Business Plan

Business plans vary in shape, size, and color. If you were to view 100 business plans submitted to banks,

you would see 100 unique plans. Some plans would be 10 pages, and others would be 100 pages. You

might even have 5 page business plans.

Investors, including banks and the small business administration, all have different requirements and

rubrics for decision making concerning business plans. In addition, entrepreneurs all have different

drivers that helps them focus their plans. Some entrepreneurs will need much focus in "legal" sections,

and others will need very little, depending on their business.

For instance, when this instructor submitted their plan, there was no legal section. But there wasn't a

lot of intellectual property to protect, either. Nor were there patents. Some legal matters were covered

in the purchase agreement, but not in the plan.

So keep in mind the very flexible nature of a business plan. However, keep in mind also that you are

enrolled in a class, and thus it is important to cover material in a thorough manner. Thus, students are

required to complete all of the sections below, with guidance from their instructor. This will give you a

broad and thorough experience, and prepare you should you actually submit a plan.

Maybe you will never actually *start* a business, and if this is the case you will be exposed to all of the

important elements in a plan so you can help your future spouse, sibling, parent, friend, boss, or student

as they work to put together a solid plan.

See the next page for step by step advice for each phase. Note on the syllabus when each phase is due,

so you can be in compliance with the course due dates.

Executive Summary (To be added later, after all phases complete)

Create the executive summary after completing your full business plan. This will be uploaded with the

Final Business Plan, which merges Phases 1-4 together into one document.

Note that each item here should be a "header" in your document. You will literally start each section

with the heading below, and then include content below. Please write in single space, block format.

This means there is no indentation before each paragraph.

Phase 4 – External Analysis

Businesses must look OUTSIDE their own individual/internal skills and offerings to understand what is going on in the broader world. An external analysis takes place to help business owners “read the tea leaves” and make changes and decisions nimbly and wisely.