When people think about starting a business, writing a business plan is usually the last thing they consider. It's exciting to dive into details, start choosing paint colors, pricing equipment. Yet starting a business without a plan is like taking a trip to a new place without a map or building a house without blueprints. You may finish, you may even get a good result, but the odds are it will cost you more time and money than if you'd figured it out ahead of time.
There's a school of thought about entrepreneurship that believes that you should just get going. Focus on the product and the customer and make it great. There's a lot of validity to that argument. But there is another part of the business, the machine that gets materials ordered, that produces product, that manages cash flow. Not planning that part, the machine of your business, is akin to relying on miracles.
Writing a business plan takes your business idea out of your head and brings it into the world for a test drive. Even if your final business doesn't match your plan, the effort and discipline used to create it will help you improvise when things don't go the way you thought they would.
The vast majority of businesses that start without a plan fail. Your plan will be written either by a deliberate process where you decide the future of your business in advance or by fate with each decision is made in real time.
A business plan is the single best step you can take to rehearse the launch of a successful business. 'Killer Business Plan' is a practical book that breaks down business concepts into easy to understand language that will make the steps to building your business clear.
Written in three parts, 'Killer Business Plan' focuses first on the ways you can get into business, the traits of successful entrepreneurs and provides tips on how to choose and visualize your business.
Next, the book explains the various business structures available, provides a grounding in non-profits and grants and helps you determine if your business is viable through exercises using financial viability models.
Finally, you're guided, step-by-step, through the creation of your own killer business plan. Using a progressive approach, each step builds both your understanding of your business and while continually testing the viability of it. If your plan is going to work, you will know it at the earliest point possible, saving you effort if your idea isn't workable.
At the end of the first two parts, 'decision documents' help you determine both your next steps and allow you to gauge your commitment to moving forward.
Chapters:
Part 1
1. Know Yourself
2. Franchises
3. Start Ups
4. Buying a Business
5. Decision Document 1
6. Visualizing Your Business
7. Who is My Customer?
8. Pulling it All Together
9. Decision Document 2
Part 2
10. Feasibility Model and Instructions
11. Funding Sources
12. Non-Profits
13. Corporate Structures
14. Decision Document 3
Part 3
15. Business Plan Overview
16. Operational Design
17. Financial Models
18. Industry Research
19. Customer Identification
20. Marketing
21. Organizational Plan
22. Executive Summary
23. Document Assembly
'Killer Business Plan' is also linked to online content such as:
How to Videos
Examples
White Papers
Financial Models
Templates
Sample Business Plans
'Killer Business Plan' is a common sense book that will educate you about business basics, help you choose a business and create a plan that will get you to launch and beyond.
It's your future. Plan for success.
About the Author: Peter and Lydia Mehit have been writing business plans and providing business consulting to start ups and small businesses for over a decade. They have written over 500 business plans and those plans have raised over $90 million dollars for their clients. Both have extensive backgrounds with major corporations and start ups, across nearly every sector of the economy. In addition to their practice, they work with budding entrepreneurs through training and mentoring in the southern California area.
