A business description is typically the snapshot of your business venture, it outlines vital details about your business, such as where you are located, the size of your company, what you do and what you hope to accomplish.
From this section, the potential readers must be convinced of the uniqueness of the business and gain a clear idea of the market in which the company will operate.
Table of Contents
What Should a Business Description in a Business Plan Include?
Depending on your type of plan, the exact elements included in your company description can vary. For external plans, this section should include your mission statement, a review of your company legal structure and ownership, a brief history of the company if it’s an existing company, and a summary of the business location.
Company Description
Start with the legal name of your business and state the legal form. State whether the business is a new business, expanding a business, or a takeover of an existing business. Next, explain the actual business you are in, this will include describing the manufacturing of any product, provision and delivery of any service, and so on.
State where your primary office will be located as well as any other facility that your business will operate in and then explain the reasons for that specific location. Give the actual size of each office and/or facility and along with a description of how each will be used and the duration in the number of years these facilities will be adequate for operating the business (i.e. the number of years used for amortization of their cost).
Mission Statement
Your mission statement is a short inspirational statement of the vision and goals you have for your company. Be sure that your mission statement is concise, content-rich, and that it excites your readers. Your mission statement should address, but is not limited, to the following elements:
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Nature and philosophy of the company
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Quality, price, service, customer relationships, management style, employee relations
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Corporate culture, image
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Social and community image
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Growth and profitability goals
Here at Ini Patrick Notes, our mission statement is this: “We help people to do better in Life and business.” It’s simple and encompasses everything we do from the types of products that we build to the kind of marketing that we do.
Goals and Objectives
When writing this section, explain in simple terms the goal of your business in a single paragraph. Express your company’s goals by answering the following questions:
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What are your plans for the future of the business?
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What are your ambitions for the company?
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Are you developing growth strategies? If so, how fast do you think you will grow?
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Do you plan to increase production, diversify, or eventually sell the business?
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Explain your short and long-term goals for the company.
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What are your time frames for reaching different goals?
Company history
Summarize the history and current status of your company. If your company is just forming, clearly explain how you came up with the idea to start your business and how you and your partners have met.
If your business is already in operation, state how long you have been in business. Do you have anything to say about previous owners, successes, failures, lessons learned, reputation in community or sales and profit history? Discuss significant past problems and how you survived them.
This section is especially useful to give context to the rest of your plan, and can also be very useful for internal plans. The company history section can offer new employees with background on the company so that they have a better context for the work that they are doing and where the company has come from over the years.
Critical Success Factors
Separate from the Goals and Objectives section, the critical success factors show what needs to be in place or managed to carry out the goals. Questions to address are:
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What factors will make this business a success?
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What are the internal and external elements that have an immediate and direct impact on your business? How are you ready to deal with them or make them happen?
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What are your major competitive strengths?
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If you are asking for funding, go on to explain how the new capital will help you successfully meet your upcoming challenges.
Company Ownership
This section will name the owners of the business and should address the following:
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Who are the owners? How much of the shares do they own?
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Who are the people in the management team?
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List the names of the people and the position held
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Describe the owners’ plan for succession. Who takes over after you retire?
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