Marketing Analysis/Strategy: The next thing to write (after the general description) should be your marketing strategy. For new or existing businesses, market analysis is an important basis for the marketing plan and will help justify the sales forecast. Existing businesses will rely heavily on past performance as an indicator of the future. New businesses have a greater challenge _ they will rely more on market research using libraries, trade associations, government statistics, surveys, competitor observations, etc. In all cases, make sure your market analysis is relevant to establishing the viability of your new business and the reasonableness of the sales forecast.
Business Description: After the executive summary, you need to write a short description of the business you are going into. You need to give a general description of the industry your business belongs to. You will write about your company's mission statement, goals and objectives, business philosophy, as well as its legal form of ownership (sole proprietor, corporation, LLC, etc.).
It may not be pleasant to imagine all the "what ifs," but doing it now and planning for those unexpected events will improve your company's chances of surviving a storm. For an excellent step_by_step guide on the details of developing a risk management plan, see the article "How to Develop a Risk Management Plan," by Charles Tremper at wikiHow.com.
The financial statements section should show the way things are now if you have an existing business, as well as a forward look at your checking account, or projected income statement. The only way a start_up company can provide an income statement and balance sheet is by projecting these figures based upon well defined assumptions. Both start_ups and existing businesses should include a statement of owner's equity.