There is no shortage of ways to get your business plan written for you by everything from fly by night super cheap outfits found online to extremely high priced consulting groups who also promise to put you in touch with high caliber investors and escort you around to all the big money outfits. These options all have one thing in common which is that they deprive you of the critical aspect of business plan writing that most new entrepreneurs don’t understand – the business plan writing process is not about the writing but about the planning and that is what you miss out on if you have someone else write your plan.

A lot of people who hire these services do so because they have an idea but they feel they aren’t good writers or that by having it done “professionally” they will have a better chance of being able to raise money than if they were to write it themselves.

The problem with this thinking is that the key elements of the business that the plan is supposed to determine: what edge the company has over the competition, who the customers are and how they will be reached are now going to be left in the hands of the consultant to determine. Since the plan writers have no stake in the business and are only getting paid for the writing they are not going to necessarily take the time to determine the right answer to this or even worry about the feasibility of the answers they provide.

A much better approach is to use a good program to write your own business plan so you can also be integrally involved in planning the actual business and then get help in reviewing and editing your plan so the writing also comes out right. This is the best of both worlds and also turns out to be the best value option in terms of money and time spent on creating a business plan.

The recession has hit two groups disproportionately: the over-50s and the under 20s. The over 50s are increasingly turning to self-employment as employers are often blind to their talents and experience and find jobs increasingly hard to find and eBusiness, trading on the internet, is ideal for those with skills to sell.

But our generation is the last generation for whom the computer and the internet were an ‘optional extra’ for our formative years.

So does my eBusiness, with its low start up costs, its access to a world-wide market, really need a business plan? Wouldn’t it simply waste time and effort better used to launch a business?

Well, if you’re simply going to sell off the junk in your loft and garage on eBay then a business plan would be a waste, but if you’re thinking about earning a sensible living this way then you’d better give your business plan some serious thought. And that’s the point: the process of thinking out the business plan is probably as valuable as the plan itself.

In working on the business plan of a youth organisation providing youth clubs to a deprived group of children it seemed enough to make shelter, organised games and access to the internet but what was the real purpose of the organisation. Well their results are confidential but one could suppose that providing 1. positive role models to young lives, 2. a sense of stability in a chaotic world, and 3. a view beyond their immediate cultural surroundings, might figure in any list of objectives.

We came to see that the pool tables, the computer terminals, the leadership were the ‘inputs’ to the system, the ‘outputs’ the organisation was trying to achieve were quite different, and our recruitment policy moved away from seeking active, fun-loving young people towards more mature motherly types likely to stick around for the long term.

The Business Planning process helps the entrepreneur to focus, to ask the right questions.

1. What is my business? What does it do? Who does it do it for? To what end?
2. Who are my competitors? How strong are they? Have they left a gap in the market I can fill?
3. How will I sell my goods or my services? How will my customers come to me?
4. When my business takes off, how will I exploit it? What will that cost?
5. How I deliver my goods or my services, where will I buy in my products, store them? How will I organise my business, keep my books?
6. How much money will I need? Where will I get it?

On this last point, if you’re using your own money, think of yourself as your own banker and ask when will I make a profit, and what is the cost of failure?

So, even if you never write down your answers the process of thinking them through will make your start up better organised and targeted.

Better to ‘waste’ a few days in some basic research than to waste a few months on following the wrong trail. It may be your own money, but you can only spend it once, and when it is gone…

Those who know how to start a dollar store recognize the true value and importance of their dollar store business plan. They know their it sets the course for their business in the years ahead. Yet to maximize the value of a the plan it must be used on a regular basis. It must become a part of the process to not only establish a dollar store, but to measure successes and to recognize where adjustments must be made to the business operation. Your business must be thoroughly reviewed and updated on at least an annual basis. In this article I present some of the actions that will keep your business plan producing the best possible support for you and your dollar store business.

· Those who know how to start a dollar store recognize the need to thoroughly examine every aspect of their business plan at least once per year. Examine your plan on at least a quarterly basis. While it is a powerful tool to continually move your business forward there is often not enough time to complete a line-by-line review during those quarterly examinations. However since January sales levels are typically much lower than other months of the year it is the perfect time to schedule a thorough review and update of your business plan.

· Start by assessing how your business performed during the previous year. Use the performance data and current market conditions to set everything in-place to have an even better year ahead. Walk through your business plan step-by-step and then, being as neutral and impartial as possible to evaluate how your business performed during the previous year.

· Use your final assessment to determine where you did extremely well, and where there remains work to be done. Modify your business plan accordingly. Be sure to identify the actions required to accomplish exactly what you have planned for the year ahead. Don’t forget to include money commitments, if required.

· Rewrite your business plan so it is updated to accurately reflect exactly the plans you have for the upcoming and future years. Those who know how to start a dollar store invest the time to make changes in their documented goals and actions. They also commit the resources required for the actions noted. All of these come together as their newly revised and updated business plan. Then they start moving toward every-better business results.

To your success as you discover how to start a dollar store!