Business Plan Help

Independent and impartial advice on starting your small business

If you are looking for some impartial and independent advice on starting your small business, you can contact your local Enterprise Agency. Enterprise Agencies are a network of, not for profit, organisations that support small businesses - in particular business start-ups and micro businesses - by providing a range of useful and independent services. Your first stop, should be to find your local Enterprise Agency.

The easiest way to write a business plan

This guide looks at the different options you have when it comes to writing your business plan. You can either pay someone to write the business plan for you, produce the plan yourself from scratch using a word processing package such as  MS Word and a spreadsheet like Excel, or use dedicated business planning software.

The big advantage of using business planning software is that it walks you through the entire process, giving you lots of examples and help to make sure your finished plan contains all the key elements. You can read the guide here.

Free business planning seminar at Growing Your Own Business

Alan Gleeson, MD of Palo Alto Software UK, the company behind the Business Plan Pro software programs, will present a seminar on business planning at the Growing Your Own Business Exhibition & Conference (GYOB) on Friday 4 and Saturday 5 April 2008 at Olympia, London.

As well as advice on writing your business plan, you will also be able to gain other specialist business start up advice and access a wide range of business services at the show. Find out more at Growing Your Own Business. Business Plan Help readers can get free access to GYOB, simply use the Promo Code GBPH when you register.

Guide to successful business planning

When you're thinking about what to put in your business plan, following the practical tips given in this great guide to successful business planning will help you to ensure your business starts positively and achieves results. The successful business planning guide helps you to think about your objectives, how you can achieve your goals and how to convey all of this into a realistic and effective business plan.

Business planning help and funding in Camden & Islington

The Innovation Central website is worth a visit if the business plan you're writing is for a business that will be based in the London boroughs of Camden and Islington. The site lists a myriad of events that run across the area including; Business Plan Workshops, Business Start-Up courses and Networking events.

They also award bursaries and you can apply for an award of up to £3,500 towards the cost of developing and implementing your business plan.

50 Bootstrap Marketing ideas for start-ups

When you're writing your business plan you need to include how you're going to market and sell what you produce. Most start-up businesses have a small marketing budget so 'bootstrap marketing' is often the only way to generate new business.

'Bootstrap marketing' basically means marketing your business on a tiny budget. It's about using creativity rather than cash to shout about what you're doing. This brilliant guide gives you 50 bootstrap marketing ideas to help you promote your new business for free.

Securing funding with a business plan - The Dragons' Perspective

The BBC2 show Dragons' Den is now in its fifth series and while the show is obviously edited to entertain (more than anything else); it seems as if the current bunch of contestants has not watched any of the previous shows! This article will help you to write a business plan that gets you the funding you need. Read the full article

Dragons' Master Class - the numbers you need to know!

Why do entrepreneurs consistently fail to appreciate how important it is to have financials in hand when pitching an idea? Why do they consistently present a business plan without even a rudimentary knowledge of basic financial concepts, such as turnover or margin? This article highlights some of the financials that any aspiring entrepreneur needs to know before submitting or pitching a business plan to a ‘dragon’ of any hue. Read the full article

Common Business Plan Mistakes

While including the necessary items in a business plan is important, you also want to make sure you don’t commit any of the following common business plan mistakes: Read this article to find out the most common business plan mistakes and how you can avoide them. Read the full article here.

Creating a Business Plan course

The University of Essex are running a 1-day 'Creating a Business Plan' course on March 3, 2008. The 'Creating a Business Plan' course covers the detail involved in creating a business plan, explaining how to develop key indicators to track the progress of the plan, how to manage the budgetary aspects of a plan, and how to revise and review the plan over time. You can find out more about the course here.