Business plan software helps start up businesses and established businesses develop a business plan. Most products offer many sample business plans, templates, wizards, industry profiles, and other tools that will make this complex task more manageable. Some type of integration or import capabilities should exist to bring in financial data from your accounting programs.
A well written business plan can be the keys to successfully raising venture capital, getting business loans or establishing a line of credit. This can be an intimidating process for people starting a business without business training or experience. The correct business plan application will incorporate the passion of the entrepreneur or consultant with strong content organization and vision increasing the likelihood of success whether you are applying for capitalization or organizing your business strategy.
Free products are available, but are unlikely to offer development wizards and strong import/export capabilities. It's worth it to spend a little to get development tools that are likely to speed up the process and ensure a good result.
Features available with business plan applications include:
- Development wizards
- 100s to 1000s of examples
- Complete financials
- Advanced import/export tools
- Interface with QuickBooks or other financial packages
- Venture capitalist database
- Customizable
- Industry profiles
- Automatic color charts
- Automatic generation of PowerPoint presentation
Major Vendors:
- Planware
- Business Plan Pro
- Business Resource Software
- Adarus
- PlanMagic
Selection Criteria:
- Cost
- Level of support provided
- Fill in the blank or wizard technology
- Ease of use
- System resources: Not usually an issue, but sometimes small business environments are on over-taxed hardware already.