20 Best Books on The Business Plan

Whether you are starting or selling your own business, business plans are an essential and unavoidable part of the business cycle. How to Write a Business Plan gives you the expert guidance you need to make an impact with your plan, including advice on researching competitors, presenting your management skills, and successfully communicating your strategic vision. Whether it is to raise finance, sell a business or develop a specific project, this is your one-stop guide to producing the most professional and convincing business plan for a new venture How to Write a Business Plan provides invaluable help with sales, cash, and profit forecasts and is supported by the inclusion of full-length plans available to download online. This new edition has been enhanced to cover digital developments like crowdfunding, online retailing, and digital marketing.

The creating success series of books…

With over one million copies sold, the hugely popular Creating Success series covers a wide variety of topics and is written by an expert team of internationally best-selling authors and business experts. This indispensable business skills collection is packed with new features, practical content, and inspiring guidance for readers across all stages of their careers.

The number one business plan guide of all time. This essential step-by-step guide for anyone launching or expanding a business has been used by over two million entrepreneurs. It includes expert help, worksheets to jumpstart the process, a sample business plan, tips on impressing funders, winning tips for competitions, secrets to successful crowdfunding, building a global business, and much more. Used in over 1000 business schools worldwide and loved by entrepreneurs, this guide covers every aspect of a successful business plan, from business strategy, winning over investors or lenders, and much more.

Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan: A Pro Shares a Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Plan that Gets Results by Hal Shelton will open your eyes to insider tips, hints, and techniques for creating a winning business plan and attaining funding. This second edition maintains the original laser focus on writing the plan. It also adds much material to the vibrant crowdfunding platforms as well as providing a new section on issues faced by early-stage companies. Nearly 50 percent of new businesses fail within five years. A well-thought-out business plan can dramatically turn the odds in your favor. With this easy-to-follow guide, you will (1) Discover why you need a business plan and the best style for you, (2) Receive step-by-step guidance for creating each section of your plan, (3) Get proven strategies for obtaining bank loans and attracting investors, (4) Spend less time writing your plan and more time setting up your business, and (5) Learn how to create a business plan for a nonprofit This book is for entrepreneurs who are thinking of starting a small business or nonprofit, and for small business owners who want to grow an existing business or solve an operating problem. This book will also help if you are looking for assurance that you are headed in the right direction, seeking help with a section of your business plan that you do not understand, feeling that a section of your business plan is not robust enough, and want pointers, or wanting to learn where and how to apply for funding. Entrepreneurs should always surround themselves with mentors and advisors, so you will also find ideas on where to find these valuable resources. The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan is packed with actionable advice and real-life examples from Shelton’s experience as a senior executive, SCORE small business mentor, and angel investor.

The Fastest, Easiest Way to Write a Business Plan! Tens of thousands of corporations, small businesses, and entrepreneurs around the world use The One Page Business Plan process to quickly and easily create highly focused and simple business plans. Rather than start with a blank piece of paper, the book and planning tool kit include business plan templates, as well as sample business plans to help get you started and produce the first draft in just a couple of hours! Easy to fill in the blanks business plan outlines make the process fast and easy. The book is divided into 5 unique sections… Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Action Plans providing a useful and complete business plan format that will show you step-by-step how to write a business plan. Readers tell us they love the interactive exercises… and simple business plan format but hate to write in the book! So, available downloadable files are the 2 plan templates from the book designed to help you quickly write your business plan or type it into your computer or tablet. It s easy! You don’t need to be a CPA or MBA to get a sense of what your sales might look like in 1, 3, or 5 years. This is a great tool for entrepreneurs who may have been intimated by the numbers associated with business! You also get over 20 additional sample business plans… PLUS you get 10 additional practical and powerful bonus planning tools! Templates and techniques that we have created and used in working with thousands of entrepreneurs in workshops around the world. These tools are the best of the best… they really work… and they are simple! For example, The One Page Planning Wheel is a very simple visual tool to help anyone who needs to plan for key projects over an entire year to be able to do so on a single plan. Business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs tell us they love this tool and they use it all of the time. It is simple in concept…easy to use…and memorable. Whenever there is a need to plan for a year… they simply go to the whiteboard, draw a circle, quarter it…and then begin the process of identifying the key projects or action items and slotting them into the appropriate quarter. This is particularly helpful for those preparing budgets. Bend the Curve is another very simple, but very powerful visual tool. Bend the Curve helps anyone, or any group very quickly identify the two, three, or four strategies, action items, or projects that can make a significant difference in any business metric or key performance indicator. Like The One Page Planning Wheel, this tool is instantly intuitive and understandable…and helps to immediately focus attention on what s really important and what is going to make a difference. Fill-in-the-Blanks Strategies Worksheet is a power-worksheet! It contains over twenty (20) important strategies that most businesses will need to consider in the development of their business plan. You can quickly view the Strategies and decide which ones are appropriate for your business…and then you simply fill in the blanks. Instead of agonizing over how to write a Strategy…you just fill in the blanks. In minutes you can quickly draft most of your Strategies. Also included are One Page Performance Scorecards and Budget Worksheets that will help you improve results quickly by creating a scorecard for each of your Objectives and then tracking results and progress… critical for achieving success in your business! With all of these business plan tools, you’ll have what you need to build your business and achieve your desired results!

Used by more than 1.5 million business owners since its original publication, the new edition of this classic how-to guide provides any entrepreneur the tools to create a well-constructed business plan. All steps are included—from initial considerations to envisioning the organizational structure to creating a growth-powering marketing plan and building for the future with airtight financial documents. The book offers proven, step-by-step advice for developing and packaging the components of the plan and keeping them up to date, including cover sheets, table of contents, executive summary, organization and marketing plans, and financial and supporting documents. Five real-life business plans and blank forms and worksheets provide readers with additional user-friendly guidelines for the creation of the plans. The revisions included in the new edition include updated chapters on writing a marketing plan and financing resources as well as a new, complete example of a business plan for a nonprofit organization.

Everything you need to know to design a profitable business plan.

Whether you’re starting a new business or you’ve been trading for a while, 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. Look at the risk involved in this business and experiment with different scenarios to see if you’re on the right track.

• Explains how to create a one-page business plan in just a few hours.
• Takes a simple step-by-step approach, focusing on budgets, financials, and everyday practicalities.
• Offers focused guidance on managing cashflow, designing marketing plans, and establishing a long-term vision for your business.
• Includes access to downloadable templates and worksheets, as well as helpful online audio and video components.
• Written by Veechi Curtis, bestselling author, and business consultant.

A good business plan is the first step to success for any new business, and getting it right can mean the difference between big profits and big trouble. Creating a Business Plan For Dummies gives you the detailed advice you need to design a great business plan that will guide your business from concept to reality.

Business Model Generation is a handbook for visionaries, game-changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow’s enterprises. If your organization needs to adapt to harsh new realities, but you don’t yet have a strategy that will get you out in front of your competitors, you need Business Model Generation.

Co-created by 470 “Business Model Canvas” practitioners from 45 countries, the book features a beautiful, highly visual, 4-color design that takes powerful strategic ideas and tools and makes them easy to implement in your organization. It explains the most common Business Model patterns, based on concepts from leading business thinkers, and helps you reinterpret them for your own context. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a game-changing business model–or analyze and renovate an old one. Along the way, you’ll understand at a much deeper level your customers, distribution channels, partners, revenue streams, costs, and your core value proposition.

Business Model Generation features practical innovation techniques used today by leading consultants and companies worldwide, including 3M, Ericsson, Capgemini, Deloitte, and others. Designed for doers, it is for those ready to abandon outmoded thinking and embrace new models of value creation: for executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all organizations. If you’re ready to change the rules, you belong to “the business model generation!”

This book shows you EXACTLY what you need to know to stand out from the crowd!

Do you have an idea for an amazing product or service but you aren’t sure how to build a business around it?

Then you NEED this book. Buy now and start reading today!

Are you a current business owner who struggles to identify your customers and deliver true world-class value?

Everything you need to know is included in these pages!

Do you want to build your hobby business into a fully-fledged venture that will help you build the life you deserve?

Then you NEED this book. Buy now and start reading today!

The most comprehensive guide ever developed for starting and growing a business!

In the highly competitive world of business, what makes or breaks a new entrepreneur?

Sourced from over twenty years of firsthand experience working with entrepreneurs, new ventures, and high-growth startups, author Ken Colwell, Ph.D., MBA has the answers.

In his comprehensive Starting a Business QuickStart Guide, Ken Colwell concisely presents the core fundamentals that all new entrepreneurs need to know to get started, find success, and live the life of their dreams.

Business and entrepreneurship students, small business owners, managers, and soon-to-be entrepreneurs will all find a wealth of value within the pages of the Starting a Business QuickStart Guide.

From the very first steps conceptualizing your venture to winning your first customers, delivering value, and turning a profit, this book acts as an invaluable blueprint for your path to entrepreneurial success. Colwell’s clear voice, extensive experience, and easy-to-understand presentation come together to make this book a must-have resource in the library of every budding entrepreneur!

Perfect For:

• Would-Be Entrepreneurs With a Ton of Passion!

• Entrepreneurial Students of All Ages!

• Beginners with Zero Prior Experience!

• Managers, Business Owners, and Decisions Makers Growing into a New Role!

You’ll Discover:

• The Difference Between an Idea and an Opportunity!

• What Makes an Entrepreneurial Opportunity Great!

• The Very First Steps You Need To Take To Get Your Venture Off The Ground!

• Pricing, Competition, Customer Identification, Marketing, and Distribution Demystified!

• The REAL Components of an Entrepreneurial Mindset!

• Exactly How To Craft Your Value Proposition!

• How to Write a Comprehensive Business Plan!

Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.

The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.

Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt, and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in an age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

You need a sound business plan to start a business or raise money to expand an existing one. For over 30 years, How to Write a Business Plan has helped fledgling entrepreneurs―from small service businesses and retailers to large manufacturing firms―write winning plans and get needed financing.

This bestselling book contains clear step-by-step instructions and forms to put together a convincing business plan with realistic financial projections, effective marketing strategies, and overall business goals. You’ll learn how to:

• figure out if your business idea will make money
• determine and forecast cash flow
• create profit and loss forecasts
• prepare marketing and personnel plans
• find potential sources of financing, and
• present your well-organized plan to lenders and other backers, and
• learn about best practices for raising money, from SBA loans to equity crowdfunding.

The latest edition takes you beyond just writing a business plan. Planning is necessary, but over-planning or planning without starting your business leads to failure.

That’s why the latest edition of this book gives you skills to become a stronger entrepreneur, launch your business, and succeed once your business is up and running.

BENEFITS OF THIS APPROACH

• Write a higher-quality business plan
• Identify the most effective strategies for your business
• Complete your business plan faster
• Avoid confusion and frustration

EXPERIENCED AND AUTHORITATIVE AUTHOR

Anyone can claim to be a business expert, but the knowledge in this book comes from the author, Alex Genadinik, who has:

• Coached over 1,000 entrepreneurs
• Created top business planning apps
• Taught tens of thousands of people in his business planning courses
• Guest-lectured at numerous universities
• Built multiple successful businesses while being an independent entrepreneur just like you

INVEST IN YOUR FUTURE AND FREEDOM

Imagine how great your life will be if you are the owner of a successful business, provide for your family, live comfortably, and avoid daily 9-5 stress.

Take this step to starting your business, achieve financial independence, and gain the freedom you desire.

STRUCTURED AS A BUSINESS PLAN TEMPLATE

One of the chapters in this book is structured like a business plan template with examples for what to write in every section of the business plan. It is meant for you to write your business plan as you read the book.

By the end of that chapter, you will have a professional business plan.

NOW WITH A CASE STUDY OF A $1,000,000 CLIENT

A recent addition in this book is a business plan for a client’s ecommerce business that I helped take to over $1,000,000 in annual revenue.

You’ll see the business plan for that client and more importantly, what we did to get his business to grow.

AFTER YOU READ THE BOOK

If you are a first-time entrepreneur, after the first few chapters, you will have a much better understanding of business strategies and the steps to get started and succeed.

Mind Your Business is the ONLY book that teaches you everything you need to know about how to build a successful business from scratch. From developing your brand to designing products to identifying your legal and tax needs, this comprehensive guide will take you through every step of the process and help you create a unique and customized roadmap for your business. Mind Your Business is for aspiring entrepreneurs who are driven, ambitious, creative, and determined to build a business and life they love.

Author Ilana Griffo shares the formula that turned her creative hobby into a six-figure design studio. From initial planning to long-term business strategy, Mind Your Business includes:

   • Insider tips from successful entrepreneurs
   • Advice to identify your ideal market and customer
   • Legal guidelines to protect your assets
   • Budget and forecast tools
   • How to avoid the pitfalls that doom most startups
   • Guidance on how to scale and grow
   • Suggestions on how to dominate online platforms
   • Tips to beat your competitors with SEO and social media

Mind Your Business puts you in the driver’s seat. It will help you navigate the journey of starting your first business and take your ambitions and ideas from wishful thinking to successful reality.

This book is for the future entrepreneur who wants to understand the critical issues and feasibility of developing a business venture while developing an extensive business plan.

Teaching and Learning Experience

This text will provide a better teaching and learning experience―for you and your students. Here’s how:

• Focus on the “Front End” of the Entrepreneurial Process: The entrepreneurial process is discussed and defined as part of the comprehensive business plan process.
• Give Students a Solid Point of Reference: A business plan, for a fictitious company name Prime Adult Fitness, is built throughout the course of the book.
• Present Special Insights on Presenting and Writing a Business Plan: The book provides tips and suggestions for presenting a business plan with confidence and pose and includes a 12 slide PowerPoint with suggestions on what to include on each slide.

To win in business requires a winning business plan. To write a winning business plan requires reading Garrett Sutton’s dynamic book on the topic. Writing Winning Business Plans provides the insights and the direction on how to do it well and do it right.

Rich Dad/Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki says, “The first step in business is a great business plan. It must be a page-turner that hooks and holds a potential investor. Garrett Sutton’s Writing Winning Business Plans is THE book for key strategies on preparing winning plans for both business and real estate ventures.

Crisply written and featuring real-life illustrative stories, Writing Winning Business Plans discusses all the key elements for a successful plan. Topics include focusing on your business vision, understanding your financials, and analyzing your competition. Also covered are how to really use your business plan as a tool and how to attract funding for your new or existing businesses.
As business plan competitions become more popular around the world Writing Winning Business Plans also discusses how to enter and how to win these ever more lucrative contests.

In addition, how to quickly interest a potential investor, also known as the elevator pitch, is explained. And, as opportunities arise around the world, how to present your plan in various countries is explored.

Writing Winning Business Plans is the complete compendium for this essential business rite of passage – preparing a winning plan.

To build a successful business, you need to stop doing random acts of marketing and start following a reliable plan for rapid business growth. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process, which is why it often doesn’t get done.

In The 1-Page Marketing Plan, serial entrepreneur and rebellious marketer Allan Dib reveals a marketing implementation breakthrough that makes creating a marketing plan simple and fast. It’s literally a single page, divided up into nine squares. With it, you’ll be able to map out your own sophisticated marketing plan and go from zero to marketing hero.

Whether you’re just starting out or are an experienced entrepreneur, The 1-Page Marketing Plan is the easiest and fastest way to create a marketing plan that will propel your business growth.

In this groundbreaking new book you’ll discover:
• How to get new customers, clients, or patients and how to make more profit from existing ones.
• Why “big business” style marketing could kill your business and strategies that actually work for small and medium-sized businesses.
• How to close sales without being pushy, needy, or obnoxious while turning the tables and having prospects begging you to take their money.
• A simple step-by-step process for creating your own personalized marketing plan that is literally one page. Simply follow along and fill in each of the nine squares that make up your own 1-Page Marketing Plan.
• How to annihilate competitors and make yourself the only logical choice.
• How to get amazing results on a small budget using the secrets of direct response marketing.
• How to charge high prices for your products and services and have customers actually thank you for it.

In the last three decades, I worked as a business consultant for 27 different small to midsize start-up companies.

During my tenure with each of the companies, I have learned the biggest asset of any company is its growth plan which is also known as the business plan. Each time I had to get very creative when creating a business plan for the start-ups as that is the most critical document banks and lenders look at. You can imagine most start-up’s first order of business is securing favorable bank financing so they can actually get their business up and running.

Business plan to me is the backbone of your business; it is truly the GPS of your business that navigates you in the right direction. Regardless if you are applying for a loan for your business or not, every business should have a plan which should be updated periodically to help you stay on track to success.

In this book, I show you a simple and easy-to-follow process of creating your own business plan for any business. You don’t need to be a writer or a Business major to be able to draft a great business plan, it is not your proficiency in the English language, instead, it is all about laying out a simple to understand the plan for the future of your business and how you want to navigate your business forward to prosperity.

Here are the Three most Common Excuses I hear from entrepreneurs about not creating their own business plan.

• I am not good at writing
• I don’t know what to say in the plan
• I am not business savvy enough to write one

Five Biggest Myths about the Business Plan

• It is a complicated document
• Only a seasoned business writer can write a good business plan
• No one reads it, but you have to one to get a loan
• A good business plan needs to be 20-30 page long
• I don’t need a loan to start my business, so I don’t need a business plan

False, false, and false, as I am sure you have guessed, all of them are false.

In this book, I show you the baby steps to get started on the right foot. I take you through all the elements of creating a great business plan that is custom-crafted just for your business. Before you buy this book, I want you to take a look at the Table of Content so you can see what all I covered inside this book, you will see the topics like:

• What is a Business Plan?
• How Critical is a Business plan for your Business
• 5 Reasons you should have a Business Plan
• What and How do I write one
• 9 Essential Components of a Great Business Plan
• Two Best Practices of Business Plan Writing
• Lean vs. Traditional Business Plan
• Example of a Lean Business Plan
• Step by Step instructions to Write a Traditional Business Plan

This last part is the most significant part of the book; this is where I show you (with examples) every major and minor detail you need to include in your plan, items like

• Cover page
• Executive summary
• Company Description
• Aspects of Service or Product
• Problems you are trying to resolve
• Your Competitive Landscape
• Your Competitive Edge
• All 4 Stages of Product Life Cycle (PLC)
• Market Analysis
• Evaluation of the Competition
• Marketing & Advertising
• Management Team
• Operating Plan
• Financial Plan (Income statement, Cash Flow, Balance Sheet & Break-Even Point)
• Request for Funding

Lastly, I offer you a link to a fully Functional and Customizable Business Plan Template which you can download and use.

At the beginning of every successful business are a well-thought-out and exceptionally prepared business plan that was written with one audience in mind–investors. But too many budding entrepreneurs have written their business’s bible with a focus on details most important to managers or employees or even themselves, completely avoiding the questions most crucial to those who determine the fate of the business’s genesis . . . its potential backers. The Standout Business Plan is an immensely practical and readable guide that shows readers how to create a business plan that not only speaks directly to investors and lenders but also makes it easy for them to say yes. Featuring case studies and examples of both what to do and what not to do, this invaluable book reveals how to: • Include the vital information backers need while leaving out extraneous filler that gets in the way • Address key factors such as market demand, competition, and strategy • Spell out the essence of your business proposition • Outline resources and financial forecasts • Assess risk from the backer’s perspective • Evaluate and improve the plan to ensure its success your business plan is too important to not get exactly right from the beginning. With the easy-to-follow guidance in The Standout Business Plan, now anyone can present a clear, concise, and convincing case that will win them the funding they need to succeed.

A must-read for the leader of any team, Pulling Together is the ultimate list of advice for achieving greatness on a team. From “Respecting Diversity” to “Building Trust,” the rules for teamwork compiled here will inspire camaraderie and demand excellence.

What makes this book unique is its depth of content paired with its gift-sized packaging. Each rule for “pulling together” is complemented with photographs, quotations, thought-provoking questions, and smart insight. However, it’s the perfect size to be given as a gift to each person on the team! This book could be given as a gift to coaches, athletes, business leaders, or coworkers.