After winning the business plan competition start2grow in September we were asked about our business plan several times and if we could give some hints and tips. Here we go!

First of all: We’ve written it ourselves. No external supports or checks. And: It’s really hard work!

Of course, there is no universal cure-all advice. Indeed, we concentrated ourselves on it. We are no experts though. Hence, we can just tell you what lead to success in our case. No guarantee at all!

I will start with the goals of your business. Everyone knows them in high-level: To build it up successfully and earn a lot of money. Great, but not enough to convince a jury. My suggestion is:

Specify your goals by:

• what kind of goals you have and
• when you aim to reach them

For the first one I recommend:

• Operational goals
• Strategic goals and
• Financial goals

The periods could be short term, middle-term and long term. The result is a matrix. But, what is the matrix? 🙂 It’s a table consisting of 3 colums and 3 rows.

It’s difficult for a lot people to define their goals even with this matrix. My recommendation is: Have a look at the goals of other companies. A lot of them communicate their operational or strategical goals on their websites. Try to get an impression of what goals they have and if you have similar ones.

The break-even, for instance, is the financial goal of every start-up. This is the point of time where you start earning money. Now you just have to decide when you want to reach this goal and put it into one cell of the table.

That’s all for now. Next time I will write about another chapter.