Business Plan Calendar

Develop a calendar for the target dates for completion of the
business plan by segment. 30 days is a reasonable amount of
time to complete your plan. Most business plans take between
40 to 120 hours to complete. Allow two weeks for others to
review the plan and give you their suggestions for improvements
and then an additional week to incorporate those improvements
into your business plan, and for a final read through and proofing.

You can work on more than one part of the business plan at the
same time. You can research say, competition while you write
the industry section.

Assuming you start the business plan on October 1, your calendar
could look something like this:

October 1 Day 1 Start Business Plan and Business Plan
Accomplishments Calendar

Day 2 Begin Industry and Economic Review Research

Day 4 Complete Historical Background of the Company Section
You already know most of the information about the historical
background of your own company, it should be a matter of
consolidating the information, editing it and then polishing.
You can probably write this in just a few hours.

Day 6 Complete Industry and Economic Review

Day 7 Begin Competition Analysis Research

Day 9 Complete Management Section
Most entrepreneurs know who their management team will be,
or what gaps they have in their management team, so this
section is relatively easy.

Day 10 Complete Business Model Section
Again, you should have this pretty well defined just by
having determined that you?re going to start the company.

Day 11 Begin Research to determine pricing, costs, and
processes for the product section

Day 12 Complete Product/Service Segment
The product section is usually one of the easiest for
entrepreneurs.

Day 14 Complete Competition Section
This is the first section that may be a bit of a challenge.

You?re halfway through the 30 days and you?ve completed six
sections of your business plan.

Day 15 Begin determining the Market and make a first attempt
at financial projections.

Day 17 Complete Operations, Production and Facilities Section
This section is pretty cut and dried and shouldn?t be difficult
to complete.

Day 18 Continue Market determination, start Marketing Strategies

Day 20 Complete the Market Section
Another section that can be a challenge but there?s time for
revision if necessary.

Day 21 Begin Marketing Strategies and start refining revenue
assumptions for financial projections.

Day 22 Complete the Ownership Section
This is one of the easier sections of the plan.

Day 23 Begin seriously working on the expense assumptions for
financial projections

Day 24 Complete the first draft of the marketing strategies
section.

Day 25 You now should have all the pieces in place to have a
realistic first run at financial projections.

Day 26 Complete the Marketing Strategies Section Refine projections

Day 27 Complete the Financial Structure Section Refine projections

Day 28 Complete Strengths and Weaknesses, Final proofing of all
sections

Day 29 Final Financial Projections

Day 30 Write Executive Summary

October 31 -- Day 30 Completion of Business Plan

November 15 ? Day 45 Outside Reviews of Business Plan completed.
November 21 ? Day 52 Final Business Plan

There, you?ve done it ? a business plan in 30 days.