“Nine to five ain’t takin’ me where I’m bound.”   —Neil Diamond, from “Thank the Lord for the Nighttime” 

“You’ve got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going because you might not get there.” —Yogi Berra

 Are you concerned about whether you can put together a first-rate business plan and loan application? Don’t worry. How to Write a Business Plan contains detailed forms and step-by-step instructions designed to help you prepare a well thought-out, well-organized plan. Coupled with your positive energy and will to succeed, you’ll be able to design a business plan and loan package that you will be proud to show to the loan officer at your bank, the Small Business Administration, or your Uncle Harry. After working with hundreds of business owners, I have observed an almost universal truth about business planning:

Writing a plan is a journey through the mind of one person. Even in partnerships and corporations, usually, one person has the vision and energy to take an idea and turn it into a business by writing a business plan. For that reason, I have addressed this book to the business owner as a single individual rather than a husband-and-wife team, group, committee, partnership, or corporation. And you’ll find that the same financial and analytical tools necessary to convince potential lenders and investors that your business idea is sound can also help you decide whether your idea is the right business for you.

  What Kind of Plan Do You Need? 

You can use How to Write a Business Plan to write whatever type of plan best suits your needs: 

• Complete business plan. A complete business plan is especially helpful for people who are starting a new business. This form of plan is also excellent for convincing prospective backers to support your business. You’ll be more successful in raising the money you need if you answer all of your potential backers’ questions. A complete plan should include the following elements: Title Page, Plan Summary, Table of Contents, Problem Statement, Business Description, Business Accomplishments, Marketing Plan, Sales Revenue Forecast, Profit and Loss Forecast, Capital Spending Plan, Cash Flow Forecast, Future Trends, Risks Facing Your Business, Personnel Plan, Business Personality, Staffing Schedule, Job Descriptions, Specific Business Goals, Personal Financial Statement, Personal Background, Appendix, and Supporting Documents.

 • Quick plan (one-day plan). If you know your business, are familiar with and able to make financial projections, and have done the necessary research, you may be able to create a plan in one day. But understand that a quick plan is a stripped-down version of a business plan. It won’t convince either you or your prospective backers that your business idea is sound. It is appropriate only if your business idea is very simple or someone has already committed to backing your venture. A stripped-down quick plan has these few components: Title Page, Plan Summary, Table of Contents, Problem Statement, Business Description, Business Accomplishments, Sales Revenue Forecast, Profit and Loss Forecast, Capital Spending Plan, Cash Flow Forecast, Appendix, and Supporting Documents. 

QUiCK PLAN 

The “quick plan” icon appears at the beginning of each chapter containing quick plan components and guides you to the sections you’ll need. 

• Customized plan. You can start with a quick plan and add components from the complete business plan to suit your needs. When deciding what to include and what to exclude, ask yourself: n Which of my statements are the strongest? n Which statements do my backers want to see? Note that the appendixes contain blank forms as well as business plans for a small service business, a manufacturing business, and project development. All the forms (except for the Loan Interest Calculation Chart) and business plans are included on the CD-ROM located at the back of the book. The forms—for calculating sales forecasts, personal financial information, profit and loss forecasts, and cash flow forecasts—are provided in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format and include helpful formulas for making calculations. The “CD” icon appears whenever forms or business plans are reproduced on the CD. (Note: If a series of #### symbols appear in a box in a spreadsheet, that means that you will need to widen the column in order to display the numbers.)

Meet Antoinette 

In an effort to make sense of the thousands of types of small businesses, I have roughly divided them into five main ones: retail, wholesale, service, manufacturing, and project development. All the financial tools I present can be used by all five. However, for the sake of simplicity, I follow one particular retail business—a dress shop. In so doing, I illustrate most of the planning concepts and techniques necessary to understand and raise money for any business. As you read through the text you’ll meet Antoinette Gorzak, a friend of mine. Antoinette wants to open a dress shop, and she has allowed me to use her plans and thought processes as an example of a complete and well-prepared business plan for a retail store. You’ll find parts of her plan presented in different chapters as we discuss the various components of a complete business plan. 

Getting Started 

Before you sit down to write your plan, you’ll want to gather together these essentials: 

• a word processor 

• a calculator or computer spreadsheet program 

• a good supply of 8½" by 11" paper 

• several pencils and a good eraser, and 

• access to a photocopy machine. Now, here’s a word about revisions and changing your plan. I firmly believe in writing your first thoughts on paper and letting them rest for a day or two. Then you can edit, expand, and revise later to get a more perfect statement. In this book, I show examples of Antoinette’s writing process. (I’m grateful she’s such a good sport.) Most people discover about halfway through writing their plan that they want to change either their assumptions or some of the plan they’ve already written. My best advice is this: Complete the plan all the way through on your original set of assumptions. That way you can see the financial impact of your ideas, and it will be much easier to make the right changes in the second draft. If you start revising individual parts of the plan before you have the complete picture, you’ll waste a lot of energy. If you’re like me, you’ll rewrite and edit your plan several times once you’ve finished the first run through.

And a Few More Words

As I write this, the book has been in print for over 25 years and has sold more than 150,000 copies. I have heard that it has been pirated in some parts of the former Soviet Union. Since it first came out I have taught, lectured, and consulted on business plans in a wide variety of forums. I have taken that experience and reformulated the exercises in the book to make them more effective as well as easier and quicker to use. I remain friends with many of the people I met through the book and occasionally help them over rough spots in their planning, which is the most gratifying part of the experience for me. My business is helping people write business plans that find the money for their businesses. Call me at 415-816-2982 and I’ll listen or help if I can. You can also email me at mckeever.mp@ gmail.com. Please mention “Nolo Business Plan Book” in the subject line of your email, otherwise, I might delete it as a spam message. Finally, to avoid always using the pronoun “he” when referring to individuals in general, and to further avoid clumsy neologisms like “s/he” and awkward phraseologies like “he/she” and “he or she,” I have compromised by the random use of “he” in some instances and “she” in others. I hope I have arrived at a fair balance. Also, keep in mind that wherever possible, this book uses plain language, not jargon. As a result, you may find that I have often substituted simple terminology for traditional business plan lingo