Page 8 - Business Plans that Work A Guide for Small Business

Preface

We have worked with over a thousand students of entrepreneurship,
invested in a score of companies, and created a dozen start-ups. We’ve
worked in, consulted for, and advised businesses across several continents
and innumerable industries. Our experiences have brought us a special
appreciation of the value of business planning.
Some people will argue that writing a business plan is time consum-
ing and obsolete the minute it emerges from the printer. They miss the
point. The process of creating the plan is very important. The business
plan isn’t just a tool to raise capital; it is a process that helps entrepreneurs
gain deep knowledge about their ideas. The discipline that the planning
process provides helps you assess the nature of the opportunity and cre-
ates a greater ability to shape a business model to exploit it.
Will your business model change once you start the business? Prob-
ably. Going through the business planning process will result in modifi-
cations even before you launch the business. But, we guarantee that the
act of business planning will save you countless hours and sums of money
in false starts simply because it will help you anticipate the resources
required and the pitfalls that may arise. Even though business planning
can’t help you anticipate every potential problem, the deep learning will
more than offset the cost of writing the plan.

Book Design

This book will illustrate a proven and innovative approach to writing a
business plan. Each chapter will introduce different components of the
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