A logistics business plan can be used for start-up logistics companies or company in-house logistics teams. The business plan should cover all aspects that involve the movement of products but should be kept simple enough to be easily understood. The business plan also serves as a roadmap, a guide for the company on how to go about achieving operational, marketing, and financial goals. There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to formatting a business plan. A logistics business plan should be flexible enough to cover both the company and customer requirements. Here are the following elements that are commonly included in a logistics business plan. 1. Executive Summary The executive summary provides a brief overview of the logistics group or company, its goals and objectives, and a summary of steps on how to go about achieving those goals. It also provides detail on logistics and distribution services being offered by the company. The executive summary should be drafted that ultimately grabs the reader’s interest and makes them want to go through the whole plan. Executive summaries often contain the mission and vision statement. A logistics business plan mission statement contains the purpose of the whole plan. It captures the whole culture and values of the company. United Parcel Service, an American multinational logistics company, has a good example of a mission statement.The mission statement goes: “What We Seek to Achieve: Grow our global business by serving the logistics needs of customers, offering excellence and value in all that we do. Maintain a financially strong company-with broad employee ownership-that provides a long-term competitive return to our shareowners.” A vision statement describes what the company hopes to achieve, typically in a given timeframe. It sets the tone of urgency for the business, ultimately inspiring and motivating employees to consistently work towards accomplishing the company’s goals. Reliance Logistics Group, another world-renowned logistics company, has a strong vision statement. The first few lines of their vision statement go: “Our aim is to act as an indispensable partner to our clients by helping them build and maximize sustainable competitive advantages. We do this by helping them get their products to market quickly, efficiently, and safely.” 2. Market Analysis The market analysis in a logistics business plan checks the market’s condition if there’s a current demand or need in the market, as well as existing competition profiles. This analysis will provide the basis for coming up with a marketing strategy. It also looks at the market size, current trends, forecasting or market outlook, and including the target market. Looking at the target market meant classifying the target customers according to demographics. On a regular business plan, customers are typically classified according to age, gender, income, lifestyle, location, culture, affiliations, and so on. In a logistics business plan, location is given the utmost importance. Another way of doing market analysis is by SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis is the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that could affect the logistics business.Strength is all about the features of the company that make it stand out and/or succeed. Strengths of a logistics company could be having an existing, diversified customer portfolio, expertise in logistics, expertise in inventory and warehousing management, and/or acquisition or increased presence of the logistic company in strategic locations. Weaknesses are those factors limiting the success of the logistics company. Weaknesses could be labor-intensive or lack of the latest technology software, poor customer profiling, or lack of presence in significant media channels. Opportunities are those features or aspects that the company can leverage to achieve a successful business. Opportunities in logistics could be building more field offices and storage facilities to broaden customer reach, using social media or social networking platforms to increase presence in the market, and/or availing the latest software technology to apply to the inventory and warehouse management process. Threats are those factors that could potentially harm the logistics business. It could be in the form of the increasing presence of logistics competitors and/or extreme weather conditions. 3. Marketing Strategy A marketing strategy deals with how the logistics company plans to win over the market. It also includes marketing and advertising campaigns to increase the company's presence in the market. A marketing strategy should always be anchored on the business plan’s goals, objectives, including the mission and vision statement. It should also be well-defined, bound to a timeline, and should have a budget allocated. One example of a logistics marketing strategy is increasing the presence of the business online or through social media and social networking sites. Online presence could be creating the logistics company website, blogging or vlogging, and/ or utilizing search engine optimization to rank the logistics company at the top of any logistics online search.It could also be through pay-per-click online marketing, where website users are led to the company’s website upon clicking on their ads. Another marketing strategy could be increasing the presence of field offices that would make it more accessible for customers to drop off or pick up their items. Having value-added services is another marketing strategy. A value-added service in logistics could be the company picking up items to be delivered directly from customers’ homes, instead of the customers coming to their office to drop off their delivery, making it convenient and time-saving for them. Another strategy is having a good customer service group that is trained to effectively address, solve, and assist the customers with whatever logistic concerns they have. 4. Financial Planning Financial planning in a business plan is all about the financial information and financial projections of the logistics company. It includes the financial statement and balance sheet, with details on the budget or capital versus the operation costs and expenses. The financial planning section is important, especially for new start-up logistics companies. This part is usually significant for potential investors, as investors would like to check and see how feasible the current financial situation of the company is and if the financial projections are measurable.