Developing Your Written Business Plan

A well written business plan that can chart a course for the growth and profitability of your business begins with an understanding of what a business plan should cover. Your business plan will serve as the road map for your business going forward and one which is carefully thought out can help you avoid many of the mistakes that people commonly make when beginning a new internet marketing business. Since many people fail in internet marketing because they don't treat their online business in the same way that they would any other new venture, coming up with a plan is important -it will help you think through the essentials of getting your new business up and running and lay out your game plan for the future. Your business plan needs to include the following elements:

Executive Summary: For a sole proprietorship (which most internet marketing businesses are), this will be relatively simple. This should include the date that your business started, the location of your business including any office space you use and a mission statement. Your mission statement is a brief (2-3 sentences) description of what your business is and what it does. The executive summary should also include a (very brief) summary of your plans for the future of your business.

Market Analysis: Explain who your target market is and why it is that you see a need for your product or service which is not being adequately met. This section should also cover how you intend to reach this target market and why this will allow your business to gain enough market share to be profitable.

The Competition: Analyze your market research and determine how your company will be able to remain competitive against other businesses in the same sector. Think carefully about this one – knowing how you plan to gain market share is something which you can’t proceed without.

Growth and Marketing Strategies: This is where you lay out how your business will be able to grow by expanding market share. You should go into your marketing strategies here; both how you'll expand on the strategies you plan to use from the start and which marketing methods you'll begin to use later on to ensure growing market share by reaching more potential customers with your marketing message.

Products and Services: What is it exactly that your business sells? Decide what you'll be offering to consumers and how you'll proceed. You should come up with plans to expand your line of products and services to continue growing your customer base. You'll probably be starting with a single product or service, but as your business grows, you'll want to offer more. List your ideas here; market conditions and research may dictate a change later on, but you do need to at least have an idea of where to take your product line going forward.

These are the essential elements to a solid business plan which can help your internet marketing business to remain viable, see continued growth and build your market share going forward. Even though the facts on the ground may change as you go along, having developed your business plan does something very important; it forces you to think through your strategies carefully and plan for the future. Being able to think strategically about your next move is vital to success in a fast moving industry like internet marketing, so take the time to carefully develop your business plan and have a solid game plan for future growth and the flexibility to adapt to a changing market – both are necessities if you want your internet marketing business to thrive.