As a prospective business owner, you often have a tendency to look at your business plan with rose-colored glasses. Though this is certainly a positive attribute for a new business, a detailed and accurate look at your business plan is also a plus. The fact that most business start-ups go out of business in the first year should get a person interested in a proper business plan analysis, or at least a business plan checklist. This is a free resource from Microsoft for use in their office programs.
A Free Business Plan Checklist from Microsoft
Microsoft offers free, downloadable templates that are especially useful to business owners and project managers. The templates themselves give a great format for analysis with many of the categories already pre-set. You can use these, or just borrow the whole format and re-label the categories. Because it is in the Excel 2007 platform it is very customizable. Most people that are looking up the template, and operating the easy download will already have the skills needed to make the changes they need.
There are a number of different choices you can choose from when you go looking for a business plan checklist template. You can get a general business plan checklist, or one that gives a SWOT analysis breakdown. There are templates that can help you in different departments like marketing or employee management or project performance. There are business specific templates that give a head start in several different industries, and even a spreadsheet for those that need a home business plan.
The free, downloadable templates offered by Microsoft are one of the best free enhancements that Excel users are invited to use. This resource is especially beneficial in the face of expensive programs that come out every year. Many of these free templates have more to offer than those people are paying hundreds of dollars for.
If you’re starting a business, these templates can give you the organization that you need to get going. Once they’ve proved their usefulness, you can customize them in any way you want, or even get a more complex business plan checklist template for free, as the need arises. There are plenty of free templates to choose from.
Download: Business Plan Checklist
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