Business plans

[steve at cyberianhamster.com (Steve)]

On Wed, 2003-07-09 at 05:43, Jack Coats wrote:
> All the business plan software I have seen dones is help you fill out
> their form for a business plan, with a few small worksheets to help
> calculate cash flow, etc.
> 
> IMHO, after wasting some money on one, I would not recommend the programs
> unless you don't want to read.  The effort to make a good business plan
> is about the same, and your local library probably has several reasonable
> books

I agree with Jack.

Writing a business plan is basically just two parts.

1) Description of what you want to do, where you want to do it, who will
help you, when, how, why, etc.

2) The numbers to back this up.

For #1, you don't need special business plan software. If you need help
in what goes in a business plan or factors you need to think about,
there are plenty of websites and books to help you with that. You don't
have to look further than MIT for a business plan outline.

http://50k.mit.edu/entrant/resources.php

#2 is trickier. You will need some sort of operational and financial
model to show you understand how your business will work and what it
means financially. Ideally, you use a spreadsheet and generate it from
scratch. It forces you to think through how your business will run and
what the financial impact will be.

If you don't know how to do these things, you can learn from various
finance or accounting books. Business plan software might be able to
help you with various templates. Depends on the nature of your business.

Steve