Steps In A Business Plan

Accuracy is key, so carefully analyze your past financial statements before giving projections.Your goals may be aggressive, but they should also be realistic.

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“It’s OK to be optimistic if you can justify it,” Allen says.

“In general, you don’t want to stand out in a negative way by being too optimistic.” You want to show that your business can generate strong enough cash flow to cover the regular debt payments on a loan.

[Back to top] List any supporting information or other additional information that you couldn’t fit in elsewhere, such as resumes of key employees, licenses, equipment leases, permits, patents, receipts, bank statements, contracts, and personal and business credit history.

If the appendix is long, you may want to consider adding a table of contents at the beginning of this section.

It outlines how your business will generate enough profit to repay the loan or how you will earn a decent return for investors.

Here, you’ll provide your business’s monthly or quarterly sales, expenses and profit estimates over at least a three-year period — with the future numbers assuming you’ve obtained a new loan.

Focus on the key elements of your business plan and avoid getting too bogged down by the technical aspects of your business or using too much industry jargon.

You can always put supporting information or other important details in the appendix.

“They know what you can expect sales to be for that type of business in that market,” Allen says.

“If you walk in with a sales forecast 50% higher than other businesses, they are going to know that you are not being realistic, and that’s going to work against you.” Keep it concise: All you need is 15 to 25 pages for a good business plan, as long as the plan is clear, concise and contains all of the relevant information, Allen says.