Business Planning Resources 

Classes - In the Inland NW

• Monthly Business Plan Workshops
  Offered by SCORE and they come with a MENTOR!

• SBDC NxLevel -In-depth Business Planning for those planning to go into business, or already there. Call (509) 358-7890 to register.

• Classes available in the Tri-Cities area through Business Links.

Resources - 

BIC Business Plan Resources

• BIC Videos on Business Plans

• Resources (book & video) on Specific Types of Businesses

• BIC Library Resources on Business Planning

• Business Plan Software available for use at the BIC includes: BizPlan Builder Interactive, the Ultimate Business Planner, BusinessPlan Pro, SCORE Business Plan, and Microsoft Business Plan Templates, as well as Financial Statement Templates formatted in Excel for Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and 
  Cash Flow Statement.

Online Resources

• SBA's Online Women's Business Center has a great section on Developing Your Business Plan - a good place to start.

• SBA's Online Classroom has a Business Plan Workshop in English, in Spanish, and much more.

• If you have an older system, you may want to try SBA's other On-Line Business Plan Workshop, which is text-based.

• Canada's Interactive Business Planner uses the capabilities of the Internet to assist entrepreneurs prepare a 3-year business plan for their new or existing business.

• Microsoft's Template Gallery has a number of formated business forms, letters, documents and marketing material on its web site. They also offer business plan templates in word for start-up and existing businesses, and a PowerPoint presentation to present the plan.

• Business Plan Hints (originally prepared to help students in the Young Entrepreneur Seminar (YES) Business Plan Essay Contest.)

•  If you never conducted any primary market research, or you want to learn more, try the Business Research Lab web site for plenty of practical advice.

• Industry Profiles from the Small Business Advancement National Center (SBANC) 

•  Lots of good business tools are available at MoreBusiness.com,  a site by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. One of the best ones allows you to Compare Your Financial Projections to Others in Your Industry to see if your projections are in the ballpark. 

• The Industry Research Desk - Perform on-line industry, market, business, company and manufacturing process research with the tools and procedures provided here.

Samples/Templates

• Short Guide to Writing a Business Plan

• Business Plan from Printed Small Business Resource Guide

Sample Business Plans. Palo Alto Software, which sells Business Plan Pro Software, has good information on developing a business plan, marketing plan, and even a web site plan.  It also has 60 free sample business plans created with Business Plan Pro. (Business Plan Pro and several other types of business plan software are available for use at the Spokane Area BIC – appointment strongly suggested). Please note: while you can review these plans, they are not printable off the Internet. (You should be writing your own anyway, not copying!)