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About Sue Brissette
Expertise
I have over thirty years of experience in business management and have written hundreds of business plans, feasibility studies and financial analyses. I will be happy to answer questions about how to approach writing a business plan, how to do market research, the elements of business plan writing, how to make your business proposition compelling, how to write a value statement, management and personnel issues, market strategy, feasibility analysis, financial analysis, what investors want to know, how to find potential investors, risk issues and more. I find that entrepreneurs often find it helpful to have someone to give them a nudge in the right direction and if I can do that for you, it will be my pleasure to help. If you need more help, I will be happy to speak with you about my consulting services.

Experience
I have written well over one hundred business plans across industries from bricks and mortar retail, heating industry, restaurant industry, e-commerce, biotechnology, health and human services (my special expertise). My clients have had strong success in achieving funding through angel investors, institutional investors, bank financing, grant funding and SBA loans. I also write extensively in the areas of e-commerce and healthcare.

Publications
I have authored hundreds of articles for on-line e-commerce portals as well as writing several dozen courses across disciplines such as computer security, Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, international business, importing and healthcare for children. In addition, I have published in a number of journals such as Group Practice Management Journal, Health Information Management Journal and Southern California Physician.

Education/Credentials
B.S. Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA M.S. Health Policy & Management, Harvard School of Public Health

Past/Present Clients
Axiom Sports A Pet’s World Black River Nursery Angela’s Healthy Kitchen Hawke’s Restaurant Niagara Thermal Wendy Pepper, LLC Florida Daycare Reality Engineering Scrapbook.com Cardiovascular Associates of the Virgin Islands MedQuest Ultimate Transition Fitness Emeryville Medical Groups Occupational Medical Centers PeopleCARE Intivia Healthworldnet ESources AussieMed MedCARE Nereus Medical International Hayes Consulting Sohnar ConceptShare

You are here: Experts > Business > Small Business: UK > Writing Business Plans > business plan

Writing Business Plans - business plan

Expert: Sue Brissette - 10/30/2009

Question
Hi Sue, I, along with my mom and sister, are in the midst of starting a home-based business. Our business will be service- and retail- related; we plan on offering specialty t-shirts, personal assistance and event planning.
I have been assigned to do the business plan, but I am having some problems. My questions include the following:

1) Because my business consists of several entities, would I have to do a business plan for each one e.g. do a business plan for the event planning, do a business plan for the t-shirts, and so on?
2)Would it be much easier to purchase a business plan template, rather than doing it from sctrach? If so, could you tell me which software is best?
and,
3) If I do purchase a business plan template software, which category best suits my business? I did some research regarding such software and had a hard time determining which I should use if I were to purchase the software. Should I use the home business category, the retail business category, or the online business category (we are going to have a website for our products/services), etc.? Thank you for your time.. Any suggestion would be appreciated

Answer
Hi,

The answer to your question depends on whether or not these three businesses actually come together around a client base. If you are offering event planning and personal assistance as a package with the option for specialty t-shirts available, then you can create one business plan with three revenue streams because you have a unified theme and client base. But, if you plan to market specialty t-shirts to all comers nationally on the Internet, event planning for people in your city and personal assistance (not quite sure what this means?) for yet a different target market, you've got three businesses to consider.

The best business planning software is BP Pro from Palo Alto, regardless of what you're doing. You won't have to choose a category with BP Pro - just follow the outline they provide.

Given your situation, you are going to need to follow a template of some kind - just don't let it be a fill-in-the-blanks exercise. Use the template as a strating place for discussion about how you will run these businesses.

If you need help, you can contact me at sbrissette@msn.com

Best of luck!

Sue B

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