A business plan is useful to investors, management, and owners of a business because it clarifies all aspects of a company. It shows the planned activities and how to do them. It contains the business objectives, why the objectives are attainable, and plans for attaining them. Therefore, a business plan is a future description of business (Review, 014). There are six types of business plans models comprising the startup model, the internal model, the strategic model, the growth model, and the operation model. Additionally, Microsoft project and apple merlin also contain business plans models. The current paper will compare and contrast these business plan models to discover their advantages and disadvantages.
The start-up business model is a detailed description of how to start a new business. It contains a description of the business organization, market evaluation, type of products and services, the management team, and the financial analysis using a spreadsheet application. The financial analysis describes the expected revenues, expenditures, profits, and cash flow projections. The startup business plan model is associated with several advantages (Muehlhausen & Muehlhausen, 2013). First, the model enables the business owners to make financial projections, which is necessary for assessing the growth of the business and determine if the objectives are being met. Secondly, it is possible to make changes to the start-up business model because the changes do not impact the business significantly. However, the start-up business model is associated with some disadvantages. The model is only applicable to small and medium-sized business because it only provides a simple description of the business (Review, 2014). The start-up is also applicable for short-term business projects because it does not incorporate market change, which is common to any business context.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The internal business plan is the target of audiences within the business. It is used to evaluate a proposed business project. The internal business plan describes a business’s current state, comprising operational costs and profits. It also assesses whether the business would be able to repay the capital required for the project (Muehlhausen & Muehlhausen, 2013). Additional components of an internal business plan include market analysis, hiring, and technology costs. The market analysis will provide the demographics of the target audience, market size, and the impacts of the marketing plan on the business’s income. One advantage of an internal business plan is that it provides a detailed description all business aspects including personnel, finances, resources, and potential as clearly as possible, which is the opposite of a start-up business plan. It is a feature that makes it useful for in-house planning because the manager can use it as a reference point to guide their action and stay in line with set objectives. The other benefit of an internal business plan is it able to analyze the external environment of a business.
According to Katz & Corbett, A (2016), an internal business plan evaluates the competition, market, and potential of a business, which informs its strategy. Therefore, an internal business plan translates to expansion and hiring decisions. Finally, an internal business plan offers short, medium, and long-term goals, which makes it useful for startup and businesses pursuing growth and expansion. It offers a focused approach to a business’s objectives for a given time. Nonetheless, an internal business plan is also associated with some disadvantages. First, it is only meant for in-house use, which means that it cannot be used by external audiences such as investors. An internal business plan is suitable for small businesses and start-up because they are pursuing growth and expansion. Therefore, it is not useful for large and stable businesses that are not pursuing growth and expansion.
The other type of business plan is the feasibility business plan. Although a feasibility business plan is sometimes used interchangeably with a start-up business plan, it is different because it refers to specific steps necessary for validating a market, product or technology. A feasibility plan for a new product entails getting early adopters and validating the concept with individuals willing to buy the product. It may also involve offering a product to people committed to purchasing it in advance of availability in the market. One benefit of a feasibility business plan is its focused nature. It contains the specific step required to validate a product or market, which ensures that business works towards the realization of its set objectives. Another benefit of a feasibility business plan is that it enables a business to validate a product, market, or technology before investing significant capital. Therefore, it prevents wastage of resources in markets or products that are not profitable. However, the focused nature of a feasibility plan is also its downside. It focuses only on whether a market exists or a product will work. It lacks important details such as tactics, strategy, and financial projections, which are necessary for a successful business plan.
The other type of business plan is the strategic business plan. Going by its name, a strategic business plan contains a detailed map of a business’s objectives and how they will be attained. Therefore, a strategic business plan provides the foundation for the whole company. It contains five important components: vision and mission statements, strategies for attaining objectives, the definition of critical success factors, and the implementation schedule. Therefore, strategic business plan brings all elements of the business into the big picture and inspires employees to work towards the realization of company objectives.
A strategic business plan is associated with several benefits. First, it is comprehensive since it contains all elements that are required to attain a business’s strategy such as strategies for attaining objectives and the implementation schedule. Valentin (2014) points out that a strategic business plan is also beneficial because it enables a business to monitor its progress towards established objectives. Since it contains a definition of critical success factors, it is possible to track determine if a business is working towards its vision. A strategic business plan covers all aspects of a business because it brings all levels of the business together. Therefore, it can be used to align a company’s strategy with its objectives. A major disadvantage of a strategic business plan is that it is not suitable for small or start-up businesses (Timmons & Overdrive Inc, 2011). Since it brings all levels of the business together, it may not suit businesses that are pursuing expansion or growth strategies.
Finally, a growth business plan is the other type of business plans. Growth business plans offer in-depth descriptions of proposed growth and are created for both internal and external purposes. It is used by a business when it is pursuing a growth strategy (Osterwalder, Pigneur, Clark & Smith, 2010). Growth plans the require investment must contain a detailed description of the organization, its leadership, and management. However, if a growth business plan does not require investment, company descriptions are unnecessary, but it must contain sales and expense projections (Katz & Corbett, 2016). One benefit of a growth business plan is its suitability to businesses pursuing growth. It suits start-ups that are pursuing expansion. Growth business plans are enable tracking of business progress because it contains sales and expense projections. A business can determine whether it is working towards the attainment of objectives.
Microsoft offers a comprehensive suite of software in Microsoft Project. The suite enables easy and full project supervision through project plans. Microsoft Project enables project managers to create project tasks and indicators, allocate resources, identify dependencies, and estimate phase durations (Muehlhausen & Muehlhausen, 2013). The software is an important tool for different projects ranging from marketing, construction to manufacturing. The software suite is beneficial because project managers can organize resources and anticipate changes across the entire project life cycle. Despite these benefits, the business plan models in Microsoft suite are more suitable for business projects because the project managers can track and makes necessary changes to the project. It may not be suitable for business plans that require the implementation of strategies to attain specific goals.
The most suitable business plan for the CLC business plan is the strategic business model. Since the CLC business plan will entail establishing goals and working towards their realization, a strategic business plan will suit the CLC project. The CLC business plan will require strategies for attaining the organization’s vision and an implementation schedule. The strategic business plan will also suit the CLC business plan it brings all levels of the business together. Its comprehensive nature will ensure that the organization’s objectives are attained because all levels of the business will be impacted by the strategies.
References
Katz, J. A., & Corbett, A. C. (2016). Models of start-up thinking and action: Theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical approaches . London: Emerald.
Muehlhausen, J., & Muehlhausen, J. (2013). Business Models For Dummies . Somerset: Wiley.
Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Clark, T., & Smith, A. (2010). Business model generation: A handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. New York: Wiley.
Review, H. B. (2014). Creating Business Plans (HBR 20-Minute Manager Series) . Boston: Boston Harvard Business Review Press.
Timmons, J., & Overdrive Inc. (2011). Business Plans that Work . S.I.: McGraw-Hill Education.
Valentin, E. K. (2014). Business planning and market strategy . Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications.
