Do business plans greatly differ from a feasibility study? in what way?
397740
Yes, a business plan is a living, working set of documents that not only indicate what a business is capable of doing, but should guide and direct its operation. Studies of any kind are usually just mathematical constructs designed to Gage the probability of success or failure of an aspect of a business. Similar to the pro forma section of a business plan.
1071810
Almost any investor will want to see a business plan that will lay out in some amount of detail what you are planning to do in the business, how you plan to make money, when you expect to start making money, and what the potential problems might be.  They basically want to see that you have put some thought into the venture and that they are comfortable with your assumptions.
692804
A business plan isn't some work of fiction used to impress a loan officer or a potential investor. It should be a roadmap of the who, what, where, when and why of your business. It should be designed to help you keep the business on track to being profitable. There should be contingencies to address some of the possible hurdles you might have to clear as well as the various steps you need to take to get the business up and running.
303063
You can see ACTUAL SAMPLES of business plans to see how it actually looks like from the resources below:\n\n- Bplans.com http://www.bplans.com/sp/businessplans.cfm\n- MOOT Corp Business Plan competition winners\nhttp://www.businessplans.org/businessplans.html\n- VFinance - View hundreds of real business plans in pdf format. http://www.vfinance.com/home.asp?bps=1&ToolPage=bps_main.asp\n- Business Owners Toolkit Sample business plans and information on how to create a plan. http://www.toolkit.cch.com/tools/buspln_m.asp\n- PlanWare Planning software and information. http://www.planware.org/\n- Virtual Business Plan Walk through the design of a business plan. http://www.bizplanit.com/vplan.html \n-SBA Business Planning Guide http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/planning/basic.html\n- Small Business Advancement Center http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/business_plan/businessPlan.pdf\n- Sample Business Plan General planning guide created by the Canadian Business Service Center. http://www.cbsc.org/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=CBSC_FE/display&c=GuideFactSheet&cid\n- Business Plans Index - A subject guide to sample business plans and profiles for specific business types from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. http://216.183.184.20/subject/business/bplansindex.html\n\nHere are some resources that can help you write your business plan:\n\n- SBA Business Plan Basics http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/planning/basic.html\n- PowerHomeBiz.com Creating a Business Plan section http://www.powerhomebiz.com/startup/businessplan.htm\n- Entrepreneur.com Writing a Business Plan section http://www.entrepreneur.com/bizplan/0,7253,,00.html\n\nSome recommended books are :\n\n- Business Plans Kit for Dummies \n- The Complete Book of Business Plans : Simple Steps to Writing a Powerful Business Plan \n- Writing Business Plans That Get Results : A Step-By-Step Guide \n- Business Plans For Dummies® \n- Your First Business Plan : A Simple Question and Answer Format Designed to Help You Write Your Own Plan
274762
There are lots of great resources out there to help you with your business plan. Here are some sites that might help:\n\nBplans.com: http://www.bplans.com/dp/\nSBA.gov: http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/\nSCORE.org: http://www.score.org/readingroom.html#a_1\nEntrepreneur.com: http://www.entrepreneur.com/bizplan/0,7253,,00.html\n\nThere's also an online book on business planning that you can find here: \nhttp://www.hurdlebook.com/\n\nGood Luck!
737981
You nee to formulate a 3 year business plan and present it to them...\n\nEmphasis the win-win scenarios
545182
Generally, feasibility studies are used to determine whether a certain course of action should be made with respect to positive impacts and negative impacts.\n\nIn Industrial Engineering (applications vary so I'm not sure where you're coming from), a feasibility could be done on whether to upgrade a certain piece of machinery in a factory.\n\nThe positive impacts could be increased productivity\n\nThe negative impacts could range from\n\nmachinery cost, having to train the plant personnel to operate and maintain the new machinery, shutting down production so that you can install the new machinery, etc.\n\nGenerally, the Feasibility Study will be a report which will try to quantify the above so that the end-client can make a responsible decision.
956934
Pretty much is the same, but there is a company that put all that into one business you can own. for more info email me.
52735
Here are a few keys to better business plans:\n\n1. Use a business plan to set concrete goals, responsibilities, and deadlines to guide your business.\n\n2. A good business plan assigns tasks to people or departments and sets milestones and deadlines for tracking implementation.\n\n3. A practical business plan includes 10 parts implementation for every one part strategy.\n\n4. As part of the implementation of a business plan, it should provide a forum for regular review and course corrections. \n\n5. Good business plans are practical.\n\nSome Business Plan "Don'ts" \n\n1. Don't use a business plan to show how much you know about your business.\n\n2. Nobody reads a long-winded business plan: not bankers, bosses, nor venture capitalists. Years ago, people were favorably impressed by long plans. Today, nobody is interested in a business plan more than 30 pages long.\n\nI would also suggest checking out http://www.bplans.com/ . There's a guide linked from the home page on writing a business plan as well as 60 free sample business plans.\n\nFinally, contact your local SCORE office for free advice. SCORE is funded by the SBA and is a great resource. You can find your local SCORE office here: http://www.score.org/\n\nYour local Small Business Development Center will also be able to help. You can find your local office here: http://www.bplans.com/sb/
904587
Larry,\n\nYou can hire someone or you can spend a much smaller amount of money and create one using one of the off the shelf Business Plan software packages.\n\nI write business plans for a living for the construction industry (Architects, General Contractors, Subcontractors, etc.) and I use one of the off the shelf software packages.  \n\nIt can be very time consuming but they are very intuitive.  \n\nMy main advice is not to look at a business plan as a "silver bullet".  WAY too many of my clients pay for a business plan and do nothing with it.  \n\nMy analogy is this.  It is not buying the "Bowflex" that gets you in shape...it is the continued use of the "Blowflex" that gets you in shape.\n\nBusiness plans are vital.  Once you create one...don't file it away.  WORK IT!\n\nGood luck,\n\nBobby
963302
Extra sections are good, but I suggest you focus on providing more ooomph to your business plan by finetuning the basics. \n\nAccording to the book “The ABC's of Writing Winning Business Plans: How to Prepare a Business Plan That Others Will Want to Read -- and Invest In” http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446694150/powerhomebizguid by Garrett Sutton, below are some tips to make a winning business plan that can get funding:\n\n- Money follows management. Investors look first at the people involved in the company. If you are just starting out and don’t have relevant experience, investors expect to see that you have an experienced team of advisors and employees helping you in the business. \n\n- Make sure you “sell” the one reason your business will become profitable. \n\n- State clearly the strategies you will employ to get the word out about your business. Your business plan must show how you will leverage the Internet, public relations, viral marketing, and other strategies to attract customers. \n\n- Present realistic estimates of the time, energy and costs of building a successful business. Do not underestimate or overestimate revenues. While investors know your numbers are simply guesses, they want to see that your numbers are within the “range of reality.” Be careful of your financial statements: this is one area where you can easily lose credibility if presented poorly. \n\n- Benchmark similar companies to show that you’ve done your homework and researched the market. \n\n- Your Executive Summary is your calling card. If it is not a winner, investors may not even read your entire plan. Emphasize your own as well as your team’s track record in the Executive Summary. \n\n- Before sending your business plan to lenders and investors, send it out first to a few in order to get feedback. You’d want to correct your plan if someone tells you that you’re way off mark, rather than have a potential investor tell it to you and lose the chance to get the funding you need.
747693
Feasibility study is a study of a certain project, business proposal or any form of activity/endeavour that a company divulge itself with. In your feasibility, you aim to prove the viability of the same. Such that before you approve of a project, you want to know first if its worth it or not. Some parts of your feasibility study includes Marketing study, financial study, organisation study, social study and technical study among others.
399899
an operations plan is the process that is mapped out or writen out to tell others what is going to happen and when.\n\ni.e.\nwhen an idea is hatched and it involves investment and people to deliver the idea, you need to create an operating plan for people and investers to understan what, when,and by whom will ensure it will be done. hope this explains for you cheers mike
1149100
The preliminary investigation, or feasibility study, is a brief study of the problem area.The purpose of this investigation is to define and evaluate the problem at hand quickly, to see if it is worthy of further study, and to suggest some possible courses of action. \nThe main output of this step is the feasibility report.\n\nThe steps involved in Preliminary Investigation:\n  \na) Understand the problems: Analyze the problem statement, Identify affected groups, understand the current system and its interaction with other systems, develop the business profile of the company\n\nb) Project Scope and constraints Identify System Boundaries, and constraints. Identify what is a part of our system and what is to be excluded.\n\nc) Determine Feasibility: The three types of feasibility (Operational Feasibility,Technical Feasibility,Economic Feasibility) must be done. The one that will be done now, is that; the former is done by the SRC, and the later by the System Analyst\n\nd) Estimate time and cost to continue development: This activity involves a complete Project cost and time estimate. Here the analyst will use SW Engineering techniques like FPA, line of code based estimation techniques and others, to give a precise estimate. \n\ne) Present Results and recommendations to Management: This will be in form of a formal document called Preliminary Investigation Report. It will have the following sections: \n\nIntroduction \nSystem Request Summary: This section will include SRF, and a brief discussion on the reasons for a system request \nFindings : This will include the outcome of the fact finding phase. \nRecommendations: This will include System Analyst's recommendations. Each recommendation should be followed by its justification. \nTime and Cost estimates: This will include a detailed calculation of the Time and Project size estimates, and the methodologies used for estimates. \nExpected benefits to the company: This section is the most important section. A non-technical manager may only read this section. In this section the System Analyst must be very convincing. This Manager of the company will probably decided the system's fate based on this section. \nAppendix: Appendix will contain all the supporting documents (e.g. questionnaire, forms etc. ), and definition of all the related terms.
806447
I would suggest that you employ the services of a business consultant who will conduct a fesibility study to determine if this is the move that you should make. All the best!
126217
Since we can't tell at what point you are in your business planning I agree with answer number two.  SCORE is a great place to get started.  I have added a few more websites if you are still looking for direction/ideas/answers.  \n\nGood Luck
15769
not necessary, not if you have no strategic planning for business and good resourceful people.  Do it if you know enough.  (How do you definite enough?  That, you will have to take your own risk ...)