Page 48 - Business Plans that Work A Guide for Small Business

Before You Start Planning, Ask the Right Questions • 39

Week
Task 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Location Analysis X ----------- -- X
Company X ------ -- X
Competition X ----- -- X
Product X ------- -- X
Marketing X ------- -- X
Operations X ------- -- X
Development X ------- -- X
Team X ------------------ -- X
Critical Risks X ------------------ -- X
Offering X ------------------ -- X
Financial Plan
Appendices X ------------------------- -- X

Step 4: A Framework to Develop and Write a Business Plan

While preparing your own plan, you will most likely want to consider sections in a
different order from the one presented in this book. Also, when you integrate your
sections into your final plan, you may choose to present material somewhat differ-
ently. The key is to make it your plan

Some Business Plan Basics: A Process

Business planning takes time and effort. You can expect to spend 200
hours creating your first draft. That is time well spent, not because it will
insure that you raise the necessary capital, but because the process will
help you answer the critical questions necessary to identify the oppor-
tunity and to reshape it so that it is a better opportunity. Remember,
business planning is a means to an end, not the end result. The actual
document will be obsolete the moment it comes out of the printer. Like
all battle plans, it needs modification once the shooting starts.
There is a common misperception that a business plan is primarily
used for raising capital. Although a good business plan assists in rais-
ing capital, the primary purpose of the process is to help entrepreneurs
gain deep understanding of the opportunity they are envisioning. Business
planning tests the feasibility of an idea. It is a dynamic process, like solv-
ing a jigsaw puzzle. Once you start filling in the blanks, you start seeing
the real picture. Is it truly an opportunity? Many a would-be entrepreneur
doggedly pursues ideas that are not opportunities, and the time invested
in business planning would save thousands of dollars and hours spent
on such “wild goose chases.” For example, if a person makes $100,000