A written development or business plan will provide you and your stakeholders or funders with operational and financial details of how you will make your idea a reality.
It is often an essential tool for securing funding. Your business plan should cover the problem that your idea will address, how you intend to do this and what makes you well placed to do it.
Your plan should be a working document written in plain English. Its length should be determined by the work you are planning to do – if it’s too long, it can discourage people from reading it and may be difficult to use as an effective management tool.
Luton Dunstable Partnership developed an excellent Business Plan Toolkit that takes you step by step through the process.
The Cranfield Trust provides free management support to voluntary organisations involved in issues of poverty, disability or social exclusion, including help with producing development/business plans from their students and bank of volunteers.
If you are not part of a voluntary organisation, please check out our starting and social enterprise sections.