HBR's 10 Must Reads on Entrepreneurship and Startups (featuring Bonus Article “Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything” by Steve Blank)

How to Write a Great Business Plan

by William A. Sahlman

FEW AREAS OF BUSINESS ATTRACT as much attention as new ventures, and few aspects of new-venture creation attract as much attention as the business plan. Countless books and articles in the popular press dissect the topic. A growing number of annual business-plan contests are springing up across the United States and, increasingly, in other countries. Both graduate and undergraduate schools devote entire courses to the subject. Indeed, judging by all the hoopla surrounding business plans, you would think that the only things standing between a would-be entrepreneur

The information services industry, by contrast, is paradise. Companies such as Bloomberg

Rather, it proves that the entrepreneurial team knows the good, the bad, and the ugly that the venture faces ahead

For starters, every business plan should answer the following questions about the competition

Investors, of course, are looking for businesses in which management can buy low, sell high, collect early, and pay late

Economically viable access to customers is the key to business, yet many entrepreneurs take the Field of Dreams approach to this notion

The Opportunity of a Lifetime—or Is It?

Nine Questions About the Business Every Business Plan Should Answer

growing markets mainly because it is often easier to obtain a share of a growing market than to fight with entrenched competitors for a share of a mature or stagnant market. Smart investors, in fact, try hard to identify high-growth-potential markets early in their evolution:

growing markets mainly because it is often easier to obtain a share of a growing market than to fight with entrenched competitors for a share of a mature or stagnant market.

Entrepreneurs and investors look for large or rapidly