I'll be giving a seminar later today at OTBC on "How to (Prepare for and) Write a Business Plan".  One drawback of most of the business plan seminars I've seen is that they review what goes into a plan, but don't really address the big question: what's the homework that needs to be done before you sit down and start writing? It takes some research and thought to put together a compelling, believable plan -- one that will stand up to investor scrutiny.  Here are the 12 steps I put together for today's seminar:

1. Start with a compelling, unmet need
2. Define, size and segment the market - and prioritize the segments
3. Validate the market
4. Value price the product or service
5. Analyze the competition
6. Clarify your sustainable competitive advantage
7. Decide on a strategy
8. Decide on a sales and marketing approach
9. Map out a 3 to 5 year action plan (this drives the assumptions for your financial projections)
10. Develop 3-5 year financial projections
11. Test and iterate 9 and 10 until the action plan & the projections are believable
12. Your ready to write!

I'm sure one could add more steps, but these cover some of the most important aspects of a business plan.  Whether you put it together in a complete business plan, or put together a compelling executive summary backed up by detailed financial projections and underlying assumptions. the work listed above is what it takes to be confident you have a business - and to convince an investor of that.  It doesn't take months to do.  It can be done in weeks. And it's worth doing!