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ARCHIVE STATUS: ONLINE • FILES ARCHIVED: 4,473

Welcome to the Business Plan Archive, a research database for scholars and students interested in studying high-tech entrepreneurship in the Dot Com Era and beyond.

Launched in June 2002 as a public repository for records of firms founded to commercialize the internet from the mid-1990s on, the Business Plan Archive permitted open access to a selection of business plans and related planning documents until December 2007. More than 80,000 users from over 100 countries registered to take advantage of this resource during the five plus years it was available to the public.

Beginning in 2008, public access is no longer allowed. The Business Plan Archive now supports non-commercial academic research and education only. All interested users must now submit a research proposal describing the intended scope and purpose of their research. On completing the registration process, users are required to print their proposal and mail it to the Archive office at the University of Maryland, along with a letter of support from your host institution. Archive staff will then review the application. The primary purpose of the Archive is to support research and study of business planning, entrepreneurship and the business history of the dot com era. If your use of the archive involves writing your own business plan, we encourage you to seek other professional resources. If you have historical materials that you would like to donate to the Archive or if you have other questions about its operations, please contact the Director, Prof. David Kirsch at david@businessplanarchive.org.

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Business plan
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A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals.

The business goals may be defined for for-profit or for non-profit organizations. For-profit business plans typically focus on financial goals, such as profit or creation of wealth. Non-profit, as well as government agency business plans tend to focus on the "organizational mission" which is the basis for their governmental status or their non-profit, tax-exempt status, respectively—although non-profits may also focus on optimizing revenue. The primary difference between Profit and Non-Profit organizations is that "For Profit" organizations look to maximize wealth versus Non-Profit Organizations, which look to provide a greater good to society. In non-profit organizations, creative tensions may develop in the effort to balance mission with "margin" (or revenue). Business plans may also target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, tax-payer, or larger community. When managing a business, a business plan, or B-Plan, is often confused with the term Marketing Plan. When the existing business is to assume a major change or when planning a new venture - a 3 to 5 year business plan is essential.

Contents [hide]
1 Audience
2 Content
3 Presentation formats
4 Revisiting the business plan
4.1 Cost overruns and revenue shortfalls
5 Legal and liability issues
5.1 Disclosure requirements
5.2 Limitations on content and audience
6 Open business plans
7 Uses
7.1 Venture capital
7.2 Public offerings
7.3 Within corporations
7.3.1 Fundraising
7.3.2 Total quality management
7.3.3 Management by objective
7.3.4 Strategic planning
7.4 Education
7.4.1 K-12
8 Satires
9 See also
10 References

[edit] Audience
Business plans may be internally or externally focused. Externally focused plans target goals that are important to external stakeholders, particularly financial stakeholders. They typically have detailed information about the organization or team attempting to reach the goals. With for-profit entities, external stakeholders include investors and customers.[1] External stake-holders of non-profits include donors and the clients of the non-profit's services.[2] For government agencies, external stakeholders include tax-payers, higher-level government agencies, and international lending bodies such as the IMF, the World Bank, various economic agencies of the UN, and development banks.

Internally focused business plans target intermediate goals required to reach the external goals. They may cover the development of a new product, a new service, a new IT system, a restructuring of finance, the refurbishing of a factory or a restructuring of the organization. An internal business plan is often developed in conjunction with a balanced scorecard or a list of critical success factors. This allows success of the plan to be measured using non-financial measures. Business plans that identify and target internal goals, but provide only general guidance on how they will be met are called strategic plans.

Operational plans describe the goals of an internal organization, working group or department.[3] Project plans, sometimes known as project frameworks, describe the goals of a particular project. They may also address the project's place within the organization's larger strategic goals.[4][5]

[edit] Content
For more details on this topic, see Content of a business plan.
Business plans are decision-making tools. There is no fixed content for a business plan. Rather the content and format of the business plan is determined by the goals and audience. A business plan represents all aspects of business planning process; declaring vision and strategy alongside sub-plans to cover marketing, finance, operations, human resources as well as a legal plan, when required. A business plan is a bind summary of those disciplinary plans.

For example, a business plan for a non-profit might discuss the fit between the business plan and the organization’s mission. Banks are quite concerned about defaults, so a business plan for a bank loan will build a convincing case for the organization’s ability to repay the loan. Venture capitalists are primarily concerned about initial investment, feasibility, and exit valuation. A business plan for a project requiring equity financing will need to explain why current resources, upcoming growth opportunities, and sustainable competitive advantage will lead to a high exit valuation.

Preparing a business plan draws on a wide range of knowledge from many different business disciplines: finance, human resource management, intellectual property management, supply chain management, operations management, and marketing, among others.[6] It can be helpful to view the business plan as a collection of sub-plans, one for each of the main business disciplines.[7]

"... a good business plan can help to make a good business credible, understandable, and attractive to someone who is unfamiliar with the business. Writing a good business plan can’t guarantee success, but it can go a long way toward reducing the odds of failure." [7]

[edit] Presentation formats
The format of a business plan depends on its presentation context. It is not uncommon for businesses, especially start-ups to have three or four formats for the same business plan:

an "elevator pitch" - a three minute summary of the business plan's executive summary. This is often used as a teaser to awaken the interest of potential funders, customers, or strategic partners.
an oral presentation - a hopefully entertaining slide show and oral narrative that is meant to trigger discussion and interest potential investors in reading the written presentation. The content of the presentation is usually limited to the executive summary and a few key graphs showing financial trends and key decision making benchmarks. If a new product is being proposed and time permits, a demonstration of the product may also be included.
a written presentation for external stakeholders - a detailed, well written, and pleasingly formatted plan targeted at external stakeholders.
an internal operational plan - a detailed plan describing planning details that are needed by management but may not be of interest to external stakeholders. Such plans have a somewhat higher degree of candor and informality than the version targeted at external stakeholders.
Typical structure for a business plan for a start up venture[8]

cover page and table of contents
executive summary
business description
business environment analysis
industry background
competitor analysis
market analysis
marketing plan
operations plan
management summary
financial plan
attachments and milestones
[edit] Revisiting the business plan
[edit] Cost overruns and revenue shortfalls
Cost and revenue estimates are central to any business plan for deciding the viability of the planned venture. But costs are often underestimated and revenues overestimated resulting in later cost overruns, revenue shortfalls, and possibly non-viability. During the dot-com bubble 1997-2001 this was a problem for many technology start-ups. However, the problem is not limited to technology or the private sector; public works projects also routinely suffer from cost overruns and/or revenue shortfalls. The main causes of cost overruns and revenue shortfalls are optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation.[9][10] Reference class forecasting has been developed to reduce the risks of cost overruns and revenue shortfalls.

[edit] Legal and liability issues
[edit] Disclosure requirements
An externally targeted business plan should list all legal concerns and financial liabilities that might negatively affect investors. Depending on the amount of funds being raised and the audience to whom the plan is presented, failure to do this may have severe legal consequences.

[edit] Limitations on content and audience
Non disclosure agreements (NDAs) with third parties, non-compete agreements, conflicts of interest, privacy concerns, and the protection of one's trade secrets may severely limit the audience to which one might show the business plan. Alternatively, they may require each party receiving the business plan to sign a contract accepting special clauses and conditions.

This situation is complicated by the fact that many venture capitalists will refuse to sign an NDA before looking at a business plan, lest it put them in the untenable position of looking at two independently developed look-alike business plans, both claiming originality. In such situations one may need to develop two versions of the business plan: a stripped down plan that can be used to develop a relationship and a detail plan that is only shown when investors have sufficient interest and trust to sign an NDA.

[edit] Open business plans
Traditionally business plans have been highly confidential and quite limited in audience. The business plan itself is generally regarded as secret. However the emergence of free software and open source has opened the model and made the notion of an open business plan possible.

An open business plan is a business plan with unlimited audience. The business plan is typically web published and made available to all.

In the free software and open source business model, trade secrets, copyright and patents can no longer be used as effective locking mechanisms to provide sustainable advantages to a particular business and therefore a secret business plan is less relevant in those models.

While the origin of the open business plan model is in the free software and Libre services arena, the concept is likely applicable to other domains.

[edit] Uses
[edit] Venture capital
Business plan contests - provides a way for venture capitals to find promising projects
Venture capital assessment of business plans - focus on qualitative factors such as team.
[edit] Public offerings
In a public offering, potential investors can evaluate perspectives of issuing company
[edit] Within corporations
[edit] Fundraising
Fundraising is the primary purpose for many business plans, since they are related to the inherent probable success/failure of the company risk.

[edit] Total quality management
For more details on this topic, see Total quality management.
Total quality management (TQM) is a business management strategy aimed at embedding awareness of quality in all organizational processes. TQM has been widely used in manufacturing, education, call centers, government, and service industries, as well as NASA space and science programs.

[edit] Management by objective
For more details on this topic, see Management by objectives.
Management by objectives (MBO) is a process of agreeing upon objectives within an organization so that management and employees agree to the objectives and understand what they are in the organization.

[edit] Strategic planning
For more details on this topic, see strategic planning.
Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. Various business analysis techniques can be used in strategic planning, including SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats ) and PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis) or STEER analysis involving Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Regulatory factors and EPISTELS (Environment, Political, Informative, Social, Technological, Economic, Legal and Spiritual)

[edit] Education
[edit] K-12
Business plans are used in some primary and secondary programs to teach economic principles.[11] Wikiversity has a Lunar Boom Town project where students of all ages can collaborate with designing and revising business models and practice evaluating them to learn practical business planning techniques and methodology.

[edit] Satires
The business plan is the subject of many satires. Satires are used both to express cynicism about business plans and as an educational tool to improve the quality of business plans. For example,

Five Criteria for a successful business plan in biotech uses Dilbert comic strips to remind people of what not to do when researching and writing a business plan for a biotech start-up. Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert, is an MBA graduate (U.C. Berkeley) who sees humor as a critical tool that can improve the behavior of businesses and their managers.[12] He has written numerous critiques of business practices, including business planning. The website Dilbert.com - Games has a mission statement generator that satirizes the wording often found in mission statements. His book The Dilbert Principle – A Cubicle’s Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions discusses the foibles of management and their plans as depicted in the Dilbert comic strips by Scott Adams.

In the article "South Park's" Investing Lesson, The Motley Fool columnist "Fool on the Hill" uses the Underpants Gnomes to illustrate the fallacy of focusing on goals without a clear implementation strategy. The Underpants Gnomes episode satirizes the business plans of the Dot-com era.
[edit] See also
Business Case
Corporate Finance
Cost overrun
Cost-benefit analysis
Marketing plan
Optimism bias
Parkinson's Law of Triviality
Reference class forecasting
Revenue shortfall
Strategic plan
Business Motivation Model
[edit] References
1.^ Small Business Notes business plan outline for small business start-up
2.^ Center for Non-profit Excellence non-profit business plan[dead link]
3.^ State of Louisiana, USA government agency operational plan
4.^ Visitask project framework
5.^ Tasmanian government project management knowledge base government project plan
6.^ Boston College, Carroll School of Management, Business Plan Project The business school advises students that "To create a robust business plan, teams must take a comprehensive view of the enterprise and incorporate management-practice knowledge from every first-semester course." It is increasingly common for business schools to use business plan projects to provide an opportunity for students to integrate knowledge learned through their courses.
7.^ a b Eric S. Siegel, Brian R. Ford, Jay M. Bornstein (1993), 'The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide' (New York: John Wiley and Sons) ISBN 0471578266
8.^ Harvard Business School Press-Pocket Mentor, " Creating a Business Plan"
9.^ Bent Flyvbjerg, Mette K. Skamris Holm, and Søren L. Buhl (2002),"Underestimating Costs in Public Works Projects: Error or Lie?" Journal of the American Planning Association, vol. 68, no. 3, 279-295.
10.^ Bent Flyvbjerg, Mette K. Skamris Holm, and Søren L. Buhl (2005), "How (In)accurate Are Demand Forecasts in Public Works Projects?" Journal of the American Planning Associationsidoo kale ayaa waxaa, vol. 71, no. 2, 131-146.
11.^ Pennsylvania Business Plan Competition - competition intended to teach economic principles to K-12 students
12.^ Tricia Bisoux, "Funny Business", BizEd, November/December, 2002
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_plan"
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SESSION TWO
Business Plan Session 2 of 16
What is a Business Plan?
Why prepare a business plan?
What to avoid in your business plan

Business Plan Format
Vision statement
The people
Business profile
Economic assessment

Six Steps to a Great Business Plan
Basic business concept
Feasibility and specifics
Focus and refine concept
Outline the specifics of your business
Put your plan into a compelling form
Review sample plans

Does Your Plan Include the Following Necessary Factors
A sound business concept
Understanding your market
Healthy, growing and stable industry
Capable management
Able financial control
Consistent business focus
Mindset to anticipate change
Plans for online business

Formulate (and Reformulate) Your Business Plan

Top Ten Do's and Don'ts

Sound Byte Transcriptions

Sample Business Plans

Session 1 and 2 Business Plans

Session Feedback

What Is A Business Plan?

Read Transcript The primary value of your business plan will be to create a written outline that evaluates all aspects of the economic viability of your business venture including a description and analysis of your business prospects.

Since the My Own Business, Inc. course is broken down into sixteen of the most important topics to consider in starting or operating a business, your business plan can easily be organized into this same format. Included in this session, and in each of the following sessions, there is one-page business plan template, which you can fill in and print. (Session 2 contains templates for both Sessions 1 and 2.) When you put these all together, you will have completed your personalized, overall plan.

We suggest that you fill in each section of the business plan, found at the end of each session, as you proceed through the course.
Each of the sixteen Business Plan Sections can be downloaded from our Web site and provide you with a single, attractively presented document. To begin, let's take a preview look at each of the 16 Business Plan Sections:

Click to view each of the 16 business plan sections

Keep in mind that creating a business plan is an essential step for any prudent entrepreneur to take, regardless of the size of the business. This step is too often skipped, but we have made it easy for you by providing this ready format to build your plan as you progress through this course.

Business plans can vary enormously. Libraries and bookstores have books devoted to business plan formats. This course is a starting point. You can then go on to design one that would be ideal for your particular enterprise.

Be aware now that most start-up entrepreneurs are reluctant to write down their business plan. It is, therefore, strongly recommended that you complete each segment of the plan as you progress through this course. We make it easy for you by providing sample plans for both product and service businesses and also an attractive blank form that you can download onto MS Word and customize yourself.
Your business plan will become your roadmap to chart the course of your business. But at the outset you cannot predict all of changing conditions that will surface. So after you have opened for business, it is important that you periodically review and update you plan.

Why Prepare A Business Plan?

Read Transcript

Your business plan is going to be useful in a number of ways

First and foremost, it will define and focus your objective using appropriate information and analysis.

You can use it as a selling tool in dealing with important relationships including your lenders, investors and banks.

Your business plan can uncover omissions and/or weaknesses in your planning process.

You can use the plan to solicit opinions and advice from people, including those in your intended field of business, who will freely give you invaluable advice. Too often, entrepreneurs forge ahead ("My Way!") without the benefit of input from experts who could save them a great deal of wear and tear. "My Way" is a great song, but in practice can result in unnecessary hardships.
To help get started in lining up appointments, you can fill in and use the following template. We have also provided a larger blank template for you to use at the end of this session.
Names include your investors, family members, banker, lawyer, attorney, business mentors, trusted business friends, potential customers, competitors (distant ones), potential landlords, and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Click to View

Read Transcript
What to Avoid in Your Business Plan

Place some reasonable limits on long-term, future projections. (Long-term means over one year.) Better to stick with short-term objectives and modify the plan as your business progresses. Too often, long-range planning becomes meaningless because the reality of your business can be different from your initial concept.

Avoid optimism. In fact, to offset optimism, be extremely conservative in predicting capital requirements, timelines, sales and profits. Few business plans correctly anticipate how much money and time will be required.

Do not ignore spelling out what your strategies will be in the event of business adversities.

Use simple language in explaining the issues. Make it easy to read and understand.

Don't depend entirely on the uniqueness of your business or even a patented invention. Success comes to those who start businesses with great economics and not necessarily great inventions.

Business Plan Format

Read Transcript
The Business Plan format is a systematic assessment of all the factors critical to your business purpose and goals.

Here are some suggested topics you can tailor into your plan:

A Vision Statement: This will be a concise outline of your business purpose and goals.

The People: By far, the most important ingredient for your success will be yourself. Focus on how your prior experiences will be applicable to your new business. Prepare a résumé of yourself and one for each person who will be involved with you in starting the business. Be factual and avoid hype. This part of your Business Plan will be read very carefully by those with whom you will be having relationships, including lenders, investors and vendors. Templates for preparing résumés are available in your library, Kinko's, bookstores and the Internet under "résumés."

However, you cannot be someone who you are not. If you lack the ability to perform a key function, include this in your business plan. For example, if you lack the ability to train staff, include an explanation how you will compensate for this deficiency. You could add a partner to your plan (discussed in Section 4) or plan to hire key people who will provide skills you don't have. Include biographies of all your intended management.

Mari Lohr
Graphic Artist
"Being in business for yourself is not for everyone."
Read
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Your Business Profile: Define and describe your intended business and exactly how you plan to go about it. Try to stay focused on the specialized market you intend to serve.

Economic Assessment: Provide a complete assessment of the economic environment in which your business will become a part. Explain how your business will be appropriate for the regulatory agencies and demographics with which you will be dealing. If appropriate, provide demographic studies and traffic flow data normally available from local planning departments.

Cash flow assessment: Include a one-year cash flow that will incorporate your capital requirements (covered in Session 8). Include your assessment of what could go wrong and how you would plan to handle problems.

Include your marketing plan and expansion plans.

Refer to helpful government Web sites such as the Small Business Administration. See "Resources" on the home page of this Web site.

Six Steps To A Great Business Plan

Start-up entrepreneurs often have difficulty writing out business plans. This discipline is going to help you in many ways so don't skip this planning tool! To make it easier, here are six steps that will produce a worthwhile plan:

Write out your basic business concept.

Gather all the data you can on the feasibility and the specifics of your business concept.

Focus and refine your concept based on the data you have compiled.

Outline the specifics of your business. Using a "what, where, why, how" approach might be useful.

Put your plan into a compelling form so that it will not only give you insights and focus but, at the same time, will become a valuable tool in dealing with business relationships that will be very important to you.

Review the sample plans we furnish and download the blank format to a MS Word document. Fill this in as you progress though the course.

Does Your Plan Include the Following Necessary Factors
R.D. McDonnell
Architect
"You'll identify issues that you might not otherwise consider when you put them down on paper."
Read
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Ezequiel Padilla
Jugos Tropicales Mexican Food
"When your business is doing well, consider buying the property if it is possible."
Read
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Antoinette Douglas
Mother Love Family Day Care
"Find out what it is that you really want to do, go to college, and get an education in that field."
Read
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A Sound Business Concept: The single most common mistake made by entrepreneurs is not selecting the right business initially. The best way to learn about your prospective business is to work for someone else in that business before beginning your own. There can be a huge gap between your concept of a fine business and reality.

Understanding of Your Market: A good way to test your understanding is to test market your product or service before your start. You think you have a great kite that will capture the imagination of kite fliers throughout the world? Then craft some of them and try selling them first.

A Healthy, Growing and Stable Industry: Remember that some of the great inventions of all time, like airplanes and cars, did not result in economic benefit for many of those who tried to exploit these great advances. For example, the cumulative earnings of all airlines since Wilber Wright flew that first plane are less than zero. (Airline losses have been greater than their profits.) Success comes to those who find businesses with great economics and not necessarily great inventions or advances to mankind.

Capable Management: Look for people you like and admire, who have good ethical values, have complementary skills and are smarter than you. Plan to hire people who have the skills that you lack. Define your unique ability and seek out others who turn your weaknesses into strengths.

Able Financial Control: You will learn later the importance of becoming qualified in accounting, computer software and cash flow management. Most entrepreneurs do not come from accounting backgrounds and must go back to school to learn these skills. Would you bet your savings in a game where you don't know how to keep score? People mistakenly do it in business all the time.

A Consistent Business Focus: As a rule, people who specialize in a product or service will do better than people who do not specialize. Focus your efforts on something that you can do so well that you will not be competing solely on the basis of price.

A Mindset to Anticipate Change: Don't commit yourself too early. Your first plan should be written in pencil, not in ink. Keep a fluid mindset and be aggressive in making revisions as warranted by changing circumstances and expanding knowledge.

Include Plans for Conducting Business Online: According to the January 2005 Trend/Forecasting Report of The Dilenschneider Group, in the U.S. alone, the 2004 holiday season online shopping jumped by more than 25% from 2003. (In 2005 it jumped another 25%!) Consumer and business-to-business online sales are set to expand exponentially in the coming decade, and small retailers can reach an ever-increasing pool of customers. Be sure to see the how-to details in the following Session 10, E-commerce.

Formulate (and Reformulate) Your Business Plan
Donald N. Sull, associate professor of management practice at the London Business School, in an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review, offers some practical suggestions on managing inevitable risks while pursuing opportunities. Here is a capsulation of his suggestions on how to formulate (and reformulate) your business plan:

Be flexible early in the process and keep it fluid. Don't commit too early. Expect your first plan to be provisional and subject to revision.
Ask yourself if your experience or expertise gives you the right to an opinion on your specific opportunity.
Identify your potential deal killers: variables that are likely to prove fatal to the venture.
Clearly identify what you see as the key drivers of success. What are you betting on here?
Raise money only in sufficient amount to finance the experiment or evaluation you next envision, with a cushion for contingencies.
Delay hiring key managers until initial rounds of experimentation have produced a stable business model.
At some point, take the plunge and test your product or service on a small scale in the real world through customer research, test marketing, or prototypes.
Test and refine your business model before expanding your operations.

Top Ten Do's and Don'ts Print this Top Ten List
TOP TEN DO'S

Prepare a complete business plan for any business you are considering.
Use the business plan templates furnished in each session.
Complete sections of your business plan as you proceed through the course.
Research (use search engines) to find business plans that are available on the Internet.
Package your business plan in an attractive kit as a selling tool.
Submit your business plan to experts in your intended business for their advice.
Spell out your strategies on how you intend to handle adversities.
Spell out the strengths and weaknesses of your management team.
Include a monthly one-year cash flow projection.
Freely and frequently modify your business plans to account for changing conditions.
TOP TEN DON'TS
Be optimistic (on the high side) in estimating future sales.
Be optimistic (on the low side) in estimating future costs.
Disregard or discount weaknesses in your plan. Spell them out.
Stress long-term projections. Better to focus on projections for your first year.
Depend entirely on the uniqueness of your business or the success of an invention.
Project yourself as someone you're not. Be brutally realistic.
Be everything to everybody. Highly focused specialists usually do best.
Proceed without adequate financial and accounting know-how.
Base your business plan on a wonderful concept. Test it first.
Skip the step of preparing a business plan before starting.

Sound Byte Transcriptions
Antoinette Douglas - Mother Love Family Day Care |Listen|

Antoinette Douglas
Mother Love
Family Day Care

My name is Antoinette Douglas, and the name of my business is Mother Love Family Day Care. I have had my business for two and a half years, and it took me a year to make a profit.

My business is organized as a sole proprietorship. I'm working about 12 hours per day. I will be expanding my childcare and will be open for 24 hours. I started with a small family day care, which included 8 children. I have now expanded to a large family day care and have 14 children.

One of the major problems that I have had was money. I do work with gang members and welfare recipients, and I have private parents. In working with gangs, sometimes it will take me three months to receive my first check, whereas with a private parent, I will receive money weekly or biweekly.

Another major problem was how parents discipline their children differently. I had to learn a new way. I have had to go to school and reeducate myself. I have taken up child development classes at Compton College and graduated.

Before I even conducted this business, I enrolled in the My Own Business entrepreneur class. It was very helpful. I have learned how to set my priorities and goals.

I started off with myself as the only employee and I now have four employees. My family being very supportive of this business really helped me. I also transport children to and from school. That's where my son comes in; he's my driver.

In conclusion, Mother Love Family Day Care has become very rewarding to me because I am now doing what I like to do. I love children. Find out what it is that you really want to do, go to college, and get an education in that field. If you know anyone in the field, allow him or her to mentor you. Find out as much as you can about the business before starting. The most important thing I would like to put emphasis on is getting your education.

Points To Ponder

Start small and hang in there
Don't overlook doing what you love to do

Ezequiel Padilla - Jugos Tropacales Mexican Food |Listen|

Ezequiel Padilla
Jugos Tropacales
Mexican Food

My name is Ezequiel Padilla. I'm the owner of Jugos Tropicales Fast Food Mexican Restaurant in Compton, California. I started my business ten years ago. I had many years of experience and had my savings. I thought I knew everything. But I didn't have the most important thing: a business plan. So, there I was working on a daily basis with nowhere to go until I learned from the My Own Business seminar all the basic tools I needed to reach success. I would like to give you some important tips before you start:

Create your business plan. There are some computer programs that will help you do it.
is very important to find a good location. Make sure you have plenty of parking.
Make sure you read and agree to all the terms and conditions of the lease contract before you sign it.
Learn the basics of accounting and know your product.
When you are ready to open your business, be honest and treat your employees and customers as you would like to be treated. Remember that a satisfied customer will help increase your clientele.
Always be ready for the unexpected.
Overlooking these details might cost you a lot of money, and you might go out of business. We don't want that.

One last thing, when your business is doing well, consider buying the property if it is possible. Real estate is always a good investment. If you follow these simple steps, I'm sure you will be a successful businessperson like me. Good luck in your business venture.

Points To Ponder

Create your business plan before you start
Consider purchasing your location, when you can

Mari Lohr
Graphic Artist

Mari Lohr - Graphic Artist |Listen|

My name is Mari Lohr. I'm a mother of two and a graphic artist. Being in business for yourself is not for everyone. At least for me, as a mother of two and as a woman, it was hard for me to balance the love of my work, my artistic talent, the entrepreneurship, and being a mother. I had to make a choice. I had to do a balancing act, and I had to drop one factor. That was not to be an entrepreneur.

Points To Ponder

Being in business is not for everyone

R.D. McDonnell - Architect |Listen|

R.D. McDonnell
Architect

My name is R.D. McDonnell, principal of McDonnell Group, a design, construction, management and consulting firm. Our primary clientele includes lenders, equity investors, real estate developers and design professionals. The firm is currently in its sixth year of operation and maintains a staff of six professional and administrative staff.

When starting up my firm in the middle of the recession, most of my peers said I was crazy. However, I had been planning to make the move for nearly two years and felt that the timing was right, and the economy would soon turn for the better.

A lot of issues had to be considered--making sure that I had sufficient startup capital, not only to start the firm and cover expenses in the first months of operation, but also to cover personal expenses. Also, having the full and unconditional support of my family. And, most importantly, having a business plan. You'll identify issues that you might not otherwise consider when you put them down on paper. And as your business begins to operate in early years, what you have written down will serve as an operations manual.

One of the greatest difficulties that I experienced was the lack of ability to look ahead. And when my business experienced a downturn in the market, the failure to cut costs, such as overhead and unneeded staff in a timely manner caused financial difficulty.

For the most part, we've experienced constant growth. One of the biggest mistakes that I made was the failure to be prepared for growth. Yet when I found myself in that position, I found it very difficult to say no to clients. However, what I've learned is that if you don't say no, you place yourself in the position of not fulfilling your client obligations rather than gaining the respect of the client by saying you can't do the job.

I update my business plan on a regular basis. This forces me to analyze the current status of the business, monitor the goals and objectives, and allows me to make adjustments as required to respond to the ever-changing marketplace.

Points To Ponder

It's better to turn down a client than to disappoint one
Your business plan needs constant updating

Business Plan for Sessions 1 and 2: The Business Profile, the Vision and the People.

Now is the time for you to review the sample plans we have provided. This will help you in formatting your own plan. For some tips on appropriate information to fill in, refer to the sample business plans:

Sample Business Plan (Product): Widget Corporation
MS Word
Printer Friendly Web Page
Adobe PDF

Sample Business Plan (Service): Smith E-Commerce Consulting
MS Word
Printer Friendly Web Page
Adobe PDF

You can now begin to assemble your business plan. If you have not yet selected a business, you can pick one out to practice on. Remember, we have provided attractive, individual business templates for each session that you can download as Microsoft Word documents or as printer friendly Web pages. So start now!

Section 1: The Business Profile
MS Word
Printer Friendly Web Page
Adobe PDF

Section 2: The Vision and the People
MS Word
Printer Friendly Web Page
Adobe PDF

Instructions on filling in the business plan template:

Each box has a permanent title in CAPITAL LETTERS.
Below each title is a sentence starting with an "Insert here" sentence. This will suggest information to insert. The boxes will expand as you take up more room so use all the space you need.
After completing each box, delete the "Insert here" sentence, which will leave only the permanent title of the box and the information you have inserted.

We suggest that you fill in each section of the business plan
as you proceed through the course.
The template for all sessions 1-16 can also be downloaded into your computer as a single document:

Section 1-16: (Full Business Plan Template)
MS Word
Printer Friendly Web Page
Adobe PDF

Include sufficient research findings and background materials. Make it interesting up by the use of background data, your biography, charts, demographics and research data. When your business plan is completed, print off and assemble the 16 sections.

Many other business plan formats are available in libraries, bookstores and online.

Session 2 Feedback:

Please help improve this course by taking 20 seconds to answer the feedback question.

This chapter has convinced me of the importance of preparing a business plan.
Please SelectYesNoUndecided

Optional comments and suggestions. (Please fill in)
Examples: In what way has this course topic improved your chances of success or reduced risks of failure? What was the most valuable information in this session? Did we make mistakes?

Evaluating the Potential of Business | The Business Plan | Communication Tools | Business Organization | Licenses, Permits, Names | Business Insurance
Location and Leasing | Accounting and Cash Flow | How to Finance Your Business | E-Commerce Business | Buying a Business | Opening and Marketing
Expanding and Problems | International Trade | Managing Employees | Home Based Businesses

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2010-08-01T17:31:00.000-07:00

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