The importance of writing a business plan has been a major discussion topic among entrepreneurs and investors. Many say that the entrepreneurs should have ready very detailed business plan before they start their businesses. Others argue that entrepreneurs don’t need to have all detailed information in one place to get started and should concentrate on building their product before everything else. Whenever you are prepared or not to write your business plan, you can always make the first step before the actual process of writing the plan starts by considering the following five important topics.

Define your motives to start a business. The different entrepreneurs are driven by different reasons to start their business ventures. Some entrepreneurs decide to work on their own business because they want to experience the feeling of being their own boss; others concentrate on making money, while the most successful ones are driven by passion. Knowing what motivates you to become an entrepreneur will help you to get better perspective on your main goals and will keep you motivated when the path gets rocky.

Create your mission and build your vision. The vision statement of a company is having extremely important role. It helps the entrepreneurs to have better decision-making process and to lead the company to the desired destination. The vision statement is very simple in structure and almost every time is a simple sentence or a short paragraph. The mission and vision statements summarize the main reasons why the company exists, what is the purpose of the business and where the business is heading – all very important aspects to define before the entrepreneurs start crafting their business plans.

Know what you want to achieve. Determine your goals – the short term goals should be more specific in order to be easier to actually establish the beginning of the business plan. But it is also very good idea to have your long term goals defined as well. Looking at the bigger picture from the very beginning will help you to make better decisions along the way.

Know what you are willing to risk. By committing to a startup venture, you are soon to understand that you are deep diving into the unknown water where everyone not only looks like a shark, but actually is a shark. Before you start writing the business plan, determine your risk strategy – what you are willing to give up for the business. It is also a good idea to figure out what personal sacrifices you are to make for the sake of living the life of an entrepreneur.

Know your strengths and your weaknesses. By knowing the weak and strong sides of the business, the entrepreneurs are able to easily focus on growing their business faster. Many entrepreneurs tend to focus on their weaknesses, but the key to achieving more is to concentrate on the strong aspects of the business and try to make these aspects even stronger. By being aware of the strengths of the company, the entrepreneurs are able to focus better on the business, to gain more confidence and to create more effective and realistic business plans.