A business plan isn't just about scribbling ideas on a notepad, it takes a lot more to make it a reality. There is a lot of detailed planning that is involved in a new business. It requires you to sweat a lot than you thought and a lot of pitfalls than expected.
There are many who started with great ideas but never got over it. This is because the next step was not only challenging, it also required a lot of effort, such as writing a logical business plan. On the other hand, going from a notepad idea to an appropriate, detailed plan can suddenly be quite overwhelming, for beginners.
What you would need here is a properly written business plan to help you communicate your vision clearly. This is to engage the right audience and resources so that you can apply your idea. A right business plan focuses on how to acquire new customers and clients, who will run the business, and how to increase your entry risk capital.
So, you basically need a business plan to receive funding or to keep track of the planned direction of the business. Since the whole process is so challenging, you would need the assistance of expert business planning software that will not only help you create a solid business plan, but will also guide you through the structure of the process. We have selected some of these programs to help you get started. here's take a look.
Live Plan
Claiming to have served more than 400.000 businesses over the past 5 years, this business planning software comes with a simple pricing structure. It only has one plan to choose from. Given their 15 years of experience in the field, they provide a simple and clutter-free interface, which can help you develop professional-looking business plans.
What we particularly like is their live dashboard that can track daily performance. Bonus: 500+ sample plans to spruce up your creativity especially suited to those with writer's block.
System requirements: Microsoft Windows 7 *, Vista, XP Service Pack 2 or 2000 Service Pack 4, Mac OS X
Price: # 19,95 per month
Get it here: https://www.liveplan.com/
Bizplan
Bizplain claims to have served over 30.000 startup entrepreneurs from the Startups.co platform. The interesting thing about their software is that they make use of a managed creator who can split the project into component snippets which are dragged by a Progress Tracker. The deft instructions at each step of the process include templates for you to use and complete while the simple alliance of images on the way.
You also get additional learning resources offered by Bizplan Academy that help you get familiar with the whole process very easily. For further assistance, you can request their expert advisory service from financial professionals worth $ 999.
System requirements: Windows, Mac OS
Price: Starting at $ 19
Get it here: https://www.bizplan.com
Enloop
Enloop is the only business planning software out there with a free version. It is a great choice for those who want to try out the software before purchasing. Its features include: the Enloop performance score, highly customizable sample plans and the automatic writing function for the structured business plan. One of the least expensive tools in the category, you can also upgrade it for advanced tools.
From inviting your team's accountant and business partners to view and modify your plan, allowing you to choose from more than 100 currency symbols for your country or analyzing expected performance by generating 16 critical financial reports, to automatically generated financial reports, the program offers much more for free.
System requirements: Windows, MAC and Android operating systems
Price: free version available; The upgrade starts at $ 19,95
Get it here: https://enloop.com/
PlanGuru
There is much beyond a business plan, and PlanGuru provides you with just that with detailed business forecasts and analysis. They claim to serve thousands of businesses, nonprofits and their consultants to make better decisions using these proven processes.
Among its many features are budget and forecast analysis - which helps you set financial goals and allocates responsibility for output, rolling forecasting - which includes the full meaning of your liquidity and profitability decisions, before you earn them, and strategic planning - establishing a long-term vision for your business, making everyone work in one direction.
Its advantages lie in the fact that it predicts all three financial statements, creates an analysis in the shortest time possible, offers unlimited budget flexibility, makes correct decisions using scenario analysis and gains insights into different aspects of the business that they were previously unreachable.
System requirements: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7
Price: Free trial available; the upgrade starts at $ 99
Get it here: https://www.planguru.com/
EquityNet
EquityNet is software that not only focuses on creating business plans but also finds investors for those looking to invest. It is an integrated business planning tool that is robust and capable of giving startups the much-needed speed to raise funds.
Its main goal is to create a network that can help raise and offer equity. The free version allows you to enter a company and financing profile, develop a guided business strategy and view investor profiles. While it may not provide as thorough analysis as its opponents, the free version may be good enough for you.
EquityNet allows you to publish your business profile and improve your business plan, explore options for optimal financing, search for investors, share your plan with them, and participate and acquire funds quickly.
System requirements: Windows, Mac
Price: free version available; The upgrade starts at $ 199
Get it here: https://www.equitynet.com/
StratPad
StratPad is one of the business planning software in the category that comes with a free version. It is used by more than 100.000 companies around the world. It not only offers high-quality business planning software, but you can also learn strategies on how to improve the performance of your business, watch video tutorials on how to profit from your business, download the entire toolkit designed for small businesses, and even connect with professional business trainers, accountants, lenders and other business experts.
Create a consistent business plan at no cost and improve business performance with its easy-to-use cloud-based business planning program. Create your business plan in less than 24 hours with a step-by-step and realistic approach for small businesses and startups, create financial forecasts in minutes by asking yourself critical questions related to your business and creating all the required financial reports with a few numbers and increase the flow of checkout by raising a loan request.
System requirements: Windows 8, 10 64-bit.
Price: free version available; The upgrade starts at $ 19,99 per month
Get it here: https://www.stratpad.com/
Business author
Business Sorter provides a business planning service that speeds up business planning by making it easier. It claims to launch a business plan within two hours using a unique 272b card slot mechanism involving several common situations. The best part about this card system is that it includes the ability to rephrase or add cards to the already vast deck of cards. So even if there's no pre-designed card for your situation, you don't need to worry.
The cool thing is that this program offers learning resources in the form of PDFs and word files instead of video tutorials. While it makes it more difficult for some students to understand, the upside is that access is quick.
System Requirements: Web-based
Price: 14-day free trial available; The plan starts at $ 10 per month
Get it here: https://businesssorter.com
Atlas Business Solutions Ultimate Business Plan
Atlas Business Solutions Ultimate Business Plan comes with a rather intuitive interface that guides you through the whole process of creating a business plan along with financial forecasts. What we like about this is its advanced features despite its ability to help even the novice level entrepreneur.
Serving over 250.000 companies and entrepreneurs, it offers one of the fastest and easiest ways to write a business plan. Among its features is a simple and step-by-step approach to creating a quick and easy business plan, creating expected cash plans, financial reports, balance sheets, profit and loss, etc. In minutes, walking you through each step in easy and understandable English instructions, tips and tricks, covering over 1000 listed business plan examples and 25 complete examples to get started, diverse resources for business startups, and compatibility with MS Word, Excel, QuickBooks and Adobe PDF.
System Requirements: Windows 98/2000 / NT / XP / Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10
Price: The plan starts at $ 99
Get it here: http://www.abs-usa.com/business-plan-software/overview
Iplanner
IPlanner is arguably the cheapest business planning software out of all as it allows you to come up with a professional looking business plan in just a few dollars a month. However, it doesn't compromise on features and offers some good features for you to try.
Whether you're starting a new project or a business, this program is just what you need to get started. The software has been running since 2007 and helps entrepreneurs boost their business. You can also use this tool in conjunction with a mentor to analyze the project online and in real time.
So, if you are raising funds for the growth of a start-up, trying to better understand the risks and manage them, or if you want to transfer the company strategy and business model to the team, Iplanner helps you to achieve the same result.
With Iplanner you get infinite team members and collaboration, separate pricing models versus packages, and discounts especially for serial entrepreneurs and corporate trainers.
System Requirements: Web-based
Price: Plans start at $ 24 / month
Get it here: http://www.iplanner.net/
A place
OnePlace intends to be known as business plan creation software and creates a foundation for this quite effectively. It is useful for collaborations and for planning how to allocate and monitor projects and activities. However, it is more focused on project management instead of writing a business plan.
What we like about the software is that the collaborative approach to business planning is team-based, offers the ability to engage external parties via the portal, and offers comprehensive project and task management.
System Requirements: Web-based
Price: 14-day free trial available; the plan starts at $ 5 per user per month
Get it here: https://www.oneplacehome.com
The business plan shop
The Business Plan Shop offers good enough software for writing a business plan, however, it is particularly suitable for people with documentation know-how. It is a perfect solution for those who need their company's business plans to cover non-standard items and who already know what to communicate.
Among its greatest advantages is the fact that it offers many opportunities to customize the elements of the business plan.
System Requirements: Web-based
Price: free route available; From € 7,25
Get it here: https://www.thebusinessplanshop.com/
So, create a solid business plan with one of these professional business planning software and boost your business for optimal profitability.
goSmallBiz
Those who need assistance with their small business, goSmallbiz works perfectly. This program is more geared towards counseling and counseling. It offers a user-friendly platform for business planning that works with the help of step-by-step templates along with built-in suggestion forms.
It comes with a wide range of services. Its services include unlimited business consulting, sales and marketing which includes CRM with email marketing, human resources, library for legal resources, tax and accounting, and online learning. The software is suitable for entrepreneurs, sole proprietors or small business owners.
System requirements:
Price: $ 39 / month
Get it here: https://gosmallbiz.com/
