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Business Plans ... |
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| Syllabus | Class Sessions | Links | Grading | Assignments | ||
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Business Plans |
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"If you fail to plan. you plan to fail..." |
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| What is a plan? |
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"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan later." |
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General Patton
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| Purpose of a Business Plan |
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Every plan is written for someone, with a purpose in mind. You are writing
for an audience and you want something from that audience. The style, the parts,
the jargon, the organization and emphasis should all be tailored to that specific
audience in order to be effective. Carefully choose your audince and set your
objectives before writing.
| Target Audience |
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| Writing a Business Plan |
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Today, business plans are written on the computer. They usually have a word processed part that follows an outline describing all aspects of the business, its business climate, and spreadsheet parts that cover financial sources and uses of capital and pro forma financial statements. We will look at outlines for business plans later. |
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Help with writing your business plan |
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There are many software packages available that include templates for the wirtten narration and templates for the financial data. They cost anywhere from $50 to several hundred dollars and up. BizPlan Builderer by Jian and PlanWrite: a Business Plan Toolkit by Business resource Software, Inc. are examples that are widely available. Help is availble thru:
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Business Plan Outlines
Version 1
| Great Business Ideas - part 1 |

| What separates the successes from the failures? |
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| Some Business Plan Writing Tips | |
When writing a business plan, remember to choose an audience and objectives first. You may wish to have differing versions of the plan written for different audiences. This is a common practice.
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| Assessing a business plan: The Reader |
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What do readers of business plans look for when reading. The following is a list of items that a professional reader, such as a banker, would look for:
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