This comprehensive step-by-step guide takes you through the critical business planning issues of company strategy: What's your Identity? Marketing issues: Who are the buyers? Product/Service issues: What are you selling? Sales and promotion issues: How do you sell? and financial issues: How are you doing?
Forbes calls The Successful Business Plan one of the best books for small businesses. This new edition offers advice on developing business plans that will succeed in today's business climate. Includes up-to-date information on what's being funded now.
Judging by all the hoopla surrounding business plans, you'd think the only things standing between would-be entrepreneurs and spectacular success are glossy five-color charts, bundles of meticulous-looking spreadsheets, and decades of month-by-month financial projections. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, often the more elaborately crafted a business plan, the more likely the venture is to flop. Why? Most plans waste too much ink on numbers and devote too little to information that really matters to investors. The result? Investors discount them. In How to Write a Great Business Plan, William A. Sahlman shows how to avoid this all-too-common mistake by ensuring that your plan assesses the factors critical to every new venture: The people—the individuals launching and leading the venture and outside parties providing key services or important resources The opportunity—what the business will sell and to whom, and whether the venture can grow and how fast The context—the regulatory environment, interest rates, demographic trends, and other forces shaping the venture's fate Risk and reward—what can go wrong and right, and how the entrepreneurial team will respond Timely in this age of innovation, How to Write a Great Business Plan helps you give your new venture the best possible chances for success.
How can all the nuts and bolts of a business be analyzed effectively in one comprehensive model and translated into a business plan? At various points in the life of a business, entrepreneurs will need to take stock of their ideas and plans and reformulate them in business and financial terms. How to Create a Successful Business Plan is about dynamic planning for businesses and provides a structured approach to business planning that focuses on the main components of the business model, while addressing key issues often raised by investors and potential business partners. It gives the company order and structure and helps managers optimize team integration and resources. The book provides a framework in which professionals from a broad range of backgrounds can work together on a successful business plan. Readers will find that the business model is discussed in depth, yet in accessible and easily understood terms.
Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan: A Pro Shares a Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Plan that Gets Results by Hal Shelton will open your eyes to insider tips, hints, and techniques for creating a winning business plan and attaining funding. This second edition maintains the original laser focus on writing the plan. It also adds much material on the vibrant crowdfunding platforms as well as providing a new section on issues faced by early stage companies. Nearly 50 percent of new businesses fail within five years. A well-thought-out business plan can dramatically turn the odds in your favor. With this easy-to-follow guide, you will (1) Discover why you need a business plan and the best style for you, (2) Receive step-by-step guidance for creating each section of your plan, (3) Get proven strategies for obtaining bank loans and attracting investors, (4) Spend less time writing your plan and more time setting up your business, and (5) Learn how to create a business plan for a nonprofit This book is for entrepreneurs who are thinking of starting a small business or nonprofit, and for small business owners who want to grow an existing business or solve an operating problem. This book will also help if you are looking for assurance that you are headed in the right direction, seeking help with a section of your business plan that you do not understand, feeling that a section of your business plan is not robust enough and want pointers, or wanting to learn where and how to apply for funding. Entrepreneurs should always surround themselves with mentors and advisors, so you will also find ideas on where to find these valuable resources. The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan is packed with actionable advice and real-life examples from Shelton's experience as a senior executive, SCORE small business mentor, and angel investor.
A fresh, compelling approach to establishing a sustainable, results-driven nonprofit business plan. Nonprofits often use the terms “strategic planning” and “business planning” interchangeably, but a good business plan goes beyond the traditional strategic plan with its focus on mission and vision, goals and objectives. The Nonprofit Business Plan, created by the nationally recognized nonprofit consultant experts at La Piana Consulting, helps your nonprofit organization understand what a strategic business plan is and why you need one, then provides a practical, proven process for creating a successful, sustainable business model. This groundbreaking resource further explains how your nonprofit can determine whether a potential undertaking is economically viable—a vital tool in today’s economic climate—and how to understand and solve challenges as they arise. With detailed instructions, worksheets, essential tools, case studies, and a rigorous financial analysis presented clearly and accessibly for executives, board members, and consultants, The Nonprofit Business Plan is also an important resource for non-specialist audiences such as potential funders and investors. This innovative step-by-step guide will provide your team with a solid set of business decisions so that your nonprofit can achieve maximum results for years to come.
Readers have turned to The Complete Book of Business Plans for almost 10 years for advice and information, making it one of the bestselling business planning books of our time. Authors Brian Hazelgren and Joseph Covello have gone back to the drawing board on this updated edition, providing you with more than a dozen brand-new business plans that will help you attract the financing and investment you need. The Complete Book of Business Plans also includes revised and updated information on how to get started, what questions to ask and how to finalize a business plan that will get you off the ground and running. For business owners just starting out or seasoned veterans that want to bring their business to the next level, The Complete Book of Business Plans is the only reference they need to get the funding they're looking for.
Craft winning business plans and get buy in for your ideas. A well-crafted business plan generates enthusiasm for your idea and boosts your odds of success—whether you're proposing a new initiative within your organization or starting an entirely new company. Creating Business Plans quickly walks you through the basics. You'll learn to: Present your idea clearly Develop sound financial plans Project risks—and rewards Anticipate and address your audience's concerns Don't have much time? Get up to speed fast on the most essential business skills with HBR's 20-Minute Manager series. Whether you need a crash course or a brief refresher, each book in the series is a concise, practical primer that will help you brush up on a key management topic. Advice you can quickly read and apply, for ambitious professionals and aspiring executives—from the most trusted source in business.
Covering all the issues in producing a business plan, this text also includes a full glossary, case histories, and a detailed section on the key issue of using internal business plans.
Examines the traits that define most people who achieve success, heart, smarts, guts, and luck, and helps readers to determine which traits they possess.