The Importance of Having a Business Plan for a Franchise

One of the first steps before launching into any new franchise business opportunity is to formulate a business plan. There are many good reasons for you to have one. For example, if you are looking for financial support then the bank or loan company will ask to see your business plan. In addition, it is good to have for your business as well so that you can follow your growth patterns from the beginning.

An advantage to acquiring a franchise is that you do not have to reinvent the wheel and feel like you are all alone. Your franchiser will be there to help you every step of the way starting with a business plan for your new opportunity. The success of your new franchise is a two way street because the franchiser also has a vested interest. As for helping you with the business plan, the franchiser is the best person to guide you because there is a lot of information that you would not know at this time. It is important to do the business plan properly if the franchiser is not able to help you in other aspects of the business.

A business plan for any franchise can act as a personal aid in prioritizing what’s important and what isn’t. You can operate your enterprise more successfully. With information provided by the franchiser, you will see that the features of a conventional business plan for a brand new start-up and those for a franchise are distinctly unique. The franchiser may be willing to help with other aspects of the plan in order to make the franchise itself more attractive to you.

A franchise business plan contains one or more of the following features:

The abstract is the introduction of your business plan, is shorter than an executive summary and provides key concepts of the business plan. The summary is a description of the company and related details about the business comes next. Overview of the franchise is at this point, where you discuss the franchise. This part of the business plan is put in place of the traditional “industry analysis” section of a conventional business plan.

Competition is everywhere and the challenges you will face in this particular market are discussed in the next section of the business plan. How to manage a marketing plan, attract customers thru advertising and come ahead of your competitors are all covered too.

Another section of the business plan is the management and human resources section where the qualifications of staff who will run the franchise are discussed as well as the number of staff and how they work together as a team.

The financial section is where you need to be clear about financial projections and objectives just as you would with a conventional plan.

The last section usually consists of exhibits or documents which support the projections, statistics or whatever information you provided in the business plan. They are generally at the end of the business plan as part of the whole document or in a separate binder.

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