{"id":3434,"date":"2023-02-22T21:28:43","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T21:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ient102\/?page_id=3434"},"modified":"2023-02-22T21:28:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T21:28:43","slug":"purposes-of-business-plans","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ient102\/learning-pathways\/business-planning\/purposes-of-business-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Purposes of business plans"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\" class=\"mw-body container\" role=\"main\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-12\">\n<div class=\"panel\">\n<div class=\"panel-body\">\n<div id=\"bodyContent\">\n<div id=\"mw-content-text\" lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"mw-content-ltr\">\n<div class=\"floatright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wikieducator.org\/File:Looking_at_plans.jpg\" class=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Looking at plans.jpg\" src=\"\/\/wikieducator.org\/images\/thumb\/8\/80\/Looking_at_plans.jpg\/300px-Looking_at_plans.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"img-responsive\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p>In simple terms, a business plan is a guide that details what the business wants to achieve and how it is going to do this <sup id=\"cite_ref-1\" class=\"reference\"><a href=\"#cite_note-1\">[1]<\/a><\/sup>. Business plans are developed for both internal and external purposes. Internally, entrepreneurs develop business plans to help put the pieces of their business together. The most common external purpose for a business plan is to raise capital.<\/p>\n<p><b>Internal Purposes<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p>The business plan is the road map for the development of the business because it:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Defines the vision for the company\n<\/li>\n<li> Establishes the company\u2019s strategy\n<\/li>\n<li> Describes how the strategy will be implemented\n<\/li>\n<li> Provides a framework for analysis of key issues\n<\/li>\n<li> Provides a plan for the development of the business\n<\/li>\n<li> Is a measurement and control tool\n<\/li>\n<li> Helps the entrepreneur to be realistic and to put theories to the test\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>External Purposes<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p>The business plan is often the main method of describing a company to external audiences, such as potential sources for financing, and key personnel being recruited. It should assist outside parties to understand the current status of the company, its opportunities, and its needs for resources such as capital and personnel. It also provides the most complete source of information for valuation of the business.<sup id=\"cite_ref-2\" class=\"reference\"><a href=\"#cite_note-2\">[2]<\/a><\/sup>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"panel iDevice\">\n\t<div class=\"panel-heading idevice-heading\">\n\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"pedagogicalicon\" alt=\"discussion\" src=\"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ient102\/wp-content\/themes\/oeru_course\/idevices\/Icon_discussion.png\">\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t<h2>Discussion<\/h2>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"panel-body\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col-md-12\">\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>In the list above, one purpose is to \u2018help the entrepreneur to be realistic and to put theories to the test\u2019.\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Why do you think it is sometimes difficult for an entrepreneur to be realistic about putting their business idea into action?\n<\/li>\n<li> How do you think writing a business plan would help with this?\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Post your thoughts in the <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/forums.oeru.org\/t\/ient102-purposes-of-a-business-plan\/945\">discussion forum<\/a> and comment on what others have said as appropriate.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<b>References<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<ol class=\"references\">\n<li id=\"cite_note-1\"><span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\"><a href=\"#cite_ref-1\">\u2191<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"reference-text\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external free\" href=\"http:\/\/articles.bplans.com\/what-is-a-business-plan\/\">http:\/\/articles.bplans.com\/what-is-a-business-plan\/<\/a><\/span>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"cite_note-2\"><span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\"><a href=\"#cite_ref-2\">\u2191<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"reference-text\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/openpress.usask.ca\/entrepreneurshipandinnovationtoolkit\/chapter\/chapter-5-business-planning\/\">Reproduced from Chapter 5 &#8211; Business Planning, in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Toolkit, Lee A. Swanson, University of Saskatchewan, 2017, shared under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License<\/a><\/span>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><!-- \nNewPP limit report\nCPU time usage: 0.045 seconds\nReal time usage: 0.063 seconds\nPreprocessor visited node count: 132\/1000000\nPreprocessor generated node count: 946\/1000000\nPost\u2010expand include size: 2567\/2097152 bytes\nTemplate argument size: 1012\/2097152 bytes\nHighest expansion depth: 7\/40\nExpensive parser function count: 0\/100\n--><\/p>\n<p><!-- Saved in parser cache with key we_en-mw_:pcache:idhash:182046-0!*!*!*!*!2!* and timestamp 20230222174729 and revision id 1059002\n -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"visualClear\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-12\">\n<ul class=\"pager\">\n<li class=\"previous\">\n            <a href=\"\/ient102\/learning-pathways\/business-planning\/video-signpost\">\u2190 Previous<\/a>\n          <\/li>\n<li class=\"next\">\n            <a href=\"\/ient102\/learning-pathways\/business-planning\/elements-of-a-business-plan\">Next \u2192<\/a>\n          <\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"wenote-ids\"><script type='text\/javascript' id='wenotes-ids'>\n    var WEnotesSite = \"https:\/\/wikieducator.org\";\n    var WEnotesPath = \"\/Introduction_to_entrepreneurship\/IENT102\/Planning\/Purposes\";\n    var WEnotesSiteID = \"0e3d258fbd36841f92259eefcd41d5e9\";\n    var WEnotesPathID = \"222b1da94b496c2d2fc229bf268e68fb\";\n    var WEnotesIDs = { site: \"https:\/\/wikieducator.org\", path: \"\/Introduction_to_entrepreneurship\/IENT102\/Planning\/Purposes\", site_id: \"0e3d258fbd36841f92259eefcd41d5e9\", path_id: \"222b1da94b496c2d2fc229bf268e68fb\" };\n<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<footer><\/footer>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In simple terms, a business plan is a guide that details what the business wants to achieve and how it is going to do this [1]. Business plans are developed for both internal and external purposes. Internally, entrepreneurs develop business plans to help put the pieces of their business together. The most common external purpose [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3428,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3434","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ient102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ient102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ient102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ient102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ient102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ient102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3435,"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ient102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3434\/revisions\/3435"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ient102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ient102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}