If you are a Small Business Start-Up and starting from scratch it’s a good idea to put together a simple business plan. Your business plan will probably change as you and your business grow, but you need a good starting point. We can help you draft a plan that suits your needs and help you fine-tune it as your business takes shape.

Business Plans for Small Business Start-Ups

Essential Elements:

A business plan should be a work-in-progress. Even successful, growing businesses should maintain a current business plan.

As any good salesperson knows, you have to know everything you can about your products or services in order to persuade someone to buy them. In this discussion, you are the salesperson and your products represent your business. Your customers are potential investors and employees. Since you want your customers to believe in you, you must be able to convince them that you know what you are talking about when it comes to your business.

To become an expert (or to fine-tune your knowledge if you already believe you are one), you must be willing to roll up your sleeves and begin digging through information. Since not all information that you gather will be relevant to the development of your business plan, it will help you to know what you are looking for before you get started. In order to help you with this process, we have developed an outline of the essential elements a good business plan.

Every successful business plan should include something about each of the following areas.

Essentials of a good business plan:

• Executive Summary
• Market Analysis
• Company Description
• Organization & Management
• Marketing & Sales Management
• Service or Product Line
• Funding Request
• Financials
• Appendix

A great place to go to help formulate your new business plan is the Small Business Administration or sba.

They have great resources for your new business, from business plan templates to help with marketing ideas, funding sources, loans, grants and much more. Visit the Small Business Administration website to learn more.