Writing a Convincing Business Plan

As a CPA/Attorney who has both written and reviewed a lot of business plans, I have seen both some very good ones and some awful ones. Too often the preparers of the bad ones confuse a business plan with an offering circular, hoping to convince an unknown investor or venture capitalist to provide financial backing for their ideas. The resulting "Business Plan" is an incomplete, poorly researched, turgid description of their idea, with lots of spreadsheets attached (detailed monthly financial projections for the next ten years). What is overlooked is the fact that a good business plan serves as a road map for the operators of a business. The process of systematically analyzing your business and stating your plans simply in writing will force you to think through how you are going to deal with the various problems you are going to face. Like another reviewer of this book, after reading the descriptions of various books on the subject, I purchased three of them. This one is far and away the best of the three and of all those I've read in the past. It systematically takes you through the planning process (industry analysis, marketing and sales, the operating plan, the organization plan, and the financial plan) and provides useful and intelligent checklists at each stage. If you follow its guidance, you will end up with a useful plan for running your business. And if you decide to seek outside investors, you will be far more likely to raise money.

This book should be within arm's reach the entire time you begin to think about and write your business plan. It is well organized, tightly written, and most importantly, it prompts you to analyze and to answer the critical questions. I've read at least 10 other books on business plans, but this one gets to the heart of the matter better than the others. Many of the questions and topics covered would never have occurred to me if I hadn't read this book. Buy others, but get this one first.

The book provides extraordinary insight into writing a business plan! Every detail is laid out step by step, and includes addresses and phone numbers to organizations that provide crucial research that a person will need for any business research. Every aspect of the business plan is presented concisely and is well organized, leaving nothing for the reader to question. Not one question you may have will go unanswered! Unequivocally, the best book on writing a business proposal! (And I have purchased several books!)

I checked out a couple dozen books the first time i wrote a business plan (i like to get a lot of angles), but now i only use this one. it assumes nothing, gets straight to the point, and covers all the bases. i particularly like the bulleting, which makes it very easy to hit the main points of each section, and the questions, which focus your thinking on the critical issues and stimulate some very helpful introspection. i read a lot of non-fiction business/technical, and i have never been so impressed with a book. (and as a rule, i don't do reviews...)