• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
donald mcmichael

donald mcmichael

value-enhancing outcomes

  • Portfolio
  • Articles
  • MicroBlog
  • About
  • Contact

7 Elements of a Business Plan

“Entrepreneurship is the management discipline that deals with situations of high uncertainty.” – Eric Ries

Here’s a short video (9 minutes) of the introduction for the financial management component of the mini-MBA course I was fortunate enough to teach last month. Keep in mind that the program is structured for entrepreneurs who have gained market traction and are on the cusp of the growth phase, thus its purpose is to help then craft a responsive operational blueprint (business plan).

What I’ve always found interesting is that often few who engage in a business planning process understand the entire framework for the exercise. I talk about the seven planing elements, that if kept in mind during the process will allow you to have a more valuable outcome. And, by outcome I mean a better plan, deeper understanding of what’s important for your business, and a stronger ability to adjust as the world validates your assumptions… or not.

P.S. The 7 elements of a business plan are:

  • Tell a complete story
  • Be forward-looking
  • Be a balanced document
  • Be clear, concise, and organized
  • Be understandable
  • Provide realistic data to support its claims
  • Provide historical and projected financial statements

Filed Under: blog, business funding, Business Management, Business Strategy, Operational Finance Tagged With: Business, Business plan, Entrepreneurship, Financial statement, small business

Primary Sidebar

THE 411 ON THIS SITE

Donald McMichael
Insights for entrepreneurial leaders that help them answer two fundamental questions "Where should we play?" and "How do we win?".

Why am I passionate about this? Well here’s

My Backstory...

Recent Posts

  • Don’t call it a comeback
  • Drowning in Data, Surviving with Smarts: Why AI Alone Isn’t the Answer
  • Finding the 10% That Matters: A CFO’s Guide to Strategic Data Use
  • Navigating the Ethical Landscape of AI-Driven Process Optimization
  • Boosting Efficiency: The Power of AI Process Optimization

“At the end of the day, finance leaders have to be proper storytellers. You have to be constantly on top of your data and tell the story behind the numbers... The CFO has to be on top of information flow at all times.”

Gerardo Adame, VP Finance at XP Power, and Mark Partin, CFO of BlackLine

Footer

Contact

  • Website
  • Email
  • Phone

Navigation

  • Home
  • Portfolio
  • About
When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps. - Confucius

Also connect with me here

  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2025 · Studio Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in