Business Plan Template For An Established Business

As said in my last post, if you want to buy a business, you need to create a
business plan.
To give you an idea how a business plan for an established business should look like I've put together a "Business Plan Template For An Established Business".

If you would like to get a copy for free download the Template here.

This business plan consists of a narrative and several financial spreadsheets. The narrative template is the body of the business plan. It contains more than 150 questions divided into several sections.

Listen: The real value of doing a business plan is not having the finished product in hand; rather, the value lies in the process of research and thinking about your business in a systematic way. The act of planning helps you to think things through thoroughly, to study and research when you are not sure of the facts, and to look at your ideas critically. It takes time, but avoids costly, perhaps disastrous, mistakes later.

Buying an Existing Business

After busy weeks (with no time for posting) preparing the acquisition of a business I again realised the importance of a proper business plan.

So, if you want to buy a business, but don't know how to create a
business plan, then this post will show you how to get one done
and ready within a few weeks.

Listen: In order to get a good business plan in your hands, you
are going to have to do one of two things:

1.) Hire someone to do it for you

2.) Do it yourself

Now, if you hire somebody to write your business plan for you (and
this is the ideal way of doing it), it will usually cost you
between five or ten thousand dollars.

On the other hand, if you're starting with little or no money of
your own, and want to do it yourself, there's a number of programs
in the business section of your library that can help you. Most
decent libraries will have CDs, books and computer programs you can
use to put together a business plan.

Another way to do it yourself -- and this is a little more
"unconventional" -- is to simply go online, put "business plan"
into a search engine, and you will find dozens of companies that
will give you samples of business plans (you can use as
"templates") -- 100% free -- because they're trying to sell you
financing or something like that.

Whatever the case, if you decide to go out and raise money to buy a
business and don't put together a business plan, the chances of you
getting the money is zero and none. Luckily, it can be done for
little or no money.

But the ideal way is to hire someone who's done them before (and
has a track record of having created successful business plans) if
possible.