Business plans are important because it will tell you exactly where you want your business to go and how you will get there. If it is the first time that you will be making your own business plan template, then it is best to check out several business plan templates. There are even some business plan templates that will be able to help complete yours in only a matter of hours. Just imagine the time that you saved and the time you will be spending on the execution of your business.

The reason why business plans are indispensable when about to embark on a business is because of the fact that it will be able to tell you if your ideas are financially viable or not. It will tell you exactly if it is operational. Most existing business plan templates include budget, start-up costs, cash forecasts, profit and loss, and so many other features that you will need to help you with your business.

We all know that getting into any business is a risk. It is a risk worth taking if you are prepared for it because one thing is for having business plans will give you a greater chance in succeeding than if you do not have any plans at all. So choose a template and start making your plans for your business. Commit to it and your business will commit to you too. That is the start of a wonderful business relationship between you and yourself. You can be sure of that.

In order to be able to have a good business one has to refer to business plan templates. This is important especially if you want one that is complete, in that way, you will not leave anything out especially the important parts. There are different types of templates. There are formats for starting businesses and another one for established businesses. It is also different for each industry. Go to a library and a bookstore and you will find out how many formats there are.

One thing that a business plan will give you is it will help you get your business off the ground. This is true for businesses that are just starting. And one thing that a good template will be able to give you is you will find it easier to make one. You will be comfortable with it because some templates have a step-by-step instruction which will help you a lot. You can even expect suggestions for every part of the template.

Without the business plan template, it might take you a couple of months or maybe even years to make one. But with it, the process will be shorter because you will be guided. It has been suggested that you write it gradually and go through each stage.

Some have skipped making it because it is tedious and it takes a lot of hard work. Do not worry as making business plans will get easier every time plus the fact that there are business plan templates that will make it easier. Think of your business plan as your map to success.

How to write a business plan is among the very first decisions you, as a future business owner must make. Do you write it yourself, or give in to the temptation to take an easier path? By taking ownership of this first, most important step in building your business, you will gain far more than a crisp document to be read by others. You will develop a deep understanding of what it will take for your business to succeed. For this reason, it is essential that the business owner be the primary thought leader or sole author of the business plan. Outside help should be reserved for fine tuning, validation and in some cases to prepare financial projections.

Let it be YOUR Business Plan

As the founder and business owner you will be charting the course for the business. It will be important that the business plan be an extension of your personal vision for the company. For most entrepreneurs, the opportunity to call the shots and lead the way was an important part of why they wanted to get into business. Now is the time to start being a leader. Leaders develop their own plans and call the plays along the way. When it’s not your plan, you relegate yourself to performing as an operator. You will find yourself going back to the business plan someone else wrote to occasionally re-read the directions, or ignoring it altogether. Either way, the value of having a plan has been greatly diminished.

The Value is in the Process

The act of writing a business plan is one of forced discipline, problem solving and reconciling the results. When approached and completed in this manner the end product and the process itself will increase your self-confidence and assuredness about where your business is headed.

Starting with a simple business plan template, and there are lots of them available, force yourself to think through all the critical aspects of the business. This will be an iterative process that you repeat, fine tune and re-write. As you develop each section of your business plan, your thoughts about the other sections will evolve-even those that you’ve already written. You go back, edit and in the end, you make it all work together. That’s the idea. You are developing an understanding of the relationships between every aspect of your business.

To underscore the importance of writing your own business plan, take this little exercise. Read the paragraph below as quickly as you can. Then stop, take a breath and move on to the next one.

Who will my customers be? What problem will I solve for them? How much are they willing to pay to have this problem solved? What are my costs associated with each sale? Why will customers choose to buy from my business? How will I find customers? Who will sell, produce, and deliver? Which markets will I go after first? Why? How much will it cost to operate the business each month? What will my break even point be? How fast can I get there? How much startup capital will I need? How will I succeed?

Okay, slow down now and consider this: The most important question isn’t listed. The most important question is, “How are these factors interrelated?”

Imagine that today someone handed you the answers to all of the questions from our fast-read drill above. It would certainly save you a lot of time. Better still, these wouldn’t be just any answers, but they would be the right answers from a solid business plan for a business that had already been proven to be successful, a business just like the one you’re planning to start. You could read and re-read the answers many times over, practically memorizing them. You would know that they were the right answers. Yet, doing so will not help you develop an understanding of how the answers are interconnected.

If you change the way you plan to find customers, how will that impact your monthly operating costs? If customers are only willing to pay 80% of your planned price, what will that do to your break even point? How will the answers to these two questions impact how much capital you need to start the business? This example looks at just two questions. Realistically, the answer to each question is highly dependent on the answers to several of the other questions. In the end they must all work together and you must understand how they all work together.

If you develop your own business plan, section by section, thinking through all of the answers to the critical questions, you will also develop an intuitive sense of how they work together. It will require a lot of thinking and rethinking of your ideas and it will take time. This is not meant to be a fast drill. In the end, it will be the difference between memorizing the lines and actually being the character. Small business ownership is not the place to be reciting someone else’s lines. You are the character. Write your own lines. Be the leader.

When to Bend the Guidelines

There are some times to reach outside for help. For example, perhaps you would say, “I’m not a numbers person; I don’t think I can do the financial projections.”

First, plan to become more of a numbers person because business ownership is about numbers. Sales, expenses and profits are the three that are most important. Even so, many business operators who have a good feel for the numbers need assistance with spreadsheets and financial statements. It is okay to get outside help preparing your financials, just be sure that you understand them when they are complete. If you are going to pay someone to prepare them, be sure that they also save time to go over them with you from top to bottom. Ultimately they are your numbers.

Others might say, “I have great ideas, but I’m not a great writer.” It’s understood that there can be a lot riding on someone else reading the final product of your business plan-such as a loan or an investment decision. For that reason, if you are not a strong writer you should start by going through the process of organizing, writing and rewriting your own business plan as best you can. Force yourself to go through all of the steps of writing, rethinking and rewriting as your ideas evolve. Then, have someone else take your finished draft and craft the final polished document. What is important is that the final document must accurately reflect your concepts, ideas and thought process, not the editors.

What if I Just Can’t Do It?

Finally, some would say, “I want to start my own business. I am a strong operator, but honestly, I don’t think I could write a business plan myself. What do you suggest?” Simple: Buy a franchise! They are perfect for people who are strong operators where someone else provides the strategic plan, the systems and some guidance. This might be the best ownership model for you. That’s a topic for another day.

If you are starting a business you must start with a plan. If you don’t, you will probably run into stumbling blocks pretty quickly. A business plan will help you plan for the future whether it is in two weeks, two months or two years.

A plan will help you establish things like the business location, how many employees you expect to have, how many things you need to sell before you break even, how much profit you expect to make and what your target market looks like. These things are all important when establishing a business plan.

You should use a simple business plan template to save time and money. You can get hold of a template online pretty easily and there are plenty of places where you can buy professional plans that will form the basis of your plan.

If you do not set up a plan you are likely to find that your business will have little direction. One of the most important things in business is to have a direction and this means finding the right direction to head in and then going for it. A plan will force you to think about things like this and enable you to look to the future.

A business without a plan is like a bus without a driver. You need to be able to point your business in the right direction and having a good simple plan will do this for you. Take the time today and create a plan from a template and save yourself headaches down the track.

Using a business plan template is a great way to get yourself started on a business plan. The first thing to do is make sure you have a template that is specific for your business. You don’t need an exact match but you do want a broad category match.

For example, a restaurant plan is fine for a coffee shop- there really isn’t anything specific or different about a coffee shop that would make a coffee shop business plan different than the one you would use for a restaurant. Once you have the template then you simply start filling in the sections one at a time until you are done.

If you aren’t a great writer or you are unsure of your plans then start with the easiest sections to do first such as the management section which simply details your own experience and that of any partners or cofounders you may have.

Next you can work on sections like the business information section which just talks about what kind of business structure you will use and where the business will be located. The heart of the plan covers three main areas that need to be addressed sooner or later in order to build a legitimate and solid plan for a new business:

o What unique edge or competitive advantage the business will have that will draw customers and make the business viable
o Who the customers are and what they are going to be shopping for in considering this business
o How you will reach those customers in order to get them to buy from you instead of wherever they are going now