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Now is the perfect time to evaluate your success or opportunities from the past year and make necessary changes to start the new year off right.  Modifying your existing business plan or putting together your business plan for the first time can help you focus your efforts and plan for success in the new year.

Using example business plans to take the hassle out of creating a business plan from scratch can be beneficial strategy for anyone that is creating a plan for the first time.

Don’t get hung up on the process as much as the results – there is no need to reinvent the wheel when professional business plan templates are available.

Some of the benefits to having an up-to-date business plan include:

Find Profit Niches – track your progress by setting a financial baseline and plan your expenditures.  By planning and evaluating your profit / loss you can see where you need to focus more effort or resources on profitable areas.

Get Funding – if you need funding for an expansion or a new product line a business plan with profit forecasts may help you land the capital you need.

Set Your Business Apart – successful businesses constantly evaluate the company goals and mission / vision statements in order to meet the needs of customers in an ever changing marketplace….don’t get stale!

Writing a business plan doesn’t have to be hard.  Find some example business plans to get started and replace the info with your company specific data.  You will be surprised how fast your business plan can come together by taking one section at a time and filling in your details.

Grab my actual business plan at the link below and use it to create your own customized plan without all the hassle!

http://www.business-plan-examples.com/business-plan-toolkit.html

Don’t let the unknown keep you from putting together your business plan.  Start planning for success today!

Earlier this year I was contacted about doing a podcast interview with Small Biz Kaizen to discuss the business planning process and explain how to get started writing a business plan.

I wanted to post it out here again as I think it was a great interview and uncovered some simple steps that anyone can use to really start thinking about starting a new business.  On the call we discussed sources of motivation and simple ways to get a business plan in place without spending a ton of time or money.

As we get closer to the end of the year many people begin thinking about a fresh start in January, so the time to start working on your business plan is now.  Take a listen to the interview here and I challenge you to implement at least one step toward your goal for the 2012 year.

My thanks to Brian Venge of Small Biz Kaizen for inviting me onto his podcast and for helping to provide entrepreneurs the information to have success in small business.

Listen to the free podcast by following the link below:

http://smallbizkaizen.com/index.php/2011/01/business-planning-made-simple

Happy planning!

Craig

Writing a business plan can be a challenge but it doesn’t have to seem like work.  Getting started is half the battle and finding a good template that you can use as a guideline is a quick way to begin making progress.  In order to find a good business plan template that can meet your needs keep a few things in mind:

1) Look for a template of an actual business plan so you can see how the different sections were worded and you can get an idea for the type of information that was included.

2) Find a business plan that was written for a similar size company.  This doesn’t need to be exact but a business plan for a small business will be much different from the detail needed to be included in a plan for a large corporation.

3) Find a pro-forma template to use as a guide for projecting your monthly and annual cost and profits.  Every good business plan should have one of these and you can find them several places online.

4) A break even analysis is a good visual to include in the business plan to show potential investors what will be needed to turn a profit.  Your financials should show how you intend to get there and the break even graph will illustrate the point.

5) Don’t let the charts, graphs and layout keep you from getting started on your business plan.  If you find that you are having trouble finding the pieces you need to put together a professional business plan then grab the whole set of files I used to create a winning business plan for a small business that is still in operation today.  My actual business plan, financial spreadsheet and break-even graph are all included in the “Business Plan Toolkit” you can find by clicking the link here – Business Plan Toolkit.

You know more about your business than anyone else but it is important that your knowledge about the industry and your business are professionally communicated to investors and potential business partners.  Take the hassle out of writing a plan by using one that has already been written – feel free to change it however you need.  Grab the business plan and files now and get started writing a plan for your successful small business.

The Business Plan Examples website is a collection of resources, tools and guides for creating your own quality small business plan.  When I began writing my first business plan I had no idea where to start.  I knew what I wanted to say but I had no clue what kind of format I should use or how to set it up.

As you begin to put pen to paper on a business plan it always helps to have an example to look at or in some cases even copy.  Yes, I am giving you permission to actually copy my work and use it how you see fit.  My actual business plan source files including the pro-forma spreadsheet and my break-even graph are available here:  http://www.business-plan-examples.com/business-plan-toolkit.html.

I plan to post topics on a good business plan layout as well as the top 5 pieces of info every business plan should contain.  If you have any related topics you would like to discuss please let me know and I will pull some info together for you.  Happy Business Planning!