Business Plan Outline Example
business plan outline example
Writing a Business Plan is Not Something to Delegate
Writing a Business Plan is Not Something to Delegate
Among the very first decisions you, as a future business owner must make is whether to write your own business plan, or turn that over to someone else. 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’ll 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 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 fast as you possibly 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 breakeven 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 breakeven 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. It’s not 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
- 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.
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.
About the Author
Jim DeLapa is the founder of GreatBusinessPlans.com, a leading provider of small business plan assistance for current and future small business owners. DeLapa has launched and invested in numerous successful startups and played an active role in nurturing two of those from inception through being acquired by publicly traded firms.
i need a link to a market plan and business plan outline and references?
im making a business plan for school and i’d like samples or examples for help and ideas. I haven’t got much done and i need a lot. i will not plagerize.
For marketing plans, go to MPlans.com http://www.mplans.com – the site has sample marketing plans and a lot of articles on how to write one
Here are some resources that can help you write your business plan:
- SBA Business Plan Basics http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/planning/basic.html
- PowerHomeBiz.com Creating a Business Plan section http://www.powerhomebiz.com/startup/businessplan.htm
- Entrepreneur.com Writing a Business Plan section http://www.entrepreneur.com/bizplan/0,7253,,00.html
You may also want to review some sample business plans to see how it actually looks like:
- Bplans.com http://www.bplans.com/sp/businessplans.cfm
- MOOT Corp Business Plan competition winners
http://www.businessplans.org/businessplans.html
- VFinance – View hundreds of real business plans in pdf format. http://www.vfinance.com/home.asp?bps=1&ToolPage=bps_main.asp
- Business Owners Toolkit Sample business plans and information on how to create a plan. http://www.toolkit.cch.com/tools/buspln_m.asp
- PlanWare Planning software and information. http://www.planware.org/
- Virtual Business Plan Walk through the design of a business plan. http://www.bizplanit.com/vplan.html
-SBA business planning Guide http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/planning/basic.html
- Small Business Advancement Center http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/business_plan/businessPlan.pdf
- sample business plan General planning guide created by the Canadian Business Service Center. http://www.cbsc.org/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=CBSC_FE/display&c=GuideFactSheet&cid
- Business Plans Index – A subject guide to sample business plans and profiles for specific business types from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. http://216.183.184.20/subject/business/bplansindex.html
Some recommended books are :
- Business Plans Kit for Dummies
- The Complete Book of Business Plans : Simple Steps to Writing a Powerful Business Plan
- writing business plans That Get Results : A Step-By-Step Guide
- Business Plans For Dummies®
- Your First Business Plan : A Simple Question and Answer Format Designed to Help You Write Your Own Plan
Hope that the above resources help
|
|
The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels $15.90 GREAT CONDITION, WILL SHIP FAST!… |
|
|
Real Estate Prospecting: The Ultimate Resource Guide $11.96 In the Real Estate Industry, as in most sales professions, prospecting is a dirty word. Far too many people enter the field of Real Estate believing they can wait fo the phone to ring and earn a great living. Unfortunately, many new agents set themselves up for failure by this approach to business.A real estate professional’s goal is to list and sell real estate. One of the primary keys to b… |
|
|
The Nonfiction BOOK/INFO-PRODUCT BLUEPRINT Formula — How To Write Highly-Effective and Original Outlines For Books, Reports and ANY Other Information Product – FAST $7.77 The Info-Product Blueprint Formula Helps You Create Quality Books, eBooks, Special Reports, Courses & More — FASTER & EASIER.Anyone can put words on a page. And if you do it often enough… and build up your word count… you can eventually fill a book. But will your words come together?Will the words flow easily so readers can make sense of your message?Will you provide the right information and… |
|
|
Business Plan Development: Example of a University Spin Off Company Marketing Plug-in Hybrid Technology $62.4 No Synopsis Available |
|
|
Open Floor Plan Business $19.99 Open Floor Plan Business – Premium Poster |
|
|
Business Stats by Example $76.18 No Synopsis Available |
|
|
Business Statistics by Example $88.4 No Synopsis Available |
|
|
The Business Guide: An Outline of Business $38.93 No Synopsis Available |
|
|
The Business Plan $47.45 This book is in New – Excellent condition |
|
|
BUSINESS PLAN PRO 15TH ANNIVERSARY EDIT $65.99 BUSINESS PLAN PRO 15TH ANNIVERSARY EDIT |
|
|
Greenknowe Tower, 1581. Fine Example of Tower House on a L Plan, Gordon, Berwickshire, Scotland, UK $24.99 Patrick Dieudonne Greenknowe Tower, 1581. Fine Example of Tower House on a L Plan, Gordon, Berwickshire, Scotland, UK – Photographic Print |
|
|
Business Documents : Business Plan $8.89 No Synopsis Available |
|
|
Schaum’s Outline of Business Statistics $2 No Synopsis Available |
|
|
Understanding Business (Outline only) $32.13 No Synopsis Available |
|
|
A Business Plan: Build a Great Plan for the Growing Business $46.31 No Synopsis Available |
|
|
Speech Outline: Outline to Plan, Organize and Deliver A Speech, by Hanson, Activities and Exercises $1.95 This book is in Good Used condition |
|
|
Small Business : An Entrepreneur’s Business Plan $158.61 No Synopsis Available |
|
|
Business Plan for the Small Business, by Dupree $1.95 This book is in Used condition |
|
|
Small Business: An Entrepreneur’s Business Plan $20 No Synopsis Available |
|
|
Business Plan Booklet – Introduction To Business $16.58 No Synopsis Available |
|
|
Package:Business Plan-Introduction To Business $1 No Synopsis Available |
|
|
BUSINESS & BUSINESS PLAN PRO PKG $145.99 No Synopsis Available |
