​​How To Write A Business Plan

business planningTraditional “business planning” falls under the “500 Pound Gorilla” umbrella. Hence many highly successful business leaders rely heavily on their financial directors to take care of the financial details, leaving them free to get on with the business activity that makes best use of their natural skill, be it creativity, selling, service-provision, people-skills, technical skills, or whatever.

An appendix to your business plan isn’t a required chapter by any means, but it is a useful place to stick any charts, tables, definitions, legal notes, or other critical information that either felt too long or too out-of-place to include elsewhere in your business plan.

Construct a working spreadsheet so that the bottom-right cell shows the total sales or gross margin, or profit, whatever you need to measure, and by changing the figures within the split (altering the mix, average prices, quantities, etc) you can carry out ‘what if?’ analysis to develop the best plans.

A business plan is a written, living document that tells the story of your business and what you plan to do with it. It serves as the source of truth for you—the owner—as well as potential partners, employees, and investors, but it also serves as a roadmap of what you want your business to be.

But I promise you that, at least once while you use these business plan software solutions, you will say, “Gee, I don’t know; I have to look it up.” That’s a good thing as it means the software is asking for relevant information you didn’t think to include on your own.business planning