April Business Plan Series

This series of three workshops provides the essentials for preparing and writing your business plan.  The Series is presented on three Wednesdays and includes:

• BP 201 Research and Sales Planning April 3
• BP 202 Start-up Costs and Financial Statements April 10
• BP 203 Writing Your Plan for Funding April 17

In BP 201 we start with the overall outline and content of a successful Business Plan.  We'll discuss techniques to conduct customer and competitor research.  We'll also discuss how to develop a simple yet effective Sales Plan.  Research and Sales details are essentials of a good plan.

In BP 202 we use a case study approach for describing and understanding Start-up Costs and the three basic financial statements - Profit and Loss, Cash Flow and Balance Sheet.  We'll use SCORE's Financials template to demonstrate how you can create your own set of business plan financials.  You will receive a complimentary flash drive with the template and other handout materials in easy to open folders.

In BP 203 we'll discuss the details of a written business plan.  We'll discuss what to write and use examples from the class.  Since most business plans are used to obtain funding we'll cover two important issues.  First we'll describe what to include and how to express your funding needs.  Second we'll present some funding options including traditional, SBA and non-traditional sources of funds.