Welcome to the Preparing a Business Plan course! This is course 1 of the Business Planning Series.

Consider three people in three very different business situations. Harriet manages a long-established sporting goods chain that wants to expand into new markets but lacks capital. Evan has big plans for his IT startup but hasn't yet attracted the investment he needs.

Laura heads a hardware retailer's Marketing Department, which is in need of a change of direction. The one thing they all have in common is they would benefit from creating a business plan.

With a business plan, Harriet should be able to persuade her company's bank to approve a loan that will enable her operation to grow. Similarly, Evan could use a business plan to persuade investors to get on board.

And Laura could use a plan to persuade senior management to allow her to overhaul the department, making it more effective. In each instance, an effective business plan can contribute toward making the business prosper.

There are many important reasons to create a business plan. If your business is just starting out, business plans can help you attract investors. For new and established businesses alike, business plans map out how they'll negotiate opportunities and challenges.

At a departmental level, business plans are developed to address medium-term planning needs and to secure approval and resources from senior management for new ideas and initiatives.

This course will help you develop your own business plan. It starts with an introduction to business plans that illustrates the benefits of business planning and describes the main elements of a plan.

It continues on to discuss the six preparatory steps you should take before developing a business plan and provide examples of each of these steps. And finally, it details how you can create your own plan by following a number of key guidelines.

That’s it! Now go ahead and hit that “Take this course!” button and see you on the inside!