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How to Successfully
Apply for Business Grants
Your
Business Grant Proposal
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Unless you are loaded
with cash, chances are that you will
need some financial help in order to get
all of the things that you will need to
start your business. This section is
going to help you to get all of the
things that you will need to do in order
to give yourself the best chance at
getting the funding that you will need.
It will be a long one.
First of all, you are
going to have to plan out your business
ideas and goals so that you can create
an effective business plan. It is going
to be your business plan that will
inevitably decide if you are able to get
the funding that you need. You can start
by using these tips that will help you
to develop your plan for writing the
business plan that you will need.
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You
should start by making sure that you
clearly define your business idea
and that you are able to articulate
it properly. To do this, you need to
know what your mission is.
-
You have
to thoroughly examine your motives
for getting into the pharmacy
business. Make sure that you have a
passion for owning a business in
particular.
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You have
to be willing to commit to the
hours, discipline, continuous
learning and the frustrations that
go along with owning your own
business.
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Conduct
a competitive analysis in your
market that should include:
products, prices, promotions,
advertising, distribution, quality,
service, and you will also want to
be aware of the outside influences
that will inevitably affect your
business, such as competition.
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You will
want to seek out help from other
small businesses, vendors,
professionals, government agencies,
employees, trade associations and
trade shows. Don’t be afraid to seek
out other places as well.
The
Business Plan
Having told you what
you should think about when you are
creating your business plan, I will now
seek to help you in the actual creation
of a good business plan. The hardest
part about creating a business plan is
getting the energy together to get
started.
At first it seems
like a horribly daunting task. But once
you get going you'll find that writing
the business plan is not as tough as it
seems. You can begin with some of the
easy steps first. Some of these are as
follows:
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Describe
your business and what makes it
stand out
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Talk
about the specific market you are
targeting
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Explain
what stage of development your
business is in such as is it brand
new or are buying someone else out.
If you get hung up on
a particular part of the plan, don’t
worry because you can skip it for now
and just come back and fill it in later.
You also don't have to worry about
making a perfect first draft either
because you can just get some thoughts
down to get the process going and you
can always come back and fix it up
later.
Keep your audience
in your head
Throughout the
writing of your business plan you want
to keep in mind who your intended
audience is going to be and why you are
writing the plan in the first place. For
example if you are trying to attract
equity investors you are going to want
to emphasize the big upside of your
business’ profit potential.
While doing this, you
will also need to be particularly
careful to make sure that you choose to
adequately disclose the risks and
uncertainties that are involved in your
business, because investors will often
look for someone to blame if their
investment disappears.
If you are trying to
get debt financing for your business
then you are going to want to emphasize
not the huge upside profit potential but
rather the certainty that the debt can
be repaid. In fact, when you talk of big
profits you may just scare away debt
financiers because high profit potential
usually means high risks as well.
If you are writing a
business plan that is meant to help you
run the business better you may want to
skip or write very simple sections with
all of the general background
information on the company and the
industry, and instead focus most of your
plan on the areas of your plan that are
currently most important to you.
Strategy is
Important
Basically the first
half of the business plan is going to be
geared towards helping you to develop
and support and solid business strategy.
This is where you will look at the
market, the industry itself, customers
and competitors. You will also have to
look at your customer needs and the
benefits of the various current products
and services that are available to you.
You will have to
really look at the strengths and
weaknesses of each competing like
business in your area and try to find
any opportunities for your and your
ideas in the marketplace. All of these
steps are largely aimed at helping you
create a strategy for your business.
The second half of
the business plan is going to be used to
execute your selected business strategy.
Your pharmacy’s products and services,
your marketing and your operations
should all closely tie in with your
strategy. So while it may be easy for
you to choose a well thought out
strategy for your plan, I would
personally recommend you give a lot of
thought to the strategy that will set
the course for your business.
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