Celia Couture is the president and found of CC Consulting, LLC a leadership development and business management firm.
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Recently, I've seen an influx of requests for a "form" to prepare a Business Plan for a start-up. Many vendors are quick to suggest a template, but there is more to business planning than merely filling out the required fields.
A business consultant can tell you that unless you conduct a thorough SWOT analysis, a competitive marketing review and an assessment of product viability or service viability, you are merely going through an administrative process that may not provide you with the information you really need to make sound business decisions.
A business plan should be a reflection of not only where you want to go with your business idea today, but what obstacles you need to overcome in order to be successful. Business Plans also have different purposes. If you are writing a plan to entice potential investors, then the plan needs to be customized to appeal to their pocketbooks. If you are writing a business plan in order to help organize where you want your business to be in five years, then the focus of the plan shifts to a strong mission statement and operational principles.
Look for assistance from competent consultants that can provide you with the help you need. The dollars you spend working with professionals who understand how best to position your company in the future will be an investment you want to make in your company in the long run.
A business plan can be simply a coffee table book that gathers dust or it can be a powerful tool for an entire management team to stay ahead of the curve, alternating if necessary, the course of how they will achieve their goals.
Each business plan must include financials. At the very least these should be reviewed on a monthly basis to ensure that the economic structure supporting the plan is a sound one.