Business Plan Basics: Redux

Monday June 4, 2007

If you haven't already developed one, a formal business plan provides a great roadmap and is a requirement is you are looking for third-party financing support, such as an SBA loan.

The original Business Plan Basics is one of the essentials here on the About Home Business site, and it continues to be one of the most popular articles on this site. I've freshened up the article a bit, so if you're in the process of creating a business plan or will be soon, or even if you just want to know more on what formal business plans are all about, you'll definitely want to revisit this article.

The business plan outline provided in the article has been updated to more closely parallel the US Small Business Administration's recommended business plan outline published on its website and, as a result you may find it easier to follow and, with a little luck and perseverance, you may even be able to finally get off the dime about preparing your own business plan.

As you can see, I've also added a poll to see where About Home Business readers are with respect to creating or developing a formal business plan. You're also welcome to post a comment here (you may need to disable your popup blocker) or continue the discussion on business plans in the Home Business forum.

In the weeks ahead I'll be taking a closer look at each section of the business plan outline, which will help you walk through the process and see what kind of information you need to gather in order to complete a formal business plan for your home business. Whether you do it yourself, or hire someone else to create the final plan document, you'll have a better feel for what it's supposed to contain, which is bound to save you both time and money in the long run. Maybe this will be the summer when your business plan finally becomes a reality!