Teach Yourself How To Write a Business Plan
In response to my previous article asking should I go to business school I’ve jumped full force into researching what it takes to start a legitimate business in the eyes of investors. True, if you’re making money hand over fist who cares if you have a well defined structure.
But if you want to truly learn about business and how they function and also learn a lot about the market you’re trying to corner, a business plan can be invaluable. So why the heck haven’t I written on for the 4 business ideas I’m currently involved in? Laziness.
Business plans take time. Even though I feel I have a good grasp of what I’m doing or want to do, I feel a business plan would rocket me way ahead of where I am right now. Not just cause you have this document but because of the steps it take you to create the document. The research it brings you into to make the document.
So with that, I’ve begun a little bit of research myself and have found several resources that I think would interest a lot of you internet entrepreneurs out there.
For starters here are the main things a solid business plan consists of:
1. Executive Summary - It’s the general overview of the business you are planning to run and the history of it and it’s founders and main employees.
2. Market Analysis - You gotta know if you can make money in the market before you can ask others to invest in your business (that includes bank loans)
3. Company Description - How your business jives and why you think doing one thing will help the others
4. Organization & Management - Who are the key players in your business and how are you going to organize the flow of work
5. Marketing & Sales Management - Who and How are you going to get your product in front of people and who’s gonna sell it?
6. Service or Product Line - What are you selling or offering and why is it better than whats out there?
7. Funding Request - How much money do you need and why?
8. Financials - Where are your financials right now and should you be trusted with money?
9. Appendix - All the nitty gritty details of the numbers listed above.
You can find out info about this outline and tons more at:
SBA .gov How to Write a Business Plan - Obviously a resource on how to write a business plan
Sample Business Plans for Internet Related - Lot’s of plans deal with restaurants, these deal with applicable plans to my readers.
Hundreds of Business Plan Examples - Huge resource of example plans
Online Startup School - Some good free resources especially the 101 tips .pdf file
A List Apart Small Business Advice - Mainly geared at freelance designers but good info for all.
Hope these links keep you all busy for a while. They are definitely keeping me busy.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Guy Kawasaki has a lot of good tips for people trying to woo investor money. He speaks from the investor side and with his kind of background, people should listen to what he has to say.
Check out his blog at blog.guykawasaki.com
April 18th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
It’s important that we should indentify the risks involved in business before trying it. It may be simple if we look only on the positive side, but we will have a better view if we consider everything, especially unexpected things.
Great post. Keep it up.
April 19th, 2007 at 12:54 am
Thanks for all good tips. I swing buy Guy’s blog every once in a while. Haven’t been there too much over the past few months though.
It’s definitely good to have a plan before you get into things not only to identify the risks but also to have a direction and a plan to get back to if you stray from the plan ever.
I’ll be working through these steps over the next few weeks and share what I learn about building a business plan.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Great tips. They sure are very helpful. I guess that the first question we need to ask ourself is if we can afford the business we are planning to start or not. If not, will there be alternatives for a loan?
May 16th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
[...] lot of people, and I’m guilty as well, are jumping into the internet without a business plan in mind. They go in and even though they may claim to be an entrepreneur for sake of building clout [...]
February 14th, 2008 at 8:27 am
I am trying to teach business plan. I am a Entrepreneur teacher in our Marketing Dept. should I pick a company for them to do a business plan on? Should this already be a busienss? How do they start a new business and find all the informationt they need to do this plan?
Having trouble.
Elissa