How To Write a Business Plan for Ecommerce
How To Write a Business Plan for Ecommerce
In this post I want to cover what is required to write a successful business plan for a new ecommerce business. One of the biggest stumbling blocks when it comes to starting an ecommerce business is the lack of knowledge and upfront planning.
Many times it can be hard to know where to begin when creating a business plan. Below are some helpful starting points that could help you plan your successful ecommerce venture. Furthermore, I outline a very simple format that should help you easily complete your business plan.
The company profile
This section is for writing an in-depth description of your company’s history, mission, vision, products or services , unique characteristics, competitive advantage or competitive weakness, financial condition and management team. It also includes the company’s strengths and weaknesses. This section can be lengthy ranging from one to five pages.
Business plan outline
Creating a business plan outline will help you organise your thoughts so you can put all the details down on paper in an orderly manner. It will also give you a chance to brainstorm all the information you have gathered so far. The outline is a brief overview of the company and is usually one page.
[QUICK NOTE] If you would like to learn more about drop shipping in Australia check out our FREE Australian dropship training where we share with you step by step how to get started today!
Business model
The business model is one of the most important parts of a business plan. It describes how your business is going to be able to earn money from customers. In summary it has to describe the end-to-end customer experience with as much detail as possible. It is usually five pages or less.
Marketing plan
This is where you lay out your sales, marketing, advertising and promotional plans. This is important because if you are not clear about your goals it will be hard to measure whether or not you are achieving them.
It needs to be clear what type of customers the company wants to target and how they are going to accomplish this goal. It also gives the potential investors an idea of where the company will be in one, three and five years time frame. It is usually about 1-2 pages.
Competition analysis
This section is also known as the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). It helps you to understand your competitors so you can foresee any possible obstacles or threats the company may face in the future. This helps you develop a plan on how you want to overcome these challenges. It takes about 1-5 pages.
Break Even Analysis
A break even analysis is an economic tool that helps businesses to determine their point of break even. It is important because it gives the company a picture of how much money they will need to make in order to cover their expenses. It usually takes about one page.
Financial projections (year one, three and five)
This section includes the budget for year one. It also includes explanations of how the company will spend its money for three years. This will help you to see how profitable the company will be in the long term. It is usually 1 -5 pages.
Cash flow statement
This section explains how much money the company can actually expect to earn in a given period of time. This is important because it gives investors an idea on how much money they will be able to take out of the business in terms of cash flow. This type of information is usually one page.
Risk assessment
In this section you need to assess the risks your business is likely to face in the future. This includes things like competition, increasing popularity of a competitor, government regulations or people boycotting a product or service. It is different from a SWOT analysis because it only focuses on the threat factors. It does not give any information on how you want to overcome them. It is usually one page.
In Conclusion
The business plan should be clear, concise and easy to read. It should also give the yourself or investors (if required) an indication of the risks involved. If you are not very good at writing it is OK, feel free to check out Wise Business Plans, this is literally all they do and they will help you every step of the way.
The important thing is that you keep your business plan updated as your company grows. This will help you to accurately reflect your progress every step of the way.
Hope you got some value from this post, again If you would like to learn more about drop shipping in Australia check out our FREE Australian dropship training where we share with you step by step how to get started today!
