You want to write a business plan for your product but you don’t know where to start. Inside you’ll learn how to make a simple one sheet business plan.

Go get a piece of paper and a pen or better yet, print this article out.

1. What is Your Product or Service

This is your business idea or the product you want to sell. You can sell cakes, mow lawns, sell crocheted hats, or pillowcase dresses, it doesn’t matter what it is, just write your ideas down.

How does your product or service differ from what is already out there?

Assignment:

Go to a store and find a product. How many choices do you have? Which one do you choose? Why?

Some choose because of personal experience with the product, some choose based on packaging or on an advertisement. Others choose based on how it will make them look to their friends or it inflates their ego making them feel good about themselves.

Service products like mowing lawns are different. You need to do what you advertise, do it well, do it on time, and be reliable. Go the extra mile – maybe you can offer one free mowing if the account is paid-in-full for the month.

2. Name Your Business

The name of your business and/or product should be unique, memorable, and easy to pronounce. For example, in America we pronounce Adidas as Uh-deed-ahs while in Germany where the company is pronounces it Ah-dee-das.

Read 15 more well-known brand names that get mispronounced on Business Insider – businessinsider.com/mispronounce-difficult-to-say-brands-2014-9.

Jason Miles, Author of Craft Business Power and co-owner of Liberty Jane Clothing suggests naming your company a proper name instead of some cute insiders only name.

Can you guess the product of the business names below?

Liberty Jane Clothing vs. Momwithahook

In the first example (Liberty Jane Clothing) you know right away that the product is clothing. The name suggests that Liberty Jane may have something to do with the designs.

In the second example (Momwithahook) it is questionable what the product is. Does this mom sell fishing equipment, hooks, pirate themed merchandise? This is my username online as I enjoy crocheting, use a crochet hook, and am a Mom.

Not knowing this about me and not knowing about the hobby crochet you might be clueless about what exactly I’m offering. A better option might be Sara’s Crochet Patterns. You know who I am and what product I sell.

Assignment:

Take some time to come up with a variety of business names. Make sure it describes what you do and your product without confusing or misleading your customer. Use Jason’s suggestion of adding a proper name, it doesn’t need to be yours but it will help.

3. Target Market or Your Customer

Who wants or needs your product or service? It’s important to get this right so you don’t waste time and money.

Considering your product or service – mowing lawns – who is your customer?

– the elderly

– those incapable of doing it themselves

– busy people

– vacation homes

– houses on the market

Assignment:

Take a sheet of paper and divide into four sections. Label the sections Type, Where, What, and Willing.

Now add the type of people who use your product or service, where you will find them, what is most important to them, and whether they are willing to pay someone for it.

4. Getting the Word Out or Marketing

How will your customers know that you mow lawns? Will you create a website? Will you ask friends and family members? Will flyers be a good way to let people know what you are doing?

Assignment:

Brainstorm ways to market your product. For the mowing lawns example, what would be the most beneficial means of getting the word out?

– Churches

– Clubs

– Schools

– Neighbors

– Friends

– Craigslist

5. How Much Will You Charge or Pricing

In any business profiting is the goal. You need to price your product or service competitively and profitably.

Consider the costs of running your business and shipping if you are selling a product online.

Assignment:

Find out the cost per unit made. To do this you will need to do the following:

– hourly overhead costs

– hourly wage

– total hourly wage = hourly overhead costs + hourly wage

– how long does it take you to produce one item (use toggl.com to time yourself)

– total materials cost (everything that goes into to making your product)

– add an extra 10% for unexpected costs

– total price = time to produce one item + material costs x 10% unexpected costs

Read more on pricing your products on TheDesignTrust.co.UK. You might also find this calculator handy: craftscalculator[dot]com.

Assignment:

Time yourself making your product or completing your service. How long did it take? Determine the cost per unit made for your product. For a service based business, how long does it take to complete the project? Add some extra cushion to this for the unexpected.

6. Determine Your Profit

This is the fun part. To get your profit subtract your expenses from your income.

profit = income (sale price) – expenses (materials cost)

Assignment:

Sit down and find the profit for each product or service you plan to sell.

7. Delivering Your Product or Service (Distribution)

This step could also be done between step 3 and 4. Once you know your target market (who will buy your product) and where they are you need a plan for getting your product to them.

Do you sell locally? Will you deliver? What shipping company will you choose?

Products

Choose a shipping company that is reliable and cost-effective. Start small at first by utilizing the United States Post Office or your Postal Carrier.

Decide whether you will ship internationally. Who will pay the customs fee?

Services

How will your service be rendered? Will you go to your customer or will your customer go to you?

Assignment:

Research various shipping options for your product. Try shipping your item to a friend. How did it arrive? Was it damaged? How long did it take?

Sometimes the cheapest way isn’t always the best way.

Conclusion

You should now have a well thought out business plan. This isn’t acceptable for bank loans but it will guide you in starting your own little side business.

And now I’d like to invite you to read more on business and blogging for small business.

Writing a business plan is not a simple task … nor does it need to be a painful one either.

For starters, if this is your first attempt, you should look for Govt. and Non Govt. resources for small businesses and entrepreneurs ….. like your local chamber of commerce.

For online resources LinkedIn is a good start. Also try advisorgarage, gobignetwork, and similar networks to find a business consultant ready for pro-bono work.

The last thing you want to do though is to buy a software for business planning purposes unless you need this business plan simply for the sake of having a business plan on the shelf.

The better approach is: you should write a rough draft of your idea and everything what you think about it. Bounce these ideas at others and gather unique perspectives, feedback and more ideas, document that too. Lay out your monthly fixed costs ( rent, wages etc) along side your variable costs and then compare it with your prospective income sources. Run this schedule for at least 24 months. Use this schedule to see how much money you can go down for before the business works. Do you walk away 5 grand down after 6 months, or do you get lumbered with a hard to sell, expensive to keep, lease? Figure out, what happens if you reduce your income. Do a break even analysis – what is the lowest level at which you can make it work. Try to write something why …. and how sure are you that you will do better than anyone else who is doing the same. If you’re the only one doing or planning to do this the chances are either the idea is not profitable …. or even you don’t know where and who is doing it? So do more research about the business and try to figure the realistic bottom line for the business. All this analysis and work above was for your use. If you still want to do it –

Then draft a business plan using the free resources like Microsoft template and many more available in the market – this draft initially should include what you have done that makes you sure this will work. This may simply be – I have a contract, I know the business, there will be more, or it may be a thorough market research, traffic counts, industry statistics and the like. Put the schedule we did in the first place, into a spreadsheet,and lay out the rest in whichever format you like.

In my opinion, this is the most economic and realistic approach to write a business plan and not an off the shelf software which will give you a me-too business plan which to me is of no use as neither am I convinced nor can I convince any investors with that kind of auto-generated plan.

A business plan has many formats but shares a common group of elements. The one you write for yourself is different from one written to secure financing, or key employees. The place to start is not “which software to use” although that will be very helpful later.

You need to tell a story, or better yet, view it as a movie screenplay. If you can fill in the four elements below, you are well on your way to starting writing one.

The Title- The description of what your core idea is has to be compelling and not “just like all the others”. Why are you different?

The Star Studded Cast- Your Customers. Who is going to give you money? Why? Why Them?

The Thrilling Action-The plot details -Money In and Money Out- financiers love this part- but in simple terms, explain the money coming in and the money going out.

The Big Finish- Answer the question Why You Will Succeed? A good crisp answer here is the capstone.

I have seen plans go forward without these key elements explained simply and clearly, but the ones who do have a better shot at accomplishing their goals.

Every prospective entrepreneur going into business has more than likely heard about the need for a business plan. If you are about to start a dollar store it is likely the experts have told you the same thing. They will tell you to create a dollar store business plan and to make use of the plan once it is completed. After all it does take time and effort to research and then write down everything that’s required of this important effort. After all, the business plan you create charts the path you will follow with your retail business. It is an extremely important and powerful means of setting the course you will take. It includes many of the most important planned details about the journey your business will take into the future.

First and foremost your dollar store business plan is a roadmap for your own use. When you start a dollar store it is much easier to achieve success when you have invested the time to develop a clear plan for achieving that success. There are so many things required to achieve true success. This is one place where you can document all of those components and how you intend to use them.

Your business plan will include a marketing plan for your business. Your marketing plan is one of the most important elements of your business plan. This will be the action plan for steps you will take to continually grow your store sales. It should include specific actions that stand in support of your projected sales goals.

You also define who’s who in the organization. Not only that, but you also document the credentials of each key player and plans for leveraging those strengths and competencies for the betterment of the business. You will also be able to acknowledge deficiencies in skills within the organization. Again it is important to not only acknowledge them, but to also outline the planned actions to cover for them.

When you start a dollar store one of the big questions is associated with the business financials. You will develop a full set of proforma financials as a part of your business. Be sure to invest the time and effort to thoroughly investigate projected sales and expenses and start-up costs. A well-thought out and written set of financials can save you much pain and difficulty later.

Sure your dollar store business plan has many other uses as well. Some major creditors may wish to examine your plan as a part of their decision making process. For example, your banker may use your business plan as the basis for initial discussions about financing. Your landlord may ask for a copy to gain a better understand of your business and your plans for achieving success.

To your success when you start a dollar store!