A business plan for any new business, including a business plan for making candles, is an outline of all the important aspects of the business and how they are going to work over the first year of trading. It is just like any other plan – it provides a detailed map, blueprint or chart for you to plot your course on how to get from zero (no candle business) to the end game - a profitable, functioning candle business that is growing.

Business plans are really useful documents for anyone starting a business for the first time, because they help you plan in thorough detail every aspect of what you are going to do. And a little planning up front can help avoid a whole lot of grief later.

Most people write a business candle making plan to get either grant money or investment. But the best reason for creating a business plan for making candles is for your own benefit. You may think you've got it all mapped out, but trust me, as soon as you start trying to write it down gaps will appear. (This is a good thing by the way!)

People tend to be scared of business plans because they have never seen one. This is reasonable! Clearly if you have never seen a business plan of any kind the idea of creating a business plan for making candles from scratch might be a bit daunting!

Once you've read a few though, you'll realise they are all pretty similar. They are formal documents that follow a standard layout and content, with just a little variation to account for the differences between individual types of businesses.

The main variation between most business plans is simply how well they are written, NOT the actual content. A business plan is as much about persuading the reader that you know what you are doing as it is about what you are doing.

What does a business plan for making candles cover?

The business plan will look at the product or service you are going to sell. Clearly for a business candle making plan this will be about the candles you will be making. You will be quite specific about the kinds you will make, the materials you will use and the prices.

Your business plan for making candles will look at the overall market for candles: whether it is growing or shrinking, who buys candles, why they buy them and when they buy them. It will also cover any research you have done into the market for your individual candles and if people are likely to buy them.

Your business candle making plan will detail how and where you are going to make your candles; how they will be manufactured. It will cover who your suppliers will be. It will go into a lot of detail about how, where and when you are going to sell the candles.

Your business plan for making candles will cover how you intend to market the business. Sometimes the material for the marketing section will come from a separate and more detailed “Marketing Plan”. This may or may not be included with the business plan if you are submitting an information pack for prospective investors, but you will always summarise the main points in the main business candle making plan.

One of the most important parts of the business plan comes at the end. This is the financial breakdown. You basically produce a full set of accounts, just like you would at the end of your first year of trading. This is a made-up set – it represents your best guess at this stage of what the accounts will look like for real at the end of your first year.

The financial section tends to be of most interest to people reading the plan as the thing they most want to know is how much money the business will make. If you have never seen a business plan you have probably also never seen a set of accounts, so these two or three pages can look very scary. As with all other aspects of a business plan though, you can learn what they mean with a little patience.

Every business candle making plan will include a Management or Executive Summary. This will be a very short summary of the main points covered in the plan. It will be no more than 1-2 pages and although it is always the first thing in the business plan for making candles it is always the last thing you write.

There are a few others things you might find in a typical business candle making plan. You might include a time line for activities showing what will happen when, although this is a less usual inclusion. If you have a lot of products you might include a catalogue of products. If you have developed any marketing materials, e.g. adverts you might include these. This type of material tends to be included as an appendix, because it supports the main body of writing which should always be clear and concise.

And that's all it is. To sum up - a business candle making plan is a formal document which follows a standard style and layout. There are pre-set sections of information it will include, but each section is written specifically for your own candle making business. The most important sections in the whole plan are the financials section, which shows how much money the business will make in year one and the executive summary, which is just a précis of the whole plan you put at the front.

There are many other types of information which might be included, usually as appendices if they support the main story. The main reasons for creating a business plan for making candles are usually to get grant money or investment. However, it is highly recommended that if you are new to business and new to home based candle businesses you should write a business plan for making candles for yourself, so that you are clear on what you are doing.