For an entrepreneur to develop a business plan, it is important to understand what this management tool means.
A business plan is a document used to plan a business or business unit, whether in its early stages or not, with the purpose of defining and outlining its future strategy. It is also a guide for the strategic management of a business or business unit.
Its development becomes clearer when analyzing the entrepreneurial process. Since the business plan is widely used by entrepreneurs who are structuring the creation of new businesses, it can be understood as a guide for planning new businesses or even for planning new business units, in the case of already established companies.
The entrepreneurial process summarizes the portugal phone numbers steps that the entrepreneur goes through from the moment of the idea to the creation and management of the business:
Idea: It starts with the business idea, which is usually the starting point for any venture.
Opportunity: Next, the opportunity is analyzed, that is, we try to understand whether the idea you had has the potential for economic viability and has potential customers in the market to consume a product or service resulting from this idea.
Business plan: Once the opportunity has been identified, the business plan is developed. The completed business plan will allow the entrepreneur to identify the amount of resources needed and the existing sources to finance the venture.
Management: After these initial steps, the company is managed. Note that the process can be extremely dynamic and the steps can be reviewed at any time, interactively.
The important thing is for the entrepreneur to plan the process of structuring his business, starting with the analysis of the initial ideas to see if they are opportunities, then selecting the best opportunity, developing the business plan and, thus, dedicating himself to managing the company.
But why plan? When answering this question, the entrepreneur should think of the business plan as a tool to help in the planning process and not as an obligation. There is only reason to plan something if the entrepreneur is clear about where he wants to go, that is, what his goal is.
Businesses created without planning are known as “lifestyle” companies in which entrepreneurs do not have a clear vision of growth and what the company will be like in 5, 10, 20 years.
Therefore, when establishing a growth objective for a business, whether in relation to revenue, profit, number of customers, market share, etc., the need to plan each step that will be taken to achieve the objective becomes more evident.