Internet Business for Sale:

Marketing plan sales: If you're serious about the success of your online business, then you need to find ways to give yourself every advantage you can over your competition. One strategy that can be guaranteed most is your competitors haven't tried is building a customized blueprint that outlines exactly how your businesses will succeed. The process of writing a business plan for your internet business can be a crucial step in getting your profits to where you want them to be.

Unless you want your business to stay small and to keep your day job, you desperately need a business plan. It's one of the best ways to motivate yourself to drive your business to the next level. And if your business is still just an idea in your head and you've been wondering for months on how to get started, here's your answer:

Start planning! Clear your schedule this weekend, print off this article and get down to business.

No matter which approach you're taking, though, you need to know about the following sections that should be included in just about every business plan:

1. The executive summary:

The executive summary is your entire business plan condensed into a page or two. If and when you show your business plan to others, this is the only part that 75 percent of them will actually read. So, you need to make this section as clear, concise and compelling as possible. This should contain a few key items. It should start with a brief description of exactly what your business does, who your market is and what opportunity you've identified as the inspiration for your business. Tell what sets your company apart from others in the same field.

You'll also need to discuss financial information such as projected revenues and, if you'll be using this business plan to secure financing, how much money you need and what you'll be using it for. Mention your company's achievements, including all the milestones reached to date. Even if all you've done is register a domain name, put together a Web site or file a patent application, be sure to include this information.

2. Description of the business:

In this an in-depth description of your business, including what products or services you sell, who your customers are, what your operating structure is, the legal details of your company and your distribution methods. Here only you will identify what makes your company unique. Here you'll address the things like what are you offering that others aren't, what sets you apart from your competitors and why will people choose to do business with you. Talk about what inspired you to start the company and how fast it's growing.

3. Market strategies:

This section will contain information about how big your audience is, how fast it's growing and how large you expect your market share to be. In this section, you'll also talk about how you intend to market your product or service to your target audience. Be sure about which marketing strategies to include here. You need to realistically evaluate all the possibilities and then focus on the two or three marketing techniques that will produce the biggest return on your investment. This is the kind of legwork and research you should be doing anyway. And once you've figured out how much your marketing and advertising is going to cost, you can put together a schedule of how much you can afford to spend on various campaigns each month.

4. Competitive analysis:

Here you explain the strengths and weaknesses of your main competitors. This will allow you to realistically determine where you can position your business in the market in relation to your competition. Make sure to do an honest appraisal of who your competition is. Take a look at how others marketing and what areas they are lacking in. Based on your research, you should be able to capitalize on the weaknesses of others. Compare your own traffic ranking to your competitors' traffic rankings every month or so.

5. Development plan and/or operational strategy:

If your company is still in the developmental stage, this is the section where you'll explain how you're going to bring your company into the marketplace. Write out a development timeline with the projected completion dates for various milestones your company will need to reach before it can start making sales.

This is the section where you must plan to profit! If your business is already up and running but isn't currently generating a profit, then this is where you'll need to identify how you'll make up the shortfall until you become profitable. Regardless of what stage you're at, you should still include a table of projected milestones for your business in this section. Estimate the month and year of the important milestones that you plan to achieve over the next one to two years. This not only looks great, it also reminds you of your goals every time you refer back to your plan.

6. Management:

This is where you introduce your management team or, if you're the only person involved in your business, explain why you're qualified to be running the company. Focus on your strengths and achievements from your previous ventures or jobs, and explain in detail how those qualities transfer to your business. Make sure to go into detail about what makes you uniquely qualified to operate this sort of business.

7. Financials:

Focus on your monthly income and monthly expenses. Put together a simple 12-month cash flow forecast. Next, determine what your monthly expenses will be. This should include things like advertising costs, office expenses like phone bills and stationary, the cost of your inventory, equipment purchases, loan repayments, as well as whatever cash you'll be drawing out of the business for your personal living expenses. If you exaggerate the sales you think you'll bring in, your whole business model will be damaged when those sales don't materialize.

If you're going to be using your business plan as a tool to attract capital from banks or investors, then your business plan will need to be much more detailed than if you were preparing it for personal use. To locate someone to write your business plan for you, just type "business plans" into any search engine--you'll find tons of companies that specialize in this sort of thing.

If you're running a one-or two-person company out of your home or small office, you probably won't need to hire a professional to work on your business plan. Most small-business owners should be able to write their business plans themselves.