How do I write a business plan that will help me in financing?
please let me know in details , thanks!
User Comments
- see the web
- A business plan just helps your business get more organized.
- Farrah Gray, author of Reallionaire, gives his advice on the first steps to creating your own business:
http://coaches.aol.com/money/farrah-gray...
Learn from a man who began making his millions at age 12!
- A lot of factors go into writing a business plan, I had worked on mine for 2 months before seeking professional help. I paid www.fundingdocuments.com $300 and recommend them highly. You can also check out Barnes and Nobles bookstore, I bought a bunch of books there first on how to write a business plan, but as I said gave up, the financial projections and cash flow charts, too complex for me. :)
- As others have said, there are lots of resources for writing a business plan. Your local Small Business Development Center or SCORE chapter can help you get started on writing a business plan.
As someone who has worked with many entrepreneurs over the years, I can say that there are many different ideas on what makes a complete business plan. What we recommend for a standard outline can be found in the article, How to Write a Business Plan, on our Bplans.com Website (see: http://bplans.com/dp/). Bplans.com is a free resource for business owners with information and resources to help you start or grow your business.
Here's what we suggest for a standard business plan outline:
- Executive Summary: Write this last. It's just a page or two of highlights.
- Company Description: Legal establishment, history, start-up plans, etc.
- Product or Service: Describe what you're selling. Focus on customer benefits.
- Market Analysis: You need to know your market, customer needs, where they are, how to reach them, etc.
- Strategy and Implementation: Be specific. Include management responsibilities with dates and budget.
- Management Team: Include backgrounds of key members of the team, personnel strategy, and details.
- Financial Plan: Include profit and loss, cash flow, balance sheet, break-even analysis, assumptions, business ratios, etc.
This covers the basic main components that we recommend and additional information can be added to that. We also have a variety of free sample business plans listed on the site so you can get a good idea of what a finished document could look like (see:http://bplans.com/sp/businessplans.cfm)....
The Small Business Administration along with the SBDC and SCORE organizations can also provide you with a lot of help in building a plan, starting your business, etc. You can find their Web site at http://sba.gov with tips on writing a plan at:
http://sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/plan...
Here's the page to find your local SBDC office:
http://www.sba.gov/sd/index.html...
Hope this helps,
Sean
- First of all finance companies want to know everything. If this is your question then you need to spell it our for them.
If you are looking for a business plan to help you track your financing then I suggest learning Excel or another spreadsheet program. In the beginning this process is much more difficult to learn but worth it compared to the ready made financial programs on the market.
Create detailed categories and be very creative in designing so you can monitor accounts payable, accounts receivable, labor costs, inventory, profit/lost percentages, growth analysis and projected success/failure.
When creating your business managing calculator be sure it allows you to record transactions for tax purposed. You will be glad you did............every year.
- There is no secret or special way. Just a matter of putting on paper what you expect the company to do, how it will do each year from 1 to 3 or even 5. State how you plan on growing the biz each year, what methods (new products, expansion of customers, services, etc).
Show what you believe sales will be, what costs will be and what bottom line profit will be.
This is not set in stone nor do you have to follow this. It is good to have a business plan that yo u can follow or least refer back to from time to time.
But the plan is mainly to explain what your biz is, how it operates, what costs are involved, etc so the bank knows if its worthy or not to loan you the money.
My last biz plan for a 75k loan was 1 page where my first one was 5 pages.
- According to the book “The ABC's of Writing Winning Business Plans: How to Prepare a Business Plan That Others Will Want to Read -- and Invest In” http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0... by Garrett Sutton, below are some tips to make a winning business plan that can get funding:
- Money follows management. Investors look first at the people involved in the company. If you are just starting out and don’t have relevant experience, investors expect to see that you have an experienced team of advisors and employees helping you in the business.
- Make sure you “sell” the one reason your business will become profitable.
- State clearly the strategies you will employ to get the word out about your business. Your business plan must show how you will leverage the Internet, public relations, viral marketing, and other strategies to attract customers.
- Present realistic estimates of the time, energy and costs of building a successful business. Do not underestimate or overestimate revenues. While investors know your numbers are simply guesses, they want to see that your numbers are within the “range of reality.” Be careful of your financial statements: this is one area where you can easily lose credibility if presented poorly.
- Benchmark similar companies to show that you’ve done your homework and researched the market.
- Your Executive Summary is your calling card. If it is not a winner, investors may not even read your entire plan. Emphasize your own as well as your team’s track record in the Executive Summary.
- Before sending your business plan to lenders and investors, send it out first to a few in order to get feedback. You’d want to correct your plan if someone tells you that you’re way off mark, rather than have a potential investor tell it to you and lose the chance to get the funding you need.
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...
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