So you've reached that stage where you're ready to get your work from home business off the ground in every way except one: you need money.

Whether it comes from a loan or from investors won't make any difference because there's one thing they'll need to see before they'll give you a dime — your business plan.

What's a Business Plan?

Think of your business plan as a list of answers to questions people might ask about your home business. You won't get funding without one because the people giving you the funding want to know you've thought through what you're doing. A business plan says 'I've considered this from every angle, and here's what I've come up with'.

But what should your business plan include?

What's Your Service? This is the first question every business plan should answer. What exactly do you plan to do? Tell them which industry you're going to be in, and why you've chosen it.

Who are Your Customers? Once you know what you want do, the next thing you need to know is who you're going to be doing it for, and so that's the next thing that should be written on the business plan. You should also include your area here.

What Makes You Different? You should explain what the 'key factors' are that makes your business different from others in its sector. What is it you're plan to do to make the business succeed?

What are Your Expenses? Your start-up expenses include any equipment you need before you can get off the ground, while your day-to-day expenses are staff costs and supplies.

An Example

Keep in mind that this is a short and sweet business plan. In reality, each one of these sections should be about a page long. That said, it's a bad idea to go into too much detail in your plan. You're not trying to tell the reader everything you can. Rather, you need to explain the basics of the business and why they should lend or invest their money to help you build your business. You should always focus on profit.

The Catering & Cake Co.

Nature of Business: The business will be a home-based catering company, producing luxury food for special occasions such as birthdays and weddings. We will provide a comprehensive catering service, with a special line in cakes, which have a higher profit margin than other foods.

Target Market: Our catering business will be aimed at middle-market customers who want luxury catering but still care about the cost. To begin with, our target area is within a ten-mile radius of Anytown, to include the affluent area of Othertown.

Key Factors: We will use industrial-quality ingredients but provide quality design and service. This will allow us to provide food that looks excellent and tastes acceptable, while keeping costs low.

Expenses: Since I will be using my kitchen for the business and making the food myself, there are only two real expenses: the one-time cost of a larger cooker, and then the day-to-day cost supplies. A suppliers' letter listing prices is attached — enquiries with others in the catering industry have shown this supplier to be the best value for my business.

To finish, you should include a breakdown of projected profit and loss per month for the first year of the business, in the form of a graph.

You figure this out by working out a reasonable repayment of any one-off expenses and adding this repayment to the day-to-day expenses, before graphing day-to-day expenses against projected sales.

Your business plan should project you making enough profit each month to live on. If you don't, it may be considered unfeasible by anyone you show it to.

Find Real Business Plans

The best way to figure out the dos and don'ts of any business plan is to read some real ones — which you should be able to find on the Internet.

Once you've read a few samples, you'll have an idea of how much work is going to be involved to write one of your own. Remember, until your business exists for real, the business plan is the only tool you have to show anyone how great it's going to be.

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