There are four types of business plans including mini-plans, working plans, presentation plans and electronic plans. All the plans are separated from each other and include varying amounts of labour and they do not come with proportionately different results. A more elaborate plan is not guaranteed to be better than the short one. Actually, your plan selection depends on your goals you have set.
The Mini-plan – It may consist of one to 10 pages and should mention brief attention about key matters like business concept, financial statements, financing needs, and marketing plan including cash flow, income projection and balance sheet. It is a major way for testing a business concept quickly. It is also used for measuring the interest of a minor investor or potential partner. It also acts as a valuable prologue to a detailed plan later on.
The Working Plan is basically a tool for operating your business. It should contain detailed instructions about the various details related to the plan; however it may be short on the presentation. Like a mini-plan, you can prepare this plan with openness and informality. This plan is intended for internal use only. The main feature of the working plan is the internal consistency of facts and figures for both the insiders and outsiders. You do not need to be careful about things like typos in the text and its fine if it do not perfectly conforms to business style consistent with date formats and others.
The Presentation Plan – This plan is an upbeat version of the working plan where detailed attention is paid to the looks. It is suitable for presenting to investors, bankers and others outside the company. The information in a presentation plan is similar to your working plan, although it may be presented in a different fashion. It employs the user of standard business vocabulary and this plan focus on introduction.
The Electronic Plan – Most of the business plans are prepared on computers and then print out of the plan is taken and presented in hard copy. With changing business scenarios, more and more business information is now sent electronically. You can create an electronic version of your plan and keep it as a soft copy which can be printed in future anytime if required. An electronic plan can be handy for making presentations to a group by using an overhead projector.
