What to include in a business plan

[hassen1]

The following is a general outline of items that may be included in a business plan.

Description of business
Your market
Your competition
Location of your business
Management of your business

Personnel information

Financial Information:
Sources and application of additional funding
A list of your capital equipment
A balance sheet of your business for the past three years
A breakeven analysis of your business
An projection of income, often called a profit and loss statement - A two year summary
A monthly detail for each year with year-end summaries
Assumptions of each line item.
A cash flow projection over at least the next year, based upon your obtaining the loan:
A one year summary (minimum)
A monthly detail of each summary
Notes to explain various items you feel necessary
Three years historical financial reports for existing business (or however long you've been in business if less than three years):
Balance sheets
Income statements
Income tax returns

Supporting Documents:
Personal resumes of those actively involved in the business.
Job descriptions of all involved in the business
Personal financial information for those signing on the loan
Letters of reference
Letters of intent to do business with you
Copies of leases
Contracts and other legal documents pertaining to your business
Anything else you feel is relevant to your proposal
Narrative:
The narrative portion of your plan supplements and explains the above information. If there is anything unfavourable in your credit history, explain it away before the bank uncovers something that may cause them to deny your request. Don't give the bank any surprises! Remember, your personal credit and financial status will be intertwined with that of your business.

[humpty]

woah.....
that's really detailed information, i bet it's helpful to a lot of newbies here, heck, it's a good checklist for me as well

thanks for sharing lol

[rowenahere]

It was a good effort for hassen1 to provide the outline for business plan. With those outlined requirements, anybody will be guided. Could anyone use the format regardless of location? What if my own locality demands for a different style and format of business plan? Does the blueprint have to strictly follow a standardized format? Or, the given outline was the basic one?

[mini_0]

One must pay attention to the funding part too . If you plan to try and get funding for your new business from either a bank, standard lender, or investor, you will need to create what's known as a formal business plan. Formal business plans will provide a summary of your business and market, then go into explicit details about your products, customers and markets, suppliers, profitability estimates, analysis of the competition and more. These formal business plans can often run twenty pages in length and take months to complete.