If you work for yourself it is very useful to draw up a good business plan. Even if you don't consider yourself a 'business' it's a good way to look at your activities.

A properly thought-out business plan:

• Helps you to analyse ideas for your business in a commercial and a creative way;
• helps you to clarify what activities are needed in the longer term.
• is the ideal document for making it clear that yours is a serious business capable of attracting both money and work.
• forces you to think like a businessperson and to develop a long-term strategy for your company. 

The writers
A complete business plan covers a very wide range of topics. Which gives rise to the question: who should write it? One option is an accountant or business consultant. We recommend that you write the basics of the plan yourself, perhaps in collaboration with people with whom you work closely. It is your plan, after all, about your work and even your life. At some point, though, it is advisable to call in outside experts who can help you with, for example, legal, financial or tax advice.

The readers
First of all, you are the reader. The plan should serve as a crystal-clear mirror in which to examine your own ideas and ambitions. Apart from that, the readers could be anybody you want to involve in your business in any way: creatives, financiers, buyers and so on. 

There are no rules for the length of a business plan. At the very least, however, it should adequately express the idea and strategy behind the business – but without being verbose or boring the reader. 
A good business plan is a pleasure to read and a document to be proud of.

All the plan's readers will open it with much the same questions in mind:
- What makes this company different from all the others I know?
- Will this company still be in business a few years from now?
- Is this going to be a company that I want to be associated with?
- Do these people have a vision and do they known what to do with it?

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