why do I need a business plan?

Question

I'm getting ready to start a business and have been told to write a business plan....is it just an outline of a best-case scenario of the business success? HELP!

I will not be pursuing a bank loan.

Answer 1

The business plan is a detailed document that helps you articulate your idea for a business. More importantly, it helps you identify and document some details of the business that you might not have thought of. For instance, you document how much your operating expenses will be monthy. When you add up rent, cell phones, truck rentals, heating, electricity, etc...it comes out to alot. A business plan will help you understand what the true cost of running your business will be. It also helps you think about things like marketing plans, competition, etc..

So, the business plan can be used to help you truely understand what you are getting into. It can also help convey your vision for a business to a banker or potential lender.




You can go to the sba.gov site for templates of business plans.

Answer 2

Definately not best case scenario. If anything, go with worst-case scenario. The business plan is usually a tool the bank will use to determine if your company is worth investing in (if you're getting a loan to start the business up).

The plan should include all functions of the business with a focus on the major revenue streams and expense areas. You should also outline capital requirements at startup. A comparison of the results of similar businesses can be a good addition too.

There are books and software devoted to developing a business plan. I would recommend checking them out.

Answer 3

There are 3 reasons to have a Business Plan:
1) To document the activities designed to make your business prosper.
2) To make your case, during an IRS audit, that you are operating your business with “for profit” intent.
3) To prove that you qualify for all the tax deductions that you claimed.

When you operate a business, it’s “the norm” to develop it using a pre-defined methodology with set income goals and growth metrics — this normally takes the form of a Business Plan. Business plans are decision-making tools.

The Internet is rife with fill-in-the-blank, one-size-fits-all, business plan templates and business plan examples intended to take the work — and thought — out of creating a small business plan. A non-specific business plan template is precisely what you don’t want. Planning your business should be a careful, deliberative process. That’s why my Business Plan layout is available so that you can use it as your starting point; it should stimulate content ideas of your own.

Although a good business plan can’t guarantee success, it greatly reduces the odds of failure! A good business plan also has the advantage of making a home based business credible from an IRS auditor’s point of view.

I have created 3 videos where you can see what I’ve put in my Network Marketing Business Plan. This is much more than a Business Plan outline — you’ll see my Business Plan’s actual content, including my business financials.

Watch those videos here: http://networkmarketingbusinessplan.info

Answer 4

The main purpose of a business plan is to gain funding, sponsors, or monetary support for your business. However, it is very useful as a roadmap for success. If you at least think about where your business is going and how your going to achieve that success you are more likely to succeed. It is the same concept that if you say you can do something or say you can't you will be correct either way. Wishing you the best in your endevors!

Answer 5

a good business plan is like a road map by which you out line your plans, directions and the method by which you are attempting to reach your targets (destination)

it will assist you and everybody involved with your plans in any way shape or form to understand where you are coming from and where you are planning to go with your business and most importantly how to get there from where you are today.

So if you have a destination in mind (what you think the business should look like when you are done with it) then you can reverse design how you are planning to reach your goals.

One of the best books I know on the topic is The "E" Myth by Micheal Gerber. Other sources for creating a good bisuness plan are on line and most of your local small business governament agencies.

Good Luck

Answer 6

There are two reasons. One is that a business plan is a good thing to have to show the bankers and equity investors. The other is that you want to state your expectations on paper today, so that two or three years later you can compare the reality with your expectations and determine whether you exceeded your expectations or came up short.

Some people use business plans for sanity checks. You give a business plan (or a summary) to people whose opinion you respect and listen to their critique of your thinking.

Answer 7

So the bank has an idea you know what you are doing before it gives you money to open a business.

Answer 8

For small companies, a agency plan and a merchandising and marketing plan regularly have thoroughly distinctive objectives. agency plans, jointly as sturdy for any agency, regularly are created to receive outdoors investment from investors. merchandising and marketing plans, on the different hand, are regularly created whilst launching a clean product. agency plans will regularly have a precis of the advice contained interior the merchandising and marketing plan, yet no longer all the small print on imposing the merchandising and marketing plan.

Answer 9

just google Business Plan, it's not 'required' per se...but i think a study showed a very large percentage of businesses without plans failed compared with those who did have them. A business plan covers alot of stuff...to much to list off here.

Answer 10

You won't get ahead
Its hard to succeed
Without any plan at all

If you want your Tulips
to bloom in the Spring
Plant your bulbs in the Fall