The Complete Book of Business Plans: Simple Steps to Writing Powerful Business Plans

514 Pages·2006·15.96 MB·English

by  Brian Hazelgren

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well-developed business plan. The Complete to walk you through each section of your plan,
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■ Provide critical elements required
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■ Stay ahead of your competition “Your book was the ‘gem’ Iwas looking questions designed
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■ Avoid common mistakes
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■ Make your business plan the heart ✔ SSIIMMPPLLEE SSTTEEPPSS
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THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BUSINESS PLANS WILL HELP YOU CREATE: ✔
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$21.95 U.S./$28.50 CAN SS business
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ISBN-10: 1-4022-0763-8 2ND ED. Provide critical
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OOK
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THE
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B
OOK
OF
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USINESS
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Secrets to Writing
Powerful Business
Plans
SECOND EDITION
JOSEPH A. COVELLO AND BRIAN J. HAZELGREN
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Copyright © 2006 by Joseph A. Covello & Brian J. Hazelgren
Cover and internal design © 2006 by Sourcebooks, Inc.
Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means
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a Committee of Publishers and Associations
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Published by Sourcebooks, Inc.
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
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Originally published in 1995
ISBN-13: 978-1-4022-1484-4
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
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C
ONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Section One: Getting Ready to Write Your Winning Business Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Chapter 1: Evaluating You and Your Business Idea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Chapter 2: Powerful Guidelines for Writing a Winning Business Plan . . . . . . . . .21
Chapter 3: 100-Plus Questions to Personal and Business Success . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
Chapter 4: Sample Business Plan—Forward Tech, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
Section Two: Writing Your Winning Business Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
Chapter 5: Company Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
Chapter 6: Product and Service Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95
Chapter 7: Market Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101
Chapter 8: Marketing and Sales Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109
Chapter 9: Internet Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121
Chapter 10: Management and Personnel Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
Chapter 11: Financial Projections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143
Chapter 12: Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171
Chapter 13: Appendix Section of Your Business Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179
Section Three: Implementing Your Winning Business Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181
Chapter 14: Raising Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .183
Chapter 15: The Future and Building Your Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
Chapter 16: Other Considerations and Helpful Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
Section Four: Knowledge Building for Preparing Your Winning Business Plan . .211
Chapter 17: Financial Ratios, Glossary, and Chart of Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . .213
Chapter 18: Helpful Internet Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225
Section Five: Samples of Winning Business Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .229
ABC Consulting & Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231
Artistic Studios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .267
Enviro-Friendly Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287
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Global Wholesale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .301
Jeff Miller Landscapes, LCC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .319
MacuGen, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .347
Moore Pharmacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .371
Product Manufacturing Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .403
TRM LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .443
XYZ Consulting Co., LCC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .483
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .499
About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .505
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I
NTRODUCTION
Business planning, believe it or not, is a powerful tool that can help you achieve your highest and loftiest
goals, as well as your wildest dreams. The act of researching, writing, creating, and expanding on your busi-
ness idea can be an exhilarating experience as long as you have the proper tools at your disposal. The
Complete Book of Business Plans is one of the tools that will help you get there in a much easier fashion.
You will find The Complete Book of Business Plansuser-friendly and easy to follow. We use familiar words
and phrases, and we’re mindful that your time is valuable, so we get right to the point. This book will assist
you in developing a world-class business plan that gets you the results you are looking for. It has been
written and formatted in a way that will lead you along the planning path with less resistance and will
assist you in cutting through the commerce forest with a professionally honed and sharpened blade.
How will you accomplish this? Simple: by following the lessons we have learned over the last twenty
years. We have personally written over two hundred business plans; we have authored six books on the
subject of planning; we both teach—or have taught—at colleges and a major university; one of us is a
judge for one of the country’s top annual business plan writing contests; and most important, we both have
had to learn in the trenches on the front lines of small, medium, and large business on how to properly
research, write, and craft a winning business plan.
As with any business management tool, business planning can be used for multiple purposes such as
starting a new business, raising capital, launching a new line of products or services, expanding business facil-
ities, selling an existing business, or gaining a better focus of an existing enterprise. Whatever your reasons,
we are here to help you, and as long as you follow the simple advice, ideas, and format presented in The
Complete Book of Business Plans,you will be well on your way to crafting a highly successful plan of your own.
We will be providing you with guidelines for successful business planning and real-life examples of what
has worked and what has not worked in the planning process. Yes, there is a science to writing business
plans, but it is the artthat will take center stage. You are crafting a document that will serve as a founda-
tion for your business quest. Our job is to help you focus your energy and balance your enthusiasm with a
little bit of reality.
We have learned a lot during our years in business, and we’ll share these lessons with you along the way.
Learn from our experiences, both good and bad, as well others as you journey throughout the book and
apply them to your situation. This is art at its finest form.
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2 |
THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BUSINESS PLANS
Although business planning is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that
shape and guide what you want to accomplish, the process must still have some elements of fun and
reward. But, make no mistake, you will not be able to just snap your fingers, buy some software, push a few
buttons, and call it good. Based on the complexity of your business model, plan on spending about fifty to
one hundred fifty hours of researching, writing, rewriting, thinking, strategizing, and crafting a blueprint
for your next successful venture.
The process is certainly about planning because it involves intentionally setting goals, choosing a desired
future, and developing an approach to achieving those goals. You have to be disciplined in order to keep
yourself focused and productive. The process of planning pushes entrepreneurs, business owners, and busi-
ness managers to examine experience, test assumptions, gather and incorporate information about the
present, and anticipate the environment in which the business will be working in the future.
Think of your business plan as a rolling ninety-day plan that plugs into the overall strategy and allows
for a tactical focus, while you are ramping up the long-range plan. Your business plan is ultimately no more
and no less than a set of decisions about what to do, why to do it, what resources to involve, and how to
do it.
The following list highlights the importance of having a written business plan. We offer them here as
a way to approach this important work of proper planning. Successful business planning:
• leads to action
• builds a shared vision
• is an inclusive and participatory process in which the team can claim ownership
• holds individuals accountable to the organization and stakeholders
• is both externally and internally focused and sensitive to the organization’s environment
• is based on quality data
• requires openness to questioning the status quo
• is a key part of effective management
Many business managers feel that they can keep track of everything without the need to write it down.
They figure a written plan is really just the representation of internal planning that every business man-
ager does anyway. So what justifies the additional time and energy they will spend creating a written plan
that presents a blueprint of their business or business idea? Well, the structure that a written plan provides
makes it more likely that you will consider all relevant factors and that nothing important will slip through
the cracks. Put simply, a written business plan increases your chance for success. Every successful team has
some sort of game plan that they follow and update as they go forward. More specifically, a plan can be:
• a reality check that forces you to consider all relevant factors when you first examine the feasibility
of your business idea
• your business’s résumé, which will be vital in dealing with lenders and outside investors, and an
important tool in negotiating with vendors and attracting employees
• a timetable for operations, helping you to coordinate all the diverse activities that go into running
your own business
• a modeling tool that helps you evaluate the variables that affect your business, so you can better pre-
pare to deal with situations that may arise as conditions change
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INTRODUCTION
• a way to track the progress of your business
• a blueprint against which you can adjust operations in order to achieve your goals
• a starting point for future planning
• the foundation for raising capital
The business planning process can be complex, challenging, sometimes overwhelming, and even
chaotic, but it can also be a lot of fun. Take advantage of tools like this book and learn from the mistakes
and successes of others. Our simple, easy-to-understand process can show you how to write a winning busi-
ness plan that may save you time and money—an incredibly valuable proposition!
Well, then, sit back, roll up your sleeves, and prepare to be amazed at how much you will learn and how
much fun you will have as you watch your dreams unfold. Develop your own road map for the greatest
journey you could possibly imagine. Today’s planning determines tomorrow’s victories. Now is the time to
start planning for a tomorrow filled with success and prosperity.