No business can effectively operate nor attract the funds needed to survive prosper and grow without a good business plan. A good plan is a management tool that shows where your business is going, and just how you plan to get there, and is a necessity for attracting lenders, investors, partners and key personnel, plan outlines vary but they all must cover certain key areas, such as: Executive Summary, Business Description, Marketing Plan, Financial Plan, Management Team, and Appendix.

Moreover, there are many kinds of software on the market that can help you write you write a good plan, but you must still input the data needed to write your plan into the software. The output of the software can never be any better than the data you put into it and you must manually put that in yourself. Here are four steps to help you write a strong business plan:

1. Put all of your plan data and information into several good old fashion file folders and label each folder so that you know what is in it. This data and information will include such materials as marketing methods you will use, market research, management team bio’s, financial statements, profit projects and other similar items.

2. Get a good outline or use the outline in the software you will be using to help draft your plan. And write a 250 to 500 word summary for each section of your business plan using the materials that you have in your plan data and information file folders.

3. Expand upon your brief summary descriptions for each section of your plan to write your actual plan, or let the software write this for you. Be sure to give extra attention to the marketing section of your plan because this section gets the more attention than any other part of your plan from lenders and investors, since this tells how your profits will be obtained.

4. Keep your plan to between eight to 12 pages, because when it comes to business plans more it not better, and anything longer than that quite simply won’t get read, then put a list of other information you have available in your appendix to be requested if wanted. You want your business plan to be a clear concise document that is easy to read and understand, because a confused mind will usually say no to what is being proposed.

A good business plan will help you to effectively and profitably operate your business, and is a clear road map that shows where you business is going, how you plan to get there, the people you will need to get there, and the profits your business will produce when you get there. And it will help you to get the money you need from lenders and investors to get where you want to go with your business. So do not underestimate the power of a good well written business plan, and by all means prepare you one getting started today.

Starting a new business based on your new invention? You need to know how to write a business plan. Creating a comprehensive detailed business plan forces you to make the decisions that need to be made, requires you to do your research and determine all those little details that need to be addressed, from the day to day office expenses to the cost of packaging for your invention, product, or service.

You will know what your price structure will be and how your product will be distributed. This is very important information. Your price structure depends on your distribution. Do you sell retail and wholesale? Do you sell to OEMs? How about mail order? You have to have a price structure that will accommodate a number of different prices for different channels of distribution.

By the time you’ve finished your business plan you should have a pretty good idea of all of the expenses involved in your undertaking, including the cost of manufacturing, marketing, the cost of sales, your hard costs, and fixed costs of your product. You will have knowledge about your competition, about the pricing structure for your product, the lines of distribution, cost of advertising for the various types of media campaigns, and even the cost of your product liability insurance.

Will your product need code approvals from Underwriters Laboratories (UL), IAMPMO, NSF, FDA, or one or more of the multitude of such agencies? How much will that cost and what is involved? Your plan will spell it all out.

You’ll know the retail price and the profit you will make, and you will have a timeline to follow. Make your plan concise and professional, and detailed enough to convey a sense of credibility. Get it all down on paper

If you are going to raise money to finance your invention, product, or service company, you will absolutely need a business plan. Potential investors want to see everything down on paper before they will even consider your idea.

In general your business plan should include; a cover sheet, a statement of purpose of the plan, table of contents, a description of the business, marketing – how you plan to market your product or service, your competition – demonstrate a thorough knowledge of your competition, operating procedures – describe how your business will operate, personnel – introduce your key personnel, loan applications – if any, equipment and supply list – list all of your equipment and supplies, Balance sheet, break even analysis, spread sheet with cash flow for at least three years – monthly for the first year and quarterly after that, and the assumptions upon which you based your projections.

The specifics of your business plan depend heavily on what type of business you are going to be operating. Whatever kind of business it is, you will find tons of information about how to put a business plan together online. The Small Business Administration has a comprehensive guide.

Just begin a search for business plans and review lots of samples and read the advice that you find, and then get started.

When you run into a problem that is difficult to solve, be glad you found it while doing the plan, not after you are already in business. So the more detail you provide the better off you will be, and the better your credibility.

Given the drastic changes in technology as well as the market place, businesses are changing and progressing really fast. The only way to match this pace is to have a strategically oriented plan in place that will help you create a direction for this change. You may not be able to control the pace but you can at least chalk out the road on which it progresses!

Hiring a business consultant can prove to be extremely helpful in such situations. While most of us assume that hiring business consultants is just an additional expenditure that business owners must avoid, this is a misconception. Business consultants are seasoned experts who are familiar with the several situations pertaining to an organization and its growth. Their experience and expertise can come in extremely handy especially in the present day recessionary scenario.

Here are four reasons why hiring a business planning consultant can be a great move for your organization.

Fill in for full time staff

As part of your expansion process, you may have handed out pink slips to several employees whose services are not needed full time. You can easily ask business consultants to step in and fill in for them on occasions where you need their services. This way you can save money and avoid hiring staff on a full time basis. Also, hiring consultants ensures that you are investing in quality and expertise that will lead to the welfare of your business.

Hiring and firing

Your business is not doing so well and you need to downsize but the challenge lies in figuring out who to keep and who to get rid of. As the business owner, you may be accused of having a biased opinion and not be able to look at the multiple aspects surrounding the issue. However, hiring a business consultant can help you avoid such problems. Being outside the organization, the business consultant will be able to analyse the utility of every staff member more accurately and therefore take better decisions.

Better equipped to understand better

You are handling your own business but a consultant has the rare privilege of handling multiple clients. In simple terms, you are figuring out the solution to one problem but a consultant may be battling the same situation in different businesses across categories. This gives him or her, a stronger ability to identify the solution and several other impacts of the problem that may be hidden from your eye.

Fresh perspective

There are situations when the solution to the problem is just round the corner but we are so obsessed with the impact that we rarely notice the simple details. However, bringing a consultant on board will infuse a fresh perspective to the entire issue making it easier for the solution to be identified.