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.

• For a smaller organization with [probably] a limited budget,
  • The Small Business Administration [SBA] has excellent resources
  • The book and material on which the SBA based its guidelines is available from Amazon.

• With more people and budget, consider collaborating
  • BizPlanBuilder [Jian] 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. And, at $100 Jian could fit nicely into the smaller budget category also. Visit Jian's web site
  • Business Plan Pro [Palo Alto] 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. Visit their web site
  • Plan Write for Business [Business Resources Software] 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. Visit their web site

• 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 [Business Resources Software] 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. Visit their web site

• 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.
  • Australia
  • Canada
  • UK PlanWare
  • UK NFEA

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Business Plan Templatentact Don Schwerzler