.

    Once you are through with all this, you are good to go ahead & get your goods manufactured.

    PRODUCT DESIGNING / SOURCING

    Product Designing or Sourcing is the heart of the Ecommerce Fashion Brand.

    Product Designing / Sourcing can be done in several ways, as follows:

    • In-house Design Team
    • Freelance Designers
    • Outsourced Design Team
    • Ready Product Sourcing (From Manufacturer or Wholesaler)

    At YRC, we evaluate your business strategy & business model to arrive at the decision, which of the above ways would be best-fit for your business. In certain cases, product sourcing may be a combination of the above.

    These are the people who are going to build your brand! Whether they are the designers or merchandiser, your brand look is going to be in their hands.

    If you are designing each garment from the scratch, the sourcing would play crucial role in developing design identity of your brand.

    Sourcing includes fabric, trims, lining & all the raw material required to build the garment.

    BRANDING

    Branding is the “Look of the Brand”, right from logo to tagline, the colours used, the brand story, the brand communications on social media, the packaging & all the other aspects which speak directly or indirectly to the customers. Branding constitutes the look & feel of the brand & hence must be thoughtfully planned to match with the product that we are selling.

    Branding must appeal to our target audience. Example : A golden colour logo depicting finesse, art, richness, premium, however beautiful it may be individually cannot go with a brand selling affordable kids wear products. So, your logo must be in-line with your brand positioning, whether you are an expensive brand or a luxury brand or a value for money brand, it must be depicted from your “Branding”.

    It is an integral part to attract the target audience.

    ORGANOGRAMS & SOP’s

    Organogram is the “HR Blueprint” of the business which is created at the onset, to map out the team required across each function at various stages of the business. At the launch, only key people need to be got on board to ensure the project gets started & at this stage, all of them need to multi-task. Similarly, certain financial as well as operational goals are set for addition of the further team. Example, for the operations team, we hire 1 operations manager during the pre-launch phase & we add 1 more only when the business kicks-off & we reach a volume of selling more than 1000 pcs/ month or a turnover of more than 0.1 million USD.

    SOPs are Standard Operating Procedures, a bible to run the entire organization right from Sales, Purchase, HR, Order receiving to Order fulfilment, Inventory Management, Accounts, Warehouse, Logistics, Supply Chain, Production & all the other relevant functions for the business. Business must be organized from its first day of operations; only then the tasks can be delegated.

    At YRC, we design the organization structure, the processes, and approximate time taken to execute each process, job profile of every member within the organization, their KRAs, KPIs & the Reporting Structure.

    CRITICAL PATHWAY

    Critical Pathway Analysis (CPA), is a project management technique which cannot be overlooked while launching an ecommerce fashion brand. Brand launch process is cumbersome with multiple inter-dependent & time-bound tasks involved, which need to be tracked to ensure the project remains on track.

    CPA outlines key tasks across the project, their turnaround time (TAT) & the dependencies of tasks upon each other. It identifies the sequence of tasks, their interdependent steps from inception to completion, their criticalities, and their dates of onset, target dates of completion along with the key responsible person for the respective activities. Critical Pathway helps in understanding the unimportant & not urgent tasks which may jeopardize the execution of the project because of an unexpected snag! It also maps out the potential bottlenecks which might be posed because of the dependencies of tasks upon each other & cases where the next task cannot be commenced before the completion of the previous one.

    CPA detects the minimum & the maximum time involvement of a particular individual or team to execute the task, thereby arriving at the overall deadlines associated with the project.

    At Your Retail Coach, we design the Critical Pathway & review it periodically to ensure the project is on track & the progress is measurable.

    BUSINESS STRATEGY & BUSINESS PLAN

    Business Strategy includes the vision, mission, goals, business model, business plan & strategy for all the functions within the organization.

    Business Strategy is a well-defined plan that outlines who, what, where, why, how & when for the company; for example, who would be the target market, how to attract the target audience, when to launch new products, where to operate from, how to handle competitors, what would be the USP, what would be long term goal of the organization & several other answers to the 5Ws of Strategy.

    Business Strategy aligns the organization towards a common goal. Business SWOT helps company to identify & overcome their weaknesses & focus to sharpen the strengths. Business strategy forecasts future risks and helps business in building skillsets to overcome the potential threats.

    YRC’s Business Plan focuses on creating a “Blueprint” of the business, thereby deriving the feasibility of the concept & gauge whether the opportunity is lucrative to invest time, energy & effort. Business Plan creates cash flow understanding i.e. building inflow & outflow cash projections from Week zero to week 60 i.e. 05 year projection. Business Plan calculates the capital investment, operating costs, one-time costs, recurring costs & all the other numbers relevant to obtain the breakeven sales, return on investment, return on capital, internal rate of return & several other ratios. Business Plan is also one of the important requirements if you are targeting the “Investor Route”. Fund raising becomes extremely transparent & channelized. With business plan panned out clearly, the business will know until what point must it be stretched & where to stop, which reduces the probability of unplanned investments.

    MARKET RESEARCH

    Starting the concept of Ecommerce Fashion brand with Market Research ensures we get detailed understanding of the industry & this research report also acts as a social confirmation for your concept. Market Research helps in understanding the target locations, their population, potential online buyers for your product, competitors for each category, and top selling products of the competitors, competitors’ price range, offers & their responses & much more. Market Research helps in thorough understanding of your brand position as compared to our competitors. It helps in identifying gaps in the market, in your category along with the scope of the said product in the desired market. This will help in validation of your concept & prevents you from making the same mistakes as your fellow brands, eventually saving your time, energy & efforts. This phase is also a make or a break phase, as the market research study may at-times come up with some eye-popping numbers & statistics which might compel you to re-think on your product or category that you are planning to sell or alter your entire concept itself!! Market Research Reports analyse the competitors’ webstore for their traffic, conversion & sales. This is extremely valuable information to derive our inventory budgets & projections, which takes us to our next phase.