Where can I find a free finished sample of a business plan?
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- Here are some resources that can help you write your business plan:
- SBA Business Plan Basics http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/pla...
- PowerHomeBiz.com Creating a Business Plan section http://www.powerhomebiz.com/startup/busi...
- Entrepreneur.com Writing a Business Plan section http://www.entrepreneur.com/bizplan/0,72...
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.c...
- MOOT Corp Business Plan competition winners
http://www.businessplans.org/businesspla...
- VFinance - View hundreds of real business plans in pdf format. http://www.vfinance.com/home.asp?bps=1&t...
- Business Owners Toolkit Sample business plans and information on how to create a plan. http://www.toolkit.cch.com/tools/buspln_...
- 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/pla...
- Small Business Advancement Center http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/business_plan/b...
- Sample Business Plan General planning guide created by the Canadian Business Service Center. http://www.cbsc.org/servlet/contentserve...
- 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/b...
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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
- Check out this page on Bplans.com for 60 free sample business plans:
http://www.bplans.com/sp/businessplans.c...
Unfortunately, no sample business plan will work perfectly for your business. After all, your business plan is about your business and you will use it to succeed. You don't want your business plan to read like a template - a plan for someone else's business.
Sample plans are useful as examples, and of course you can build an effective business plan for your business without a sample plan that exactly matches. Even if you found a business plan that was very similar to your company, you would still have a different summary, a different company description, a different list of products, different strategy, different management team, and different financials. A sample plan is useful as an example, not for the information it contains.
Finding a pre-written plan for your business just doesn't happen, and furthermore, it shouldn't happen; it wouldn't be good for any real business situation. The process of developing a plan is far more valuable than just having some pre-written plan you can use instead. You will learn more about your business and have a significantly greater chance of success if you write your own plan.
So don't sweat having an exact match. Find something similar. A computer store can be a valuable example for an auto dealer because it has products and services, and deals with a local market instead of a national market. A bed and breakfast can be a good example for a motel, because both sell rooms for the night, and both have travelers as a market. A retail jewelry store can be a good example for a shoe store, because both depend on location, local markets, and buying things that they sell to their customers. And any sample business plan can give you a good idea of what's in a plan, what's covered, and how it looks.
Finally, you don't have to just trust my opinion on this issue. See what Stever Robbins has to say about this issue at Entrepreneur.com.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,46...