Writing your Optometry Business Plan

Writing your Optometry Business Plan

The purpose of a business plan is to demonstrate that you have a business idea, it serves as a roadmap for the development of the Optometry practice, and it shows you are seeking to raise money. A business plan includes information about the market research, the expected operations, the products and services, the marketing strategy, the sale forecast, expansion strategy, and the related financials. Writing a business plan is a lengthy process but it is worth doing: it stimulates your deepest intuition in terms of business acumen and business knowledge.

Very often we find modern entrepreneurs skipping the whole idea of a business plan, sometimes because they don’t want to go through this lengthy process and sometimes simply because -depending on the case- some parts of the business plan are not required.

Plan Cruncher is an example of a one-page plan that you can build in minutes. It has gained popularity among developers during the past ten years even though its simplicity and lack of details may sometimes appear shy to investors. The Plan Cruncher is composed of six sets of questions that help you answer information about your idea, your team, your products, revenue, funding, and partnership.

Lean Canvas is another simplified version of the traditional business plan and consists of a one-page grid that helps you deconstruct your idea into its key assumptions. The Lean Canvas illustrates a business model based on the Business Model Canvas and optimized for lean startups. Lean startups are companies that introduce new products usually on behalf of an existing company, products that consumers have already demonstrated they desire, and products that have an already existing market as soon as they are launched. For this reason, a long detailed business plan is not required. Market research, which takes a lot of work in the business plan is not needed in a Lean Startup.

Depending on you’re industry each business has different plans and each business plan is a little unique. A good business plan may change in the way it is presented but the substance hasn’t really changed over the years. You may use any plan, but the best plan for your Optometry practice is the plan that clarifies the direction to take action to create your future business, its purpose, and its output.

A business plan on a back of a napkin is intended to clarify to friends and prospective team workers the concept of your idea, and its output is a drawing on a napkin. A Business Model Canvas, a Lean Canvas, or a Plan Cruncher, help in presenting to team members, partners, and advisors; and their output is a completed and tested business model canvas. A Feasibility Study helps you address potential investors with a new concept that has market potential; and its output is a professional-looking and well-formatted detailed 10 pages typed document. And finally, a Business Plan helps you address Banks and investors, its purpose is to get funded and its output is a 25 plus page document with an executive summary and appendices.

The Choice is yours!