If there’s one key determinate of the success of your company it’s your business plan. You need to make sure your business plan contains all of the details that you can conceive of, and that you make sure all of the pieces thoughtfully fit together properly. At the very least your business plan needs to include:

1. Summarize Your Goals for Your Business

You can’t reach a goal if you aren’t building towards it from the beginning. You want to be as specific as possible when you write down your business’ goals. All businesses need a minimum of one single clear goal, but most businesses will have a range of large goals they’re working towards. Before you do anything else you need to figure out what measurable and unambiguous goals you’ll be working towards. This is square one, the first step that all your other plans will rely on.

2. Individual Steps Leading to Your Goal

Once you have your large goal you’re going to need to break it down into as many smaller goals and steps as you can conceive of. Generally speaking the more small goals and the more steps you can include in your business plan the better, as these will provide you with a clear and unambiguous path to follow to reach those larger goals, as well as a series of small accomplishments to provide moral boosts throughout the overarching process. If there is one key to reaching an intimidating large goal, it’s reaching all of the smaller steps that lead up to it, one at a time.

3. Estimate and Project Your Finances

It’s always important to create financial projections for every single stage of the process – how much you’ll be earning, how much you’ll be spending, how much you’ll have in the bank, what your debts equal, etc. While it’s rare that your financial projections will be 100% accurate, it’s still necessary that you have some idea what condition your money will be in at all points to properly plan and time each subsequent step.

4. Remember Your Competitors

There has never been, and there never will be, a company that has no competition, that truly stands alone in its field and in all fields related to it. You may be the market leader, you may be the first to launch your product, you may have even created your field, but at some point you will begin to face a certain level of competition that will never let up, even if it lessens. Compile all the information you can about present competitors, possible future competitors, and how you plan on dealing with the threat they pose to your market share.

5. Plan for the Unexpected

Your business plan will not be foolproof in its purest form. The course of your company’s growth will regularly hit snags in the road. Maybe funding came later than you expected, maybe surprise advances crop up in your industry- there are endless contingencies that can derail your business plan. It’s important to implement plans and alternate routes to take within your business plan to deal with matters when they don’t go as you expect.

There has never been a successful business that didn’t begin with a successful business plan. While it’s certainly possible to construct a business plan on your own, you will always do better by hiring a professional business plan writing or consulting service to ensure you get started on the right foot and have the right blueprint to follow to reach the success you require.

There are a number of ways of going about the process of writing a good business plan. One of the most tried and time tested ways that works well is using a business plan template. While these are easily available online, some of them are way better than the others. A lot depends on the approach that goes into writing the business plan. However, the best business plan template is that which meets all your business needs and requirements by offering you a high level of customization and a professional layout of all the content that you would like to include. So, rather than looking around for an existing plan and then designing your own plan along the same lines, it would be a better idea to use software that allows you to create your own template.

Some of the benefits of software like Business Plan Pro include, but are not limited to, getting instant access to over five hundred sample templates that can be edited directly, allowing you to create the best business plan template for your particular business. It is a software program that provides step-by-step guidance throughout the process of planning and provides clear instructions and sound advice, along with resources for any additional help that may be required. It provides easily generated financials that are based on an underlying built-in financial model that is integrated with visual forecasting, and financial wizards to fill in the numbers in the pre-designed format of the business template. It includes the best and the latest technologies to stay current with new trends in business innovation and planning. It provides expert help from professionals who have valuable years of experience. It also contains real market research data, along with industry profiles on a number of industry verticals, that allow matching the numbers of your business or company with these pre fed and automatically integrated industry ratios that enhance the accuracy of the business plan.

Millions of entrepreneurs, be it first-time owners of small and medium startups or Fortune 500 business conglomerates, use this program and consider it to the best business plan template generator on the open market. The additional options like the Plan Review feature checks the financial section of the plan to ensure that you have entered growth rates that are realistic. It also displays a sound break-even analysis as well as other important financial pointers and indicators like manageable cash flow projections. In this way, the template helps you organize your thoughts, and it acts as a guideline to kick start the process of planning.

Before you can began rolling on the fast track with your new business, it takes planning. Don’t skip any of the original 10 step business plan we’ve listed below. Some things are absolute necessities in advance of your opening date for business.

Let’s make it easy and simple. Listed below is a 10 step plan you need to undertake well in advance of your new business opening date. This is only the beginning list but you’ll discover and add more in coming days and weeks.

Your own business expertise and experiences will obviously come into play as you work on your complete business plan. For now, let’s get underway and begin to work through the following list of important business decisions…

1. Decide on Service and/or Product you plan to market/sell.

2. Select Accounting Firm or CPA if required

3. Hire Competent LEGAL COUNSEL

4. LOCATION is an important key to your success

5. Know your FINANCES, Money Source, before making any investments

6. Determine Employee Requirements – background; education; professional; etc.

7. Recruit a Mastermind Team

8. Is a new building required before you can open for business?

9. What licenses are required, certifications, etc.?

10. What is your opening Date for business?

Shooting from the “hip” or without a plan is a disaster waiting to happen. Even the smartest entrepreneurs are NOT willing to take such risks. Are you going “solo” or is this a franchise with a long-term history of success? 90% Vs 10% success rates may give you a reason to make the investment for a franchised business.

Weigh the odds. Research the history, do your due diligence. Don’t let anyone rush you into making a decision because someone else wants the same territory and is waiting with money in hand, ready to roll and cut you off at the pass. Don’t believe it without proof and then only if you are sure this is your choice.

Everyone dreams of owning their own business. Making BIG dollars, driving fine cars with all the goodies, BIG houses in beautiful places to vacation at will, club memberships at the finest golf courses, places for fine dining and meeting the upper crust of society.

Where’s the problem? For most of us, it takes 25 to 30 years of hard work without any guarantees that we’ll ever reach the pinnacle of success. Far too many businesses bite the dust than hit the big time. Taxes, employees, thieves, bankrupt customers are the main culprits of business disasters.

Not a pretty picture but awareness is extremely important. The more YOU know what can happen the better prepared you’ll be. Watch out for any employee with too much “power” in your business who likes to take charge.

Many services you need to run your business are better outsourced than handled internally. Hire reputable people in all areas whether in house or outsourced. Pride yourself on building a company with competent staff, well paid, good benefits simply because it’s your key to a successful business long-term.