A business plan will make or break any fledgling business’ attempts to secure funding. Often at meetings with potential investors, the first item requested for review will be the business plan. Your plan will literally determine if you will secure the needed funding to start your business.
A well written business plan is critical. This being said, many business owners lack confidence in their ability to craft a strong plan by themselves. Hiring a professional writer or business plan creation service may be out of reach for many small companies. Luckily, there is another option. Writing software is an affordable way to get the help that you need to create a stunning plan and secure funding.
Biz plan software is not only affordable, it is effective. Many programs offer a variety of templates that a business owner can use to easily format their business plan. The extensive selection of templates can inspire countless ideas. Once selected, a template serves as an easy to use base for your plan. Simply input your unique information in the areas provided for a perfectly formatted, custom start-up plan.
Of course, filling in the blanks is not an effortless process. It can be difficult to know what information should be included in each section and how this information should be phrased. Business plan software programs are ready to assist. Many programs will offer suggestions, guidance, and tips for completing each section of the plan.
This is not all. A good plan software program will also help business owners with the most important section of the business plan, the financial section. Your financial calculations and projections will help potential business investors realize the potential of your company. Business software will offer easy calculation and compilation of this critical section. A business owner simply needs to obtain the necessary information and input it into the program which will do the rest.
There are a few things to consider as you select the software program that is right for you. One of these elements is the availability of customer service and support. While business plan software makes plan creation much easier, some business owners will encounter questions. A software plan that includes telephone support will help you to quickly get answers to questions immediately. Email support does have its purposes, but phone support will prove to be the quickest and easiest way to get the answers that you need immediately.
Don’t struggle with creating a plan when you don’t have to. Invest in a quality software package today and quickly construct a professional, well-formatted plan. This plan will be your key to capturing investors and obtaining the funding that your business requires for success. These programs will help you to create a quality plan that you can be proud of.
It can be tricky to complete a start-up plan on your own. By selecting and utilizing a quality software package you can eliminate the hassle while producing a more professional end result. Business plan software is not only affordable, it is easy to use.
Writing a Business Plan is Not Something to Delegate
Posted by admin in Small Business Plan
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.
One of the biggest myths of entrepreneurship is that there is a one-size-fits-all structure for writing a business plan. Business plan books and software may provide you with a formalized structure, but it’s up to you to make heads-or-tails of which of those aspects apply to your business. Do you need to fill out all of the details? What if you don’t know the answers or if many sections don’t seem to apply to your business?
Business Planning Fundamentals
If you aren’t looking for investors or funding, consider writing up an informal business plan and modifying it as you go. When you first start out, you will need to do some planning to evaluate whether you have a solid business ideal that will become profitable in the near future. Some of the questions to ask include:
Is there a market for your products and services? Which types of customers and clients are most likely to buy what your company offers? How will you differentiate your company from your competitors? Why should prospects do business with you over all other options out there? How much revenue can you bring in next month, in six months, in a year? What are your startup costs? What are your initial monthly expenses? Do you have or can you get the appropriate resources (money, technology, equipment, expertise) to start your business? Will you need to hire partners, employees, vendors, or contractors to help you? What will their job functions be? Who will be responsible for day-to-day business tasks?
Why You Need a Written Business Plan
If you are starting a sole proprietorship, initially, you will handle everything yourself. It’s up to you to keep track of all the details, deadlines, and financials so your company can thrive, so having a written business plan that includes each of those sections can help you keep everything organized.
If you find yourself saying, “But I’m too busy getting things done to plan,” then it’s time to put some time aside to sit down and create a plan. If you are always putting out day-to-day fires and dealing with emergencies, you can easily lose focus on the big picture – where you want your company to be long-term. A plan will keep you moving in the right direction, help you focus on the most important tasks that make the biggest impact on your business, and get you to your destination much faster.
As your business grows and evolves, things can become more complicated. If you hire employees or need to apply for a business loan, you will need to share your business information with outsiders who don’t know the company as well as you do. At that point, you may find it helpful to create a more formal document that anyone can pick up and understand what your company does and how well it is doing. You will probably need to expand your business plan to include information such as an analysis of the market, industry and your financial projections and descriptions of your company, management team, and operation logistics.
However, don’t fall into the mindset that you need a completed, formal business plan before you start your business. The only time a business plan is complete is when the company is dead. Your business plan should be a living document that grows with you, so start with what you need and build it out as you need it.
Business Plan Service Cost and Process
Posted by admin in Business Plan Help
When starting a business up or expanding a current business the most important thing to have is a business plan which can be a rather large undertaking in itself. With all that you will have to do in regards to setting up or expanding your new business, writing a business plan and then executing a marketing strategy for that business is probably the last thing on your mind. However, having a well written plan is vital in order to do anything financially such as secure loans or have vendors work with you.
A great solution to your dilemma may be for you to hire a business plan service. This will of course come with a cost and there will be a certain process that needs to be followed in order to ensure that the process of your plan being written and what happens afterward goes smoothly.
The overall cost of what you can expect to pay for such services will all depend on how much of the services you utilize. Many business plan services will offer a variety of services for you to choose from. You can choose to have them write your plan only, write our plan and come up with a marketing strategy, and more. Most services will offer a free consultation as well as a free quote so that you know exactly what you are getting into and what you can expect in return for you money.
The process for using a business plan service is typically the same, but can vary between companies. Here is the typical process of a service which usually starts with the actual creation of your plan:
A Business Plan Will Help You Get A Grant
Posted by admin in Business Plan Template
So you want to look into getting grant funding to start you new business do you? Well the first thing you will need is a business plan.
After you have done some research on your new business idea, you will have a better idea of the specifics of the business. Next it is worthwhile to try to articulate all those great ideas on paper, in the form of a business plan.
At this stage it is not a bad idea to carry around a small pad of paper and something to write with everywhere you go, or your favorite high-tech gadget that can record your thoughts. Your ideas will be percolating in your brain even when you are working on other things, and you never know when you will get a good idea, so be ready for it.
A business plan can help you get funding for your business, will explain how you will market your new service or product, and much more. Even before that, however, it can show the new business idea for what it is, in all its glory and warts. Then you can decide if you still want to proceed with it, make some changes to it so that success is more likely, or perhaps try again with another business idea. This paper step can save you a lot of time and frustration when you actually have to go out and provide the new service or begin to manufacture the new product for the first time.
The United States Small Business Administration has a branch called the Office of Small Business Development Centers. These centers can be found in each state, and they offer free or low-cost help with all aspects of starting a new small business, including help with writing a business plan.
A business plan needs to show your methods for running the business. For example, who will be involved in running and working in the business and what expertise they bring to the endeavor. It will show how you plan to sell your product or service, what the product is exactly and what all the steps are that are necessary to manufacture it. Or, in some cases, what specific service will you offer in full detail, and money particulars focusing on what it will cost to bring the product or service to the buying public. Basically, what it will bring in terms of revenue.
Banks and charitable organizations will want to look at your business plan and see if it is a sound investment. A business plan will also offer the entrepreneur peace of mind, because you will have gone through every aspect of the business, and you know how it will work, how much you can make from it, and how much it will cost to start and continue operating. After the business plan is written, you will have a pretty clear idea if your business has a good chance of succeeding or if it won’t work.
I know it seems like a lot of work, but trust me you will be glad you put in the extra effort in the end.