What Is a Business Plan?

Are you considering your own business but not sure where to start? Learning about and creating a business plan is the first step toward developing your ideas and goals. Build your business plan following these steps to help create your dream business.

First, what exactly is a business plan?

Business plans allow a company to put their goals on paper and detail how they are going to achieve them. They combine the different elements of marketing, finance and operations to build a road map of the company’s growth and achievements. They also help new businesses without a previous track record find investors and qualify for loans—if either might be needed.

Create a document to outline your business plan

The main thing to consider when creating a business plan is your product or service. What are you going to offer to your customers? How much do you need to sell to break even or see a profit? If selling goods, determine the products you need and the volume to purchase to help you meet your goals.

For example, if you plan to become a Healthy YOU Vending business owner, what types of healthy snacks might you vend? What will they cost you and what will you charge for each? Will this profit then leave you with enough operating revenue to cover your additional costs while also providing your desired profit? This is will also be a good time to determine the number of healthy vending machines you might want or need. Will you start with a minimum number or do your business plans require additional vending machines right from the start? Will you stick with your initial order of vending machines, or do you have plans to grow?

Set and include financial goals

Next, set financial goals for your business. Outline your financial goals, including projected costs and expenses, along with profits and earnings. This may be a good time to consider some consultation with a good business coach or qualified CPA.

When it comes to Healthy YOU Vending business owners, decide whether you want to supplement your income with a side-hustle, while maintaining a full-time job—or will your healthy vending business be your primary source of income. Each option requires a different business approach and will help to determine how many vending machines you may need to achieve those goals.

Add an operational business plan

An operational plan will outline the details of daily operations over a given period of time—most often a year. It will outline the who, what and when of business operations, including logistics. For businesses dealing with product inventory, this might include plans for purchasing, restocking, expanding, monitoring and supporting a business. It can take a little time to refine operational planning and sometimes a little training and experience is required to really pin things down.

For Healthy YOU Vending business owners, decide whether you will run your business yourself, or hire employees, which may simply include family members. Try to anticipate how often you might need to restock your healthy vending machines—and how far you might be willing to travel to do so?

An initial training program like Healthy YOUniversity can teach you the necessary skills to get your new vending business off to a strong and healthy start. If you require ongoing support, you will find it in a program like Healthy YOU Vending’s Online Support Center or Lifetime Coaching.

Market your business

When creating a business plan, it’s best to include a marketing plan—in other words, how are you going to sell and market your products or services? This may include a website, sales tools and tactics, local advertising, a social media presence, networking, word-of-mouth and more.

Healthy YOU Vending business owners will want to consider both vending machine locations, along with you customers—meaning those purchasing products from you vending machines. In other words, potential locations, along with products your target audience is most likely to purchase, can both be considered in your business and marketing plans. At Healthy YOU Vending, we have location procurement experts who can help you find the best locations for your healthy vending machines and what types of locations might receive the most foot traffic. Our coaches, who are also Healthy YOU Vending business owners, can also help with product selection techniques.

Business planning determines the strategies and goals of your business, as well as the necessary steps to help your business succeed. It is a helpful tool to identify all the important aspects of your business and its success. If you would like to learn more about creating your own business with Healthy YOU Vending, click here. We’d love to talk with you today—with no obligation.

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