How Should You Write
Your Business Plan?

This question reflects the difficulty that many of you feel when you start to write your business plan . But we have some good news here. Treat it like a project and break it down into several smaller components, each with a start and end time and who is responsible if you are delegating parts of the project.

At the outset, don't worry about "writing style" or grammar... just focus on getting something down on paper. And if you aren't sure whether to write something or not, write it. You will take care of content and focus and style when you edit. And you can get help with editing.

As for sequence - that is not terribly important - with maybe one exception: the Executive Summary will probably be the first content page of the final report. But you will write it LAST - after all, it is the summary of what is in the report so it doesn't make sense to write it until the rest is in place.

And our other good news about writing your business plan is that there are lots of tools to help and make the job easier. We could build a whole site just about business plan [some folks have!] but our approach to helping you will be to show you a small sample and let you know how each can help you. That way, you can zero in on the type of help that suits your approach and style to this project.

The Small Business Administration [SBA] has excellent resources about starting a business, including information on writing a business plan.

BizPlanBuilder

Helps you create your business plan quickly by organizing your thoughts into carefully scripted text-headlines, sentences, paragraphs, tables and lists. Has great spread sheet templates for the financial projections. Includes resources and not just blanks to fill in. Includes manual with 65 creative ways to finance your business.

Business Plan Pro

One of the most popular business plan software packages. Business Plan Pro is wizard driven and interactive, helping you to complete your plan in 7 steps. Cut and paste from sample text, or write your own. Single click assembly and printing features integrate all your text and charts.

Plan Write for Business

steps you through the business plan creation process with explanations for each business concept. Financial projections are automatically generated with cash flows, balance sheets, and a complete set of financial ratios. Easily evaluate "What ifs" on key financial variables to modify and examine the effect of variables such as earlier or larger loans, a smaller inventory, or extended accounts payable.

For a more elaborate "suite" of planning tools where you need specialized plans for individual components of your overall business plan , this package offers an Expert approach to guide you...

Plan Write Expert Edition

Is the only business plan software that can evaluate your business plan. It includes all of the benefits and features of the top rated Plan Write for Business plus the expert analysis.

For a larger organization [and certainly larger budget!] get help from specialized firms to prepare your business plan

For those who like a flavor that is "closer to home", especially since the US and Canada accounting formats are different than those in the UK/International, we offer a small international selection. We would be pleased to receive suggestions of packages that have wide popularity in other countries:

Chaos Busters - The Management Guide Identifies 160 Key Business Questions 160 Key Business Questions will stimulate creativity and innovation for your entire management team! 160 Key Business Questions are the keys to unlock the hidden potential of your organization! 160 Key Business Questions will save you time and make your work more effective! 160 Key Business Questions is a Multi-purpose tool with unlimited applications! http://www.family-business-experts.com/chaos-busters.html

How Well Organized is YOUR Organization? Your Business Will Succeed... If... You have The Roadmap for Success That's What The Practitioner's Guide for Organizing an Organization Is All About PGOO shows how to identify the most pressing problems to solve PGOO introduces the ODS-OL (Organizational Diagnostic Survey –Online) - an electronic assessment tool that is highly effective, easy to use, systematic and data-based PGOO explains how to produce a better-organized organization http://www.family-business-experts.com/PGOO.html

FREE TRIAL for “MISSION EXPERT” World’s Most Popular Mission Statement Software Mission Expert Software Makes It Easy Clear and simple structure Easy-to-follow process Prompts you for input as required High impact with no learning curve Mission Finder search tool helps you find sample mission statements from the Internet ... and much more!

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