Alpha Teach Yourself Business Plans in 24 Hours

I looked through a number of books and this was by far the book with the best advice. I put the other books down and just used this. Well written and well organized.

Michael Miller's Business Plans is one of the best books I've ever read. Period. I'm an MBA student and this is the first book I highly recommend to anyone interested in any kind of business. It's wonderfully written. Very practical examples and perfectly designed. Buy a copy now, there is no other option of this quality.

This book is well-organized and very informative. It is written for the small business owner who has not written a business plan previously and who needs one to apply for a small business loan or to be able to approach an angel investor or venture capital firm. My favorite part of the book was Chapter 24 where the author discusses Private Placement Memorandum (PPMs). He tells us how to put one such document together after you have prepared your basic business plan. PPMs are what you need to produce if you are going to offer stock in your company to investors who are other than your family and friends. Appendix A was great. It gives a 20-minute summary recap of the book. I recommend you read the appendix before tackling the book. The other chapters I enjoyed reading a lot were: Chapter 11 - Vision and Mission Chapter 12 - Opportunity Chapter 13 - Market Strategy Chapter 14 - Business Strategy Chapter 15 - Organization and Operations Chapter 18 - Financials Chapter 23 entitled "Use Your Business Plan" was less than I expected. In reality, a good business plan is a benchmark and roadmap for a business owner/manager to use to move the business forward. It's not simply a document to look at once in a while or to distribute to employees to motivate them as the author suggests. A business plan is a strategic plan with regards to making money. The author could have done a better job explaining this. My overall feeling about the book when I finished it was that it dealt too much on writing in general and not enough on specifically writing a business plan. In a way, I felt as though the author was an expert on how to write research papers and in writing this book he simply re-wrote a "how-to write a research paper" book and targeted it for readers who want to prepare a business plan. I found it odd that the author decided to explain a plan's Executive Summary (ES) when he did. An ES is the introduction to a business plan, and any knowledgeable writer knows one writes their introduction and conclusions after the main body of the document has been written. I kind of expected the author to cover the sections of the business plan in the order in which they are created, not the order in which they are presented in the plan. But that's just me. All in all, seriously consider giving this book a read if you are interested in writing a business plan for your business or startup.