Company Description – Creating a Business Plan

We’ve all heard the saying that a failure to plan is a plan to fail, and that’s especially true when it comes to your business. However, you may have already spent years building your business, and you’ve been doing well, so you might be asking yourself:

My business is already up and running. Why would I need to create a business plan?

Creating a formal business plan at this stage can be beneficial for many reasons, including:

• Gaining future financing through investments or loans
• Persuading a key partner or employee to join your team
• Serving as the roadmap for the future growth and success of your business

For this series, we’re going to focus primarily on the last bullet point, as one of our goals here at Regions | EnerBank USA is to help you grow your business.

Generally, a comprehensive business plan should include the following:

1. Company Description
2. Products and Services
3. Marketing Plan
4. Operational Plan
5. Management & Organization
6. Personal Financial Statement
7. Financial History and Analysis
8. Executive Summary

We’re going to start with your company description. This is typically the second section following your executive summary; however, that will be the last topic we cover (stay tuned to find out why).

First, start by collecting the following key information:

• Basic Company Information — Official business name, location(s), and type of entity
• Ownership and Management Team — Break down of who owns the business, how the owner(s) is involved, and the distribution of shares
• Company History — Add interesting details of how & why the business started, the inspiration of the business, the need you’ve filled, and objectives you’ve already achieved
• Mission Statement — A brief statement of the purpose of your business
• Objectives — An outline of immediate business goals as well as any long-term plans you may have
• Vision Statement — A brief statement of the future you envision for your business

Once you have this information, it’s time to start writing. Don’t worry — you don’t need to be Shakespeare to write effective content — we’ll walk you through the steps of crafting a compelling company description.

Going Up

Start out with the elevator pitch of your business. If you’ve never heard this phrase before, it’s a quick — think 30 seconds — description of who you are and what you do (or about the length of an elevator ride). The more concise this section is, the better the understanding of the reader will be.

Keep it Basic

There’s no need to get too into the weeds in your company description, as you’ll be going more in-depth later in your business plan. Keep things high-level here and save the nitty gritty details for later. For this part of your plan, it’s quality over quantity. It’s easy to go on and on about what makes your business great, but the shorter you can keep this section, the better.

Show Some Personality

A lot of your plan is going to contain the facts, figures, and statistics that make up your business. This is your chance to show off what makes your business unique and get the reader excited about reading the rest of the plan.

Check Your Work

Nothing can cause a bigger hit to your credibility than a poorly timed spelling or grammatical error – just ask Dan Quayle. Have someone who wasn’t involved in the process check your content for typos, grammar issues, and that everything makes sense. Having an extra set of eyes can help you identify issues that affect the overall flow of the piece.

Congratulations! You’ve taken the first step in creating your brand-new business plan. Stay tuned for the next installment of this series, where we’ll cover what should be included in your Products and Services section.