Business Plan?

I am thinking of setting up my own business but first I need to draw a business plan. can anyone help?

This is very basic, but I usually start with this format:

The Business Idea
What are you selling?

The Product/ Service
Who are your customers?
Is the market growing?
What makes your product so unique from the competition?
Marketing strategies to expand your marketshare
Packages and pricing

Manpower
What skills are needed to run the business?

Production
What capital, resources and materials are needed for the business?

Targets/ realizable goals

Finance
Where will the money come from to start the business?

SWOT
(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)

After you're through with the business plan, read the book below:

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 DummiesÂ®
- Your First Business Plan : A Simple Question and Answer Format Designed to Help You Write Your Own Plan

Hope that the above resources help

you need to be more specific with your question to get any really useful information

First of all you need to decide what kind of business yours will be.

Ask yourself these questions:
1) Who are you targeting? What audience What consumers? What demographic?

2) Then you need to ask yourself if your business provides a service or a good.

3) Its impossible to help you DRAW up a business PLAN without KNOWING WHAT IT IS.

I suggest after writing down the answers to the questions above (which will formulate your Executive Summary part of your business plan, you look at cost expedentures and profit margins.

you're local business support centre will have examples.

amongst others, include:

customer base
advertising strategy
revenue targets
funding models
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
competitors
value propostion

a business plan should really set the direction of your company for its startup years.

You should talk to your friendly local Business Link - they get government money to help people like you set up businesses. They also have a really good website with loads of practical help for business planning. If I were you I would give them a call.

Yeah, I'm also setting up a business and have started on a business plan. What I did was download a (dodgy) copy of some specialist software to help. I can't remember what it is called as it's not on this computer, but if you go to your (dodgy) software download site and do a search you will find one. It is really good, as it breaks up each section for you and tells you exactly what needs to go in it. Then when you print it it has a contents, index and apandicies, as well as all the graphs and tables you might need. You can upload logo's etc too, so it ends up looking really professional.

Sorry that I couldn't remember the name of the software though!

i don't know too much but i will tell you a business plan is very important and a good one could mean you get the financial backing you need to start. it contains things about yorself, the business you want to set up and why the service or product you are selling is worth investing in. The small business advisor at your bank maybe able to help you or the library.

putting your question in the rightr section might be a good start

after that do a search on existing questions. I have answered this at least 3 times to my knowledge. in fact if you click on my profile and then look at best answers you should find what you are looking for.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment:

Archive: Forum -Forum -Finance - Links - 1 - 2 - RSS - All RSS Feeds
The Causes and the Results. 0.004
Copyright (c) 2011 Financial Crisis Monday, May 28, 2012 - Terms of use - Privacy Policy