Creating a business plan is an important first step in developing and maintaining a viable business. The business plan lays out a variety of aspects of your business for you, from the official name of your business to who will post on social media and anything in between. Business plans help you communicate your vision for your business in an organized way that can also hold you accountable to the goals you establish. While KCARD uses a Business Plan Development Guide with a lot of questions to guide the development of a business plan, we usually start with a few key questions:
Business Description: This section describes the what, who and where of the business. What are the services or products the business will provide? Who are your target customers? Where can customers purchase the products and services?
Business Goals: What are your short-term and long-term goals for the business? By writing down business goals, you can start to make strategic decisions on how to achieve each one. Goals are also a great way to track the growth and success of the business.
Key Personnel: What are the key roles in the business? Who will be performing those roles? Laying out who will do what for your business ensures that each task and aspect of your business has a responsible party overseeing it. This will allow the day-to-day operations to run smoothly if every employee or partner knows what they are responsible for.
Financials: Every business must keep track of their income and expenses; this is more than just paying bills and balancing the checkbook. Keeping a record of income and expenses throughout the year helps you monitor the health of the business and provide insight on what products or services are doing well. It is also important to outline in this section good record keeping practices the business will implement.
The Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development is an independent, non-profit organization that provides technical assistance and educational opportunities for Kentucky’s agricultural producers and related businesses. KCARD’s work is supported by the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, the USDA Rural Cooperative Development Grant, and others. KCARD is happy to help with the business planning process at no charge. Please contact us if we can provide business assistance to your operation. You can contact KCARD by calling (859) 550-3972 or via email at kcard@kcard.info.