Your future depends on good research, planning and documentation.
Business Plans Work!
To obtain a loan, specific financing criteria must be met and documented in your carefully constructed Business Plan.
While part of the criteria to access financing, it will also form an essential part of your successful future business.
You can utilize interactive planning tools found in the websites to the right. They can enable a logical, well-prepared business plan.
Your Business Plan will consist of the following categories (there may be some variations depending on your business location or product):
- Executive Summary
- Company Information
- Product / Service Information
- Market / Environment Research (PEST and/or SWOT Analysis)
- Marketing Plan
- Operations Plan
- Financial Information
- Risk Analysis
Your Financial Information is best prepared in a spreadsheet format that can adapt to your new information, as it becomes available. You can also print off the pages we have included in the business plan worksheet section (download the Business Plan Template and Financials Template on that page, then follow the instructions in that section to fill them out). The business planning links on other websites provide interactive pages that can be very helpful to you as you gather and collate your financial plan.
Creating your financial plan may require the expert advice of accountants, lawyers, your banker and your spouse or family members.
If you are an existing business that is seeking financing for expansion, or other purposes you will need to provide the following, as well as a modified business plan that addresses the reasons to support the expansion strategy.:
- Prepared Financial Statements (generally completed by an accountant)
- Aged List of Receivables
- Aged List of Payables
- List of inventory
