Online Business Plan Guidelines

The basics of a business plan are not much different, regardless of whether you are writing a traditional business plan or an Internet business plan. Internet business plans have all of the same basic sections and elements included as traditional business plans. The only difference is in how the details work themselves out in the plan. If you're not familiar with writing business plans, here are the basic sections and elements of the Internet business plan:

1. Executive Summary
The executive summary goes at the beginning of your Internet business plan. As you might guess from the term "summary," this section is a summary of everything contained in the rest of the article. Even though it appears at the beginning of your business plan, it is the last part of the business plan you write. It basically prepares the reader in one or two pages for what they will be seeing expanded upon in the rest of the business plan. You should include in it a general description of your Internet company, your company mission, and your projected financial results over time.

2. Company Summary
The company summary of an Internet business plan is really just a summary of what your website is about. In other words, it tells in detail about what kind of market you plan to serve and why. It also tells how you plan to serve this market. Demographics of your niche are given here as well. Then you should talk about the management and employment structure of your Internet company. As you continue doing business in later years, you will change this part of the business plan to include a history of your company and its results. Don't forget to include information about how and why changes were made in your company structure and products over time.

3. Management
In the management section of your Internet business plan you go into greater detail about the employment structure of your company. It is almost a less personal aggregate work experience and educational history of your managers and key employees. This section will help establish credibility to banks and lenders when you seek financing for company startup, maintenance, or expansion. If you have a lot of impressive experience in your management team or you are the sole manager, you may benefit from just putting this section into the form of a resume.

4. Marketing Plan
Outside of the executive summary, the marketing plan may be the most important part of your business plan. This is where you include information you've gathered during marketing research such as the strengths and weaknesses relative to your competition. If you've been to business school, you may know this as SWOT analysis. If there are any companies that stand out as key competitors, you can include information about them here. An outline of your target market demographics is essential in the marketing plan. Your demographics should be detailed enough to make it clear who your typical client or customer is in terms of age, interests, gender, ethnicity, marital status, income, geographic location, and any other relevant information. The final piece of your marketing plan is a schedule of marketing approaches to take at given points in time. In other words, when during the course of launching and then running your company will you be focusing on search engine optimization, search engine advertising, link-building, advertisement placements, press releases, and other planned promotional methods.

5. Budgeting
The budgeting section of your Internet business plan lays out what cash and assets you have and will need to acquire to get your company running. You should have detailed information about expected company's expenses, including estimates of unexpected miscellaneous expenses that may arise. Then you should include full financial revenue and profit projections. This may be the most difficult part of the business plan unless you are an accountant, banker, or have a degree in business finance. That is a hint that if you have a friend in any of these fields, your friend may make this part of your business plan a lot easier. Your projections should extend out for a few years. The projections must include supporting evidences to justify them to any potential investors or lenders.

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