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The Business Plan is the blueprint for your business.
The Business Plan is the blueprint for your business. You need to prepare a rough sketch and make revisions as you grow your business.
It is a living document. I may never be a completed a finished blueprint ready for production. It is undertaken to provide the owners with goals and strategies, both short and long term.
Principals of the company
The most qualified persons to prepare the business plan are the founders or the principals of the company.
The owners may hire a professional to finalize the document into a format that is easy to read, and has more graphic appeal, but the facts that support the content should be the work of the executives of the company. Every Business Plan should reflect the goals and the paths intended to achieve the goals.
The Business Plan must take into consideration the corporate structure, the marketing plan, the management team, the real estate needs, the pre-opening expenses and the operating budget.
In addition cash flow projections with realistic goals must be matched with action plan with time parameters to achieve those goals. This is a living document, changeable with the passage of time and the progress of the business. There are segments of the document that can be used when preparing an executive summary.
In the opinion of the author, as long as your business is operating you do not finalize the Business Plan.
You keep it updated and meaningful, but it is always in draft format. You should date each version. If you wish to make a written presentation to a meaningful audience your format should be an Executive Summary that will highlight the strengths of the business and serves to induce an interested party to request more information.
The follow up would be the presentation of the most current version of the Business Plan.
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