Introduction 1
About This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 3
Icons Used in This Book 4
Beyond the Book 4
Where to Go From Here 4
Part 1: Getting Started with Business Plans 5
Chapter 1: Preparing to Do a Business Plan 7
Identifying Your Planning Resources 8
Checking out the variety of sources out there 9
Surfing the Internet 9
Purchasing business-planning software 12
Seeking professional help 12
Finding friendly advice 13
Assembling Your Planning Team 14
Setting the ground rules 15
Delegating responsibility 15
Putting Your Plan on Paper or in Cyberspace 16
Executive summary 17
Company overview 18
Business environment 19
Company description 19
Company strategy 20
Financial review 20
Action plan 21
Chapter 2: Understanding the Importance of a Business Plan 23
Bringing Your Ideas into Focus 24
Looking forward 25
Looking back 26
Looking around 27
Taking the first step 27
Understanding the Planning behind the Plan 28
Is planning an art or science? 28
Why planning matters 29
Satisfying Your Audience 30
Venture capital 31
Bankers, backers, and bootstrappers 33
Chapter 3: Setting Off in the Right Direction 39
Understanding Why Values Matter 40
Facing tough choices 40
Weighing utilitarianism and other philosophies 41
Applying ethics and the law 42
Getting caught lost and unprepared, if not naked and afraid 43
Understanding the value of having values 44
Clarifying Your Company Values 46
Putting together your values statement 46
Following through with your values 48
Creating Your Company’s Vision Statement 48
Chapter 4: Charting the Proper Course 51
Creating Your Company’s Mission Statement 52
Getting started 52
Capturing your business (in 50 words or less) 55
Introducing Goals and Objectives 57
Why bother? 57
Goals versus objectives 58
Efficiency versus effectiveness 60
Minding Your Own Business: Setting Goals and Objectives 61
Creating your business goals 61
Laying out your objectives 62
Matching goals and objectives with your mission 62
Timing is everything 63
Part 2: Describing Your Marketplace 67
Chapter 5: Examining the Business Environment 69
Understanding Your Business 70
Analyzing Your Industry 71
Configuring the structure 73
Measuring the markets 75
Remembering the relationships 78
Figuring out the finances 80
Coming up with supporting data 82
Recognizing Critical Success Factors 85
Adopting new technologies, procedures, and policies 86
Getting a handle on what counts most 86
Determining what drives your business 86
Looking for a great location 87
Dealing with distribution 87
Marketing mind games 87
Getting along with government regulation 88
SWOT: Preparing for Opportunities and Threats 89
Finding warm and soothing waters 89
Scanning for clouds on the horizon, ice on the water, or worse 92
Chapter 6: Slicing and Dicing Markets 95
Separating Customers into Groups 96
Identifying Market Segments 98
Who buys 99
What customers buy 103
Why customers buy 107
Finding Useful Market Segments 110
Is the segment the right size? 110
Can you identify the customers? 111
Can you reach the market? 111
Becoming Market Driven 113
Chapter 7: Getting Up Close and Personal with Customers 117
Keeping Track of the Big Picture 118
Categorizing Your Customers 119
Comparing generations 120
Defining your good customers 121
Handling your not-so-best customers 122
Scoping out the other guy’s customers 123
Discovering the Ways Customers Behave 124
Understanding customer needs 125
Determining customer motives 127
Figuring Out How Customers Make Choices 128
Realizing perceptions are reality 128
Setting in motion the five steps to adoption 129
Understanding the Global Customer 130
Serving Your Customers Better 132
Looking at a Special Case: Business Customers 134
Filling secondhand demand 135
Decision-making as a formal affair 136
Knowing the forces to be reckoned with 136
Chapter 8: Covering Your Competition 139
Understanding the Value of Competitors 140
Identifying Your Real Competitors 142
Considering competition based on customer choice 143
Paying attention to product usage and unexpected new competition 146
Spotting strategic groups 147
Focusing on future competition 149
Tracking Your Competitors’ Actions 151
Determining competitors’ capabilities 151
Assessing competitors’ strategies 153
Predicting Your Competitors’ Moves 155
Figuring out competitors’ goals 155
Uncovering competitors’ assumptions 156
Competing to Win 158
Organizing facts and figures 158
Choosing your battles 160
Part 3: Weighing Your Company’s Prospects 161
Chapter 9: Assessing Where You Stand Today 163
Doing Situation Analysis 164
Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses 165
Keeping frames of reference 165
Defining capabilities and resources 166
Monitoring critical success factors 177
Analyzing Your Situation in 3-D 180
Getting a glance at competitors 180
Completing your SWOT analysis 180
Chapter 10: Profiting from Your Business Plan 183
Describing What You Do Best 184
Looking at the links in a value chain 184
Forging your value chain 187
Understanding your value proposition 189
Putting Together a Business Model 190
How will you make money? 191
How’s your timing? 193
Making Your Business Model Work 193
Searching for a competitive advantage 194
Focusing on core competence 195
Sustaining an advantage over time 196
Earmarking Resources 197
Chapter 11: Figuring Out the Financial Details 201
Reading Income Statements 203
Rendering revenue 203
Calculating costs 205
Pondering profits 206
Interpreting Balance Sheets 206
Ascertaining assets 207
Categorizing liabilities and owners’ equity 210
Examining Cash-Flow Statements 211
Moving money: Cash in and cash out 213
Watching cash levels rise and fall 214
Evaluating Financial Ratios 214
Meeting short-term obligations 215
Remembering long-term responsibilities 217
Reading relative profitability 218
Chapter 12: Forecasting and Budgeting 221
Constructing a Financial Forecast 222
Piecing together your pro-forma income statement 224
Estimating your balance sheet 228
Projecting your cash flow 230
Exploring Alternative Financial Forecasts 231
Utilizing the DuPont formula 231
Answering a what-if analysis 233
Making a Budget 233
Looking inside the budget 234
Creating your budget 234
Part 4: Looking to the Future 239
Chapter 13: Confronting Uncertainty 241
Understanding the Dangers of Ignoring Change 242
Defining the Dimensions of Change 243
Governmental trends 244
Economic trends 248
Cultural trends 253
Technological trends 255
Anticipating Change 259
Preparing for a Changing Future 261
Chapter 14: Thinking Strategically 265
Applying Off-the-Shelf Strategies 266
Leading with low costs 268
Standing out in a crowd 274
Focusing on focus 276
Changing Your Boundaries 279
The evolution of new strategic models 279
Outsourcing and offshoring 280
Leading and Following 281
Market-leader strategies 282
Market-follower strategies 282
Tailoring Your Own Strategy 284
Chapter 15: Growing Up, Growing Bigger, and Growing Old 285
Facing Up to the Product Life Cycle 286
Starting out 287
Growing up 288
Maturing in middle age 288
Riding out the senior stretch 290
Gauging where you are now 290
Finding Ways to Expand 292
Same product and same market 294
New market or new product 296
New product and new market 300
Managing Your Product Portfolio 302
Utilizing strategic business units 302
Aiming for the stars 304
Asking Two Final Questions About Growth 309
Knowing that, yes, growth is good 309
Managing growth wisely 310
Part 5: Putting Your Business Plan into Action 313
Chapter 16: Shaping and Shape-Shifting Your Organization 315
Recognizing That Form Follows Function 315
Putting Together an Effective Organization 317
Choosing a basic design 317
Focusing on a functional model 318
Divvying up duties with a divisional form 318
Sharing talents with the matrix format 319
Dealing with too many chefs in the kitchen 320
Finding what’s right for you 321
Thinking and Organizing for the Future 322
Chapter 17: Leading the Way 325
Encouraging Leadership Roles 326
Leading from the front or the back 326
Looking at leadership styles 327
Developing Business Skills (And Having the Right Personality Traits) 328
Evaluating personality traits 328
Distinguishing appropriate skills 329
Creating the Right Culture 330
Following Through with Your Vision 332
Bringing Your Plan to Life (And Making a Final Check) 333
Part 6: The Part of Tens 335
Chapter 18: Ten (Or So) Signs That Your Business Plan Needs Refreshing — or Worse 337
Your Business Goals Change Abruptly 338
You Don’t Meet Your Plan Milestones 338
New Technology Makes a Splash 338
Important Customers Walk Away 339
The Competition Heats Up 339
Product Demand Falls Sharply 339
Revenues Go Down or Costs Go Up 340
Company Morale Slumps 340
Key Financial Projections Don’t Pan Out 340
Too Much Growth, Too Fast 341
An Unwanted Surprise Pops Up 341
Chapter 19: Ten (Or So) Questions to Ask about Your Plan 343
Are Your Goals and Mission in Sync? 343
Can You Point to Major Opportunities? 344
Have You Prepared for Threats? 344
Do You Know Your Customers? 344
Can You Track Your Competitors? 345
Do You Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses? 345
Does Your Strategy Make Sense? 346
Can You Stand Behind the Numbers? 346
Are You Really Ready for Change? 346
Is Your Plan Concise and Up-to-Date? 347
What’s the Worst That Can Happen, and How Will You Deal with It? 347
Chapter 20: Ten (Or So) Business-Planning Never-Evers 349
Failing to Plan in the First Place 349
Shrugging Off Values and Vision 350
Second-Guessing the Customer 350
Underestimating Your Competition 350
Ignoring Your Strengths 351
Mistaking a Budget for a Plan 351
Shying Away from Reasonable Risk 351
Allowing One Person to Dominate a Plan 352
Being Afraid to Change 352
Forgetting to Motivate and Reward 352
Faking It 353
Appendix: A Sample Business Plan 355
Index 381
