Business Plans for Dummies
Annotation
This fun and easy reference for
entrepreneurs, managers, executives, and small business owners covers all the
components needed to develop a successful business plan--from creating a mission
statement to developing goals and objectives to executing and managing the plan.
Cartoons. 384 pp.
From the Publisher Inside, you'll discover how to
Are you an entrepreneur, executive,
or a manager charged with creating a business plan, but don't know where to
begin? Don't worry! With Business Plans For Dummies as your handy
reference, you'll find quick, easy solutions to all of your planning dilemmas.
Equipped with tips, techniques, and expert advice, you'll develop a dynamite
business plan like a pro in no time!
Table of Contents Chapter 1: Starting Your Business Plan Chapter 2: Charting the Proper Course Chapter 3: Setting Off in the Right Direction Chapter 4: Checking Out the Business Environment Chapter 5: Taking a Closer Look at Customers Chapter 6: Dividing Customers into Groups Chapter 7: Scoping Out Your Competition Chapter 8: Establishing Your Starting Position Chapter 9: Focusing On What You Do Best Chapter 10: Figuring Out Financials Chapter 11: Forecasting and Budgeting Chapter 12: Preparing for Change Chapter 13: Thinking Strategically Chapter 14: Managing More than One Product Chapter 15: Making Your Business Plan Work Chapter 16: Learning From Others: A Sample Business Plan
Chapter 17: Ten Questions to Ask about Your Plan Chapter 18: Top Ten Business-Planning Never-Evers Chapter 19: Ten of the Best-Planned Organizations Around
Introduction
Why You Need This Book
Part I: Determining Where You Want to Go
How to Use This Book
How This Book Is
Organized
Part I: Determining Where You Want to Go
Icons Used in This Book
Part II: Sizing Up Your
Marketplace
Part III: Weighing Your Company's Prospects
Part IV:
Looking to the Future
Part V: A Planner's Toolkit
Part VI: The Part
of Tens
Where to Go From Here
Part II: Sizing Up Your Marketplace
Getting the Most Out of
Your Plan
Looking forward
Naming Your
Planners
Looking back
Looking around
Putting Your Plan on Paper
Executive summary
Company overview
Business environment
Company description
Company strategy
Financial review
Action
plan
Creating Your Company's
Mission Statement
Getting started
Introducing Goals and Objectives
Capturing your business (in 50 words or less)
Why bother?
Setting Your Own Goals and
Objectives
Goals versus objectives
Efficiency versus
effectiveness
Management by objectives
Guidelines for setting goals
Guidelines for setting objectives
Getting it right
Avoiding the pitfalls
Timing is everything
Why Values Matter
Tough choices
Identifying Your Company's Values
Lost and unprepared
The value of having values
Investors
Putting Together the Values Statement
The rest of the crew
Existing beliefs and principles
The quick way to develop a values statement
Creating Your Company's Vision Statement
The long way to develop
a values statement
Part
III: Weighing Your Company's Prospects
Defining the
Business That You're In
Analyzing Your Industry
Structure
Recognizing Critical Success Factors
The arrangement of rivals
New technologies
Can
anybody play?
Cashing out
Markets
Just how big is big?
Growing or shrinking?
Choices
Something altogether different
Relationships
Supply and demand
Keeping customers happy
Delivering the sale
Finance
The cost side
The profit motive
Data
Technology
Preparing for Opportunities and Threats
Manufacturing
Human resources
Organization
Services
Location
Marketing
Distribution
Government
regulation
It's a beautiful morning
Dark clouds on the horizon
Checking Out Who
Your Customers Are
The good customer
Discovering Why Your Customers Buy
The bad customer
The other guy's customer
Understanding needs
Finding Out How Your
Customers Make Choices
Determining motives
Perceptions are reality
Remembering the Big Picture
The five steps to adoption
Dealing with Business Customers
Secondhand demand
Decision-making as a formal affair
Forces to
be reckoned with
Defining Market
Segments
Ways to Make Market Segments
Who is buying?
Finding
Useful Market Segments
Where do they live?
What are they like?
What
do they do?
How do they act?
What do they buy?
What can it do?
How is it sold?
What does it cost?
Where is it found?
Why do
they buy?
What do they get?
How do they decide?
Is the segment the right size?
Figuring Out How Market Segments Behave
Can customers be identified?
Can
the market be reached?
Understanding the Value
of Competitors
Identifying Your Real Competitors
Competition based on customer choice
Tracking Your Competitors' Actions
Competition based on product
use
Competition based on strategy
Competition in the future
Determining their capabilities
Predicting Your Competitors' Moves
Assessing their strategies
Figuring out their goals
Competing to Win
Uncovering their assumptions
Organizing facts and figures
Choosing your battles
Part IV: Looking to
the Future
Situation
Analysis
Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses
Frames of reference
Analyzing Your Situation in 3-D
Capabilities and resources
Management:
Setting direction from the top
Organization: Bringing people together
Customer base: Pleasing the crowds
Research and development:
Inventing the future
Operations: Making things work
Sales and
Marketing: Telling a good story
Distribution and delivery: Completing
the cycle
Financial condition: Keeping track of money
Critical
success factors
A glance at competitors
Completing your SWOT analysis
Describing What You Do
Constructing a typical value chain
Staying in Business
Comparing different value chains
Forging your own value chain
Searching for competitive advantage
Earmarking Resources
Focusing on core competence
Sustaining an advantage over time
Reading an Income Statement
Revenue
Interpreting the Balance Sheet
Gross revenue on sales
Dividend and interest income
Costs
Cost of goods sold
Sales, general, and administration
Depreciation expense
Interest expense
Taxes
Profit
Gross
profit
Operating profit
Profit before taxes
Net profit
Assets
Examining the Cash-Flow Statement
Current assets
Fixed assets
Intangibles
Liabilities and owners' equity
Current liabilities
Long-term
liabilities
Owners' equity
Cash in and cash out
Evaluating Financial Ratios
Funds provided by
Funds used for
What's
left over
Changes in liquid assets
Net change in cash position
Short-term obligations
Current ratio = current assets ÷ current
liabilities
Quick ratio = (cash + investments + receivables) ÷ current
liabilities
Inventory turnover = cost of goods sold ÷ inventories
Receivables turnover = sales on credit ÷ accounts receivable
Long-term responsibilities
Times interest earned = earnings before
interest and taxes ÷ interest expense
Debt-to-equity ratio = long-term
liabilities ÷ owners' equity
Relative profitability
Net profit
margin = net profit ÷ gross revenue on sales
Return on investment = net
profit ÷ total assets
Return on equity = net profit ÷ owners' equity
Constructing a Financial
Forecast
Pro-forma income statement
Exploring Alternatives
Projected revenue
Anticipated costs
Estimated balance sheet
Assets
Liabilities and owners' equity
Projected cash flow
The DuPont formula
Making a Budget
What-if analysis
What's inside the budget
How budgets are done
Top-down budgeting
approach
Bottom-up budgeting approach
Part V: A Planner's Toolkit
Defining the Dimensions of
Change
Economic trends
Anticipating Change
Technological trends
U.S. governmental trends
Cultural trends
Trend forecasting
Assessing the Effects of Change
Extrapolation
Judgment forecasting
Delphi
study
Scenario planning
Rolling the dice
Win or lose
Making Strategy Make a
Difference
What strategy means
Applying
Off-the-Shelf Strategies
When strategy works
Low-cost leadership
Checking Out
Strategic Alternatives
No-frills product
Experience curve
Low-cost culture
Standing out in a crowd
Product features
Product quality
Product packaging
A focus on focus
Niche
markets
Targeted products
Limited territory
Up, down, or sideways
Coming Up with Your Own
Strategy
Leading and following
Market-leader
strategies
Market-follower strategies
Facing the Product
Life Cycle
Starting out
Finding Ways to Grow
Growing up
Middle age
Senior stretch
Where
you are now
Same product, same market
Managing Your Product
Portfolio
New market or new product
New market
New product
New product and new market
Strategic business units
Aiming for the stars
Looking strong and
attractive
Part VI: The Part of Tens
Shaping Your Company
Living the plan
Preparing Your People
Putting together an organization
Basic design
Functional model
Divisional form
Matrix format
Your own way
Developing procedures
Encouraging leadership
Developing skills
Creating a culture
Are Your Goals
Tied to Your Mission?
Can You Point to Major Opportunities?
Have You
Prepared for Threats?
Have You Defined Your Customers?
Can You Track
Your Competitors?
Do You Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses?
Does Your
Strategy Make Sense?
Can You Stand Behind the Numbers?
Are You Really
Ready for Change?
Is Your Plan Clear, Concise, and Up to Date?
Failing to
Plan in the First Place
Shrugging Off Values and Vision
Second-Guessing the Customer
Underestimating Your Competition
Ignoring Your Own Strengths
Mistaking a Budget for a Plan
Shying
Away from Reasonable Risk
Allowing One Person to Dominate the Plan
Being Afraid to Change
Forgetting to Motivate and Reward
Netscape Communications Corporation
Harvard University
The
LEGO Group
Republic of San Marino
General Electric Corporation
The
1960s Boston Celtics
Your Local McDonald's Restaurant
Madonna Louise
Ciccone
Southwest Airlines
(Insert Your Own Nominee Here!)