Business plans are written documents that are essential for a successful business. To put it simply, the purpose of the plan is to outline what you want to achieve with the business and how you will do so. Putting the goals and ideas for working towards them on paper provides a document to refer to throughout the year to identify how much you have progressed. However, with it sounding so formal, it can seem like a daunting task, so follow this guide to make progress with your first draft.

The Aims of a Business Plan

• Develop ideas
• Highlight plans for growth
• Identify strategies
• Consider long-term changes
• Calculate the budget and financial targets
• Discover business priorities
• Problem-solve potential issues

What to Include in a Business Plan

There are seven key sections that are required in a business plan, and these address major areas of business management and detail the above aims of a business plan. The sections should include:

1. An Executive Summary

Briefly explain the business and what will be set out within the document, highlighting key points to be addressed. Identify the problem being solved, the audience being targeted, and key financial information before delving into the following areas.

2. A Business Description

This section should be much simpler than the others. Consider the purpose and values of the business and get writing about it. The business description should elaborate on the industry the business is in, the target market, and the manufacturing and distribution that takes place in relation to the business.

3. Details of Market Strategies

To expand on market strategies, doing research on the demographic of the target audience is required. In view of relevant statistics, decide how is best to reach out to potential customers. A market strategy should cover the 4 Ps (product, promotion, price, and place) to sufficiently cover all areas. Keep in mind budget limitations.

4. Competitor Analysis

A significant factor in the success of a business is the relationship between competitors. Identifying direct and indirect competitors can allow further research to be done for the purpose of highlighting strengths and weaknesses. In doing so, this can encourage problem-solving to avoid issues further down the line.

5. A Design and Development Plan

The purpose of this section is to describe the design of the product/service offered by the business as well as how the company and its production and marketing can be developed further in line with budgetary constraints. Scheduling, costs, personnel, and risks can be detailed in this section. For instance, planning to implement recruiting software to find employees that can assist in the development of the business.

6. Business Management Plan

A successful business does not exist without strong management. Utilize this section to formalize the business management structure and operations, noting how this will impact the development goals. This can include staff and resources that will support the running of the business.

7. Financial Considerations

Finally, it is necessary to establish whether the business plan is sustainable. Creativity is great in recording business aspirations, but being realistic about affordability helps to keep finances on track. This section should be broken down into a cash flow statement, income statement, and balance sheet. Costs should be calculated, profits should be forecasted, and other monetary predictions must be made to determine the feasibility of the business plan.

 

While working on a business plan for the first time might appear to be intimidating, you will find that it flows naturally once writing has commenced. If it consists of an executive summary, a business plan, details of market strategies, a design and development plan, a business management plan, and financial considerations, the business plan will be effective.

Did you know that nearly three-fourths of college students have or prefer Macbooks? Apple has done a great job of targeting this demographic by providing them with great deals and simple, sleek, and powerful computers.

However, while Macbooks are great, you can only maximize their potential by getting the best Macbook apps. There are many tools for students out there that will help you pass your classes and achieve the success you’re looking for.

So keep on reading, and we’ll take you through the top Macbook applications you need to know about!

1. iStudiez Pro

College students today are taking loads of classes. With such busy school and social lives, it’s hard for anyone to keep up.

Thankfully, there is iStudiez Pro. This app tells you what classes you have for the day. It also reminds you of any upcoming deadlines and tests that you need to be aware of.

This app can even help you calculate your GPA. You need to put in what your grades are, and it will help you figure out where you should be trying to improve.

With this application, you can add details to your timetable. This can include your class time, instructor name, course name, etc. And you can keep everything organized by using colorful icons.

The app even keeps track of your assignments. You can add your assignment title, due date, and even sync it with your contacts and include your partner’s details.

2. Tick Tick

Tick Tick is more than your basic to-do list application and it’s one of the best Macbook tricks around. It provides you with various ways to integrate your application and third-party apps.

Tick Tick comes with a Kanban view in its List feature. This is a great and easy way to structure and check your tasks. You can use this feature to rearrange and organize your lists in ways that work best.

Premium users can make use of the powerful Calendar function. You can combine this app with your Apple calendar too.

The app also comes with a Pomo Timer feature. Based on the famous Pomodoro technique, you can set periods of time for work and block out online distractions.

This app comes with a lot of subtle but useful features. For example, you can go to any of your tasks and see the percentage of how much you’ve gotten done for the day.

3. PDFpen

Today, it’s hard to find resources for students where you can edit a PDF. Thankfully, PDFpen has come to the rescue. 

This is an all-purpose PDF editing tool where you can edit the text with ease. You can make quick changes or convert the file into other formats, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Word documents. 

You can add page numbers, rearrange pages, and delete and add new pages if you want. You also add digital signatures. 

4. CleanShot X

Over the past few years, more and more students have needed to take virtual classes online. Unfortunately, this makes it hard to keep notes and pay attention.

Thankfully, CleanShot X has come along with a solution. This application takes screenshots, records classes, and annotates important parts too. 

The application comes with more than fifty features.

One of the coolest features of this app is its scrolling capture. You can capture things that don’t even fit on your screen.

This will help you take shots of chats or a screengrab of long code files with one easy picture. 

You also get a built-in trimming feature. Now, you can edit your screen recording right after recording them.

5. Be Focused

It’s harder than ever to focus on a single task with so many distractions. With the Be Focused app, you can use a Pomodoro feature and segment your study time into simple intervals. With this feature, you give yourself 25 minutes of work time, followed by a five-minute break.

This way, you won’t get burnt out from studying all day and night.

Be Focused lets you customize the timing of the work interval and lets you choose between long breaks and short breaks. 

The long break timer begins after you finish your target intervals for the given task. You can put in the name of the task and begin the timer. You can also pause it when there’s a quick distraction that you need to take care of.

6. Microsoft Word

Even though there are a lot of word processing applications out there, Microsoft Word is the king of all of them. For Macbook users, if you’re writing essays and papers for class, you’ll still be better off doing it on Word.

You can visit helpful sites like https://setapp.com/ to learn how you can get Microsoft Word on your Mac for free.

7. Quizlet Go

In the old days, students would have to buy physical index cards to quiz themselves. This was wasteful and took up a lot of space.

Now, we have Quizlet Go. This is one f the resources for students that can really go far. Now, you can make your own flashcards and quickly flip through them on your phone.

What makes this app really neat is that you can also study from flashcards that other users have made. So you can save even more time by not having to make a bunch of cards on your own.

Get The Best Macbook Apps Today

These days, students have so much going on in their lives that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Thankfully, the best Macbook apps are designed to lighten the load and help you accomplish your goals.

So don’t be afraid to download the apps listed above and see how they can benefit your school life.

And if you’re looking for other helpful tech articles like this one, then check out the rest of our site today for more!

Here’s something that every business owner needs to know: modernizing your business is a piece of cake. Sure, it requires a little effort and financial investment, but it’s not even close to the challenge you think it is.

No matter how big or small your business is, it’s time to bring it into the 21^st century. No more fax machines, no more dated website designs, and no more bad customer service. It’s out with the old, in with the new.

So, when you’re ready, let’s examine the five steps you need to take to modernize your business. And don’t worry, even if you’re an ‘old school’ type of businessperson, you’ll soon get the grasp of everything!

1.   Screen Job Applicants Before Hiring Them

As every business manager and HR department can attest to, hiring the right employees is difficult.

On paper, a candidate could seem incredible. However, after hiring them, you could soon discover that they’re a troublemaker with a history of causing problems – which is a nightmare you don’t want to happen.

This is why thoroughly screening your job applicants is essential. You can’t afford to cut corners: every employee must be screened. The reasons for this are simple:

• You reduce the risk of fraud and theft
• Your staff remain safe
• Your public reputation won’t take any damage
• You avoid any costly lawsuits

However, as you might already know, screening job applicants is difficult. Sure, you can examine their social media pages, but that’s not enough. Instead, you need to do a fast and detailed background check.

Thankfully, you can get help with job candidate screening from DataCheck, which are industry experts. They will make life easy for your HR department – ensuring that you only hire the most talented employees.

2.   Use a VoIP Phone System

The next step in your journey is to use a VoIP phone system.

If you and your team members spend a lot of time making phone calls in the office or remotely, a VoIP phone system (which is basically a digital phone system where you can make calls over the internet using your laptops and smartphones) is going to take your communications to a whole new level.

3.   Market Your Business on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn

Pretty soon, traditional marketing strategies – such as radio advertisements and leaflets – are going to become obsolete. This is because digital marketing – specifically, social media marketing – has taken over.

Now, to be a modern business, you need to have business pages on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These three platforms allow you to:

• Communicate with your customers
• Quickly post company news and updates
• Promote your products and services
• Provide customer service
• Save costs compared to traditional marketing methods (after all, social media is free to use)

So, if you don’t already, make sure to join these platforms.

Also, don’t forget about LinkedIn, which is essentially the professional, business-based version of Facebook.

4.   Collect Customer Email Addresses and Phone Numbers

Email and SMS marketing are also incredibly important. This is why you should collect customer email addresses and phone numbers at every opportunity. For example, you could start a scheme whereby, in order to get product discounts, customers need to register their email addresses through your website.

5.   Invest in Reusable Packaging

Lastly, being a modern business is all about eco-friendliness.

Ideally, you should be using reusable packaging. This way, customers can recycle your packaging and (when they aren’t satisfied with a product) use it to send their returns back to you.

This way, you can save the planet and cut down on your business costs.

If you are trying to market in the public sector, then you will know that it is far more complex and intense than conventional business marketing.

This is because you are not just trying to appeal to the public; you are accountable to them too. This narrows your options when it comes to marketing, forcing you to tread a tricky line between building a distinct brand identity and appealing to a diverse audience. 

However, this is not to say that it is impossible to market in the public sector – far from it. When individuals and organizations master the ability to communicate with their audience in the public sector, they don’t just win the approval of the people they are aiming to serve but steal a huge march on any competitors they might have. 

The best news is that communicating successfully in the public sector is not about spinning PR statements, distancing yourself from your audience, or having to outright avoid the truth. On the contrary, in an age where that is prevalent in the public eye, maintaining your integrity, honesty, and independence is the most powerful approach of all.

Here are three tips for public sector marketing:

Work with a specialist digital marketing agency

The first piece of advice you should consider is that consulting with a specialist is not a cynical move but a constructive step towards a more effective communications strategy.

 

Marketing in the digital age is fast–moving, and it can be difficult to keep up with what works and what doesn’t – even for professional marketers. 

This is especially true in the public sector, where social channels ebb in and out of fashion, and it can be tricky to know where to position yourself or the organization you are representing.

Therefore, don’t be afraid to reach out to a digital marketing agency that specializes in marketing and communications for the public sector.

Keep your message as pure as possible

If there is one approach to take when it comes to all marketing (but especially in the public sector), it is that you shouldn’t be afraid to be yourself.

This is not to say that you should share all your intimate details or try to be more candid than is appropriate, but honesty is and always has been the most persuasive marketing principle. 

It is easy to fall into the trap of creating a specific image far removed from your true character or forcing your organization into a tight PR box that you can’t wriggle out of. 

Unfortunately, your audience has a keen nose for authenticity, and if they sense you are not being entirely honest or speaking your true feelings about a public matter, then they will cease to follow or respect you.

Therefore, keep your message as pure as possible by being yourself, embracing your unique personality (even organizations have a persona of sorts), and avoiding any bandwagons.

Stick to a single place online if possible

It is best to keep your public sector communications strategy as simple as possible. It needs to be easy to manage, and your audience needs to know where they can find you. 

While you might imagine pleasing everyone by being on every social media channel is a good idea, it will only make you look needy and unfocused. 

Instead, focus on a single channel if possible, and focus your attention purely on that. It will increase your follower count and make it easier for you to cultivate a strong line of communication.

If you’re running a business, chances are that you’re already well aware of several ways in which being digital could or has already helped you. In fact, many of these online or digital elements are things that you would automatically choose over their manual counterparts, but there are still several ways in which going even further might provide you with benefits.

Trying to untangle your business from the internet is difficult. It’s where most potential customers would look to find information about you, and, as a result, it makes sense for you to have a voice on that platform so that you can talk back to them and have some measure of control over your image. So, looking for further ways to engage with the digital age could garner you further advantages.

Reinvent Your Image

You might have thought long ago about jumping on the digital bandwagon, and so you might already have a website which you were then happy to simply leave as your base of online operations. However, times change, and you must keep up with them. Customers can spot an older website, and it’s not usually something that they usually react well to. So, taking this opportunity to overhaul your website and bring in a whole new look and interface will allow you to convey your newly updated information with clarity and show that you aren’t content to be left behind.

While taking the time to upgrade your website, you might also decide that now is the moment to branch out even further. Developing an app for your business can mean that your customers can have a greater ease of access to your services in their daily lives thanks to their smartphones. Doing all of this by yourself can be difficult, even with your own team to work with. Instead, you might prefer to enlist the help of professionals such as those found at smartboost.ai, as you can then confidently begin to develop your ideal product in collaboration with those who can help you realize this idea.

See the Advantages of Working from Home

Offering your employees, the opportunity to work flexibly is something that many businesses have been faced with due to the circumstances brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. However, while some may simply view it as a means of coping with that unique scenario, others see that it has advantages and utility beyond that – leading them to incorporate it into their regular situation.

This doesn’t mean you have to eliminate the option of working from the office completely, but for your staff, knowing that they can work from a more comfortable and easier environment might help them feel happier about their roles. It might also mean that they feel you have their best interests at heart, leading them to respond better to you as an employer.

Digital technology can help you achieve this as well, thanks to cloud technology leading to easy collaboration and widespread access to digital devices and the internet, allowing any environment to become an office.

Every business needs help. No matter whether you’ve never run a business before or you have launched and sold dozens in the past, trying to do it all alone is a slow, exhausting, and ultimately unfulfilling thing to do. By the time you see any form of success, you’ll more than likely be tired out and not want to enjoy the fruits of your labor. You’ll even potentially be bored of the business, just as it’s starting to do something exciting.

This is why it’s better to use the various tools that exist to help you move things along more quickly and more successfully. If you can do this, you’ll be happier to stick with the business and enjoy its success, building it up to bigger and better things as you go. Read on to find out more about what some of the best tools are and why they help so much.

A Business Website

You might not consider a business website to be a tool, but it certainly is. It’s a tool that will allow you to sell more, either because it is an online store, or because it allows potential customers or clients to learn more about your business and what you do, as well as the services you provide. Without a good website, you might lose out on sales that your competitors get instead, just because their website – not necessarily their business – is better than yours.

Spend time getting your website right before you launch it. It should be professional looking, it should be easy to use, it should contain all the most up to date and relevant information about your business, and it should be mobile friendly. A good, memorable domain name is also crucial. Prepare this in advance and your website is a tool that will boost your business dramatically.

Outsource Partners

Again, perhaps this is not something you would list under the ‘tool’ category, but having great outsource partners you can rely on is crucial when you’re running a business and you want it to succeed.

No one can do everything by themselves, and it’s far better to engage a reliable managed IT company or someone to help with your finances than it is to attempt to do everything and have to rush or not do the best job you can. Even though you’ll need to pay a professional, the end result will be much more impressive and much more likely to bring you profit. You can then focus on the rest of your business, doing whatever it is you do best.

Employee Collaboration Software

These days, many businesses are working on a remote basis, meaning that rather than having one central office that all the employees attend each day, they instead all work from home. Using employee collaboration software will ensure that this way of working is as productive as possible for the company as a whole and the employees individually.

Focus on these three aspects and you’ll have the right elements in place to succeed.