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Can anyone recommend a book or website about writing a business plan with the purpose of getting a loan? Preferably the book would be heavy on the needed economic analyses a loan officer would like to see. I think I would do most of them in the course of my research, but I do not want to miss something that is generally required because I do not think it applies to my situation.
You can look in the Yellow Pages for SCORE - they are a group of retired executives that can help you with a business plan and any other business start up questions. It was free at one time but when you contact them you will be able to find out if it still is.
You could also contact the bank and ask for their requirements. In a nutshell it's how much you need, how long you'll take to pay it off, what you will use as collateral, your qualifications and how much you plan to make.
I've always believed powerpoint is the best format for business plans that you need to collaborate and share.
There are lots of examples of business plans online - focus first on a cash flow for the first 2 years. You can do this in excel and then paste as a bitmap (to preserve formatting) into powerpoint. Cells for months and rows for income and expenses. Then start filling out the rest of the information - market size, SWOT analysis, etc in the most meaningful way you can. In powerpoint, you can describe things using nested bullet points. Tou need to be able to sell this idea, its financial feasibility - so you should use whatever format (graphs, charts, word descriptions) that you are most comfortable with.
By all means, present the business plan if you can.
I think the advice about SCORE is the best one. However, there's a caveat. Make sure that their team members actually understand the business you're about to undertake. During the formative stages of my business years ago, most of the people at SCORE had no understanding of what I was trying to do, and I got some really bad advice. Had I followed it, I would have been out of business in a hurry. So a dose of common sense is a good idea.
There are actually dozens of books on the subject at your local Barnes & Noble giving far more detailed advice than we could here.
One thing I would say here, however. Do NOT go to the bank and ask their advice until your ducks are utterly and completely in a row. What's more, be very selective about the banks you approach. Megabanks are a bad idea, while community banks tend to be more flexible on that score. Submit a loan app to a megabank, and it'll just go to a loan committed hundreds of miles away, while a community bank tends to be a great deal more responsive and supportive. Even then, I would approach community banks that are more attuned to businesses, as opposed to consumers. A brief perusal of bank web sites will tell you which ones emphasize small businesses in their everyday approach.
I would also attend a local organization such as your chamber of commerce and start networking. That way, you get to meet some local bankers who are eager to drum up business, rather than walking into a bank without knowing a soul and asking them for $100,000. That way, you can more informally discuss what you're trying to do before you actually apply for the loan.
One last thing. Be really conservative in your income projections, while being pessimistic in your expense projection. Show on paper that you'll squeeze nickels until they scream. And, most of all, have a detailed marketing plan showing how you're going to bring in business, with real expenses figured down to the penny. The problem with most business pro-formas is that they'll figure out most of their costs to the last paper clip, but they'll allocate a token budget to marketing. That's the ass-backwards way to do things, because if you don't have a pretty aggressive marketing plan mapped out, they won't see how you're going to get customers.
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