Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go From Here
Part 1 Getting Started with Business Plans
Chapter 1 Preparing to Do a Business Plan
Identifying Your Planning Resources
Checking out the variety of sources out there
Surfing the Internet
Purchasing business-planning software
Seeking professional help
Finding friendly advice
Assembling Your Planning Team
Setting the ground rules
Delegating responsibility
Putting Your Plan on Paper or in Cyberspace
Executive summary
Company overview
Business environment
Company description
Company strategy
Financial review
Action plan
Chapter 2 Understanding the Importance of a Business Plan
Bringing Your Ideas into Focus
Looking forward
Looking back
Looking around
Taking the first step
Understanding the Planning behind the Plan
Is planning an art or science?
Why planning matters
Satisfying Your Audience
Venture capital
Bankers, backers, and bootstrappers
Chapter 3 Setting Off in the Right Direction
Understanding Why Values Matter
Facing tough choices
Weighing utilitarianism and other philosophies
Applying ethics and the law
Getting caught lost and unprepared, if not naked and afraid
Understanding the value of having values
Clarifying Your Company Values
Putting together your values statement
Following through with your values
Creating Your Company’s Vision Statement
Chapter 4 Charting the Proper Course
Creating Your Company’s Mission Statement
Getting started
Capturing your business (in 50 words or less)
Introducing Goals and Objectives
Why bother?
Goals versus objectives
Efficiency versus effectiveness
Minding Your Own Business: Setting Goals and Objectives
Creating your business goals
Laying out your objectives
Matching goals and objectives with your mission
Timing is everything
Part 2 Describing Your Marketplace
Chapter 5 Examining the Business Environment
Understanding Your Business
Analyzing Your Industry
Configuring the structure
Measuring the markets
Remembering the relationships
Figuring out the finances
Coming up with supporting data
Recognizing Critical Success Factors
Adopting new technologies, procedures, and policies
Getting a handle on what counts most
Determining what drives your business
Looking for a great location
Dealing with distribution
Marketing mind games
Getting along with government regulation
SWOT: Preparing for Opportunities and Threats
Finding warm and soothing waters
Scanning for clouds on the horizon, ice on the water, or worse
Chapter 6 Slicing and Dicing Markets
Separating Customers into Groups
Identifying Market Segments
Who buys
What customers buy
Why customers buy
Finding Useful Market Segments
Is the segment the right size?
Can you identify the customers?
Can you reach the market?
Becoming Market Driven
Chapter 7 Getting Up Close and Personal with Customers
Keeping Track of the Big Picture
Categorizing Your Customers
Comparing generations
Defining your good customers
Handling your not-so-best customers
Scoping out the other guy’s customers
Discovering the Ways Customers Behave
Understanding customer needs
Determining customer motives
Figuring Out How Customers Make Choices
Realizing perceptions are reality
Setting in motion the five steps to adoption
Understanding the Global Customer
Serving Your Customers Better
Looking at a Special Case: Business Customers
Filling secondhand demand
Decision-making as a formal affair
Knowing the forces to be reckoned with
Chapter 8 Covering Your Competition
Understanding the Value of Competitors
Identifying Your Real Competitors
Considering competition based on customer choice
Paying attention to product usage and unexpected new competition
Spotting strategic groups
Focusing on future competition
Tracking Your Competitors’ Actions
Determining competitors’ capabilities
Assessing competitors’ strategies
Predicting Your Competitors’ Moves
Figuring out competitors’ goals
Uncovering competitors’ assumptions
Competing to Win
Organizing facts and figures
Choosing your battles
Part 3 Weighing Your Company’s Prospects
Chapter 9 Assessing Where You Stand Today
Doing Situation Analysis
Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses
Keeping frames of reference
Defining capabilities and resources
Monitoring critical success factors
Analyzing Your Situation in 3-D
Getting a glance at competitors
Completing your SWOT analysis
Chapter 10 Profiting from Your Business Plan
Describing What You Do Best
Looking at the links in a value chain
Forging your value chain
Understanding your value proposition
Putting Together a Business Model
How will you make money?
How’s your timing?
Making Your Business Model Work
Searching for a competitive advantage
Focusing on core competence
Sustaining an advantage over time
Earmarking Resources
Chapter 11 Figuring Out the Financial Details
Reading Income Statements
Rendering revenue
Calculating costs
Pondering profits
Interpreting Balance Sheets
Ascertaining assets
Categorizing liabilities and owners’ equity
Examining Cash-Flow Statements
Moving money: Cash in and cash out
Watching cash levels rise and fall
Evaluating Financial Ratios
Meeting short-term obligations
Remembering long-term responsibilities
Reading relative profitability
Chapter 12 Forecasting and Budgeting
Constructing a Financial Forecast
Piecing together your pro-forma income statement
Estimating your balance sheet
Projecting your cash flow
Exploring Alternative Financial Forecasts
Utilizing the DuPont formula
Answering a what-if analysis
Making a Budget
Looking inside the budget
Creating your budget
Part 4 Looking to the Future
Chapter 13 Confronting Uncertainty
Understanding the Dangers of Ignoring Change
Defining the Dimensions of Change
Governmental trends
Economic trends
Cultural trends
Technological trends
Anticipating Change
Preparing for a Changing Future
Chapter 14 Thinking Strategically
Applying Off-the-Shelf Strategies
Leading with low costs
Standing out in a crowd
Focusing on focus
Changing Your Boundaries
The evolution of new strategic models
Outsourcing and offshoring
Leading and Following
Market-leader strategies
Market-follower strategies
Tailoring Your Own Strategy
Chapter 15 Growing Up, Growing Bigger, and Growing Old
Facing Up to the Product Life Cycle
Starting out
Growing up
Maturing in middle age
Riding out the senior stretch
Gauging where you are now
Finding Ways to Expand
Same product and same market
New market or new product
New product and new market
Managing Your Product Portfolio
Utilizing strategic business units
Aiming for the stars
Asking Two Final Questions About Growth
Knowing that, yes, growth is good
Managing growth wisely
Part 5 Putting Your Business Plan into Action
Chapter 16 Shaping and Shape-Shifting Your Organization
Recognizing That Form Follows Function
Putting Together an Effective Organization
Choosing a basic design
Focusing on a functional model
Divvying up duties with a divisional form
Sharing talents with the matrix format
Dealing with too many chefs in the kitchen
Finding what’s right for you
Thinking and Organizing for the Future
Chapter 17 Leading the Way
Encouraging Leadership Roles
Leading from the front or the back
Looking at leadership styles
Developing Business Skills (And Having the Right Personality Traits)
Evaluating personality traits
Distinguishing appropriate skills
Creating the Right Culture
Following Through with Your Vision
Bringing Your Plan to Life (And Making a Final Check)
Part 6 The Part of Tens
Chapter 18 Ten (Or So) Signs That Your Business Plan Needs Refreshing — or Worse
Your Business Goals Change Abruptly
You Don’t Meet Your Plan Milestones
New Technology Makes a Splash
Important Customers Walk Away
The Competition Heats Up
Product Demand Falls Sharply
Revenues Go Down or Costs Go Up
Company Morale Slumps
Key Financial Projections Don’t Pan Out
Too Much Growth, Too Fast
An Unwanted Surprise Pops Up
Chapter 19 Ten (Or So) Questions to Ask about Your Plan
Are Your Goals and Mission in Sync?
Can You Point to Major Opportunities?
Have You Prepared for Threats?
Do You Know 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 Concise and Up-to-Date?
What’s the Worst That Can Happen, and How Will You Deal with It?
Chapter 20 Ten (Or So) Business-Planning Never-Evers
Failing to Plan in the First Place
Shrugging Off Values and Vision
Second-Guessing the Customer
Underestimating Your Competition
Ignoring Your Strengths
Mistaking a Budget for a Plan
Shying Away from Reasonable Risk
Allowing One Person to Dominate a Plan
Being Afraid to Change
Forgetting to Motivate and Reward
Faking It
Appendix A Sample Business Plan
Index
EULA