Eh, sleep is for wimps.   I think we can all admit if we were big fans of it, we'd still be working 8-5 jobs!  Lord knows I've not had many 8 hours plus nights since I decided to pursue this crazy dream of mine...

Business Plan writing is fun. What other job can you do that can bring in cash to make your business dreams come true? Business Plan Pro is Easy to use. Once you write your first one there is no going back.

Look at it this way. You can't get a bank loan or investor without a plan. I wrote my executive summary first and sent it out to different VC and angel network sites. Once I got some interest I wrote the full plan. You can also write up a private placement plan which is like a mini business plan of just the facts, no fluff.

I wrote a 50 page business plan for my music company Uheardit.com. Right now I am in the due diligence process for getting a $1,000,000 equity investor.

By my calculations, thats $20,000 in investment money per page I wrote. It took me two weeks to write with Business Plan Pro. Your business plan is worth its weight in gold....literally

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Projections are based on defensible assumptions one makes about the market a business plan is addressing and the rate of penetration of the products into that market. This exercise gives your business plan the information you need to complete the picture how you're going to grow your business. It helps define, in some detail, the profile of your customers. It helps to understand the geographic approach to your plan. Do you build regionally or go national right off the bat? It helps to answer why and how a customer will buy your products that will give you the highest return on your investment - i.e.profitability.

These questions are answered through research, and understanding how your product maps onto the target market, and the requisite costs in doing so.

Suffice it to say, projections based on good research and well thoughtout assumptions are an important part of the business planning effort. For this writer, perhaps the most compelling.

won't it be great if one day someone invents a "Biz Plan Made Easy" machine; all you have to do is put it over your head like a headset and boom, after the machine scan your brain for 2 minutes you Biz Plan is done!

For someone like me, who is trying (so hard!) to develop a business that is not exactly my field, Business Plan is extremely important! And for the same reason, I am probably taking more time on it than most of the other entrepreneurs as when I get to certains parts in the plan, I might take a day or two (or sometimes more) to do some research.

Experience so far - fun, interesting, want to scream Arrggghh quite often, headaches, but definitely worthwhile!

I have actually enjoyed creating business plans (hey maybe a business idea in itself).  I have created business plans for a franchise sub restaurant, printer toner sales, franchise ice cream shop, indoor paintball (my favorite and I got a perfect grade on a graduate marketing course marketing plan project on it last fall too) and now my latest and only one to actually take-off, the midwest distributorship of One Call, which offers find-me-follow-me contact numbers that will route calls to whereever you want and will receive secure faxes.  Okay, enough of the advertisement.

I could not agree more with Mabeline, realistic projections are crucial.  You have to know your market and take your pie in the sky emotions out of it.  The reason I have done so many plans myself is that I look at my existing capital, my required capital and then figure out my breakeven point.  If my family can live on that kind of money to start, then its something to keep investigating.  I have had to ratchet down projections time and again because I realized that I was not being realistic.  I've had so many business ideas that its just about driven my wife crazy, but I always remind her that its better to do all of my homework before jumping in than to lose our savings on an idea that I thought might be able to work. 

So not only do business plans give the entrepreneur a course to follow in start-up and on-going operations, but it also gives potential lenders and/or investors (not to mention one's spouse) confidence that you have done your homework and that you know your market. There is so much info on the Web that I don't think the average entrepreneur needs a business plan software package (sorry Atlas Business Solutions).  If you have what it takes to start your own business then you have what it takes to research and write a business plan. So don't get frustrated Meitzi and everyone else who have found it difficult at times. It will only make you and your business better in the end.

Reinvent your business concept as you proceed with your business plan. Make sure you revisit your business plan regularily and fine tune it..A business plan is an ongoing, emerging and "vision asserting" document.

To your success!