Business Plan
When planning to start a business or expand an existing business, having a business plan is the most vital and the first step. It is difficult to define a business plan, and its definition may differ from one organization to another. However, it is simplest form business plan can be a document showing where you want your businesses to be after a certain period and how you are planning to get there. Thus, before starting a business, the business plan acts as the blueprint for building the business. Writing a business plan is usually the first and important step to get started. A business plan lays out the directions for the company’s future and indicates where to begin in carrying out the standards for success. A five-year financial projection should be available in making a complete business plan. The projection helps to know the amount of funding needed for one to start rolling out (Hafford-Letchfield, 2011).
The business plan should also provide definitions on how you would wish to operate your business. It includes a description of the management team. It should also have methods for interacting with customers, and the marketing strategy. The business plan can project a strategy that relates to the founders’ style of management. A business plan can serve numerous purposes. A company can use a business plan to seek to fund from investors. Another company can use the business plan for requesting a loan from a bank. Another company many simply need a business plan to lay out the strategy of the business as a way of ensuring their success. Whatever the case for the business plan, all businesses need it (Zaval, and Wagner, 2011).
Business Case
A business case is a formal document meant to convince a decision maker to prove a certain action. A business case explores the feasible approaches to any problem and enables the owners of the business to choose the best option for ensuring the success of the organization. A business case can also be a documented argument that is meant to convince the decision maker in proving a certain type of action is the best. Thus, the main rule of a business case is to articulate a clear path to the most attractive and desirable Return on Investment (ROI). A business case in its simplest can be a spoken suggestion. A business case specifically talks about a single problem that a business is facing. For example, the business case can point out that a business does not make an adequate amount of money on Sunday evening to cover the cost of operation. Additionally, a business case showing complex issues of the businesses need to present the information in a carefully constructed manner. The business case document has to examine the risks, benefits, and the actions as well as the actions that need consideration. The business case conclusion should present a compelling argument for the solution implementation (EPMC, Inc, 2011).
Project Plan
A project plan is a formal written document that is meant to guide the execution and control of a project. Having a project plan is vital for any successful project, and it is a vital document creation that needs creation before commencing on any business project. The project plan in IT means the Gantt chart as well as any document showing the activities of the project as well as the timeline of these activities. However, it is inaccurate to consider these documents alone as being the project plan. Precisely, these specific documents should be termed as being the project schedules and can be considered to be part of the actual plan of a project (Zaval, and Wagner, 2011).
A project plan can be for managing and calculating the associated risks. It can be used to control delivery and schedule. It can be used to communicate and document stakeholder expectations to the project and their products. A project plan provides an answer to questions like why is a business project sponsoring. What other tasks relate to the products? Which activities are necessary to complete the project and what are the main deliverables and products. Who will take part and what are their responsibilities in this project? What is the schedule of the project and when is the time for completing the projects’ milestones? (Shillito, 2000).
Therefore, the initiation of any project requires a vital and detailed document for tracking the functionalities, requirements, updating and scheduling of a project. A poor document will lead to disastrous results against the stakeholder’s wishes (Shillito, 2000).
Relations to each other
A business plan is among the five elements that are necessary for attaining the objectives of a project. The other elements are a business case, project feasibility study, FSR plan and the implementation plan (Triantis, 2013). A business plan is a decision-making tool that formalizes the project of either the new existing businesses in setting objectives and goals and presenting convincing evidence to the achievability of these goals. The business plan draws heavily from the knowledge derived from the business case development and also captures the results of the whole business planning processes. A business plan discusses the entity of a business its market, objectives, and goals, and explains actions. A project plan only covers a minimal unit within an operating business. The making of a project plan requires the good understanding of the operations of a company. It mentions the objectives and goals of a project, the objectives of a project or the target purpose of the project (Zaval, and Wagner, 2011).
Strategic business plan for Apple iPhone in Malaysia
The strategic business plan for Apple iPhone begins with an executive summary. This summary points out the main focus o the phone’s strategic plan. It presents the structure of the document. The first section is the analysis of the Smartphone in Malaysia’s industrial environment and a macro business environment. The second part reports on the customers buying habits in the market of Malaysia. The third section provides details abbot the implementations instructions and tactics for the marketing plan. The executive summary follows other vital parts of the formal document such as acknowledgment, index of tables, index of charts and the table of content. The main paper comprises of the introduction part that covers the background history of the company. Financial highlights, an overview of the product, research significance, and background. The second section covers the objectives of the report. The objectives are; 1. To analyzes the smartphone industrial environment including the completion trends in Malaysia. 2. to research into the behavior of customers of the iPhone users the Malaysian market. 3. To provide detailed implementation tactics and instructions of the marketing plan. 4. To provide a marketing plan for the company in the next three years. 5. To give recommendations on iPhone marketing in the next three years.
Section three of the business plan covers the research design. The author mentions that he will use both the quantitative and qualitative research methods in finding answers to the research question. The research question is can the iPhone series dominate the Malaysian market and the preference of customers just as the case of America? Part 3.2 is on data collection. It mentions that the main source in market analysis is using questionnaire and closed questions to find out the customer psychology activities and behavior. Other parts that follow are sampling, survey question design and implementation. Section 4 provides the vital part of the strategic situational analysis. It uses the PESTLE analysis to illustrate the external environment factors affecting the company. These factors are legal, environments, political, social and cultural factors.