People Who Write Business Plans

Do they grasp the key issues involved with your business? Great employees will appreciate how you’ve taken the time to assess your place in the market — as will lenders and investors when you need to raise money. You understand the benefits of having a business plan and you’re committed to writing one. Some elements belong in each one, and we’ll explain each of those below, but your presentation might be completely different.

Most importantly, think about who the audience is and what the goals are for the plan.

The supportive environment can make it difficult to anticipate real-world bumps and business realities.

Doing the actual math while putting your plan together will help you see whether your idea is truly sustainable or needs some work.

It’s a great way to lay out your concept or have basic information to show to potential partners or investors. A miniplan isn’t a substitute for a longer, full-length document.

If it’s for your own personal use, this might suffice.Whether you’re thinking about starting a business or looking for financing to expand one you’re already running, you’ll find writing a business plan beneficial, if not essential.Many lenders won’t give you money unless they know you have a well-thought out strategy for where you’re going and how you’ll get there.Certainly, if you’re going to try to get money from a bank, a government-backed lender, a venture capitalist, or a community development financial institution (CDFI), you will need a formal business plan.Over the next few weeks we’re going to teach you how to write the perfect business plan-discussing why you should have one, the different types of business plans you can develop, and what goes into each section.Most business plans will take one of the following shapes: Miniplan – As its name suggests, a miniplan isn’t a lengthy document.It can be as short as two to 10 pages, as long as it covers your concept for the business, how you’ll finance and market it, and financial information such as operating expenses, cash flow, income projections and a balance sheet.You’ll want it chock full of details about your finances and objectives, but you can leave out the parts that would mostly be necessary for outsiders, like resumes of key executives and photos of products or prototypes.Your final presentation can also be a bit less fancy.Before we get into the how-to, let’s take a deeper look into what writing a plan will do for you.The first clue comes right in the description of what a business plan is: a roadmap for your business that outlines your goals and spells out how you aim to achieve them.