Though most companies begin with detailed business plans to help gain capital and launch operations, many find that developing and maintaining simple business plans can help keep them on track as their business matures. Of course, many business owners find that starting out with simple business plans can be the key to successful proposals as well as future developments.

Keeping Business Plans Simple

Frequently, entrepreneurs will feel that a lengthy presentation will wow a review board. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Keep in mind that these boards review several of these presentations every day, so they will be thankful for a reasonable amount of brevity. The ideal plan will be kept to 20 pages or less, including the appendixes.

Invest efforts in your executive summary. This is a company’s opportunity to shine, and since many of the plan’s details may be skimmed over, the impact of the executive summary can make or break an entrepreneur’s chances with the review board.

Assign only one writer to the task. The brainstorming and overall development is a team effort, but it’s much easier to keep the facts and tone consistent when only one person does the actual writing.

Many entrepreneurs find that making sure all the crucial elements of even the simplest business plan is best left to a consultant like those found at .

New restaurants are notoriously difficult to finance, but having a solid restaurant business plan can make all the difference. Even if you feel that you have a clear and well-developed idea of how your restaurant will operate, you may be surprised by how much you’ll learn just by banging out the details.

What Makes Restaurant Business Plans Unique

Though most business plans have a considerable amount of information in common, restaurant business plans have a few special elements. First, these plans may include more detail than usual, since a hopeful restaurateur will want to describe what the dining experience will be like for the patrons. While ambiance may or may not be an important factor in a retail business, it is one of the key elements of designing a eating establishment, whether it be fast food or fine dining.

Another crucial point in a restaurant business plan is to outline the suppliers. Though quality and freshness are excellent marketing points, investors will want to see how the management team plans on balancing the high cost and frequent turnover of fresh ingredients to create the best compromise of quality and profit.

Finally, investors will be most confident in a restaurateur who has both proven culinary experience and solid business management skills. However, they will also be more supportive of an entrepreneur who knows his or her own limits, and plans to hire key employees to help cover all the bases, since one person can’t be everywhere at once. A consultant like can help iron out these kinds of details.

Many of the details that help make a retail business plan stand out are very similar to most other types of business plans. However, what helps make retail business plans unique is the focus and detail that should go into the products and services section.

Products and Services Section of a Retail Business Plan

The primary purpose of this section is to describe precisely what kind of products and services the retail business will offer. These specific and explicit details will generate a thorough and professional business plan for any kind of new or expanding retail store:

• How will the merchandise stand out among the merchandise of competing retailers? What makes it unique?
• What methods will be used to display and price the merchandise?
• What POS systems will be used, and what forms of pay will be accepted? Will the store offer its own line of credit to help boost sales?
• What specific elements will the customers find beneficial? What will help influence them to buy from this business?
• Which vendors will be solicited? Will there be any exclusive lines of merchandise for this business?
• Which patents and other legal holdings will the business have on original products?

Though there are many details to cover, keeping this section under three pages will help keep the information concise, while still leaving plenty of room for expansion in the presentation.

Retail business plans are the blueprints for new or growing companies. These plans help to outline and articulate the projected growth and financial goals of a business for all those who have a stake in the company’s success. This includes financial investors, partners, advisors, and ultimately the customers. Having solid plans will go a long way towards gaining capital for a new or expanding company.

What Retail Business Plans Should Do

Investors will often seek specific information when determining whether they wish to support new or growing companies. In order to provide valuable and relevant information for these investors, a retail business plan should:

• Demonstrate solid experience and past successes of the management team
• Define and properly analyze the target market
• Show how the company meets the needs of the customers
• Indicate how the company expects to retain long-term relationships and insulate against other retail businesses that share the target market
• Outline realistic financial expectations

Having all of these elements will not only help investors get a comprehensive look at the company, but it will also demonstrate that the management team is entering into the venture with a clear and sober vision.

In order to present the most powerful business plans, many new and developing companies will choose to hire a business plan consultant.

Making a business plan outline will allow a potential business owner to focus his or her business plan, and then cover all the required bases. Here is a comprehensive list of what should be included in this plan outline.

Business Plan Outline

1. Cover Sheet
2. Executive Summary
3. Table of Contents

Section One: Organization

• Description of the business
• Products and services that will be provided
• Intellectual property ownership
• Location
• Structure of the legal department
• Management team
• Essential personnel
• Accounting structure
• Insurance needs
• Security plans

Section Two: Marketing

• General overview and goals of the marketing strategies
• Market analysis
• Detailed description of marketing strategies
• Implementation of marketing strategies
• Marketing assessment

Section Three: Financial

• Summary of financing needs
• Dispersal of loan funds statement
• Budget
• Three-to-five-year income projection worksheets
• Projected balance worksheet
• Break-even analysis

An established business looking to expand will also need:

• Income statement
• Balance sheet
• Financial analysis
• Financial history of business prior to current plan

Section Four: Appendices

• Resumes of key staff
• Financial statements
• Credit reports
• Real estate documents
• Letters of reference
• Contracts
• Legal documents, including standard non-disclosure forms
• Miscellaneous documents

Though this outline covers all of the standard elements of a professional business plan, individual companies may find that they require other elements to create a fully visualized representation of their business goals.

The business plan involves so much documentation and research, many feel that hiring a consultant is a worthwhile and helpful expenditure. Professional consultants like those found at can help save time.

Writing a small business plan is one of the most important things that any new business owner will do. It is especially crucial for small and privately owned companies to develop and update these plans in order to remain productive and competitive.

Elements of a Small Business Plan

Every small business plan has primary elements that should be included to give investors, partners and potential employees a clear and concise view of a new or growing company. These elements are:

1. Executive Summary
2. Problem Statement
3. Solution Statement
4. Business Model
5. Definition and descriptions of what sets this business apart from its competitors
6. Marketing and Sales Plans
7. Exploration of real and potential competitor companies
8. Management team members and summary of their experience
9. Projections of both profits and expenditures for the company
10. Status of materials, real estate, supplies and employees along with a timeline for all elements not currently in operation
11. Conclusion

Many of these elements involve in-depth research to provide current and accurate information. This is quite time-consuming, but it is absolutely critical that each section be thoroughly explored.

Most investment review boards recommend that a small business plan be 20 pages or less, regardless of the size of the company. Though each plan should provide a complete description of each element, these descriptions should be written in a concise, professional manner.

Many potential business owners find that hiring a certified business broker really makes a difference when it comes to developing their professional business plans. Often, a consultant can also perform as a business broker, making it far easier to locate investors, real estate and other key elements of a successful project.

Advantages of Hiring a Certified Business Broker

Business plans can be complicated, even for what seems like the smallest, most straightforward project. The time investment alone for this crucial element of the development of a company can be discouraging, but hiring a business plan consultant can ensure the inclusion of solid, reliable research in far less time.

One reason a certified business broker is a benefit to any company is that he or she has access to resources that most business owners do not. Hiring these brokers will open up a wide range of resources that will make any proposal faster to develop, and it will also appear far more professional. Additionally, business plan consultants are often certified brokers, so they understand how the proposal should be developed and what potential investors are looking for.

Business owners can keep control of their projects by writing elements themselves that they feel confident with, and then asking the consultant to refine them. The most difficult tasks can be left up to the consultant, but the business owner will always have final approval. Most find the financial elements to be the most challenging aspects, since most of the calculations are fictitious at this stage. A consultant can help calculate these figures faster while keeping them both reasonable and accurate.