You are probably reading this book because you want to write a business plan. Likely you are thinking about starting your own business, or perhaps you have just started a new business project. No doubt, you realize you need to get organized. You may also be in need of funding to launch your new venture. A business plan is your key to success.

Many people, however, are daunted by the thought of writing their own business plan. It may seem like an impossibly high mountain to climb. If you are one of those people, this book is for you. By doing the work presented here, you will be able to create the ideal business plan to shape your dream into reality.

This book is for any entrepreneur who has a great idea for a better product or a new service that may improve peoples lives or perhaps revolutionize the way a particular thing is done. You know your idea will work. You are ready to get started. It is time to begin.

This book was written to assist you in writing your own business plan in a natural process. The process has evolved out of many years of coaching student writers and would-be entrepreneurs to do what you are doing. A business plan is the result of many hours of hard work. The business plan you are about to write will be your hard work. It will pay off!

Many times, people begin a business project without a plan. Thats okay. Often, these same people realize part way into the project that it is too big for them to keep in their heads and manage all at once. This is one of the main reasons to write a business plan before you begin. The business plan does not have to be elaborate. It does, however, have to be clear and specific.

If you are writing your plan simply as a way of helping yourself get organized, then taking the time to do the plan now can save you hours and hours of work later on. The plan will keep you honest. It will keep you on track. It will be a blueprint that you can refer back to and share with your team and employees so that everyone understands what they are working to accomplish. And, as you move forward, the plan will change.

Many new businesses and new projects need initial funding in order to get started. If this is your situation, you will want to have the appropriate money magnets in place. These include your idea, your team, your plan, and endorsements from others. In order to create these magnets, you must have a crystal-clear idea of what you want to create in your new business and you must anchor this vision in your being with your passion.

Passion is the energy that moves you forward and fuels your dream. It is the excitement and enthusiasm that renews you and propels you into action. It is the resolve and commitment to see your project through that keeps you going when obstacles appear and the future looks dim. It is the stick-to-it-ness that moves you forward when people around you are telling you why your dream will never work.

Your business plan, when properly done, will reflect your clarity of vision and will capture the energy and enthusiasm you feel for your project. It will become a magnet to attract the capital and other resources you need.

Investors want to know three things:

1. How can anyone make money in your industry? (i.e. whats your business model?)

2. How will you be more successful than others in your industry, by doing things better, faster, or smarter? (orwhats your competitive advantage?)

3. Whats in it for them? (My favorite radio station, WIIFM.)

By completing the processes outlined in this workbook, you will answer these questions and more.

You are about to embark on an exciting journey of discoverya journey into your own mind, into your own processesto discover what you most want to do in the world, and how to do it successfully.

Whats In This Book

This book is also about helping you create your own success. Most experts agree that the biggest barriers to our own success are ourselves. (Remember Pogo?1) This book will teach you about the Universal Laws of Success, and you will discover how they operate in your own life. Universal Laws never fail. They always work. Most of us are simply unaware of them. Our job is to become consciously competent creators of our own success.

Planning With A Heart? is filled with exercises you can use to clear the path toward creating your own success. Do the exercises! Do them alone, and do them with your team, where appropriate.

Writing a business plan is simply a vehicle for all your issues to come to the surface. They rise to the surface because they are ready to be cleared. They may be issues of self-image, issues of self-worth, self-esteem, fears about money, fears about success. Ultimately, all of our fears, negative self-talk, and self-limiting beliefs are what stop us from creating the success we want in our businesses. Some of the hardest work you will do in the process of writing your own business plan will be letting goletting go of doubt, letting go of fear, letting go of beliefs that no longer serve you, letting go of your need to be in control of what you perceive to be the ideal outcome.

As you move forward, you will discover that your project has a life of its own. Allow it to live. Help it to thrive by creating the most fertile ground imaginable. That fertile ground is in yourself, in your psyche, in your team, in the capital resources you garner, in the contacts and connections you make, in the endorsements and testimonials you seek.

Seek wisely. Be clear, and your business plan will become a magnet to attract the resources and capital you need to fuel your dream and propel it forward.


1 We have met the enemy, and they are us.