From market analysis to marketing - a well-structured business plan is the key to success for any business start-up. It not only helps you to clearly formulate your business idea, but also convinces potential investors and business partners.
In the following, you will find out what you need to include in a business plan and how - thanks to AI and other tools - you can handle even complex analyses and visualizations professionally.
What belongs in your business plan
Here is an overview of the essential components that no business plan should be without.
- Summarizing overview. This brief overview provides a concise summary of your entire business plan. It should clearly outline the business idea, target markets and USPs (Unique Selling Points).
-Company description: This is where you describe your company, its legal structure, location and history. This section gives a deep insight into the nature of your company and its values.
-Market analysis: The market analysis should show how well you understand the market and industry in which you operate. It includes an assessment of the target customers, the competition and market trends.
-Organization and management: This section outlines the organizational structure of your company. Here you can use diagrams to visualize the company structure and introduce key people, such as the management, with short biographies.
- Products or services: Describe what your company offers. It is important to emphasize the advantages of your products or services over the existing alternatives on the market. Highlight what your USP is.
-Marketing and sales strategy: In this section you explain how you will market and sell your products or services. This includes strategies for market launch, pricing and distribution channels.
-Financial planning: The financial plan is crucial to show how your business will be financially sustainable. It includes sales projections, budgeting and capital requirements analysis.
Remember that many decision makers will decide whether to read the rest of the document based on this summary. Think of this summary as your central sales paper!
Tip: Write this section as the last step in creating your business plan.
Would you like to impress potential investors with a prestigious business address in your business plan without having to pay expensive rent? Here you'll find all the information you need to rent a business address from Office Club!
Each of these sections is fundamental to developing a comprehensive business plan and will help you to thoroughly evaluate both the feasibility of your project and its potential.
Quite a lot? The good news: thanks to AI and other smart tools, you're not on your own when writing your business plan!
These AI applications and tools will help you create your business plan
Here are our recommendations for tools and AI applications for the various components of your business plan:
1. executive summary and company description:
- Tool: ChatGPT or other Large Language Models (LLM)
- Application: Using text generation via AI is particularly suitable for creating concise summaries or meaningfully structured texts. Feed the AI with your notes, bullet points or more detailed texts and ask it to create a well-structured text or summary.
- Data protection concerns? Find out about the data protection regulations of the respective AI provider. With OpenAI, for example, you can control whether your data may be used for AI learning purposes.
2. market analysis:
- Tool: Google Trends
-Application: Although Google Trends itself does not use AI in the traditional sense such as machine learning or deep neural networks, it uses complex algorithms to recognize patterns in large amounts of data and present them in a user-friendly and informative way. This capability makes Google Trends a valuable tool for your business plan.
3. organization and management:
- Tool:draw.io
- Application: This tool is free and allows you to create detailed charts and organizational charts directly in your browser or through the desktop application. The tool offers a variety of templates and design options that make it easy to create professional-looking organizational charts. You can add text to each element to include information about each role and short biographies of team members in an org chart, for example.
4. products or services:
- Tool: ChatGPT or other Large Language Models (LLM)
- Application: For the description of your product or services, use ChatGPT as a sparring partner when creating the text. Enter your notes again and ask the AI to create a continuous text from them. In your prompt, specify the tone in which this should be done.
-Prompt example: "Write a short text (maximum 100 words) based on the notes I'm about to post. The text should state the benefits of the product, but not sound too promotional."
5. marketing and sales strategy:
- Tool: Google Trends
- Application: Again, use the data from Google Trends to justify your timing for marketing and launches in your business plan. By analyzing the search trends of relevant keywords, you can find out when interest in topics related to your product or service is at its highest.
6. financial planning:
- Tool: AI-based financial forecasting tools such as PlanGuru
- Rationale: Financial forecasting is critical to assessing the profitability and risk of a business venture. AI can make more accurate predictions by using historical data and industry-specific trends. Using financial forecasting tools allows you to budget, plan capital requirements and analyze risk more accurately.
If you don't like the first draft, specify your prompt and ask for further versions.
Identify market trends: Use Google Trends to find out which topics, products or services are currently gaining popularity in your target market. Enter relevant search terms related to your business field and analyze the results in your market analysis.
Geographic target market analysis: Google Trends shows you in which regions certain search terms are particularly popular. This information is valuable when you argue in your business plan in which geographical markets you want to be present with your marketing and sales efforts.
Don't like the generated answer? Encourage ChatGPT to do better: " Try harder and provide me with two new alternatives".
In addition to the use of AI and analysis tools, consulting services can also provide valuable support when writing your business plan, such as the Chambers of Industry and Commerce. Their workshops and seminars on the topic of business plans are often free of charge or available for a small fee.
Conclusion: With the right tools and AI applications, writing your business plan will be much easier for you: Whether for your brief overview, market analysis or visualizing your company structure - with the tips and tools mentioned, you'll be well equipped for your business plan. And now it's your turn!