A delivery service business plan is the key to your organization’s long-term success. This is because 20% of businesses fail within the first two years of opening, and one of the reasons is a poor business plan. These figures change over time, but you won’t become part of the statistic if you have a proper plan.
A business plan is a roadmap that shows you how to reach company goals successfully. But there are mistakes you can make when creating your business plan that could have catastrophic consequences for your delivery service.
To help you avoid these mistakes, we’ve provided a comprehensive guide on creating a winning business plan for delivery service.
Table of Contents
Why Do You Need a Delivery Service Business Plan?
A delivery company business plan guides you through each stage of starting and managing your organization. Without a proper business plan, you won’t know your target market and industry competitors. You can’t make accurate financial forecasts or devise the right sales and marketing strategy for lead generation.
You need a well-structured delivery service business plan for the following reasons:
- To establish delivery business milestones
- To understand your competition and how they operate
- Understand your customers and their needs
- Assess the feasibility of your venture
- Determine your financial needs
- Attract investors
- Reduce the risk of perusing the wrong customers
- Position your brand
- Uncover new opportunities
With a plan for your service delivery business, you’ll have a 30% greater chance of sales growth than companies that don’t have a plan.
What to Avoid When Writing a Delivery Business Plan
Avoid being vague when writing your content for your business plan. You should define your delivery business model clearly without using jargon. Don’t include unrealistic information, and don’t leave out important facts and figures.
Your business plan shouldn’t be complex. And don’t forget to regularly view and edit your business plan to ensure it aligns with your company’s mission.
ALSO READ: How to Start a Delivery Service
What to Consider Before Writing Your Delivery Service Business Plan
According to a report by IBIS World, there are 256,633 couriers & local delivery Services businesses in the US as of 2022, which is a 5.1% increase from 2021.
Therefore, you need to create a business plan to offer a delivery service that sets you apart from your competitors.
Consider the following questions when writing your business plan for delivery service.
What Makes Your Delivery Service Unique?
What services can you offer your customers that your competitors aren’t?
For example, you may create a loyalty program where customers can earn points. Or offer free delivery for purchases over $50. Long story short, make your delivery business stand out by providing services that appeal to your audience.
How Will You Structure Your Operation?
When you start your delivery business, you must have a structure that optimizes workflow and your return on investment.
Consider how you’ll hire delivery drivers and train them or manage vehicle maintenance and inventory. You should also formulate a delivery service strategy for payroll management and winning new clients.
Learn the four delivery driver training tips to elevate your drivers’ skills.
Want To See For Yourself How Route4Me Can Make Your Delivery Operations Efficient and Boost Profit?
Whether you want to reduce fuel costs, track your delivery vehicles in real-time, increase the number of stops your drivers can make, or keep your customers satisfied knowing that your drivers show up on time… Route4Me helps you achieve that!
How to Write a Business Plan for a Delivery Service
Whether you’re creating a food or courier service business plan, they all follow the same structure and formula.
It’s essential to follow the exact format of a traditional business plan so you can work on each section carefully. Here are all the elements included in a delivery service business plan:
- Executive Summary
- Summary of the Delivery Services You Provide
- Market Analysis
- Marketing Strategy
- Your Team’s Skills
- Your Business Operations
- Financial Planning
Let’s look into each of the sections in detail.
Executive Summary
Your executive summary is an overview of your services. In the opening paragraph, you should clearly outline the most exciting aspects of your company.
Make sure you provide a synopsis of the critical points of your delivery service business plan. Use engaging language and tone, and write concise sentences. Your executive summary section shouldn’t be longer than two paragraphs.
Company Description
This section should include your company’s history and how it was founded, and the progress and investments you’ve made along the way. In addition, you should add the following:
- Mission Statement
- Principal Members
- Legal Structure
Summary of the Delivery Services You Provide
In this section, summarize what type of delivery services you provide, such as:
- Medical courier services
- Food delivery
- Legal document delivery
- Same-day delivery
Describe your delivery business by defining:
- What makes it unique
- What benefits your company offers
- Why customers would use your delivery service instead of your competitors
- How do you plan on developing your services
You’ll also need to determine how you’ll charge for your services with a pricing structure.
Market Analysis
Your market analysis section should provide a detailed outline of your market, your position in it, and who your competitors are.
Refer to any market research you’ve done and define who your target audience is. You must figure out whether your business can attract new customers in a growing market, especially against your competitors.
Here are the key factors you should include in your market analysis section when creating a business plan for delivery service:
- The size of your market and any current issues it’s facing
- Who your customer base is and whether they’ll be interested in your delivery services
- How do your competitors work and their marketing strategies
- What are your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses are
In this section, you can also create a SWOT analysis of your business to determine your own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Marketing Strategy
Every company, big or small, needs a marketing strategy. You can combine traditional and digital marketing to drive brand awareness.
Create a compatible website with mobile and desktop devices to build your online presence. Once you’re fully established, you can create accounts on popular social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to expand your customer base.
Furthermore, you should create a Google My Business listing to start local geo-targeted marketing.
We’ve explained the process in detail in our post on how to get delivery contracts.
Your Team’s Skills
Draft the type of skills you’re looking for from management and staff. By defining what skills you require for your delivery service, you can hire quality candidates for the job. You can also structure a strategy for dealing with conflict within your organization so that it doesn’t affect workflow.
Decide how many people you need to run your delivery services and the departments you need to accommodate them. Determine whether you plan to outsource services or only use internal operations for the job.
Once you know the size of your team, you can start thinking about the equipment you need to buy or how many vehicles you should purchase for your delivery business. You can even deliver packages with your car.
Your Business Operations
Be specific about whether you want to rent or purchase a property to set up an office and warehouse. When choosing your property, determine how many competitors are nearby and how this can affect your business.
In this section, you’ll also need to determine who your suppliers will be because you’ll need materials for packaging or rigging.
You’ll also need to factor in quality control and stock control. Lastly, develop a proper crisis management strategy for unforeseen events such as a fire or bad weather.
For example, you could use the Route4Me route planner to plan well-optimized routes. The map route planner considers weather, traffic, roadblocks, avoidance zones, and more constraints that could slow you down.
So you or your drivers will never have to worry about making on-time deliveries.
Financial Planning
Financial planning helps you determine how much capital you need to start your delivery business and how to purchase everything you need on a budget. You can also state money owed if you’ve taken out a business loan. Or how much money you’re seeking from investors.
Include revenues and sales projections to determine how much money you can make in the first year. Operational costs must also be included in your financial planning. Furthermore, incorporate financial forecasting, which should include:
- The amount of money you expect to make from sales
- Cash Flow statements for the first 12 to 18 months
- Profit and loss forecast
- Financial risks you may encounter
Now that you know what’s included in your business plan for your delivery service, it’s time to start drafting your document.
Which Application and Template Should You Use to Write Business Plan?
Before writing your business plan, you must choose an ideal platform for your draft. You can write your delivery business plan on Word or even Google Docs so you can securely share it with multiple people.
You can also use a delivery service business plan template if you don’t want to spend time drafting subheadings.
Presenting Your Delivery Service Business Plan
You may need to present your business plan if you seek investors or a business loan. Here is a short guide on how to present your delivery business plan professionally:
- Include a cover letter. If you’ve printed the business plan out, you should bind it neatly.
- Ensure you use standard fonts such as Calibri or Ariel, and it should be 10 points or above so that the content is easy to read.
- There should be no grammatical errors. Ask an editor to check the first draft for you before sending it to anyone.
- Show the document to experts to see if you need to change or improve on any sections of the business plan.
- Sentences should be written concisely, and you should include graphs and relevant data in your market analysis and financial planning section.
- If you want to email your document, you can create a business plan for delivery service in a pdf format.
A well-documented delivery service business plan will show that you understand your business’s elements and how you’d like operations to function. It will impress investors or anyone you show your document to.
Final Thoughts about Writing a Business Plan for Delivery Service
Now that you know exactly how to structure your delivery service business plan, you won’t leave any essential sections out.
Use this guide to structure a professional business plan that will help you become one of your industry’s top delivery service providers!
Want To See For Yourself How Route4Me Can Make Your Delivery Operations Efficient and Boost Profit?
Whether you want to reduce fuel costs, track your delivery vehicles in real-time, increase the number of stops your drivers can make, or keep your customers satisfied knowing that your drivers show up on time… Route4Me helps you achieve that!
