How do I write a business plan for my Christian start-up? Part 1

Putting together a business plan for your Christian or Social Enterprise Start-up can be a daunting task, especially if you have never put one together before. Add to it the fact that there is an added social benefit aspect involved, and you see why people might think that this is beyond them. Don't worry! In this series of posts I will cover all the steps needed to put together your business plan.

Image by juhansonin via Flickr

That is, if you don't want to pay a professional to do it. I'll also include information on software that you can use to make your life easier, if that's the route you would like to take. I find that putting together my own plan really helps to form my ideas, work out problems, and really see things from an investor's and client's perspective. Going through the journey and doing the work and research it takes, to put together a good plan, really prepares you when it comes to presenting your "big idea" to prospective stakeholders.
Your business plan should help you to do the following:

• Better form your ideas regarding the business
  
• Formulate a strategy for your business including marketing plan, financial plan, products offered, etc.
  
• Ultimately help you to raise capital for your venture, by communicating your vision to others and answering the potential investor's main question: "Why should I invest my hard earned money in you and your idea, instead of somewhere else"?

Your business plan could be for a small home business with you as the only employee, or it could be for something on a much grander scale. Whatever the case, the plan needs to be able to communicate your vision, the steps to realize that vision, and it needs to show readers the following:

• You have experience in the business you are about to embark upon, or you have a management team that is experienced
• You have an understanding of the industry, the business, your target market, and your competition
  
• You have an understanding of the risks involved, you know the costs and have worked out an approach to overcome these factors (i.e.- operating on foreign soil)
  
• You have projected a financial outcome for the first five years with realistic numbers (pro forma statements) and it is going to bring a great return on investment (ROI)
  
• You have projected the social outcome in the first five years and it is going to bring a great social benefit
  

In the next post I will discuss what I consider to be the first step once you have your business idea and have decided to go forward with the business plan; doing the research. I'll include a list of information sources for your research so you can get started backing up your ideas with hard facts and figures.

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