There are a number of ways of going about the process of writing a good business plan. One of the most tried and time tested ways that works well is using a business plan template. While these are easily available online, some of them are way better than the others. A lot depends on the approach that goes into writing the business plan. However, the best business plan template is that which meets all your business needs and requirements by offering you a high level of customization and a professional layout of all the content that you would like to include. So, rather than looking around for an existing plan and then designing your own plan along the same lines, it would be a better idea to use software that allows you to create your own template.

Some of the benefits of software like Business Plan Pro include, but are not limited to, getting instant access to over five hundred sample templates that can be edited directly, allowing you to create the best business plan template for your particular business. It is a software program that provides step-by-step guidance throughout the process of planning and provides clear instructions and sound advice, along with resources for any additional help that may be required. It provides easily generated financials that are based on an underlying built-in financial model that is integrated with visual forecasting, and financial wizards to fill in the numbers in the pre-designed format of the business template. It includes the best and the latest technologies to stay current with new trends in business innovation and planning. It provides expert help from professionals who have valuable years of experience. It also contains real market research data, along with industry profiles on a number of industry verticals, that allow matching the numbers of your business or company with these pre fed and automatically integrated industry ratios that enhance the accuracy of the business plan.

Millions of entrepreneurs, be it first-time owners of small and medium startups or Fortune 500 business conglomerates, use this program and consider it to the best business plan template generator on the open market. The additional options like the Plan Review feature checks the financial section of the plan to ensure that you have entered growth rates that are realistic. It also displays a sound break-even analysis as well as other important financial pointers and indicators like manageable cash flow projections. In this way, the template helps you organize your thoughts, and it acts as a guideline to kick start the process of planning.

Did you know having your business plan fail can be the best thing that can happen to you? Sounds crazy right? But it’s true, and here is why.

Why Plans Fail

Business plans, marketing plans, heck any kind of plan is going to fail. Some just a little and others spectacularly. It’s not for lack of work or analysis. It’s because we can’t predict the unpredictable, and when we try we aren’t very accurate. Customers and markets are fickle. Something unexpected occurs. Or we just screw up and it all wrong.

I’m sure New Coke looked great on paper. Anybody remember the Apple Lisa or the Cube?

Plan to Fail?

So if plans are going to fail, why bother with them at all? But a better approach is to don’t sweat getting your plan right the first time out since chances are it is going to fail anyway. Its more important to understand this and think about your plan B. And remember, this isn’t just for business plan, it is for any kind of plan.

Plans are worthless, but planning is everything for success

Since we know change is going to happen and things are going go wrong, why are we got off guard all the time when they do?

The most successful people recognize this happens and are prepared to adjust. And not adjust by blindly taking another, different stab and things. They have planned ahead. They look to the market and find what is working with their plan. They run with the things they got right, They see what isn’t working and adjust.

Getting to Plan B

I started to think about this after I read an interview with John Mullins who wrote a book called Getting to Plan B. In it Mullins lays out some approaches you can use to see if and how your plan is failing and how to fix it.

Make no mistake. Unfortunately this isn’t a license to be lazy and count on working it all out later. Quite the opposite. You have to do more work, but it is smarter work that gets you through failures and has its rewards in the end.

They look at what others who have succeeded did or didn’t do. Same for those who failed. They find the lessons from failures. When they do that they are able to make better decisions. Then they just do it all over again until they get it right.

The lesson is that they are always planning. It’s like the idea of the one page business plan. You still have to put in all the prep time on it. No shortcuts. But the what makes this work is that you regularly review and update your plan. You don’t just toss it aside when you are done or scrap it if you hit some problem. Fix what isn’t working. Adjust to changes and any new or missed opportunities.

This really works

This is how software gets developed only they call it the iterative approach. You don’t write a program all at once. You work through it in cycles, getting more done each time. You fix the broken parts and add new features until you are all done. Then you sell it. Unless of course you’re Microsoft. MS sells and lets us find the broken parts, but that’s a different story.

I worked with a microbusiness that wanted to do consulting on importing/exporting industrial equipment. We found there wasn’t a market for their consulting services, but we did find out there was a big need for technical translation services. Okay, we rethought the business model and changed. I worked with another small company that did custom software development. They only wanted to do work on big projects, but they found out that they were making much more money doing body shop work–putting individuals into specific contracts as consultants instead of taking on big projects as a team. Time to change directions.

Pick up almost any document on starting a business and you’ll be advised that you should promptly undertake the creation of a business plan. I am a big fan of business planning but here I’ll disagree. A better idea is to complete a feasibility study. A feasibility study and a business plan share a lot in common but the feasibility study is much shorter and can be completed in less time than a full business plan.

The whole point of the feasibility study is to determine if the business concept is feasible. There is no need to go to all of the detail required by a business plan if a general testing of market numbers indicates the idea will not work.

It is alright to use educated guesses for the numbers. You can increase accuracy and detail in the business plan to follow if your initial study indicates it is warranted. A good feasibility study should answer at least the following questions:

• What is the size of the market (units sold)?
• What market share can we expect to gain (% of market)?
• How many will we sell?
• At what price?
• What expenses will we incur?

Try to make a list of the resources you’ll need to operate the business (land, buildings, equipment, training, employees, licenses, permits & fees, inventory, interest, marketing etc.). Do your expenses resemble within reason your consumption of these resources?

Next, Test your plan on a variety of inputs. Generate a worst case, probable and best case number for each input. This will provide you with a minimum threshold below which your idea is not feasible. This will prove immensely valuable if you move on to the business plan stage. When (if) you begin additional research, you’ll focus on the most critical number in the plan. For instance, if you determine you need a market size of at least 30,000 customers meeting a specific demographic to make the plan work and you find out that there are only 20,000 then either find a plan to make it work with 20,000 or stop working the plan.

Now have a knowledgeable third party evaluate your study. Incorporate their suggestions to make your plan more realistic.

After revision, ask yourself if the anticipated profits are worth the risks you will take? Does it make sense to invest your time and money in this manner? If so, move on to the full business plan with a clear insight into where to focus your research.