Thank you for your replies. This thread is now read-only.

Contrary to popular belief, if the company is for you and you're not looking for investors, a complete business plan, while helpful, may not be necessary. Keep things simple as you're not writing a business plan for yourself just for the sake of writing a formal document. Yes. The template will help, but formulate a list of all your perceived expenses: product purchases, rent, accounting software, potential employees, marketing and advertising - things as such. Then, do your best to cut the expenses every which way. When first starting a business, you are your own best friend. Even if being your own best buddy means learning aspects of business you never had to before and working 15 hour days.

There are several reasons to write a business plan, but one of the big reasons is to gain capital from outside investors.  When considering their opinion, you want to do and OUTSIDE-IMPACTS analysis:   Opportunity   Industry   Market   Positive Net Present Value   Acceptance   Competition   Time   Speed Uncertainties Team Strategy Investment requirements Deal Exit Strategy for the investor    

Thank you for this post. I have been working on my business for almost 2 years now and have never really bothered with a business plan. I guess I thought that it would just be a waste of time, but as the business grows and we are hiring more people I feel like it is time to have a formal plan with goals. I have always found goal setting to be helpful in any endeavour. I am going to look through these resources and set up a structured business plan, using analytics to define targets.

Dori, Nowadays, writing a business plan does not have to be an autonomous job. Make good use of some online planning tools. As standard, a web-based bizplan software has two major parts integrated to each other: plan outline (template) with text chapters,  and financial planner.  From day one, find some peers to help you the planning process. Add them as your team members, work remotely. That is the most effective business plan writing method. 

My suggestion is this.  There are so many facets of a business plan - many that are specific to you, your business and you market that makes it hard to give quality advice here.   But, know that you don't have to go this alone.  Find a SCORE office in your area or use their online counseling.  SCORE is free.  Let them help you research and develop your individual plan.  When you have specific questions - then come back here and get specific answers.   Best of luck.

There are many steps to creating a new business. What type of items are you having on consignment? My friend Julia belongs to an art Co-op and could have some ideas if it is art related. Contact her at Festival@commonwheel.com if that relates to your store at all. Otherwise let me know if I can help you create a business plan or have you already taken that step?

Once you write your business plan, you may want to consider having someone actually read it and review it. This way, a second pair of eyes will be able to spot things you may have expressed less clearly than others.   Also, it's very important that all your financials correspond to your narrative. If you are talking about a great promotion to start your 1st season, for example, your numbers should reflect that. Your narrative and your numbers have to be consistent throughout.

Hi dori, We recently wrote a blog on starting a consignment shop. Hope that it will be helpful to your business planning. Good luck!

Hello Dori, I think it would be better if you would consider a pilot study of teh area and the amrket wherein you intend to dedicate the whole business paln. Good luck! window channel This message has been edited to remove links to commercial sites. Please vist our Community Best Practices to find out more about the advertising rules.