For ALG 1 and ALG 2 recipients, founders and existing companies.
Here you will find our checklist for you and your business plan, so that you can convince your bank or other institutions.
We are convinced that successful business plans require a lot of experience and a lot of work.
You cannot simply have a business plan created in a generator with great chances of success with the bank or other institutions – the promise that it will be so easy is usually not kept.
In our experience, successful business plans involve a lot of experience or a lot of work. Below we have compiled a checklist for you, so that you have something easier on the way to your personal business plan:
Business Plan Outline
Executive Summary
Who founds
Company concept
Market and competitors
Marketing and sales
Organization and employees
Legal form
Opportunities and risks
Financial plan
Documents
There is no prescribed or recommended structuring of a business concept. The structure of your business plan should always be clear and logical and correspond to the main interests of the addressee. Banks and investors, for example, are more interested in the financial plan with capital requirement plan and profitability forecast. The Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) is particularly interested in your profitability plan, your entrepreneurial personality and the long-term prospects for success.
For an initial overview of what the business idea is all about, a business plan begins with a brief summary. This explains the idea in an easily understandable summary. The summary also includes the most important key data on goals, capital requirements, planned investments, USP, founding team, market, opportunities and risks of the first few years. The summary should be written at the end, when everything else is already finished.
This section of the business plan introduces the founding person or persons. All information relevant to the business idea is presented here:
Whether it’s a product or service, this part of the business plan is where you explain the purpose and user benefits of your venture. Among other things, this is about:
Potential funders also want information about your location and its advantages and disadvantages. Who exactly are your customers? Do you already have customers? Who are your current and, if applicable, future competitors and how are they positioned? In this context, it is also important to know what weaknesses you see in your competitors and how you can exploit these weaknesses for the success of your company. What is needed here is precise knowledge of the industry and an objective assessment of how your own company can integrate successfully into the existing market.
No success without marketing. Marketing already starts with pricing. This also requires a deeper knowledge of the industry. This section also explains in detail the benefits of the business idea.
There are 4 classic marketing instruments, the so-called „four P’s“: Product, Price, Place, Promotion. In German, one speaks somewhat more awkwardly of product policy, price policy, sales policy and communication policy. In addition to classic marketing, you should also present an equally convincing online marketing concept. Online marketing includes your own website or store, search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine advertising (SEO).
This part of the business plan is dedicated to the people involved and the proposed business. This includes profile-type information such as:
This section deals with the legal form and the reasons for choosing this legal form. The shareholder structure and the distribution of company shares are also explained. Whether GbR, GmbH, uGmbH or UG. We will be happy to discuss with you which legal form is right for you.
In most cases, more than one legal form comes into consideration. We support you in choosing the right legal form:
What are the 3 biggest opportunities that can have a positive impact on your company and what are the risks? With a SWOT analysis you present opportunities and threats, strengths and weaknesses.
In addition to the equity ratio and the borrowing requirement, you compare planned costs – including borrowing costs – with planned sales here. Analysis tools are the income statement, the profitability statement and the capital requirement plan. No particular structure is prescribed. At the end of this chapter, you will see an example of the structure of a finance plan.
Determining the numbers for a coherent, bankable financial plan is complex, especially for the inexperienced. At the same time, the financial plan is especially important to potential lenders. Investors and lenders want a comprehensible rationale for how much capital you need and whether you can repay on time. Experienced financiers can often tell at a glance whether the information is plausible and the estimates realistic. Banks also look closely. They are particularly interested in your debt service capacity. This is the liquidity used to pay your loan debts on time. It takes precise capital requirements planning to know what amounts to expect in this regard. This is the only way to minimize the risk of liquidity problems in advance.
Example of how to build a bankable financial plan:
As already mentioned, various appendices are attached to the business plan. Depending on the state of affairs, these can also be drafts:
You want a start-up grant from the employment agency, subsidies for business start-ups or a bank loan? For this, you need a business plan that is convincing in terms of content and form. This is exactly the kind of business plan we create for you – free of charge with the state AVGS subsidy. Or with 50% subsidy with consultant support (BAFA). In addition to the services in terms of the activation and placement voucher, we can also provide the expert opinion (FKS).
We support you professionally and from the very beginning. So that your company starts more successfully.