Welcome to my online video course on how to create a business plan. Let's get kicked off with module one, where I'll introduce the course and also describe to you the importance of creating a business plan. Many people have great business ideas, business ideas that could become a sustainable income for them and their families, ideas that could create jobs, ideas that could make the world a better place. Unfortunately, many of these ideas never see the light of day and fail as actual businesses. The reasons for this are numerous people with good ideas or very specific skills and abilities are often not good or experienced business people, or they simply lack the confidence to start and run a business. Many people try and fail while some may achieve mediocre success, the issues that intrapreneurs face could be as easily solved as perhaps sticking to a business startup checklist or there could be a little more challenging, such as understanding the difference Between profitability and cash flow.

They could also be complex problems such as designing a profitable business model based on their ideas, or wondering how to fund plan business growth and expansion. This is not to say that larger businesses and corporate organizations do not experience similar problems. The difference however, is that these larger organizations have greater resources at their disposal. They can hire the expertise they require, they can engage the services of a consultant, or they can spend valuable resources working around challenges and problems. Many startups and smaller businesses do not have affordable access to these types of resources. And this video training course aims to provide an easy to refer to God and quickstart to crafting and defining a detailed business plan.

So why is having a business plan so important, especially when we hear from the likes of the Silicon Valley startups that business plans are updated, and that businesses need to be more agile and pivot in new directions? Well, to be honest, there's a lot that does make sense in this train of thought things like testing. This idea of creating a minimum viable product or getting your customers to use it, and also being able to change direction easily and quickly when things aren't working. The last point points is important. But how do you know when things aren't working? When things are not going according to plan?

What objectives and targets Have you set for your business? How would you plan to achieve those objectives and targets? Having a business plan will help you understand all of this. Your business plan doesn't need to be hundreds of pages, but instead needs to be a succinct document that clearly states your business's objectives, and how you plan on achieving these objectives. Nor will you blindly follow your plan when things are not working. Importantly, your business plan will help you understand when and where things are not going well, helping you make the necessary decisions to correct the issues at hand.

The business plan also has additional uses, such as attracting investors, business partners, or potential first hires and securing finance. This video training course contains The knowledge and experience from over 20 years of starting and growing businesses, helping others grow their businesses and consulting to corporate organizations. Whether you're looking to start your own business, or grow your career by being an entrepreneur in the organization you work for this video course is for you. Hopefully, you will have already watched the free video seven step strategy that will have helped you shape up some high level thinking and strategy for your business. This video course will now take you through a more detailed and in depth business planning process to help you put together a detailed plan for your new or existing business. The video training course is split into 12 modules, including this one, and also includes a number of templates to help you get started on your plan.

Let's take a quick look at what the modules cover. Module One is the one you're looking at now. Module Two will talk you through getting started and also describe to you the tools and the preparation you need to do before constructing your business plan. Module Three will describe how you understand the industry and your company itself. module four will talk you through market research and analysis. module five will help you construct the economics of the business.

Module six, we'll help you put together a marketing strategy. Module seven will help you understand products and service development. Module eight we'll look at the management team and how the organizational structure of your new or existing business will look. Module nine will cover the risks any problems and any assumptions you've made in constructing your business plan. Very importantly, module 10 will teach you how to construct a financial plan for your business. Module 11 will help you put together a proposed company offering ideally to attract investors or investment and we'll then conclude with module 12.

I hope you enjoy the course I'm sure you'll find it very useful and see you in Module Two