To Plan or Not to Plan

As a senior professor of Business Planning, Development and Growth, I have taught the subject of designing a Business Plan at various universities for more than 20 years. Every text I have used was fairly good, but for some reason it was missing some vitally important points. Having gone through numerous Business Planning books, I can attest that I have a pretty good idea of what should be in an effective Business Plan. In addition, I have written many Business Plans for my clients and...
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As a senior professor of Business Planning, Development and Growth, I have taught the subject of designing a Business Plan at various universities for more than 20 years. Every text I have used was fairly good, but for some reason it was missing some vitally important points. Having gone through numerous Business Planning books, I can attest that I have a pretty good idea of what should be in an effective Business Plan. In addition, I have written many Business Plans for my clients and of course for my own business. With that in mind, I wrote this book, which in the eyes of many colleagues on mine who inspected it, it's an all-inclusive Master Business Plan.In writing this book, my team and I, were enormously attentive to any and all possible issues that a comprehensive Business Plan should incorporate. We were fully aware of the fact that not everyone will have a need for all 90 elements incorporated in this Master Business Plan. However, we provided all 90 elements so every point will be addressed.People need a Business Plan either for a "state-up" or an existing business. Both are addressed herein.In general, before we proceed with the design of our Business Plan we should first define its purpose. What do we want to accomplish with it? Next, it's critically important that we are aware of who will be the recipient or user of such plan. From this perspective, Business Plans are classified into:1. External users (Financial institutions, Government, investors, donors and other entities)2. Internal users (Strategic, Operational, Expansion, Marketability, Quality, Efficiency)More specifically:If we are preparing it for Bankers, we should pay special attention to the following:-Financial Statements and requested amount-Where, when and how will the funds be used-Repayment plan and time table (you may need some grace period)-Pay-back period and ROI-Collateral assets -Co-signer(s) If our intent is to present it to potential Investors, the following are crucial topics:-Amount of funds to be raised-Vehicle for raising such funds, i.e. bonds, stocks, loans, type of stocks etc-If stocks are used, will dividends be paid, when, how-If bonds are used, what interest will be paid, maturity date etc-When the funds will be needed and in what amounts-How the funds will be used (operational-infrastructure-expansion or other) Potentiality of success, how and why-Overall estimated ROI-Estimated Payback period and Break-Even Point-Partial repayment via IPO-Financial reporting methods along with who will be doing such reporting-Possible involvement of investors in the decision making such as Board of DirectorsFinally, you may want a Business Plan to serve as a "blueprint" for your own internal planning and operational needs. Regardless of the purpose, we have prepared an all-inclusive blueprint. Of course, another important factor is the type of business we are dealing with. It makes a difference if our business is a manufacturing, a service or a merchandizing entity. In manufacturing, most of the capital should go to buildings, machinery and equipment. In merchandizing, attention should be given to the merchandise purchased and sold (inventory turnover ratio). Finally, in service, we don't need much capital for infrastructure, but our payroll will be considerably high. An area that no one is addressing in Business Planning, is Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A). We have incorporated an extensive coverage of M&A because many of our clients needed a Business Plan when they acquired another business. This is a unique situation and such a Business Plan should incorporate sensitive and critically important information. The last segment of our Business Plan is devoted to M&A. Well, all these issues are thoroughly addressed in this book. You have a "HOW TO and WHY" approach to designing a great Business Plan.Please let us know how you felt about it; your comments will be greatly appreciated;e:aristonu@att.netThank you,