Creating a Business Plan for Dummies covers everything you need to know. Figure out whether your business idea is likely to work, how to identify your strategic advantage and what you can do to gain an edge on the competition. Discover why a business plan doesn't have to be a thirty-page document that takes days to write but can be a simple process that you do in stages as you work through your business concept. Learn how to prepare an elevator pitch, create a start-up budget and create realistic sales projections. Discover how to predict and manage expenses, and assemble a financial forecast that enables you to calculate your break-even.

Contents:
Introduction



Part I: Getting Started

Chapter 1: Letting Your Plan Take Flight

Chapter 2: Figuring Out What's So Special about You (and Your Business)

Chapter 3: Sizing up the Competition



Part II: Doing the Groundwork

Chapter 4: Budgeting for Start-Up Expenses

Chapter 5: Figuring out Prices and Predicting Sales

Chapter 6: Calculating Costs and Gross Profit

Chapter 7: Planning for Expenses



Part III: Checking Your Idea Makes Financial Sense

Chapter 8: Assembling Your Profit & Loss Projection

Chapter 9: Calculating Your Break-Even Point

Chapter 10: Creating Cash flows and Building Budgets



Part IV: Transforming Your Idea into Reality

Chapter 11: Separating Yourself from Your Business

Chapter 12: Developing a Strong Marketing Plan

Chapter 13: Staying One Step Ahead

Chapter 14: Managing Risk

Chapter 15: Pulling Together Your Written Plan



Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 16: Ten Tips for Using Excel in Your Business Plan

Chapter 17: Ten Ideas for a Well-Presented Plan

Chapter 18: Ten Questions to Ask before You're Done



Appendix: Sample Business Plan

Index