Foreword

Part I: Developing your plan

Chapter 1
Why write a business plan?
Business plans are necessary for obtaining significant amounts of capital, but they have important internal uses as well. You and your managers can use business plans to gauge performance, and potential successors can rely on them for quick reference.

Chapter 2
When to write a business plan
There’s no single answer to when you should prepare a business plan or to what time frame it should cover. Major business changes probably require revisions, but you should also set a specific time or size threshold for reexamining your plan.

Chapter 3
Gathering information
Don’t rely solely on past experience to manage your trucking company. Stay on top of trucking and shipper news, key government data and management and financial best practices and benchmarks.

Chapter 4
Strategic planning
Strategic planning is the first step in business planning. Take stock of your company’s competitive situation, define your mission and outline the actions you need to accomplish that mission.

Part II: Writing the plan

Chapter 5
Elements of a business plan
Could you convince someone that your business plan is so strong that he should risk his own money on the venture? One way to approach a business plan is to pretend you are writing a stock prospectus.

Chapter 6
Risk factors
Some business owners try to hide the bad news. But consider placing it at the beginning of your business plan. You might win points for honesty and, more importantly, get the reader looking for solutions, not problems.

Chapter 7
Business description
Your business plan should describe your existing business in detail, providing a foundation for the forward-looking sections. To understand where you are going, the reader must understand where you are.

Chapter 8
Action plan
Lenders and investors want to picture your business plan in the order you plan to implement it. List your tactics for success in sequential order, along with steps to complete them and the estimated cost.

Chapter 9
Use of financing
Your prospective lender will appreciate a handy reference to all the ways you plan to spend its money. Be as specific as possible.

Chapter 10
Financial results and projections
Your financial statements and financial projections are crucial to your prospects for obtaining a loan. But even though you want the projections to look good, try to keep your assumptions reasonable.

Chapter 11
Management strength
Financial backers know that a company is only as strong as its management, and they look at various indicators to assess management strength. The experience and capability of the managers is important, and so is stability. Lenders and investors look closely at recent legal proceedings, particularly those relating to insolvency and bankruptcy.

Chapter 12
Conclusion and supporting documents
Some material simply doesn’t fit within the body of your business plan. Leave your opinions about the probable success of your plan to the conclusion, and don’t put entire documents in the middle of your principal business plan sections.