Creating a Winning Business Plan

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El plan de negocio For a considerable amount of time, the business plan has held a critical role for many enterprises. In various business environments, especially within financial institutions, obtaining any form of credit or financing is virtually inconceivable without a meticulously crafted business plan.

Un plan de negocio requiere inversiones el tiempo y dinero y antes de hacerlo lo primero que nos preguntamos es…. si es necesario.

Decades ago, business schools unanimously advocated the necessity of pairing every entrepreneurial idea with a comprehensive business plan. However, contemporary perspectives posit that intelligent launches and proficient execution of ideas may supplant the traditional business plan. While crafting a business plan requires time, effort, and financial resources, it undeniably serves as a guiding document for achieving our objectives. Countless strategic plans have faltered due to a clear discrepancy in understanding the pathway to realizing these objectives, despite knowing the starting point and endpoint.

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What constitutes a business plan?

There is an ongoing truth that today's business landscape is growing increasingly complex:

A proliferation of competitors
An abundance of products
A surfeit of information
Complex information systems, and more.

In this ever-evolving and competitive world, how do we bridge the gap between product and market without a well-thought-out design?

Perhaps, we should discard those excessively protracted and intricate documents that consumed copious amounts of time and money, commonly referred to as business plans. Brian Chesky, the founder of Airbnb, is renowned for his one-page business plan outlining global dominance.

If we are contemplating launching a company and require funding, we must consider the prerequisites set forth by financial institutions to support our investments.

Business Plans vs. Pitch Decks

In today's landscape, diverse investors and financial institutions demand various types of business plans, prototypes, or market analyses that demonstrate the viability of the product or project.

For a bank, a business plan must be credible and reliable. For an investor, it serves as a prototype that can be scaled efficiently and measured economically for potential clients. Consequently, depending on the recipient, a business plan transforms into a document subject to distinct analyses. Experience has shown that many individuals abstain from creating a business plan primarily for two reasons. Firstly, it is due to a lack of understanding of what this document entails, how to create it, and the associated time and financial costs. Secondly, some individuals question the purpose of crafting a business plan when they believe they execute their projects exceptionally well.

It is imperative to remember that 75% of businesses fail in their first year, and according to experts, the primary cause of such failure lies in liquidity issues or a lack of financial resources resulting from flawed planning during the company's launch. Essentially, their words did not anticipate how the business would operate.

A business plan may encounter various problems, including:

Exorbitant costs in terms of both money and time
Changing opportunities upon completion
Neglected business plans presented to potential investors who do not take the time to review them
Delayed implementation
Transforming from a tool into an obsession
Attempting to solve various issues such as investment, financing, strategy, and market, among others
Rapidly changing markets, and more.

Harvard Business Review (HBR) dice que «la verdadera clave para tener éxito en los negocios es ser flexible y responder a las oportunidades. Los empresarios a menudo tienen que pivotar su negocio una vez que se hace evidente que su cliente original no es el cliente adecuado, o cuando resulta que su producto o servicio encaja mejor en un mercado alternativo. Debido a estas realidades, los planes de negocios escritos al principio terminan nada más que una fábula».

The reality shows that:

The most successful entrepreneurs did not formulate business plans.
The most successful business plans were developed in less than three months.
Many thriving startups created their business plans after initiating their activities.

Thus, how should we regard a business plan?

In our viewpoint, it is crucial to create a business plan that mirrors the market's current state, its characteristics, the advantages and benefits of our products, and the path to achieving our objectives, among other elements.

While there exist instances of prosperous businesses that did not craft any business plan, these cases could be attributed to sheer luck or, in many instances, entrepreneurs possessing a remarkable talent for devising innate business models, as well as luck.

Components of a Business Plan

There is no need to create a doctoral thesis or essay, but one should consider several elements before embarking on the writing and composition of a business plan.

Los primero que me tengo que preguntar es…

Why do I need the business plan?
Who will be the end-users of the business plan, be it banks, venture capitalists, investors, and so forth?
What is my strategy for launching the company?
What is the business model?

From a practical standpoint, a business plan should encompass, at the very least, the following elements:

Objectives
Product (definition and characteristics)
Target customers
Keys to success
Industry analysis
Market analysis
Competitor analysis
Basic strategies, business model
Marketing plans
Organizational structure
Key operations
Financial planning, projections, and pro forma
Break-even analysis
Financial requirements
Liquidity analysis (cash flow, monthly)
Business indicators
Executive summary

Fortunately, creating a business plan is now a significantly easier and quicker task, with numerous sources of information and methodologies readily accessible.

In conclusion

A business plan continues to play a pivotal role in the launch of a profitable and sustainable company
Funding is both scarce and costly, which is why we should not engage in trial and error but rather begin with a clear and robust plan.
To attract partners and investors, we must present a credible plan that quantifies anticipated results.
The creation of simplified business plans that cater to the needs of all involved parties is paramount.
El plan de negocio se debe de ser realista, adaptado a una situación cambiante en los mercados y que no nos detenga en nuestros objetivos, sino que nos ayude a conseguir los mismos.

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