Business Plan Calendar

Develop a calendar for the target dates for completionDay 14 Complete Competition Section
of thebusiness plan by segment. 30 days is aThis is the first section that may be a bit of a
reasonable amount oftime to complete your plan. Mostchallenge.
business plans take betweenYou?re halfway through the 30 days and you?ve
40 to 120 hours to complete. Allow two weeks forcompleted sixsections of your business plan.
others toreview the plan and give you theirDay 15 Begin determining the Market and make a first
suggestions for improvementsand then an additionalattemptat financial projections.
week to incorporate those improvementsinto yourDay 17 Complete Operations, Production and Facilities
business plan, and for a final read through and proofing.Section
You can work on more than one part of the businessThis section is pretty cut and dried and shouldn?t be
plan at thesame time. You can research say,difficultto complete.
competition while you writethe industry section.Day 18 Continue Market determination, start Marketing
Assuming you start the business plan on October 1,Strategies
your calendarcould look something like this:Day 20 Complete the Market Section
October 1 Day 1 Start Business Plan and Business PlanAnother section that can be a challenge but there?s
Accomplishments Calendartime forrevision if necessary.
Day 2 Begin Industry and Economic Review ResearchDay 21 Begin Marketing Strategies and start refining
Day 4 Complete Historical Background of therevenueassumptions for financial projections.
Company SectionDay 22 Complete the Ownership Section
You already know most of the information about theThis is one of the easier sections of the plan.
historicalbackground of your own company, it shouldDay 23 Begin seriously working on the expense
be a matter ofconsolidating the information, editing itassumptions forfinancial projections
and then polishing.Day 24 Complete the first draft of the marketing
You can probably write this in just a few hours.strategiessection.
Day 6 Complete Industry and Economic ReviewDay 25 You now should have all the pieces in place to
Day 7 Begin Competition Analysis Researchhave arealistic first run at financial projections.
Day 9 Complete Management SectionDay 26 Complete the Marketing Strategies Section
Most entrepreneurs know who their managementRefine projections
team will be,or what gaps they have in theirDay 27 Complete the Financial Structure Section
management team, so thissection is relatively easy.Refine projections
Day 10 Complete Business Model SectionDay 28 Complete Strengths and Weaknesses, Final
Again, you should have this pretty well defined justproofing of allsections
byhaving determined that you?re going to start theDay 29 Final Financial Projections
company.Day 30 Write Executive Summary
Day 11 Begin Research to determine pricing, costs,October 31 -- Day 30 Completion of Business Plan
andprocesses for the product sectionNovember 15 ? Day 45 Outside Reviews of Business
Day 12 Complete Product/Service SegmentPlan completed.
The product section is usually one of the easiestNovember 21 ? Day 52 Final Business Plan
forentrepreneurs.There, you?ve done it ? a business plan in 30 days.