Successful Business Plan Development: A Process Approach and its accompanying worksheets and business plan templates were designed with and for students, and during the course of many years working with investors and other business plan readers to incorporate what they require in a comprehensive plan. It provides a practical and easy-to-follow guide for developing a business plan and follows a unique format that both explains what to do and demonstrates how to do it. This book is ideal for traditional classroom use and distributed learning (distance education), whether through online teaching and learning or when blended with classroom delivery.The book begins with a general overview of business development. It then describes the business planning process and how to conduct business planning research. Chapters four to eight describe how to develop the essential elements of a business plan's front matter and operations, human resources, marketing, and financial plans. Unique to this book is the description of the cash management approach to determine financing needs explained in chapter nine. The next chapters describe how to make the plan realistic and how to develop it further, so it is appealing to investors and other stakeholders and desirable for the entrepreneur. The book finishes by describing how to do a business plan pitch.

One of the book's key features is the detailed and easy-to-apply process for developing business plans. The book also features a Research Analyses Worksheets tool and extensive Word and Excel templates to use to develop a business plan. Finally, a cross-chapter case spans the first 11 chapters to walk users through a realistic business plan development scenario using the worksheets and templates. The cross-chapter case also serves as a users' manual for the Business Plan Excel Template and a guide for applying the business planning process.

The approaches and materials included in this book including the worksheets, templates, and cross-chapter case were developed and continually revised over 30 years to ensure it meets the students, professors, entrepreneurs, and others who want to develop business plans. Concurrently, and equally importantly, it was developed with continual feedback from investors and others for whom business plans are written to make sure that those who use this book as a guide to write plans will end up with a useful and effective tool for attracting funding and achieving other business development goals.

The approaches and tools included with this book are finely tuned and well tested. Many entrepreneurs built their (sometimes large and influential) companies using these resources.