Writing a Business Plan
Small Business Development Center
Georgia State University
404-651-3550
web: www.gsu.edu/sbdc
Writing a Business Plan
Georgia State SBDC
1
Why Write a Business Plan?
A Business Plan helps you evaluate the feasibility of a new
business idea in an objective, critical, and unemotional way.
• Marketing – Is there a market? How much can you sell?
• Management – Does the management team have the skill?
• Financial – Can the business make a profit?
It provides an operating plan to assist you in running the
business and improves your probability of success.
• Identify opportunities and avoid mistakes
• Develop production, administrative, and marketing plans
• Create budgets and projections to show financial outcomes
It communicates your idea to others, serves as a “selling tool,”
and provides the basis for your financing proposal.
• Determine the amount and type of financing needed
• Forecast profitability and investor return on investment
• Forecast cash flow, show liquidity and ability to repay debt
Who will use the plan? If you won't use the plan to raise money,
your plan will be internal and may be less formal. If you are
presenting it to outsiders as a financing proposal, presentation
quality and thorough financial analysis are very important.
Writing a Business Plan
Georgia State SBDC
2
Basic Business Plan Guidelines
Writing a Business Plan will probably take a lot of time. Up to 100 hours or
more is not uncommon for a new business that requires a lot of research.
A typical plan will have three sections. Section one is a written section
describing Management and Marketing aspects of the business. Section Two
includes financial projections. Section Three is supplemental information.
A short (3-5 pages) Executive Summary is often added at the beginning of
more complex business plans.
• Section One should be thorough, but concise and to-the-point. Use
headlines, graphs and "bullets" to...