How to use this outline

There are many uses for a Business Plan, including:

- Informing the employees about the goals and strategies of the company.

- Planning for major expansions or new locations.

- Raising money from investors or securing a major loan.

- Preparing to sell the company.

The outline here can be used for all of these applications. The depth of information and the emphasis will vary, however, depending upon the circumstances.

For example, when the plan is developed for the employees, it serves as a cookbook for the goals, strategies, and operational tactics that will be used over the coming period, say the next year. In this case, there should be high emphasis on the clarity of the strategies and the operational tactics used by each major department.

Conversely, when the plan is developed to obtain financing or a loan, there should be high emphasis on the financial plan. The bank will be less interested in the departmental operational tactics.

The information in the outline includes annotations about the content of key sections of the plan. Also included are some questions pertaining to those sections. The answers to these questions will help you complete the sections. It’s not necessary to answer all the questions in each section, but you’ll understand what’s needed by reading all the questions.

The formulation of the Business Plan should focus on the company’s goals and strategies. The goals state what the company intends to accomplish (for example, attain $2 million in net profit) and the strategies describe how this will be accomplished. As shown in the Business Planning Map that follows the outline, all of the information collection and analysis activities are a prelude to the creation of the company’s goals and strategies.

You may be a bit overwhelmed by the thought of writing an entire Business Plan, especially if you don’t like to write. There are, of course, some options available to you, such as using a good writer to help or finding a way to minimize the writing.

We like the second option. The Business Plan should be as short as possible—most people don’t want to read pages and pages of prose. In fact, you should feel free to format your plan in bullet or outline form if you can describe the ideas clearly and comprehensively. This is especially applicable when the plan will be used for internal purposes.

And remember, the Process is more important than the product. You should strive to create a company culture that emphasizes the need for constant planning and for the involvement of many of your team members.