Business Planning
Coming up with business plans and structuring a family business correctly are critical steps in the planning process. Doing these correctly can set the stage for a smooth and efficient business operation. Check out the business planner (interactive business planning program) along with publications to help you formulate your own business plan!
Keywords: business, planning
This website will help you write a business plan using a question-and-answer guided format.
Keywords: business, planning, guide
This article walks you through writing your own business plan!
Keywords: employee ownership, ESOP, employee stock ownership
This free, downloadable booklet features compelling stories, research results, and easy-access explanations of employee ownership and its potential to make our economy better. This site also contains additional resources, such as:
Craig Dobbins and Cole Ehmke
Keywords: organizational structure, manager, business principles
If you have ever come across questions such as: “What are the jobs that need to be done within my business?” or “How are these jobs going to be divided up?”, this article can help. It helps to solve those questions by analyzing the functional organizational structure of a business. Key audiences include: owners and managers of a family business or small business.
AICC
Keywords: business plan
This document provides an example of what content a business plan would usually include. For every section of the business plan, there is detailed information to guide you to write your own.
Cole Ehmke and Jay Akridge
Keywords: business plan, entrepreneur
What should be included in a business plan? This article thoroughly explains the content of each section in a business plan and guides the readers step by step to develop a business plan. Sections for a plan should include business description, market analysis, competitor assessment, marketing plan, operating plan, financial plan, and executive summary.
Cole Ehmke
Keywords: assumptions, planning, venture
If you are an entrepreneur trying to develop plans for a new venture, you might need to make assumptions of how the business would operate and construct a business plan. This article will help you identify and avoid some important assumptions that might be harmful to your new venture. This article also shows how to thoroughly think though the planning process for the new venture.
Craig Dobbins, Allan Gray, Michael Boehlje, Alan Miller, and Cole Ehmke
Keywords: strategic planning, business environment
Strategic planning involves making better decisions in order to reach a desired future. One of the key elements of strategic planning is recognizing and explicitly stating key assumptions about the future business environment. This article includes internal and external environment analysis which contributes to better strategic planning. Specifically, Porter’s Five Forces Model is introduced.