What are usually missing in business plans?
November 16, 2008
Tavern M asked:
What are usually missing in business plans?
What are usually missing in business plans?
I am putting together a business plan, something I’ve never done before, I want it to be as professional of a plan as possible. What should go in the plan, how much detail should the plan have? Any help would be great!
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This could depend on what you want to do with your business plan.
If you want to approach investors, banks, etc., you would need a detailed one to show financial type information.
If you just need a basic business plan aside from that, you wouldn’t really need but just–well a plan! lol
What is your business idea?
What do you need to carry out this idea, start your business?
How do you plan on operating?
What is your plan of action?
Things like that.
Be sure and plan for the ‘now’, but also look ahead about a year as well.
That is a foundation for you to use and go by to keep yourself on track.
Hope that helps!
While each business plan is a bit different (just as companies, products, and services are different), all of them encompass the same major points:
* An explanation of the business concept, including the management, the product, the market, the competition, and the marketing.
* Financial projections
* Revenue sources and amounts and profit projections
* Milestones for tracking and measuring progress
When writing your plan, remember that all readers should be able to grasp the concept quickly. Be aware that not everyone who reads your plan has a thorough understanding of your industry. A well-written executive summary is extremely important, but you should support it with the necessary details.
Finally, graphics and visuals can often help sell an idea, but they should not be overdone. An experienced graphic designer can assist with tasteful graphic insertions, as necessary.
Business Plan Don’ts
Here are some tips on what not to do in drafting your business plan:
* Don’t make unrealistic assumptions.
* Don’t underestimate the difficulties in growing a business.
* Don’t underestimate competitors.
* Don’t assume that the reader knows industry technical jargon.
* Don’t include long, tedious or overly technical information.
* Don’t include highly confidential or proprietary information.
* Don’t avoid discussing the risks to the business. This may detract from the plan’s credibility.
I’m fairly certain SCORE provides tips at no charge or at least at low cost. The working capital site has tips on writing the plan. All business does as well.
As you can see, there are many different ideas on what makes a complete business plan. What we (Palo Alto Software) recommend for a standard outline can be found in the article, How to Write a Business Plan, on our Bplans.com Website (see: ). Bplans.com is a free resource for business owners with information and resources to help you start or grow your business.
Here’s what we suggest for a standard business plan outline:
- Executive Summary: Write this last. It’s just a page or two of highlights.
- Company Description: Legal establishment, history, start-up plans, etc.
- Product or Service: Describe what you’re selling. Focus on customer benefits.
- Market Analysis: You need to know your market, customer needs, where they are, how to reach them, etc.
- Strategy and Implementation: Be specific. Include management responsibilities with dates and budget.
- Management Team: Include backgrounds of key members of the team, personnel strategy, and details.
- Financial Plan: Include profit and loss, cash flow, balance sheet, break-even analysis, assumptions, business ratios, etc.
This covers the basic main components that we recommend and additional information can be added to that. We also have a variety of free sample business plans listed on the site so you can get a good idea of what a finished document could look like (see:http://www.bplans.com/dp/article.cfm/41 ).
The Small Business Administration along with the SBDC and SCORE organizations can also provide you with a lot of help in building a plan, starting your business, etc. You can find their Web site at with tips on writing a plan at:
Here’s the page to find your local SBDC office:
As to what is normally missing in a plan? That’s really hard to say. Tim Berry, our founder and President, recently published the following articles about common mistakes in business planning on our blog ( ):
Good Ventures, Bad Plans:
Top 10 Business Plan Competition Mistakes
Hope this helps,
Sean
Here are some resources that can help you write your business plan:
- SBA Business Plan Basics
- PowerHomeBiz.com Creating a Business Plan section
- Entrepreneur.com Writing a Business Plan section,,00.html
You may also want to review some sample business plans to see how it actually looks like:
- Bplans.com
- MOOT Corp Business Plan competition winners
- VFinance - View hundreds of real business plans in pdf format.
- Business Owners Toolkit Sample business plans and information on how to create a plan.
- PlanWare Planning software and information.
- Virtual Business Plan Walk through the design of a business plan.
-SBA Business Planning Guide
- Small Business Advancement Center
- Sample Business Plan General planning guide created by the Canadian Business Service Center.
- Business Plans Index - A subject guide to sample business plans and profiles for specific business types from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.
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