Organise what ought to be in the plan before you start writingThis will save you a lot of editing later on as you realise that youhave put something in the wrong logical place or the wrong placefor the flow of your narrativeIt also helps to write down the key headings-leaving plentyof space between the headings- and then to jot down a list of thekey issues that should be in the section. These may becomesub-headings in your plan but they dont have toFor example, we wanted to establish a new chain ofbookshops in the UK so we might have had the following first listof headings for key issuesthe market backgroundwhy we are different;the management teamoperational detailsthe proposalsforecasts· exit strategy

This was an existing and a mature market: one that the potentiareaders of our business plan would think they knew well becausethey would be users of bookshops. Clearly we needed to explainhow the market operated, in order to correct any misconceptionsThen we needed to convince them that we could make asuccessful new entry into this well-established marketplace withsomething different. In order to complete this it was essentialto explain why we were a particularly strong management teamand also to explain how the 'mechanics of the trade workedsince this was where we proposed to introduce innovations.From there the issues to be covered followed a fairly standardpattern, covering the proposal itself, what we hoped to achieve(the forecasts) and how investors would get their return(exitstrategy)Within the operational details section, for example, oursub-headings werecustomersproducts:the supply chain;svstemsWe had to explain who our customers were-and were not-inorder to persuade the reader why we would get more customersthan our competitors.Under the product sub-heading we covered our productrange: the most popular general books (ie not academic books),and a complementary range of CD ROMs, music CDs, greetingscards, gift wrap, etc.The supply chain was important, again because we weretending to approach it slightly differently from ourcompetitors, so that too had to be explainedFinally, within this section, our systems were crucial tomaking our ideas work and so they needed to be discussed andexplained. It was particularly important to persuade the readerthat effective systems could be put in place quickly and cheaplyOnce you have produced your complete list, look at itcritically. Is there anything important that is missing? Add it inensure that every issue that you think is important has beencovered within the plan

The exact items in a structure plan will vary from business tobusiness but, broadly, they will be.introductionbusiness backgroundthe productthe market.operationsmanagementproposal;financial backgroundtrading to dateforecastsrisks;conclusion:The order will depend upon how it projects the story best.Remember that you are trying to tell a clear and convincingstory. You may merge some sections, such as the product and themarket, but on the other hand you may have extra sections thatare not mentioned aboveTo keep a clear structure you will find yourself repeatingsome things. The contents of your summary will obviously berepeated in more detail in the body of the plan. You may findsome things set out in the introduction or background beingrepeated elsewhere. That is fine as long as you dont explain athe detail in two or three places, which will make your documentboring to readThere may be other items that are necessary to explain yourbusiness. The list above does not include anything ontechnology, politics, trading partners or options(concerning thedifferent ways you may develop the business), any of which maybe appropriate for particular activities.

Most businesses nowadays make extensive use of computersand the internet and so a section on technology is becomingmore usual. This is not a question of going into technical detailbut of explaining how business critical issues have been coveredAn example would be a business trading through its own websitewhose plan should cover who will build, maintain and host thesite-giving evidence of sufficient bandwidth to support theforecasts included in the plan. This might fall within a section onoperations' but depending upon how central it is to the businessmay justify a dedicated sectionUsing appendicesYour plan may have a lot of detailed evidence to support it. Ifthat is the case then consider carefully whether you need it to bencluded or whether you could just refer to it and have it readyif asked for. If you feel it adds significantly to your credibilitythen put it in appendices and summarise it in the plan. Alwaysrefer clearly in your plan to the appropriate appendix so that theeader can find it easily. The appendices may be in a separatebound document if that prevents the main document from beingtoo bulky. A huge tome can be very intimidating to your reader,so try to keep the plan itself to a manageable size. It is better forthe appendices to be a bulky document and for the plan to beelatively shortDo not put detailed data or evidence in the plan itself. Thatdisrupts the story you are telling and makes the document dull.Summarise and explain what the evidence says and refer to it. Aneasy example would be where you have several years of accountsfor a business. It is easy to summarise the key numbers in theplan while putting the accounts themselves in a separatedocumentThere are two types of document you may want to put in anappendix to a plan: I) something that persuades the reader ofyour case; 2)proof of what you are saying in the plan. The formeris essential, the latter may be held in reserve unless it really addsweight to your case. The sort of data you may wish to include inappendices may be: