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Business Plan Numbers

Infopublishing

  

April 15, 2008

894301527?!*

It's Greek to a lot of us.  It is the NUMBERS component of your business plan.  There are a couple of places that you need numbers.  And they need to be good.  Here are the primary places:

Your Financial Summary
AFree Template

Did you know you could get a free financial summary template?  Well, you can.  It's inside Microsoft Excel.  In truth, it's not my favorite format, but it works. 

Go to FILE -> NEW.  Then click on the "Business Planner Templates" tab.

Voila!  More templates than most folks need.  For a basic business plan, these are usually more than enough.
 

 Too Good to Miss

This is just plain cool.  Myriad statistics, both in written and mapped format, for every census district in the US.

Don't know what district you need?  No problem.  The interactive map will let you drill down to the specific number.  You can even combine two or more into a comprehensive report.

Social Explorer was created by the sociology department at Queens College in Flushing, N.Y. The information itself is derived from the U.S. Census data from 1940 to 2000.

Although you can generate demographic charts and graphs directly from the Bureau of the Census web site, Social Explorer is appealing because it is geared to provide historical data dating from 1940, it is very easy to use, and it can generate elegant thematic maps and charts customized by the user. Consider this site if you need to quickly find demographic data for a state, county, or census tract area in the U.S.

There is a paid version, but the free version has slews of great tools too.

Check it out here
 

Here's the best and the brightest.  Over 400 of them to be exact.  Lots and lots of business plan templates, in lots and lots of categories.  Only US$19.00 !

Click on the book cover for more information.
 

Your Industry By The Numbers

Marketing plan numbers are trickier than your financials.  Financial worksheets have a pretty standard format.  Marketing numbers are all across the board.  Some are local, some national, some international.  Some have a narrow niche market.  Some draw from a number of established markets.

But, no matter how simple, or how complex, you do need them.  You need to identify your industry niche and demonstrate that you will succeed in this niche.

Odds are that you lender/investor will look at BizMiner numbers.  You should too.  Find out what's there.  If it's not good news for your business, it's better to find out ahead of time.  I shudder at the thought of standing in front of lender who says, "By the way, did you realize your market is declining?" 

BizMiner is the company that gather information on hundreds of thousands of businesses, then summaries it all into thousands of specialized industries.  So odds are that you will find a report quite similar to your type of business.

 

Your Free Business Plan

This one was published by the Montana Department of Commerce as an example of a business plan.  Our estimation: mediocre. 

Windbreak: Baby Blanket for Outdoors.  
 

 

"One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living.  We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon -- instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today."

~  Dale Carnegie
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