A business plan is a written document that articulates a business concept, market potential, opportunities, growth strategies, financial requirements and management for a venture.

The business plan is an essential tool for the entrepreneur and all other managers and businesses as it serves as a tool to both the internal management needs of the private entity and the informational needs of external entities that are critical to a ventures success. The business plan has been defined as being:

“the culmination of a lengthy, arduous, creative and iterative process

that can transform the caterpillar of a raw idea into the magnificent

butterfly of an opportunity” (1) (Jeffry A Timmons)

The purpose of the business plan is to clearly define the business/company in as much detail as possible and how the business/company will operate in the current market, so as financiers will be able to see the business opportunity and how much financing it requires.

More specifically the business plan can be viewed or seen as a guiding analysis or document because it establishes the ventur

• Executive Summary: this is the first main section of any business plan as it is designed to communicate the potential to interested parties. By conveying factors that will make the venture a success and it is critical that this is included because so many readers of a business plan do not get past the executive summary unless they become sufficiently intrigued. It has been stated:

The business plan is normally comprised of four main sections each with several sub-sections, which aims to act as the ultimate guide to the entrepreneur/manager.

By and large this section will demonstrate how the business will actually operate in the current market.

However, it is extremely important to remember that a business plan has a rapid shelf life. Therefore, it must be continually updated if it is to maintain its usefulness in providing a critical internal focus as well as key information to third parties who are essential to the ventures success.

The fourth and final section of the business plan is the appendix. This is where the writer of the plan can supplement portions or segments of the plan with additional material e.g. resumes of key managers, pictures of the ventures product/service, market research study results and a sufficiently detailed and supported work-up of all capital investment costs and operations expenses that are to be included in the ventures financial Proforma statements.

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