Sunday, March 25, 2007

Business Plan

The business plan is the road map to your business – the plan that shows where you are going, what your business objectives are and how to get there. The plan is a written document that outlines this – providing a detailed description of your business, describing in detail your product and how it will benefit the customer, and emphasizing your marketing strategies, financial management and management team.

The business plan is extremely important in many areas, including obtaining financing, whether equity or debt. Most importantly, however, preparing a business plan requires you as the business owner to consolidate your business objectives and strategies into a written document, a document that should be used frequently to review your results and revise you objectives. It is one of an entrepreneur’s most helpful documents; you should give it significant thought and prepare it carefully.

There are a variety of templates to assist in writing a business plan. Depending on the type of business, you may want to have your business plan prepared by a professional.