Business Plan Help?


Question:
I'm trying to write a business plan for a company I want to start and I'm not sure what I need to have in the plan. Here is my table of contents:

1.0 Executive Summary
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Mission
2.0 Company Summary
2.1 Company Ownership
3.0 Products
4.0 Strategy and Implementation Summary
4.1 Marketing Strategy
4.2 Pricing Strategy
4.3 Distrubution Strategy
5.0 Management Summary
5.1 Management Team
5.2 Management Team Gaps
6.0 Financial Plan
6.1 Project Profit and Loss

What else do I need? I want to use this plan to show potential investors.

Answer:
Just make sure you have the following information included somewhere in your business plan:

- competitive comparison
- sourcing of your products (how will you get your products and at what cost)
- future products
- technology that will impact your ability to produce your product
- under market strategy, have market segmentation (divide your market into market segments - by age, income, etc)- and target market segment strategy
- description of market needs
- market trends
- market growth
- industry analysis, including industry participants, growth potential
- main competitors
- your competitive edge
- sales programs including specifics to implementation
- strategic alliances
- milestones (measurable activities, target date, budget, person responsible)
- in your financial section, include important assumptions, key financial indicators, break even analysis, projected balance sheet, projected business cash flow, and business ratios (profitability ratio, debt ratios, etc)

Here are some resources that can help you write your business plan:

- SBA Business Plan Basics http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/pla...
- PowerHomeBiz.com Creating a Business Plan section http://www.powerhomebiz.com/startup/busi...
- Entrepreneur.com Writing a Business Plan section http://www.entrepreneur.com/bizplan/0,72...

You may also want to review some sample business plans to see how it actually looks like:

- Bplans.com http://www.bplans.com/sp/businessplans.c... (they have several free sample business plans that you can look at)
- MOOT Corp Business Plan competition winners
http://www.businessplans.org/businesspla...
- VFinance - View hundreds of real business plans in pdf format. http://www.vfinance.com/home.asp?bps=1&t...
- Business Owners Toolkit Sample business plans and information on how to create a plan. http://www.toolkit.cch.com/tools/buspln_...
- PlanWare Planning software and information. http://www.planware.org/
- Virtual Business Plan Walk through the design of a business plan. http://www.bizplanit.com/vplan.html...
- SBA Business Planning Guide http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/pla...
- Small Business Advancement Center http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/business_plan/b...
- Sample Business Plan General planning guide created by the Canadian Business Service Center. http://www.cbsc.org/servlet/contentserve...
- Business Plans Index - A subject guide to sample business plans and profiles for specific business types from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. http://216.183.184.20/subject/business/b...

Some recommended books are :

- Business Plans Kit for Dummies
- The Complete Book of Business Plans : Simple Steps to Writing a Powerful Business Plan
- Writing Business Plans That Get Results : A Step-By-Step Guide
- Business Plans For Dummies®
- Your First Business Plan : A Simple Question and Answer Format Designed to Help You Write Your Own Plan

Hope that the above resources help
just follow the rest of the template that you have found:

cash flow statement and balance sheet,may be some ratio analysis if it is required...
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