Executive Summary
Your executive summary is the first part of your business plan, but you usually write it last because it is a summary of all the important parts.
The point of your Executive Summary is to get the reader’s attention quickly. Tell them what kind of Uber business you’re running and what its status is. For example, are you a new business, do you have a business that you want to grow, or do you run businesses in more than one market?
Next, give an overview of each part of your plan that follows. For example, describe the Uber industry in a few words. Talk about the type of Uber business you run and how it works. Detail your direct competitors. Tell us about your ideal customers. Give a brief overview of your marketing plan. Find the important people on your team. And explain what your financial plan is.
Company Analysis
In your business analysis, you will explain what kind of business you are running.
For instance, you could run one of the following Uber businesses:
- Uber Green is a service that uses electric cars.
- This kind of Uber takes between one and three people in a car.
- UberXL offers rides for groups of up to 5 people in a minivan or van.
- Uber Delivery: This type of Uber delivers food ordered through Uber Eats or packages under 50 pounds in the local area.
- Uber Freight: This type of Uber transports freight over long distances. The Uber Freight platform is used to choose which loads to transport.
In the Company Analysis section of your business plan, you need to explain what kind of Uber business you will run and give some background on the company.
Include answers to things like:
- When did you start your business, and why?
- How do you make money from Uber? How are you going to make money with Uber?
- What important steps have you taken so far? Milestones could be things like how many people were helped, how well-known the clients were, etc.
- Your legal structure. Are you set up as an S-Corporation? An LLC? A single-person business? Tell us about your legal structure.
Industry Analysis
In your industry analysis, you need to give a general picture of the Uber business.
Even though this may seem pointless, it has more than one use.
First, learning about the Uber industry makes you smarter. It gives you a better idea of the market you are in.
Second, market research can help you make your strategy better, especially if it shows you market trends.
The third reason to do market research is to show your readers that you know a lot about your field. You do just that by doing the research and putting it in your plan.
In the industry analysis section, you should answer the following questions:
- How much money is the Uber business worth?
- Is the market going down or up?
- Who are your main rivals in the market?
- Who are the main market suppliers?
- What changes are happening in the field?
- How fast is the industry expected to grow in the next 5–10 years?
- How big is the market that matters? That is, how big is your Uber business’s potential market? You can figure out such a number by figuring out how big the market is in the whole country and then applying that number to the population in your area.
Customer Analysis
In the customer analysis section, you need to explain who you serve and/or who you hope to serve.
Individuals, groups, and manufacturers are all examples of customer segments.
You can probably guess that the customer segment(s) you choose will have a big impact on your business. Clearly, the way you run your business would be very different for freight than for, say, individual rides.
Try to figure out who your ideal customers are based on how they look and how they think. In terms of demographics, talk about the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the people you want to serve. Most Uber businesses mostly serve people in the same city or town, so it’s easy to find demographic information on government websites.
Psychographic profiles explain what your target customers want and need. The better you can understand and define these needs, the easier it will be to get customers and keep them coming back.
Competitive Analysis
In your competitive analysis, you should list your business’s direct and indirect competitors and then focus on the direct ones.
Other Uber drivers are your direct competitors.
Indirect competitors are other places where customers can buy things that aren’t direct competitors. This includes people who drive their own cars, rent cars, or run their own trucking businesses.
Concerning direct competition, you should talk about the other Uber drivers with whom you compete. Most likely, the Uber drivers closest to you will be your direct competitors.
Give an overview of each of these competitors’ businesses and list their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you’ve worked at one of your competitors’ companies, you won’t know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key facts about them, such as:
- What kind of clients do they work with?
- Do they focus on certain services, such as luxury transportation, delivery services, etc.?
- How much do they charge (high, low, etc.)?
- What can they do well?
- What do they do wrong?
For the last two questions, try to answer them from the customers’ point of view. And don’t be afraid to ask the customers of your competitors what they like and dislike about them.
The last part of your competitive analysis section is to list the ways you are better than your competitors. As an example:
- Will you offer more types of services?
- Will you offer more convenience, such as opening early in the morning or staying open late at night?
- Will there be extras in the car, like mints or bottled water?
- Will you price things better?
Think about how you will do better than your competitors and write them down in this part of your plan.
Marketing Plan
Usually, a marketing plan has four parts: the product, the price, the place, and the promotion. As an Uber driver, the following should be part of your marketing plan:
Product: In the product section, you should restate the type of Uber that you wrote about in your Company Analysis. Then, give specifics about the products you’ll be selling. For example, does your Uber business offer rides between cities in addition to trips within the same city?
Price: Write down the prices you’ll be charging and how they compare to those of your competitors. In your marketing plan, the product and price sections are basically where you list the services you offer and how much they cost.
Place: This is where your Uber business is located. Write down where you are and how that will affect your success. For example, will your car or fleet be in the center of the market to get the most business? In this part, talk about how where you are will affect how many people want your services.
The last part of your Uber marketing plan is the section about promotions. Here, you’ll write down how you’ll get people to your location (s). Here are some ways to get the word out about the following marketing campaigns:
- Putting ads in newspapers and magazines in your area
- Contacting local websites
- Signs and billboards
- Flyers
- Social media marketing
- Local radio advertising
Operations Plan
In the other parts of your business plan, you talked about your goals. In your operations plan, you talk about how you will reach those goals. Your plan for operations should have two separate parts.
Everyday short-term processes include all the things you have to do to run your business, like getting the oil changed regularly, cleaning the inside after each customer, washing the outside regularly, buying water/mints, etc.
Long-term goals are the goals you want to reach in the future. These could be the dates when you hope to complete your 1,000th ride or make $X. It could also be when you plan to launch in new markets.
Management Team
To show that you can succeed, you need a strong management team. Showcase the backgrounds of your key players, focusing on the skills and experiences that prove they can help a company grow.
You and/or your team members should have managed Uber businesses before. If so, talk about your experience and skills. But also highlight any experience you think will help your business succeed.
If your team is missing something, you might want to put together an advisory board. A two-to-eight-person advisory board would help your business in the same way that a mentor would. They would help answer questions and give advice on how to plan. If you need to, look for advisory board members who have worked in transportation for people or who have run small businesses well.
Financial Plan
Your 5-year financial plan should include a monthly or quarterly breakdown for the first year, then an annual breakdown after that. Your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement are all parts of your financial statements.
A more common name for an income statement is a Profit and Loss statement, or P&L. It shows your income and then takes away your expenses to show if you made a profit.
You need to make assumptions in order to make your income statement. For example, how many rides will you give each day? 10 or 20? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% every year? As you might expect, the financial forecasts for your business will be greatly affected by the assumptions you choose. Do as much research as you can to try to make sure your assumptions are true.
Balance sheets show both your assets and your debts. Balance sheets can have a lot of information, but try to boil them down to the most important parts. For example, if you put $50,000 into building up your Uber business, you won’t make money right away. Instead, it is an asset that you can use to make money for years to come. Likewise, if a bank gives you a check for $50,000, you don’t have to pay it back right away. Instead, you will have to pay that back over time.
Cash Flow Statement: Your cash flow statement will help you figure out how much money you need to start or grow your business and make sure you never run out of cash. Most business owners and entrepreneurs don’t realize that you can make money but still go bankrupt if you run out of money.
When making your Income Statement and Balance Sheet, make sure to include some of the most important costs of starting or growing a business:
- Setting up an office, including furniture, construction, and other things.
- The price of buying or renting a company car
- The price of office supplies and software
- Payroll or wages given to employees Business insurance
- Taxes and licenses:
- Legal expenses