Plan to succeed as an entrepreneur―we show you how

Business Plans For Dummies can guide you, as a new or aspiring business owner, through the process of creating a comprehensive, accurate, and useful business plan. In fact, it is just as appropriate for an already up-and running firm that realizes it's now time for a full-bore check-up, to ensure the business is in tip-top shape to meet the challenges of the globalized, digitized, and constantly changing 21st Century. This edition of is fully updated, featuring the most recent practices in the business world. Let us walk you through each step of the planning process. You'll find everything you need in this one book, so you can finally stop googling, close all those browser tabs, and get organized and get going.

Updates to this new revision include knowing how to pivot when your situation changes, recognizing the need for diversity and inclusion in the workplace, where to tap the latest funding sources, and how to plan for a digital strategy, market disruption, and environmental sustainability. You'll also learn how today's globalized marketplace influences your business―and how you can use social media to influence your customers right back.

• Learn the ins and out of creating a business plan that will actually work
• Set effective goals and objectives so your business can find success
• Wow investors with your knowledge of today's important business trends
• Map out your finances, marketing plan, and operational blueprint―then confidently get to work!

Challenge the traditional framework by building a business plan that's workable in today's reality. Dummies is here to help.

Table of Contents

Introduction. 1

Part 1: Getting Started with Business Plans

CHAPTER 1: Preparing to Do a Business Plan

CHAPTER 2: Understanding the Importance of a Business Plan

CHAPTER 3: Setting Off in the Right Direction

CHAPTER 4: Charting the Proper Course

Part 2: Describing Your Marketplace

CHAPTER 5: Examining the Business Environment.

CHAPTER 6: Slicing and Dicing Markets

CHAPTER 7: Getting Up Close and Personal with Customers

CHAPTER 8: Covering Your Competition

Part 3: Weighing Your Company’s Prospects

CHAPTER 9: Assessing Where You Stand Today

CHAPTER 10: Profiting from Your Business Plan

CHAPTER 11: Figuring Out the Financial Details

CHAPTER 12: Forecasting and Budgeting

Part 4: Looking to the Future

CHAPTER 13: Confronting Uncertainty

CHAPTER 14: Thinking Strategically

CHAPTER 15: Growing Up, Growing Bigger, and Growing Old

Part 5: Putting Your Business Plan into Action

CHAPTER 16: Shaping and Shape-Shifting Your Organization

CHAPTER 17: Leading the Way

Part 6: The Part of Tens

CHAPTER 18: Ten (Or So) Signs That Your Business Plan Needs Refreshing — or Worse

CHAPTER 19: Ten (Or So) Questions to Ask about Your Plan

CHAPTER 20: Ten (Or So) Business-Planning Never-Evers

Appendix: A Sample Business Plan

About the Authors

Paul Tiffany, PhD, is a professor at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, where he teaches courses on public policy and management. He is an expert in business strategy and management. Prior to beginning his career in academia, Tiffany worked as a business consultant and continues to lead his own consulting agency.

Steven D. Peterson, PhD, is the senior partner and founder of the management tool development company Strategic Play Technologies.