I understand what you’re after. You want to lever off existing work and not reinvent the wheel. When we make a database of more than 500 sample plans available, you want to find “the right one” for your business.
But the truth is that what you can get here at Bplans is tons of help creating your own plan. Our sample plans are great as examples, so you can see what somebody else covered; but don’t try to get an exact match, because it will never work.
No two pizza restaurants are alike. No two dry cleaners, or butchers, or bakers, or candlestick makers are alike. A real business plan from one doesn’t serve the other as anything more than a good example and food for thought. Even if you found an exact match for your business, it would still have a different time and place, resources, owner objectives and preferences, strategy, customer, and resources. You’d still want to develop your own plan. The example would be useful, but as only that: an example.
So don’t worry that much about matching the sample plan to your business. Use the sample plan browser, find something in the same general area, get an idea of what was included, and think about why. Then do your own plan.
Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.
