A trend that is growing in popularity is starting an online business. One of the first and most important things to get your business off to the right start is to make an effective and well thought out internet business plan. By creating a good plan, you can focus your efforts and in turn help grow your business and make it successful.

The following are some tips to help you create the best internet business plan for your business. These tips are applicable for both prior to starting your business and after it has been established.

• Learn about your target market. Research is essential to find out what is your target market for your internet business plan for your online business. You need to find out what type and where your customers are for what you want to sell. You can do a thorough keyword search and analysis on the internet to see what keywords work the best so that you can position your business correctly. You can also contact online survey companies to conduct surveys that will give you this information as well. The more you know about your target market, the better and more successful your online business will be.
• Learn about your competition. The more you know about your competitors the better you can position your online business. You can determine your business’ niche by finding a different angle to pursue than your competitors. Additionally, you can offer better pricing or services than those offered by competitors that will be more attractive to consumers which can translate into more sales for you.
• Think about your advertising. Advertising is essential for any business and is an important element of your internet business plan. You can use email marketing tools to create emailing lists where you can send weekly specials or blast about special sales. You can also use networking to your advantage as well as ask for referrals. Business advertising basics such as a professional looking business card and print advertising can also work to drive consumers to your online business.
• Think about the brand for your business. Many companies may offer the same products or services that your online business may offer. In this case, it is important to differentiate yourself from the competition. By creating a brand as a part of your internet business plan, you can do just that. Creating an effective and recognizable brand can include developing a logo, catch phrase and a consistent design and look to all of your marketing and advertising, both online and in print. The more recognizable you make your business, the more it will stand out in the minds of consumers which can give you the edge when they are making a purchasing decision.

After implementing all of the above points consistently in your internet business plan, your business will be on its way to success. By focusing your efforts, you will find that it will be very rewarding to you and your business.

One of the most common questions we hear from potential entrepreneurs is “Where do I start?” The short answer is Plan Your Business. You don’t need a formal, extensive business plan at the earliest stages, but you do need to have a clear idea of the business idea. That is, you should know what a typical workday will look like, who your customers will be, how they will find and buy from you, where you want the company to go, and the like. Planning your startup will also give you a good idea of how much money you will need to get your venture off the ground and force you to think through any potential obstacles in your way. Here are a few options to get your business planning started.

There are hundreds of free business plan templates available on the web. They all cover basically the same topics, and most include the broad areas that you need to consider to really plan your business. However, many first-time entrepreneurs have trouble actually making a plan from these templates, and for good reason.

In general, those outlines are useful once you already have a pretty clear plan in mind and just need to organize it for the bank or investors. They do not help you decide what to look for, or how to evaluate your idea, or even really explain what each section means. For most startups, the ready-made, fill-in business plan forms are not the best option.

There are also several good business plan software programs out there, but they have a similar problem to the templates. They are excellent tools for putting your developed ideas into a logical, presentable order for investors and banks, but don’t really help with the actual planning process.

A fairly recent addition to the small business outsource community are planning consultants. For a fee, these folks will tell you, step by step, what you need to do during the startup process and beyond. While this kind of hand-holding can be very tempting, it is also very expensive…costing money that would be better spent on marketing your new venture!

One popular consultant charges $750 per session and leaves you with a “homework assignment” of the next three steps to starting your business. Can they help you improve your business? Probably, because they should be experienced with the startup learning curve. Will they give decent advice? Possibly, though since it is an unregulated industry just about anyone can claim to be an expert. Will using a planning consultant make your business a sure success? Definitely not. YOU need to become the expert yourself in order to ensure long-term success for your startup.

Rather than relying on business plan templates or disconnected consultants, look for opportunities to learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship for yourself. Most successful entrepreneurs will tell you that learning to plan effectively is an important key to success. And, since experience is the best teacher, you are better off finding resources that will teach you more than just what needs to be done, but also how to be an entrepreneur.

Make Sure You Have A Business Plan

The first point to keep in mind about business plans is… have a business plan! This may seem obvious but is overlooked. Many people start businesses without a plan; sometimes it can come from sheer bravado, thinking “I don’t need a plan”, or alternatively you might hear “It’s all inside my head, that’s my business plan”. The reality is no matter how much you work with things in your head, no matter how confident you may be and how much you think you already have a great vision for your business, there are so many great reasons why you should get it down on paper.

Most of all if you are seeking funding for your business, it will be absolutely crucial to go along and show someone an actual plan, because there will be very few people who will loan you money on the basis of what’s just in your head. So it’s pivotal to have a plan and be committed to preparing that document. If you are someone who shies away from planning, or you don’t like writing or preparing documents, nevertheless you are going to have to force yourself on this occasion. I say that because it is such a key document for the future success of your business, such a tool throughout its development to return and refer to.

Have An Overall Vision

When writing your business plan it is really important to have an overriding vision of what your business is going to do, what it is going to be, and what you want to achieve. Very often it is tempting to get straight into the technical details, the monetary concerns, financial matters, where you will be sourcing supplies, etc. Now all these things will be vital in your business plan, but it has to be held together by a coherent, broader vision.

Remember the proverbial expression ‘not seeing the wood for the trees’? You need to see the ‘wood’ first, then delve in and start examining the individual ‘trees’, meaning the individual items which you will be breaking down later. So a great point is to make sure that you have that overarching vision – and if you cannot find one, then maybe it is an indication that you are obsessing on a few technical aspects that do not necessarily make up a whole business as you had imagined it. A business that makes sense and is going to be sustainable in the future is one that has that clear vision within which all the smaller parts contribute to make it successful.

Contextualise Your Budget

Of course your budget will be extremely important. But sometimes people sort of pluck figures out of thin air, not giving it the context it needs in the business plan to make real concrete sense of how that budget is going to work.

So it is crucial that every time you mention financials in your business plan, to really give them the correct context. When I have worked with clients in developing business plans, there has been a budget or amount set aside for example to be spent on marketing, which has been decided a bit arbitrarily. I mean with no real research, no understanding of what that amount needs to be spent on, and what that budget will truly achieve. It seems to have been put there to fill the need to attribute a certain sum to marketing.

Make sure you are researching each point of your budget, make sure that you are giving it context and it makes proper sense within your overall plan.

Don’t Make Assumptions About Customers

To be an entrepreneur does require plenty of self-confidence, sometimes almost a bloody-minded determination to make your business work. But this confidence spilling over into thinking that you know what ‘the market’ wants can be dangerous, without checking that it’s true. You need to do your research that the market does ultimately want what you will be offering, whatever products or services you will be selling.

That is a great thing to make sure you have in your business plan, that your business will be built around those real customer wants. Do not make callous assumptions, or statements like “I know what people want”, “People are going to love this”, and so on. Have you done your research? Do you really know that the people you will be targeting want your product / service, and crucially do they want it AT THE PRICE that you will be offering it at? Whilst confidence in your plan is fantastic, you must make sure that it does not lead you down a blind alley along a path that is not desired by your target market.

Don’t assume what customers want, do your research and make sure that is clear from the start in your business plan.

Research Your Competitors (But Don’t Copy!)

Every business plan should focus a lot on the business’s potential competitors, because research and analysis of the competition effectively gives you plenty of useful information. It may guide you as to where you should be advertising and marketing, or certain strategies to use or ones to avoid because you see they have been used unsuccessfully by others.

I often see people split into two camps. On one hand those who almost ignore competitors in their business plan, because they do not want to think about the issue yet and feel so confident they have a great idea for the market regardless. But I recommend not being overconfident when it comes to competitors. They are still there for a reason, they are still around and in business for a reason, so view them with that in mind.

I teach that you should seek to learn from competitors; obviously never copy another business’s idea or what they are doing, but you can absolutely learn from their mistakes or see what they are doing and discover ways to improve it. All of that analysis belongs in your business plan: make sure you have your competitors under the microscope and make sure that is a solid chunk of your plan. That is some of the best research and information you will gather about what will make your business successful in future.

Be Prepared For Risks

It is a fact of life that any new business or enterprise has a degree of risk attached to it. Therefore it is important for your business plan to analyse and calculate that risk, showing how you will engage with it. There is no business plan out there that is risk-free, but very often where the risk is higher then the rewards will be as well.

What should come into your business plan is how you assess it, how you foresee anything occurring that could have an adverse impact and how you would deal with it in the right ways. If you are looking to obtain funding from a bank or people you know, it is essential to show what the risk factors are in the proposed business and how you plan to defend against them.

It could be, for example, the risk of a change in the economic environment – what are your contingency plans for that in terms of dealing with such a situation? There may be many other risks as well specific to your particular sphere of operation, but that ability to plan ahead for all scenarios makes for a robust business plan. When I have received business plans, the very best responses come from people who have looked at the risks and have an answer for every question. What you never want is to throw a scenario at your plan and have to answer “I don’t know what I would do in that situation”. You want to plan for every possible contingency, and certainly all the major risks to the ongoing success of your business.

Obtain Feedback On Your Plan

When writing a business plan you sometimes end up locking yourself away. You might have unique ideas which lead you to seek some isolation and secrecy, or if you are going to be a sole trader you may only have one person to consult namely yourself. But it is fantastic to try and get broader input on your business plan – whether from a professional, or simply from friends and family whom you trust. I say that because of course you need to be careful with commercially sensitive ideas, as you do not want to pass your plan on to someone in the pub who then starts your idea before you across the road.

But do not be too paranoid, make sure you are showing it to people you trust, whose feedback you welcome and can be genuinely useful in guiding how the plan takes shape. Very often when working as individuals we get very close to certain details and miss out a big thing that has slipped your mind. You can concentrate so much on essential financials and supply logistics, but overlook other issues like marketing or opening times. By showing the plan to someone you trust, they can have a look and see what might be missing or worth developing more. Getting that valuable second opinion on how robust your idea is will put you in a much better position to start and keep going successfully.