The Business Plan Workbook: A Practical Guide to New Venture Creation and Development

by Colin Barrow

One of the most important steps in launching a new venture or expanding an existing one is the creation of a business plan. Time after time, studies and real-life examples reveal that the absence of a written business plan leads to a higher incidence of failure for new businesses, and inhibits growth and development. Based on methodology developed at Cranfield School of Management, The Business Plan Workbook takes a practical approach to topic of business planning for new venture creation and development. Equally suitable for a range of academic and professional courses and for those developing small businesses, it takes the reader through 29 assignments to help you create and present your business plan, from learning how to create a competitive business strategy through to forecasting sales volume and value. It will help you to validate your business idea, brand your business, research and segment your market, and raise finance; all through one persuasive plan. With new additional material covering the 7 Ps of Marketing, a section of Planning for Growth and a range of new and updated case studies of real life entrepreneurs, this classic text is an invaluable guide to all aspects of business planning. Online supporting resources for this book include supporting lecture slides, personal development and lifetime learning appendix, test questions and answers and a bonus chapters on business communication, business gurus and mergers and acquisitions.

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction, Entrepreneurship

353 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 26, 1988

About the author

Colin Barrow is the author of more than 25 books in the fields of entrepreneurship, business management and international property development. His books have been published by the BBC, The Economist, The Sunday Times, Kogan Page, he has authored or co-authored ten books in the Dummies series and been translated into a score of languages including Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Georgian, Romanian, Polish and Bahasa Indonesia.
Following a career in business where he held senior staff and line positions, including that of managing director of a substantial manufacturing enterprise with multi -plant and multi-country operations he was Head of the Enterprise Group at Cranfield School of Management, a leading European Business School, for ten years. He has been a visiting professor in universities in the US, Europe and the Far East. For five years he was a non-executive director of a high tech venture capital fund, has sat on Government task forces and is now strategic advisor to a number of business owners.
As well as his own books he currently writes freelance, ghost writing and 'Anglicising' books for American authors and lectures extensively on business topics. You can hear Colin's podcast on team building at http://www.morethanbusiness.com/Knowl...