Business Plans

“The general who wins the battle, makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses, makes but few calculations beforehand.”
Sun Tzu – The Art of War

Your business plan is probably the most important document you ever prepare for your business. Before you even start your business, you should prepare a business plan. A good plan is the difference between success and failure.

The executive summary and the financial statements are probably the most important parts of a business plan. The executive summary should never be more than two pages. And the financial statements have to make sense.

If you’re going to be looking for money from family, they may not want to see your business plan. Close family will probably trust you. The biggest problem about borrowing money from family members is that if the business does not succeed, you will constantly be reminded about any money that was lost.

If you are expecting friends to invest in your business, they will probably want to read your business plan. They want to see that you have thought it through and that you have a fairly detailed plan for how you are going to use their money. They will also want to see that the proposed business will be able to pay back their investment and make them some money.

Many bankers don’t actually read all of your business plan. They will probably read the executive summary and they will thoroughly read the financials. They want to know that their loans are secured with appropriate collateral and that the business has enough excess cash flow to repay the loan.

We are experts at writing business plans and have prepared business plans for many different types and sizes of business. As professional accountants, we make sure that the financial statements show a good picture of the business and that all of the numbers tie together.

Many people who prepare business plans use a cheap software package that does all of the work for them, so they can churn them out quickly. If you are only quoted a thousand dollars or two for a business plan, it is almost certain that you’ll get a document generated by one of those business plan software packages. After all, the writer has to make a decent living, so they have to get them written quickly. We do it right. We will challenge your assumptions and use our many years of business knowledge to make sure that your business plan makes business sense.

We will help you define your market and how to sell to them. We will never say something like: “The market for the product is 50 million dollars. If we only achieve two percent of that market, our revenues will be one million dollars.” We will work with you to prepare a professional document — a business plan that works for you.

We’ve researched, prepared and presented hundreds of business plans, strategic plans, budgets, forecasts and business cases for small businesses and large corporations. Our audience has been managers, business owners, bankers, investors and Boards of Directors. When you need help with a business plan, contact us through our website, or call us toll-free at +1 (800) 661-9842.