About Milton Zlotnick Expertise 30 Years CPA experience and currently preparing business plans for existing and startup companies including numberous internet and ecommerce firms. Visit www.plan4biz.com.
Experience Milton Zlotnick was the founding and managing partner of a mid-size CPA firm in NYC before joining Plan4Biz.com, LLC. He served for a number of years on the New York State Society of CPAs Financial Planning Committee. He is currently a Community Leader and Host for America on Line's, Business Know How division providing advice on business plan preparation. Keyword (BKH). He has taught Business Plan Preparation at the College of Staten Island (Options Program), New York. In addition he has conducted numerous seminars for SCORE (Sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration). He conducts seminars concerning Internet Commerce. The most recent was given at The New York Public Library Science and Technology Center in Manhattan.
Organizations New York State CPA Society
Publications BPlans.com contains over 400 articles.
Question I was wondering if you could tell me the basic fundermentals in writting a business plan. It is intended for a small retail business.Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards
Bruce Lane
Answer For sample plans which include retail stores visit www.bplans.com.
A business plan is necessary for three primary reasons:
1. It gives business owners a current assessment of the business as well as a roadmap for the future.
2. It helps a business grow, both organically and through outside funding.
3. It is essential to have in order to secure financing, ranging from a Small Business Administration loan to venture capital funding.
Many business owners find the thought of writing a business plan overwhelming. Although there are consultants who will write a plan for a small fee, it is can be advantageous for a business owner to experience the process first-hand. It often gives business owners a clear vision of what
their goals are and how those goals will be achieved. A basic business plan has several key elements:
* Executive Summary-a brief overview of the entire business
(product/services, management team, marketing approach, and summary financial
estimates).
* Description of the business-what exactly is sold and why.
* Describe the target market-how big is it, what are the markets'demographics, what are potential customers buying now?
* Outline your competition? Understanding whom your competition is and how they market themselves is key.
* Describe your management team-outline your credentials as well as those who will be working with you (if pplicable). Ensuring that you have a strong management team is critical.
* Describe your marketing strategy-how will you let people know about your product? It is important to be very specific in this section, as it will help you in selling your product.
* Taking the time to assemble a plan is important for the long-term health of a business. It not only serves as a roadmap, it gives business owners insight into their company from many different perspectives. Ultimately, it
often leads to a better understanding of what it takes to grow and prosper.
There are two people that the business plan is important to. The First and foremost is the person themselves. The Second if financing is required is the bank.
From the statistics given by the SBA the two major reasons
for failure of new business is that they do not have or do not follow their Business Plan, the second is under funding created by bad unrealistic estimates of sales and expenses.
In our area we have surveyed all of the banks and they all tell us that they will require the following for clients wanting loans to start up or expand a business. A written Business Plan, Cash-flow projections for one
year by month and two years by quarters, an estimated opening day Balance Sheet and the clients personal Financial statement.
