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• Business Plans For Dummies
• About the Authors
• Dedication
• Authors’ Acknowledgements
• Contents at a Glance
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Why You Need This Book
• How to Use This Book
• How This Book Is Organised
• Part I: Determining Where You Want to Go
• Part II: Sizing Up Your Marketplace
• Part III: Weighing Up Your Company’s Prospects
• Part IV: Looking to the Future
• Part V: A Planner’s Toolkit
• Part VI: The Part of Tens
• Icons Used in This Book
• Where to Go from Here
• Part I: Determining Where You Want to Go
• Chapter 1: Starting Your Business Plan
• Getting the Most Out of Your Plan
• Looking to the future
• Accounting for your history
• Anticipating your different audiences
• Putting Your Plan on Paper
• Executive summary
• Company overview
• Business environment
• Company description
• Business strategy
• Financial review
• Action plan
• Chapter 2: Charting the Proper Course
• Developing Your Company’s Vision Statement
• Thinking big
• Using the power of passion
• Building a brand
• Creating Your Company’s Mission Statement
• Getting started
• Defining your business (in 50 words or less)
• Introducing Goals and Objectives
• Using goals to manage the plan
• Looking at goals versus objectives
• Setting Your Own Goals and Objectives
• Guidelines for setting goals
• Guidelines for setting objectives
• Getting it right
• Avoiding the pitfalls
• Stretching for targets
• Timing is everything
• Chapter 3: Setting Off in the Right Direction
• Wondering Why Values Matter
• Looking at tough choices
• Avoiding being lost and unprepared
• Valuing having values
• Identifying Your Organisation’s Values
• Thinking about investors
• Considering the rest of the crew
• Existing beliefs and principles
• Putting Together the Values Statement
• Developing a values statement
• Preparing a values statement – the full Monty
• Part II: Sizing Up Your Marketplace
• Chapter 4: Checking Out the Business Environment
• Defining the Business That You’re In
• Analysing Your Industry
• Structure
• Markets
• Relationships
• Finance
• Researching Your Market
• Establishing your knowledge gaps
• Carrying out desk research
• Getting into the field
• Using the Internet – wisely
• Recognising Critical Success Factors
• Technology
• Manufacturing
• Operations
• Human resources
• Organisation
• Services
• Location
• Marketing
• Distribution
• Government regulation
• Outsourcing
• Preparing for Opportunities and Threats
• It’s a beautiful morning
• Dark clouds on the horizon
• Chapter 5: Taking a Closer Look at Customers
• Checking Out Who Your Customers Are
• The good customer
• The bad customer
• The other guy’s customer
• Discovering Why Your Customers Buy
• Understanding needs
• Determining motives
• Monitoring complaints
• Finding Out How Your Customers Make Choices
• Realising that perceptions are reality
• Finding the five steps to adoption
• Remembering the Big Picture
• Dealing with Business Customers
• Sizing up secondhand demand
• Thinking of decision making as a formal affair
• Judging the forces to be reckoned with
• Chapter 6: Dividing Customers into Groups
• Defining Market Segments
• Ways to Make Market Segments
• Looking at who is buying
• Looking at what they buy
• Wondering why they buy
• Finding Useful Market Segments
• Is the segment the right size?
• Can customers be identified?
• Can the market be reached?
• Chapter 7: Scoping Out Your Competition
• Understanding the Value of Competitors
• Identifying Your Real Competitors
• Competition based on customer choice
• Competition based on product use
• Competition based on strategy
• Competition in the future
• Predicting Your Competitors’ Moves
• Figuring out their goals
• Uncovering their assumptions
• Competing to Win
• Organising facts and figures
• Choosing your battles
• Part III: Weighing Up Your Company’s Prospects
• Chapter 8: Establishing Your Starting Position
• Sizing Up Situation Analysis
• Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses
• Finding your frames of reference
• Counting up your capabilities and resources
• Coming up with critical success factors
• Analysing Your Situation in 3-D
• Taking a glance at competitors
• Completing your SWOT analysis
• Measuring Market Share
• Chapter 9: Focusing On What You Do Best
• Describing What You Do
• Constructing a typical value chain
• Comparing different value chains
• Forging your own value chain
• Staying in Business
• Searching for competitive advantage
• Focusing on core competence
• Sustaining an advantage over time
• Earmarking Resources
• Chapter 10: Figuring Out Financials
• Understanding a Profit and Loss Account
• Revenue
• Costs
• Profit
• Margins matter
• Building the Balance Sheet
• Settling on layout
• Assets
• Liabilities and owners’ equity
• Examining the Cash-Flow Statement
• Cash in and cash out
• What’s left over
• Evaluating Financial Ratios
• Short-term obligations
• Long-term responsibilities
• Relative profitability
• Understanding Break-Even
• Chapter 11: Forecasting and Budgeting
• Constructing a Financial Forecast
• Pondering the pro-forma profit and loss account
• Looking at the estimated balance sheet
• Projecting cash flow
• Exploring Alternatives
• Using the DuPont formula
• Exploring the what-if analysis
• Making a Budget
• Wondering what’s in the budget
• Discovering how budgets are made
• Using ratios to improve your budget
• Analysing variances
• Flexing your budget
• Budgeting for capital expenditure
• Deducing payback
• Discounting cash flow
• Calculating the internal rate of return
• Part IV: Looking to the Future
• Chapter 12: Preparing for Change
• Defining the Dimensions of Change
• Looking at economic trends
• Taking heed of technological trends
• Poring over political trends
• Considering cultural trends
• Anticipating Change
• Trying out trend forecasting
• Seeking out scenario planning
• Looking at demographic time bombs
• Doing a PEST analysis
• Assessing the Effects of Change
• Rolling the dice
• Winning or losing
• Chapter 13: Thinking Strategically
• Making Strategy Make a Difference
• Thinking what strategy means
• Wondering when strategy works
• Applying Off-the-Shelf Strategies
• Learning low-cost leadership
• Standing out in a crowd
• Focusing on focus
• Checking Out Strategic Alternatives
• Going up, down, or sideways
• Leading and following
• Looking at the Marketing Mix
• Coming Up with Your Own Strategy
• Chapter 14: Managing More than One Product
• Facing the Product/Service Life Cycle
• Starting out
• Growing up
• Coping with middle age
• Facing the senior stretch
• Judging where you are now
• Milking cash cows
• Finding Ways to Grow
• Same product/service, same market
• New market or new product
• New product and new market
• Understanding the adoption cycle
• Protecting intellectual property
• Managing Your Product Portfolio
• Looking at strategic business units
• Aiming for the stars
• Looking strong and attractive
• Hastening slowly
• Extending Your E-Penetration
• Buying Out Competitors
• Knowing why you want to buy
• Investigating and approaching
• Valuing the business
• Limiting the risks
• Part V: A Planner’s Toolkit
• Chapter 15: Planning in Turbulent Economic Times
• Cycles and the Multiplier Effect
• Downturns galore
• Cycles are different
• Anticipating trouble
• Preparing for the Worst
• Deleveraging balance sheets
• Containing working capital
• Pricing under pressure
• Maintaining market share
• Conserving cash
• Keeping key employees
• Selling off assets
• Preparing for the Upturn
• Acquiring competitors
• Planning short term for the long term
• Chapter 16: Making Your Business Plan Work
• Shaping Your Company
• Living the plan
• Putting together an organisation
• Developing procedures
• Preparing Your People
• Encouraging leadership
• Developing skills
• Creating a culture
• Building a team
• Rewarding results
• Assembling your finances
• Planning for the exit
• Chapter 17: Learning from Others: A Sample Business Plan
• Safari Europe: Business Plan
• Part VI: The Part of Tens
• Chapter 18: Ten Questions to Ask About Your Plan
• Are Your Goals Tied to Your Mission?
• Can You Point to Major Opportunities?
• Have You Prepared for Threats?
• Have You Defined Your Customers?
• Can You Track Your Competitors?
• Where Are You Strong (and Weak)?
• Does Your Strategy Make Sense?
• Can You Stand Behind the Numbers?
• Are You Really Ready for Change?
• Is Your Plan Clear, Concise and Current?
• Chapter 19: Top Ten Business-Planning Never-Evers
• Failing to Plan in the First Place
• Missing Out on Assumptions
• External assumptions
• Internal assumptions
• Second-Guessing the Customer
• Underestimating Your Competition
• Ignoring Your Own Strengths
• Mistaking a Budget for a Plan
• Shying Away from Reasonable Risk
• Allowing One Person to Dominate the Plan
• Being Afraid to Change
• Forgetting to Motivate and Reward
• Index
• Bonus Chapter 1 Ten Business-Plan Helpers
• Encouraging Your Own Team in on the Act
• Talking to a Friendly Banker
• Using a Neighbourhood Business Angel
• Asking a Venture Capitalist
• Discussing with Your Best Friend – Or Any Friend for That Matter!
• Tackling a Former Boss
• Chatting up a Spouse
• Employing a Consultant
• Bringing in an Accountant
• Deploying Planning Software
• Bonus Chapter 2 Ten Ways to Make Your Business Plan Look Great
• Getting the Packaging Right
• Laying Out the Front Cover
• Using White Space Wisely
• Preparing a Table of Contents
• Making the Most of Visuals
• Putting Together a Glossary
• Employing Appendices
• Adding an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement)
• Editing Out Errors
• Making Your Writing Readable
• Bonus Chapter 3 Glossary of Business and Accounting Terms
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