Business plan creator

[steppinthrax]

Just curious do you guys know any websites that create business plans (preferably free). I started using planbuildr.com. Seems it's OK, but requires payment.

[vangogh]

I wouldn't use a website to generate a business plan for me. I think it defeats most of the point of writing a business plan, which is for you to take time to understand your business and make some important decisions about it will work. The act of working on a business plan is what makes it valuable, not the plan itself. The value is in thinking through a lot of details about your business and thinking through a lot of questions that you probably didn't consider right away. A business plan is mainly for you. It's you planning your business. That's the main reason for writing one.

You can challenge that statement if you're point in writing a plan is so you can gain funding, however even then I don't think it makes sense to use something like this. Anyone who'd going to invest in your business or loan you money for your business is still going to ask you a lot of questions. You have to do the work and not have someone else do it for you. That's not to say someone can't help you with your plan. If your goal is funding or a loan, I would certainly have someone look over the plan who knows how to approach banks and investors.

As for the site you mentioned, I took a look. It's not really anything that helps you write a business plan. It's just taking your information and putting it into a template so it looks nice. I suppose if you think that's important, maybe the site is worth looking at.

[Owen]

Go online and download a template. If you don't understand the question in the template, Google it or ask here. Take an entrepreneurship course.

[Bobjob]

I don't know about creating one but...

As I remember Score.org and SBA.com both have templets and example business plans written. Find an example that is close to what you want to do and plug in your own information.