Business Plan

[Shane19]

I recently finished my business plan and I am wondering where can I go to get someone to review it to make sure it makes sense and so on before I submit it to anyone (i.e. investor / bank)

[CIsaac]

You can go to your nearest SCORE or Small Business Development Center. They will be forthright with you.

[akula]

noobiez make note, shane19 has just made a common mistake by writing a plan without firstly consulting his audience. the result is that shane's audience will either tell him "yeah, submit your plan using our format" or they'll take his plan but fail to read it because it doesn't fit their format. guys, when writing these things, approach your audience first. it's as simple as saying "hi, I wanna submit a plan, what's your preferred format?" that's a much more effective method than writing the thing and then trying to shop it around.

[BusinessAdviser]

Well said, akula. Your plan should fit your audience. Are you going to a bank? To an investor? They want different things. Give them what they want, if you want to get what they have.

[strategicrating]

Hi.... I'm a professional who's been building business plans and strategies for over 20 years. Here's my advice:

Review/Test: You can have the high level factors of your Business plan assessed at no charge on my site =>strategicrating.com/forms/test_your_idea.php<=. We will structure an industry model of your plan, applying thousands of business rules to assumptions implied by your cursory profile and give you back some helpful suggestions (even if that means forget it), as well as an indication of your likelihood of meeting your plans' objective.

Format: There are many formats for creating a business plan, the biggest difference is between those targeted for financing vs. a 'roadmap' explaining in detail how you will make the journey. Nonetheless, the only format you should 'probably' be concerned with is that the format is the one preferred by the SBA, banks and most investors. If you used any of the leading Business Planning packages (planware, bplans or Palo Alto's software) then it is already the current format needed.

Sample Plans?: For the majority of companies, sample business plans in their industry are only useful for confirming the 'format', as well as to gauge how better yours is (i.e. to see the mistakes). Why? - Because the payout is all in the individual strategy of the company in the plan - with their exact mix of competitors, channels, suppliers, product/service offerings, service, promotion, past markets, and financial staying power.

Industry Specific?: Here's the rub....While the names may change, the most important fundamentals of processes that are performed in strategic analysis and the creation of business plans, only reflects a significant between product, service and virtual companies. What? - It's true, and the biggest difference is that the materials and inventory topics are merged with production for product companies.

Getting it Done: The SBA claims the average entrepreneur should expect to spend upwards of 400 hours to create a strong plan based on their preferred format. By contrast, with a Ivy League business background, specializing in re-engineering business processes, we've managed to reduce/optimize the process to a few days, with even more diligent analysis.

In addition to the free plan assessment, we have great videos, stories and case studies of Great Business strategy, as well as abundant resource links for financing, market research, franchising, taxes, and much more. Our experience also covers more than 2 dozen industries.

That's actually why I made the statements I did having been around the block more than a few times...

Best of luck in your endeavors.