How do i write a business plan?

Question

just had a job interview and need to write one but have no idea of layout and structure, HELP!!!

Answer 1

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
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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

Answer 2

1. Go to college.

2. Graduate with a Baccalaureate Degree.

3. Go to Graduate School.

4. Graduate with a Master's Degree.

5. Write business plan.

Answer 3

There are plenty of examples of how to write a business plan on the internet. Just type in 'examples of business plans' in your search box and you will be surprised to see what it comes up with. Good luck.

Answer 4

If its doing a business plan for the company offering you a job - they should have one that you can modify. If not then
a: worry
b: ask them for a template

Like many thinks there are different version of what a real busines plan is but all the other answers provide you with a good standard basis.

Answer 5

There are predictable contents of a standard business plan. For example, a business plan normally starts with an Executive Summary, which should be concise and interesting. People almost always expect to see sections covering the Company, the Market, the Product, the Management Team, Strategy, Implementation and Financial Analysis.

If you have the main components, the order doesn’t matter that much, but here’s the order I suggest.

1. Executive Summary: Write this last. It’s just a page or two of highlights.

2. Company Description: Legal establishment, history, start-up plans, etc.

3. Product or Service: Describe what you’re selling. Focus on customer benefits.

4. Market Analysis: You need to know your market, customer needs, where they are, how to reach them, etc.

5. Strategy and Implementation: Be specific. Include management responsibilities with dates and budgets. Make sure you can track results.

6. Web Plan Summary: For e-commerce, include discussion of website, development costs, operations, sales and marketing strategies.

7. Management Team: Describe the organization and the key management team members.

8. Financial Analysis: Make sure to include at the very least your projected Profit and Loss and Cash Flow tables.

I don’t recommend developing the plan in the same order you present it as a finished document. For example, although the Executive Summary obviously comes as the first section of a business plan, I recommend writing it after everything else is done. It will appear first, but you write it last.

There are also some business tables and charts that are normally expected in a standard business plan.

Cash flow is the single most important numerical analysis in a plan, and should never be missing. Most plans will also have Sales Forecast and Profit and Loss statements. I believe they should also have separate Personnel listings, projected Balance sheet, projected Business Ratios, and Market Analysis tables.

I also believe that every plan should include bar charts and pie charts to illustrate the numbers.

I also recommend contacting your local SBDC and/or SCORE office. These two organizations are funded by the SBA and provide free business planning advice. You can find your local SCORE here: http://www.score.org/
Your local SBDC can be found here: http://www.bplans.com/sb/

If you're interested, here's an expanded plan outline:

1.0 Executive Summary
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Mission
1.3 Keys to Success
2.0 Company Summary
2.1 Company Ownership
2.2 Company History (for ongoing companies) or Start-up Plan (for new companies).
2.3 Company Locations and Facilities
3.0 Products and Services
3.1 Product and Service Description
3.2 Competitive Comparison
3.3 Sales Literature
3.4 Sourcing and Fulfillment
3.5 Technology
3.6 Future Products and Services
4.0 Market Analysis Summary
4.1 Market Segmentation
4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy
4.2.1 Market Needs
4.2.2 Market Trends
4.2.3 Market Growth
4.3 Industry Analysis
4.3.1 Industry Participants
4.3.2 Distribution Patterns
4.3.3 Competition and Buying Patterns
4.3.4 Main Competitors
5.0 Strategy and Implementation Summary
5.1 Strategy Pyramids
5.2 Value Proposition
5.3 Competitive Edge
5.4 Marketing Strategy
5.4.1 Positioning Statements
5.4.2 Pricing Strategy
5.4.3 Promotion Strategy
5.4.4 Distribution Patterns
5.4.5 Marketing Programs
5.5 Sales Strategy
5.5.1 Sales Forecast
5.5.2 Sales Programs
5.6 Strategic Alliances
5.7 Milestones
6.0 Web Plan Summary
6.1 Website Marketing Strategy
6.2 Development Requirements
7.0 Management Summary
7.1 Organizational Structure
7.2 Management Team
7.3 Management Team Gaps
7.4 Personnel Plan
8.0 Financial Plan
8.1 Important Assumptions
8.2 Key Financial Indicators
8.3 Break-even Analysis
8.4 Projected Profit and Loss
8.5 Projected Cash Flow
8.6 Projected Balance Sheet
8.7 Business Ratios
8.8 Long-term Plan

Answer 6

Do a search on Torrent spy for 'Business plan pro 2006' and download it. You'll need a bit torrent client to download it (i use 'Azureus' from sourceforge.net) but it won't cost you a bean & it's a decent bit of software.
(However, if you get it & it does the job for ya i guess you really ought to buy the software).

Answer 7

you can get on a course at a local college maybe an evening one who will give you all the relevent info you need or why not try approaching a local cab

Answer 8

http://office.mircosoft.com - they have plenty of layouts, just type in "Business Plan" or "Business Outline"

Answer 9

the banks give packs to help you with this ask them

Answer 10

what you do is the following... you take a pen, you take a piece of paper and etc...