Successful Business Plan – Simple Techniques for Writing Your Own

The very first business plan I ever wrote wasdescriptive adjectives. I wanted to grab the reader's
praised by the Small Business Development Centerattention and see why I was so excited about this
counselors and loan officers and immediatelybusiness. I especially took great care to write the
accepted and forwarded to the local SBAExecutive Summary as a brief, but stimulating and
representative for approval. And no, I didn't useprovocative attention grabber. (It is extremely
canned software.When I realized a business planimportant to hook the reader from the get go so
would be needed for my small business startup Ithey continue on with the rest of the plan.)The
scoured the Internet and read books and was sofinancial statements were just as easy to tackle. The
intimidated by all the required financial reports I put itfirst thing to do was the assumptions. To do that I
aside for two years. But I knew a business plan wassimply took the selling price of my service (or
going to be a necessity if I was going to get seriousproduct) and determined how much I would make in
about my business idea.It took me only three weekssales per day, week, month and year. That basic
from beginning to end and was about 15 pages long.information was the basis for the remaining financial
And it contained every single required report. How didreports.For example, the Cash Flow Statement is
I do it? I scoured the Internet for information. I didsimply a detailed "budget". You take your monthly
searches on business plans and compared severalsales assumptions and add any other incoming "cash"
outlines against what was recommended at the(loan dollars for example) and subtract your
SBA's (Small Business Administration) web site. Whatexpenses. Carry over any extra (or loss) to the next
I quickly discovered was that there was onemonth until you have populated the statement for 12
generally acceptable format that contained verymonths. Voila! Another section completed.Three
specific essay and financial reports.At first glance itweeks from start to finish.When it was completed I
looked so daunting. But I was so tired of thetook it to the local SBDC office (usually housed in
corporate grind and I wanted so much to have mycommunity colleges) for their review and advice.
own business that I pressed forward. I took it oneThey were floored that I had completed it myself
step at a time.One of the required items was thewithout software. And better yet, they loved it so
business description. Within that section was to be amuch they said it was good to go. They suggested
description of the competition. Easy. The reason Ilocal banks that were favorable to start ups and off
knew my idea was a winner was because there wasI went.The loan officer was equally as impressed. She
very little competition in the immediate andsaid that she normally did a quick glance and rarely
surrounding area. I simply did a short write upread entire plans, but was so captivated by the
describing those businesses and added a quickopening Executive Summary that she asked me to
comparison showing how my idea differed from andwait while she finished reading. She immediately
improved upon those existing businesses.That wasn'tagreed to forward it to the SBA representative for
so hard. Maybe I can do this. With newfoundapproval. That was an exciting moment indeed!Why
confidence I forged ahead to the next section.didn't I just use a template or ask the SBDC or
Marketing. More specifically defining my targetSCORE folks to do it for me? Because it was my
market. Who was my customer? I was going afterbaby. I was going to ask for funding from a bank
the wedding industry's customer base. So I hoppedand I felt that I needed to be aware of every
on the Internet and went to the census bureau's siteminute detail of the plan. This way I could, with full
and did a search for marriage statistics in my state.confidence, defend the data should questions arise. I
From that I was able to determine how many peoplealso reasoned that if I couldn't get this one item
had gotten married in recent years. I wrote a fewtaken care of, then maybe I had no business being in
paragraphs about that info.Two sections down withbusiness for myself.Don't let this one item keep you
just a few more to go. It wasn't such anfrom realizing your dream. You can do it too!Sylvia
insurmountable task after all! I realized the essayTalo has authored the step-by-step manual, "You Can
portions could be written in such a way that I wasWrite Your Own Successful Business Plan", now
able to summarize my information into a few concisefeatured in the One Stop Business Start Up Kit. Visit
paragraphs for each section.The secret to the essayher web site a one stop site to help you start your
portions was to use an exciting voice with veryown small business.