Lesson 1 – The First Page

The first thing you need to do is download the blank business plan here.

As you can see the blank business plan is divided into 26 lessons. I will go through each lesson step by step and give you examples you can copy and adapt into the blank business plan.

By the end of lesson 26, you should have a completed business plan.

Step 1. Business name

The first thing you should write on your business plan is the name of your business. Picking a business name can be as complicated or straight forward as you want it, but I would consider some points before you make up you mind.

1. Be sure The first thing I would consider is what ever name you pick you will pretty much be stuck with it, so be very sure before you get all those fliers, business cards and printed carrier bags. Yes you could change it in the future, but that would mean you have wasted a lot of time , money and effort building up your businesses good name.

2. Check if it’s been taken The next thing I would do is check if it has already been taken by going on the internet and doing a search.

There are rules and regulations on what you can and can’t call your business which you will need to look into, but one of your biggest problems is if the domain name i.e. the www., name has been taken. You can check this by going on one of the numerous domain name websites, I use 123-reg, but any will do.

You basically type the name of the business in the search and they will instantly tell you if it’s available to purchase. Have a go!

1. Go to www.123-reg.co.uk

2. Type in www.yourcompanyname.co.uk into the search box

3. Wait until the table loads up and hey presto you can see if the name is available

Many of you might be thinking, I’m not going to have a website so that does not matter. That may be the case, but what happens if you want one in the future? It won’t be very good having the business name “John’s Plumbing” and realising www.johnsplumbing.co.uk has been taken.

You would then have to call the website something else, like www.johnsplumbingandheating.co.uk . You will save yourself a lot of money by picking a name which has not been taken yet and buying it straight away. If your not serious about the internet than I would only register the .co.uk (£6 for 2 years) and maybe the .com (about £18 for 2 years) 

Think of the future Many clients who decide to purchase a website do not think about the life of the business. Yes, websites can easily be changed as the business evolves, but it’s a different story with domain names. Say this plumber decides to get his first website and calls it www.bobsmithplumbing.co.uk .

In 20 years time he wants to sell the business to another plumber, can you see the problem? He would be better off calling it www.londonplumbing.co.uk . now when he does retire he will be able to sell the website with the buisiness.

Any one deciding to embark on a new business should give considerable thought to the business name and more importantly the web address. After you choose the name of the business, fill in sections Owner's name: Write your name Owner’s address: Write your address Business address: Write the business address if you know it yet Owner’s telephone: Email: You have now completed the first page of your business plan, now try lesson 2