Question:
I need to prepare simple business plan, I am new to this, can somebody direct me, how to prepare, what are the key points I have to highlight?.

Answer:
I need to prepare simple business plan, I am new to this, - can somebody direct me, how to prepare, what are the - key points I have to highlight?

 Business plans are real easy to do.  I'm sure you have a ton of ideas for your business.  All you need is a framework to organize, refine, and expand on your ideas.   Get any book on business plans from the library or off the net and look for their example of what a plan's Table of Contents should look like.  Type that into a word document and start tossing your business ideas into the appropriate sections.

And as you're a wannabe entrepreneur, the following is my standard advice for people like you.  :-)

"First, get experience managing a business like the one you want to open BEFORE you open your own.  Do NOT open a business you've never managed for someone else.  Learn your lessons from the School of Hard Knocks on someone's money and not yours.  And, no, being just an employee doesn't cut it.  You need to be the manager.  A real manager.  Unfortunately, businesses today call employees "managers" and/or "assistant managers" who are really just shift supervisors.  Regular employees (no matter how talented) and shift supervisors (a.k.a. assistant managers) only know what the manager does at pretty much a superficial level.  This doesn't mean that employees and shift supervisors don't think they know what the manager knows, but that doesn't mean they do.  And they surely have no clue what performance pressures a manager is really under.  So if you're an employee or shift supervisor of a business you want to start, send out your resume and get a manager's job. If you're not an employee of a business you want to start, you are in even more of a need to get such a manager's job.  Customers . no matter how much of a regular they are . know every little about the businesses they frequent and commonly have a distorted view of it due to being on the other side of the looking glass

Now if you currently have a full-time job that isn't being a manager of the type of business you want to open, you need to quit it to work as a manager of the type of business you want to start.  You might need to first be a regular employee or a shift supervisor of it to get such a manager job, but that's fine.  Be a regular employee or shift supervisor as a part-time job and keep your current full-time job.  However, you will eventually need to be a real full-time manager of the business type you want to launch.  If you're not willing to be such a manager, don't bother reading any further.  You're just a wannabe with a fantasy and what advice I give below will just be wasted on you.  However, if you currently are a full-time manager of a business type that you want to start or is someone that will do the above, read further and I will reveal the most important secret to business success there is.  The above was just the prerequisite anyone needs to open a business.  It doesn't mean you will succeed.  It just means you won't make horrible mistakes at the beginning.  What follows will make you succeed."

Let's begin.

"What I recommend you do is determine what your sales territory is.  What's its radius?  Double that and add a healthy 10% more distance then go and talk to people out that distance that are in the same business you want to start up.  Literally drive there.  Do not do the following over the phone or email or through snail mail.  Show up on their doorstep during the slow time of their business day.  Tell them that you want to start up a similar business at such-and-such location and if they would consider you competition.  If they say you would be, drive further away from your proposed business location until you find a business that says you won't be. If you have to go to a different country, do so.

If your business' sales territory is theoretically the world (i.e., a mail-order catalog or an online-only business), forget about the territory stuff above and simply look for businesses that are doing business HOW you're going to do yours but NOT selling the same thing(s) as you.  For example, if your business is a mail-order catalog that sells special dusters for silk top hats, go and talk to people that sell food by mail-order but not anyone that sells clothes.  Hunt for them, find out their corporate addresses, and go visit those closest to you.

HOWEVER, do not interview franchisees.  They are following a very detailed plan on how to run their businesses.  These plans are very good, but the franchisees have done nothing to write those plans up and literally just bought them thus are useless to you and your pursuit of knowledge. Franchisees are a murky mutant between an employee and an entrepreneur. Their franchiser is the one that figured out how things are to be profitably done and the franchisee is just following suit.  As for franchisers, don't talk to them either or you will have just given them their next expansion location.  HOWEVER, this does not mean you shouldn't consider becoming a franchisee.  It should always be an option you should consider.  Not the only option, but one of them.  But even if you know deep down that you'll eventually be a franchisee, you need to still do the research I'm laying out here so it is an informed decision.  And if after doing all the following, you (still) decide to become a franchisee, thoroughly investigate ALL the different chains for the type of business you want to start up and interview LOTS of franchisees in each chain to find the one that's best for you.  But that's after you do the following and let's now get back to that.

Once you find a business that says your two territories won't overlap, ask if they wouldn't mind answering some questions about how to start and run a business like theirs.  Play to their egos and they'll love to talk to you. Everyone likes to feel important and worth listening to especially business owners when it comes to their businesses.  Have a list of questions written out on a notepad, but do NOT write down their answers.  Instead, bring a tape recorder (yes, put it right out in the open no need for spyware and besides it plays to their egos as their words are being treated as worthy of being recorded) and concentrate on getting as much information out of them as possible as well as picking up the other half of the answers they give in body language, which would be something you'd miss if you were jotting down notes.  If they say something you don't understand, speak up and ask for clarification.  Let them wander off your list of questions since where they wander to might be a place you never thought of asking questions about and should have been.  However, keep an eye on the questions you've written down and try to ask them all before the interview concludes.  Of course, always yield to customers that come in, but, naturally, try to continue the interview after the customers leave so you get answers to all your questions.

After you've interviewed one owner, don't interview another but go home and digest what was said.  Listen to the tape on your way home.  Think it over. Adjust your business plan accordingly.  Adjust the questions on that notepad and then on your next free day (or the following day if you've got both off), head off in another direction and do the same thing.  Try to interview at least twenty business owners.  A hundred would be ideal.  Interview the good, the bad, and the ugly.  If you're lucky, you'll interview one that is going out of business or has just went out of business so you can hear about the dark side as well as possibly pick up good equipment, inventory, and supplies for a song.  Likewise, interview those businesses you think are bad.  Keep in mind that since they're still in business, they are probably doing something right if just being the only game in town for your products/services.

Share as you give.  Let them know what you think is a good idea and they may tell you their own gems.  Don't get paranoid that they'll steal your good idea.  They will!  Or rather, you should HOPE they will as that means your ideas are actually good ones.  These are the individuals that are the best judges of your business ideas.  However, you'll never know if your business ideas are good unless you tell these business owners them or blow a ton of money actually doing the idea and thus finding out the hard way.  Also, if you're not willing to share, don't expect them to as well.  In fact, it will likely take you telling them your best idea for them to tell you theirs.  Also, ask them to read over your business plan right there before you.  Naturally, don't leave a copy of it behind.  What one of these business owners is going to tell you will be better than ALL the advice from ALL the business professors on the face of the Earth.  Even from the ones that are going out of business!  These business owners are  DOING  IT  RIGHT NOW whereas business professors live in the fairyland of academia.  Oh, and that smack-down goes the same for SBA's Small Business Development Centers (which are manned by business professors and burnt-out business executives) and SCORE (which is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase: "Grumpy Old Men Waiting to Die").

Don't forget these individuals after you interview them.  Once you get home from interviewing them, send them a nice thank-you snail mail letter for taking the time to answer your questions.  When your business opens, send them an invitation to come and see it.  Ideally, hold a special Grand Opening dinner and invite all the good business owners you interviewed to it.  Give them a group tour of your business (no matter how small the shop is even if it is a desk and a computer in a corner) and then treat them to a nice meal.