Building Your Business Plan: A Step-By-Step Approach

By Harold Laughlin

The first book to take the reader step by step through the writing of an effective business plan. Covers the establishment of a charter with a suggested plan outline designed for the most effective presentation. Topics are highlighted by way of a case study in which a start-up company develops a business plan. The competitive environment surrounding the company and its primary competitor are taken into account as it shows readers how to develop a one-, three-, or five-year plan.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471883581
• ISBN13: 9780471883586
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 297 Pages
• Weight: 1.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 3.0" x 16.0" x 23.5"

Customer Reviews

His earlier book was good on planning.

This review refers to McLaughlin's superb earlier edition The Entrepreneur's Guide To Building A Better Business Plan. More than a guide to developing a business plan I found this book provided practical input to planning a business in general. Unlike many texts dealing with this subject, this book has the practical tone of someone who had done it before. McLaughlin asks good questions and makes many suggestions with regard to addressing business strategy and tactical issues. He gets right into the detail of planning with an extensive chapter on writing department plans. Another chapter discusses partnering as a potential new business strategy. The book includes case studies, and discusses some particular examples of both business success and failure.McLaughlin is an engineer who was involved in the early days of the disk drive industry, and is one of the founders of the disk drive industry's trade association. He later became an industry analyst and published a weekly newsletter on the industry. The book evolved out of work done in writing his doctoral thesis.Though many of the sources are now dated, the book includes a bibliography useful to business planning including sources on market research, writing business plans, and reading financial statements.I would recommend this book to anyone planning a new business or overhauling an existing business or division. Too bad the book is no longer in print, however I found that my local public library had copies.